Your near misses here

murvis1er

In the light of recent events, I thought it would be useful to have a topic where people can write about near misses they experience or witness, not just to hear people tales (which is a very important part of it ), but also as a resource of potential hazards, particularly for new commuters.

So without further ado, I'll start with a classic HGV encounter I saw on my commute in this morning. There is a point on my commute in where a bus lane ends about 50 yards before a junction and the road becomes 2 lanes. A lot of drivers get caught out by this and find themselves trapped in the outside lane behind cars turning right, leading to some pretty interesting manoeuvres. This morning the road was heavily congested and I was travelling down the bus lane which was free of traffic. I was catching a young lady dressed in what can only be described as 'tarmac grey' approaching the point where the road becomes two lanes, and could see a truck begin to pull over into the inside lane without indicating. The young lady was towards the rear quarter of the truck, and to my amazement instead of stopping immediately to allow the truck to complete it's manoeuvre, she actually pushed forward and contested the lane (in theory she was in the right). Thankfully the driver saw her in time and stopped, and she squeezed through the remaining gap of a couple of feet between the truck and railings safely. If the truck hadn't seen her it could have turned out quite differently.

markhewitt1978

"Your".

I find those sort of junctions awful. Half the time the cars cut into the bus lane well before the lane actually ends, so as a car driver you can get hung out to dry too. As a cyclist it's worse as you've seen. IMO the bus lane should continue up to the stop line with no left turns allowed (Except buses and cycles) otherwise have no bus lane.

As illustrated recently the biggest danger to cycling is left turning HGVs.

murvis1er

Thanks, fixed

destructimo

I had an interesting one last night and I'm sure it will be familiar with many of you.

Riding along a straight unlit country B road I was approaching a right turn. There was a car approaching from the rear several hundred metres behind. I'm very visible with lights and reflective gubbins on the old jacket, bike and rack bag.

Signalled right (yes there are reflective strips on the cuffs and sleeve piping of the jacket) while the car was still well behind me. Took my position near the centre of the road to make the right turn.

My signal was continuous throughout so there would be absolutely no confusion as to my intent.

Didn't hear the approaching car slowing down at all so I knew what was about to happen. :?

And yes 10m or so before the centre of the junction, genius overtakes at the national speed limit.


Cheers





Clive

markhewitt1978

destructimo wrote:

I had an interesting one last night and I'm sure it will be familiar with many of you.

Riding along a straight unlit country B road I was approaching a right turn. There was a car approaching from the rear several hundred metres behind. I'm very visible with lights and reflective gubbins on the old jacket, bike and rack bag.

Signalled right (yes there are reflective strips on the cuffs and sleeve piping of the jacket) while the car was still well behind me. Took my position near the centre of the road to make the right turn.

My signal was continuous throughout so there would be absolutely no confusion as to my intent.

Didn't hear the approaching car slowing down at all so I knew what was about to happen. :?

And yes 10m or so before the centre of the junction, genius overtakes at the national speed limit.

Absolutely. Happened to me a few times, move out to the right hand wheel track before the turn, signal right, and idiot overtakes me on the right just as I'm about to make the turn. A second later and they would have been involved in a serious crash - or at least I would. And if you'd tackle them about it they would be like "what's the problem"

unixnerd

Cycling along an A road a car coming towards me gets overtaken by another car. Overtaking car saw me at the last minute and just missed me. They must have been doing 70-80, not fun. It was a Renault kiddy-carrier thing being driven by a middle aged woman.

Mikey23

Sometimes it's just instinct that keeps us alive. You can't believe they would be so stupid but you kind of know they will. I ride on the basis that everyone else on the road is an imbecile and they are out to kill me. I'm often right

outsider78

I get at least three or four everyday, which one should I write?

This is the route;

http://www.strava.com/activities/95856992

You just need to know your route, know where the dangerous spots are and take extra care as you approach them. Either take primary or slow down and let them overtake you. There is not much you can do.

There are 6-7 islands on Mollison avenue northbound towards Waltham Cross, as soon as I pass the last traffic light before I hit the first island, I am lucky if there are no cars following me. If not lucky, there are at least 20 of them trying to overtake, most of them kind enough to slow down and wait until its safe to overtake - have to say most of the big trucks and lorries are also quite careful, got to give it to them. But there is always one idiot tries to squeeze past me (have no idea why they do that as ahead of the road ALWAYS blocked with traffic and I just simply ride past them and get home before even they are clear on the next lights )

On a side note, say there are 10 cars waiting at the lights and you're just approaching to join the queue to wait for green. If the road ahead is clear of traffic I never overtake those cars and wait in front. let them go, be patient, there is no point riding between cars to get to the front, only to be overtaken again and slow down the traffic. (this is a 40mph road by the way)

brianandrews

Saw a guy on the Uxbridge Rd, Acton try to undertake a bus as it was indicating left going into a bus stop. Thought I was going to be calling an ambulance and told him so. He only avoided a crash by bunny hopping onto the pavement.

unixnerd

Saw a guy on the Uxbridge Rd, Acton try to undertake a bus as it was indicating left going into a bus stop.

Why is it folk still do this? Hasn't there been enough publicity about the dangers?

Initialised

2 within a week of each other, both black Ford Foci crossing the junction in front of me causing me to brake, around the same time of day, different VRMs. Black Ford Focus = Avoid at juctions.

here: https://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=54.94276, ... 4,,0,26.88

markhewitt1978

Initialised wrote:

2 within a week of each other, both black Ford Foci crossing the junction in front of me causing me to brake, around the same time of day, different VRMs. Black Ford Focus = Avoid at juctions.

here: https://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=54.94276, ... 4,,0,26.88

Team Valley used to be easy, simple white line down the middle and nothing else. Now it's a mess of confusing markings. I don't use the cycle lanes there either as they are right in the door zone.

ad_snow

Last night I was on a very quiet, unlit, single carriageway national speedlimit road and unsure of where I was. I came round a right hand bend and took my bike off the road onto a gravel-type pavement across a grass verge so I could consult my phone. I heard a car engine approach and even though I was about 3 foot off the side of the road I instinctively reached down and pulled my rucksack off the floor where I had put it.

Anyway, this car comes racing round the corner, mounts the grass verge and ploughs through where my bag was about 3 seconds before, before bouncing off the grass back onto the road and zoomed off (I would guess they did 50ish around a 90deg bend). No idea if they saw me or not, but I'm damn glad I picked up my bag and was off the road!

DonDaddyD

I'm not so keen on these discussions unless its to share a reoccuring experience of a particular junction and give advice as to how to negotiate it safely i.e. Blackfriars Bridge and Elephant and Castle.

Personally, if I recite all the near misses I've had over my 7 years of working/cycling full time then I fear I'll end up sounding like those camera crusaders who do nothing but post footage of near misses and examples of bad driving on Youtube.

murvis1er

DonDaddyD wrote:

I'm not so keen on these discussions unless its to share a reoccuring experience of a particular junction and give advice as to how to negotiate it safely i.e. Blackfriars Bridge and Elephant and Castle.

Personally, if I recite all the near misses I've had over my 7 years of working/cycling full time then I fear I'll end up sounding like those camera crusaders who do nothing but post footage of near misses and examples of bad driving on Youtube.

Hi DonDaddy. While I understand where you're coming from (could reel out a fair few near misses over the last 5 years full time commuting) I feel there's value in having a thread where people can get it of they're chest if they've had or seen a close one that day, especially when it wouldn't always help to mention it to the significant other! I don't think there's any vigilantly ism in it. And hey, I find some of the tales above are interesting to read, and might help people out even if they're not location specific.

But each to his own I guess