First crash

M-A-S

20mph, going down a slight hill, ped runs out into the road from behind a Land Cruiser, BANG straight into her! Everything hits the deck, I land on my hip/rump. The ped is surprisingly ok, I move the bike to the curb to check it and another driver pulls over and wants to park where my bike is, she honks her horn and shouts, i explain what happened just 10 seconds ago and she ends up effing and blinding at me! Nutter!

Anyway, bikes fine, I limped it home and am now not great at that walking thing people do! Looks like its PT (and limping) for the next few days!

Jay dubbleU

Welcome to the club - legal eagles will be along any minute with advice no doubt. Glad the bike is OK

SimonAH

Glad you're fundamentally OK - and the ped.

These things happen regardless of what you're driving. Personally I'd reflect on the probable outcome had you been in a Rangerover. Your arse wouldn't be sore right now but there would quite probably be a dead person on your conscience right now. I'd rate it as a win TBH.

Peds are apparently deaf and blind most of the time. Your peripheral vision and situation awareness need to be full on whenever road and Peds meet.

Just sayin'

The Rookie

I've still not come off my commuter (If I didn't come off the MTB I wouldn't be trying!), however had the 'pleasure' of riding through Coventry the other day at Student lunchtime, actual contact with 4 of them stepping in front of me as if I wasn't there, couldn't believe it, but doing 5mph in anticipation helped keep impact levels to little more than a nudge, I wonder how many will be dead once electric vehicles or full hybrids (able to run electric only) become more common?

Simon

Gallywomack

I've said it before and I'll say it again - there needs to be a 'think' style ad campaign pointing out to people that just because there is a stationary queue of cars, they can't just cross without looking.

My artistic vision is as follows: we see a woman on a phone walking quickly out of a tube station, obviously in a hurry - cut to a cyclist, happily filtering up the inside of traffic (Rapha-style 'epic' face optional) - back to the woman, approaching the road - cue voiceover 'Like most people, Sharon never saw her maimer coming' - cut to Sharon's-eye view approaching road looking dead ahead - quick cut to cyclist - quick cut to interior car view, 'Cars' by Gary Numan playing on the radio, camera catching approaching cyclist in wing mirror and Sharon about to step into road - quick cut to look of shock on Sharon's face - cut to black screen with sound effect of bicycle hitting ped. Final poignant shot of high-heeled shoe in the gutter - voiceover 'Think - always look right even if there's a stationary queue of traffic'.

Clever Pun

the green cross code needs to be retaught or even taught to a vast number of people

Wrath Rob

Clever Pun wrote:

the green cross code needs to be retaught or even taught to a vast number of people

But that's no fun. What we need are a modern day version of train cow-catchers (or auzzie roo-bars) attached to the bikes. Made of carbon, naturally.

Ben6899

Gallywomack wrote:

I've said it before and I'll say it again - there needs to be a 'think' style ad campaign pointing out to people that just because there is a stationary queue of cars, they can't just cross without looking.

My artistic vision is as follows: we see a woman on a phone walking quickly out of a tube station, obviously in a hurry - cut to a cyclist, happily filtering up the inside of traffic (Rapha-style 'epic' face optional) - back to the woman, approaching the road - cue voiceover 'Like most people, Sharon never saw her maimer coming' - cut to Sharon's-eye view approaching road looking dead ahead - quick cut to cyclist - quick cut to interior car view, 'Cars' by Gary Numan playing on the radio, camera catching approaching cyclist in wing mirror and Sharon about to step into road - quick cut to look of shock on Sharon's face - cut to black screen with sound effect of bicycle hitting ped. Final poignant shot of high-heeled shoe in the gutter - voiceover 'Think - always look right even if there's a stationary queue of traffic'.

I love this. Right down to the Dolci ending up by the kerb.

Aerozine50

Or the alternative is to get an airzound.

Mount it by your left hand (Front cogs) gear shifters. This way operating it shouldn't interfere with normal operations of the more important right hand, items like front brake and rear shifters.

When coming into pedestrianised zones, even if it looks like someone might cross the road or even set foot in the gutter and they haven't clocked me they get 120 dB's of noise up their lug holes. (Which is just enough usually to get over the din of their Iphone, Mp3 player or other situational awareness deadening device they are listening to).

The sheer number of ped's who jump backwards when they get hooted is quite funny and it saves an accident.

Regards

Paul

bails87

Or one of these

Vrooooom!

M-A-S

These things happen and cycling 26ish miles a day (Surbiton to Lambeth North) I kind of expected something like this eventually. I'm just glad that the woman and my bike are ok!

The car she ran out from behind was her own, and it was a tank so I had no hope of seeing her, I agree that we need to be uber aware at all times.

The only thing I'm annoyed about is not being able to cycle!

richVSrich

Glad you're ok-ish MAS, and the bike and ped is too.

Dare I ask how close you were cycling to the parked cars? I do try and stay a good distance away from a row of parked cars unless I'm going slowly, or the road is quite busy (and I'll still stay more than an arms length away in case a door starts to open...) doing over 20 mph you should be in primary lane position?

M-A-S

richVSrich wrote:

Glad you're ok-ish MAS, and the bike and ped is too.

Dare I ask how close you were cycling to the parked cars? I do try and stay a good distance away from a row of parked cars unless I'm going slowly, or the road is quite busy (and I'll still stay more than an arms length away in case a door starts to open...) doing over 20 mph you should be in primary lane position?

Thanks. It was a quiet suburban street with cars parked either side, and as such I was actually in the middle of the road on the broken line, so as to try and avoid any car doors that might swing at me (I always have terrible visions of being whacked by one!). The woman ran into the road and didn't even have time to face me. She seemed in a rush generally, but I made her stay while I checked my stuff and the bike.

I will be pooling down that road in future!