Jaysus cycling! (13 Viewers)

[nofunchee]

i think the 'wear a helmet' campaign is the wrong emphasis to road safety myself. for me the problem isn't really falling off yer bike but being surrounded by two tonne speeding metal objects all the time. i reckon the emphasis would be better placed on reducing accidents, rather than reducing the effects of accidents.

then there's the argument that telling people they should wear the array of safety gear available to cyclists is a disincentive for people to cycle. 'cos no matter how much you could argue that people are stupid for worrying about what they look like or the inconvenience of carrying all that shit around, that's people. and less people will cycle the more hassle and the the more embarrassing it is to them because of helmets, hi-vis jackets, etc.

safety campaigns need to get off cyclists backs and just get cars out of city centres.

 

[rettucs]

safety campaigns need to get off cyclists backs and just get cars out of city centres.

Dublin is infinitely better than it was in that regard.

 

[magicbastarder]

i think the 'wear a helmet' campaign is the wrong emphasis to road safety myself. for me the problem isn't really falling off yer bike but being surrounded by two tonne speeding metal objects all the time. i reckon the emphasis would be better placed on reducing accidents, rather than reducing the effects of accidents

yeah, but, helmets protect your head. depending on politicians to look after your safety will not. and the gain in safety from putting a helmet on is a *hell* of a lot easier to achieve than the gain in safety you'll get by lobbying for fewer cars.

 

[Pedronimus]

WTF?!

how do you know when to stop at traffic lights? When The Force tells you to?

If you're going to get into a ton or two of metal powered by explosive liquids and point it at other people in similar killing machines I hope to fuck you're concious of every little thing you do!!!!

I wrote a reply to this but it done disappeared and I'm too hungover to write it again. In brief, that's not what I meant.

 

[Pantone247]

fair enough I was probably taking your point to the extreme

but IMHO folks are way to flippant about driving, "only" popping down to the shops, or going out for a "spin" your operating a serious piece of dangerous machinery, turn down the radio, hang up the phone and start paying attention

 

[Lolo]

fair enough I was probably taking your point to the extreme

but IMHO folks are way to flippant about driving, "only" popping down to the shops, or going out for a "spin" your operating a serious piece of dangerous machinery, turn down the radio, hang up the phone and start paying attention

People should be made to re-take their driving tests every 10 years, then they'd bloody pay attention to other road users.

Learning to drive has made me a better cyclist, but it's also made me even more annoyed with all the facking cants who shouldn't be allowed behind the wheel of a car.

 

[rettucs]

People should be made to re-take their driving tests every 10 years, then they'd bloody pay attention to other road users.

Learning to drive has made me a better cyclist, but it's also made me even more annoyed with all the facking cants who shouldn't be allowed behind the wheel of a car.

likewise, and the same is true for my driving. If only everyone could be sent out on a bike for a bit before they were allowed get into a car and drive.

 

[jane]

Definitely. Reducing accidents means putting the onus on drivers, which it seems is rarely done. You can try to make yourself visible, but drivers still get away with treating cyclists and pedestrians like targets. There's also that way that drivers will look past you and pretend you're not there, so that if they hit you, it will have to be your fault.

If you were carrying a loaded gun and it went off and someone got hit, you couldn't blame them for being in the way of your bullet. Likewise, if someone is driving and they don't see someone who has made every effort to be seen, then they were maybe going too fast, or paying too little attention, or otherwise forgetting that driving the car, as comfy as it might be, and as handy, is the equivalent of waving a loaded gun in the air.

It's not a solution, but this is cool:

http://www.good.is/?p=14716

 

[magicbastarder]

http://www.mykle.com/msl/?p=10

 

[rettucs]

http://www.mykle.com/msl/?p=10

thats deadly. Wouldn't work for me though cos I wear a bag on my back.

 

[classic seanc]

Ha, I'd like one but my dogged insistence on the use of kph and everyone elses dogged insistence on using mph would probably get me killed.

 

[jimbobjones]

i got this in my emal account from the cycling.ie list might save a few lives. its from a guy in London

*******************************

Dear all,

I've always been wary of HGVs and trucks while cycling, but I took the opportunity offered by the Met police yesterday to check what the road (and the cyclist) looked like from the drivers' seat of an HGV.

What I learned:

- A bike coming up the inside/passenger side disappears from view in the main nearside mirrors by the time it gets about half way up the vehicle.

- The HGV was a new one, so it had a 'butterfly' mirror to look down at the area around the passenger door - but to see it the driver has to turn their head through 90 degrees. Since drivers are trained to mostly look ahead and in their offside mirrors, there's no guarantee you'll be seen in it, even if it has one.

- However, the scariest thing was that the police had positioned a motor bike in front of the HGV, as close as it might be in stationery or very slow moving traffic. I'm quite tall, but even so from the driver's normal seating position this was completely invisible (you had to lean forward to see even the front wheel).

So: all the advice is true: don't try to pass an HGV on the inside, and if you have one sitting benond you in a traffic queue, go somewhere else.

Thanks to the Met for organising it. Please post this on if it is useful.

 

[maims bond]

i got this in my emal account from the cycling.ie list might save a few lives. its from a guy in London

*******************************

Dear all,

I've always been wary of HGVs and trucks while cycling, but I took the opportunity offered by the Met police yesterday to check what the road (and the cyclist) looked like from the drivers' seat of an HGV.

What I learned:

- A bike coming up the inside/passenger side disappears from view in the main nearside mirrors by the time it gets about half way up the vehicle.

- The HGV was a new one, so it had a 'butterfly' mirror to look down at the area around the passenger door - but to see it the driver has to turn their head through 90 degrees. Since drivers are trained to mostly look ahead and in their offside mirrors, there's no guarantee you'll be seen in it, even if it has one.

- However, the scariest thing was that the police had positioned a motor bike in front of the HGV, as close as it might be in stationery or very slow moving traffic. I'm quite tall, but even so from the driver's normal seating position this was completely invisible (you had to lean forward to see even the front wheel).

So: all the advice is true: don't try to pass an HGV on the inside, and if you have one sitting benond you in a traffic queue, go somewhere else.

Thanks to the Met for organising it. Please post this on if it is useful.

Is that supposed to be ground-breaking? In my experience, if a cyclist couldn't grasp those common sense things then they shouldn't be on a bike.

 

[rettucs]

it really is silly season out there at the moment. I had 4 incidents yesterday, 2 involving cars, 2 involving pedestrians. The car incidents were to do with people cutting across me to get onto the opposite lane of traffic, thinking they'd more time than they did. And when I end up right next to the driver's window, knock on it and politely remonstrate, both times I got a bollocking and told to fuck off as if it was my fault.

The most unsavoury was in Rathmines on the way home. A bus is alongside the bus stop there near the canal. Its not pulled in. It doesn't have any indicator on, so I figured it was just sitting in traffic. As I'd loads of room on the left I went to overtake in the bike lane. I slowed down a bit just in case, and as I was approaching the rear of the bus I noticed the front door of the bus was open (could barely see it as the door doesn't protrude beyond the side of the bus when open), so I slowed down even more. Unbeknownst to me though, the middle door was also open and someone stepped out right into my path. It wasn't anything major and no one got hurt. I went straight to the driver's door to give him a piece of my mind and again, he totally fucked me out of it as if it was my fault. Apparently I should have known he was at a bus stop. I should have known he was pulled in. I should have been able to see through his bus and notice there was no line of traffic ahead of him.

Jesus that made me so fucking mad.

Like I say, silly season. I wonder if its anything to do with that january 19th being the most depressing time of year thing that has people so cranky.

 

[jane]

I was on the bus last night, and the driver couldn't stop in time to let me off at my stop, partly because there was another bus up his ass and a cyclist right beside him. so he pulled up to the light and stopped there, but then the cyclist was right in his blind spot. Eek!

I mean, I guess there was no safest way to do that, and it was good that he didn't try to pull over while she was right beside him, but it made it hard for her to get in front of him at the light.

I just couldn't cycle in this city. No way, no how. Even when I see trucks and buses and cars giving bikes room, I still get freaked just looking at them.

BUT ALSO CYCLISTS OFF THE GODDAMN FOOTPATH. ESPECIALLY ON THE ROCK ROAD WHERE THERE IS A CYCLEPATH. SRSLY, if the route is too dangerous to use the cyclepath, then TAKE ANOTHER ROUTE. Also, to the cyclist who was waiting at the DART level crossing on the footpath and wouldn't so much as give me an INCH to get by him, fuck you, you are a prick. Spend all that money on cycling gear and you don't realise that manners and safety are FREE.

 

[maims bond]

it really is silly season out there at the moment. I had 4 incidents yesterday, 2 involving cars, 2 involving pedestrians. The car incidents were to do with people cutting across me to get onto the opposite lane of traffic, thinking they'd more time than they did. And when I end up right next to the driver's window, knock on it and politely remonstrate, both times I got a bollocking and told to fuck off as if it was my fault.

The most unsavoury was in Rathmines on the way home. A bus is alongside the bus stop there near the canal. Its not pulled in. It doesn't have any indicator on, so I figured it was just sitting in traffic. As I'd loads of room on the left I went to overtake in the bike lane. I slowed down a bit just in case, and as I was approaching the rear of the bus I noticed the front door of the bus was open (could barely see it as the door doesn't protrude beyond the side of the bus when open), so I slowed down even more. Unbeknownst to me though, the middle door was also open and someone stepped out right into my path. It wasn't anything major and no one got hurt. I went straight to the driver's door to give him a piece of my mind and again, he totally fucked me out of it as if it was my fault. Apparently I should have known he was at a bus stop. I should have known he was pulled in. I should have been able to see through his bus and notice there was no line of traffic ahead of him.

Jesus that made me so fucking mad.

Like I say, silly season. I wonder if its anything to do with that january 19th being the most depressing time of year thing that has people so cranky.

It seems to me that some group like the Dublin Cycling Campaign would be well placed to give training to bus drivers on how to drive to minimise accidents/close ones with cyclists. I know it would be great if ALL drivers had to undergo this kind of thing but there are a lot of buses out there, especially in Dublin, and it would go some way to creating a safer road environment.

There, i said it. Now, someone else go and do it.

 

[sarah]

thats deadly. Wouldn't work for me though cos I wear a bag on my back.

I think if I had that my inner Jock would make me tear-ass through town at top speed so as to display my prowess for all to see. Sad I know, but probably true. I can see a burst lung from the effort, thankfully I wear a bag on my back too.

 

[classic seanc]

Here, I had two real near misses this week. I dunno if either would have been *really* serious, but still. The first time I was alright. The second time I actually laughed because it was a comically close call. But then when I got home I had like a shock/panic episode. Shaking, cold sweats etc. I haven't had one of those in nearly 2 years.

I very rarely have problems on the bike. I think I try to put a lot of thought into what I'm doing. But these incidents were both 100% the other persons fault, when every other fall I had was at least partially my fault. Won't stop me cycling, it's just troubling and I wanted to share. Thanks guyz :heart:

Fuckit. January is the month of pricks. Try to remember that everybody, and mind yourselves.

 

[jimbobjones]

Is that supposed to be ground-breaking? In my experience, if a cyclist couldn't grasp those common sense things then they shouldn't be on a bike.

hah! youre pretty smart.
i dont think its all that obvious considering that we've got massive hgvs zooming all through our urban areas and small rural roads right across the country. up until recently it was unheard of to ban hgvs from the city centre and now theres supposed to be some kinda ban in place but i still see alot of them.
i had an accident myself with a truck a few years ago so i keep well out of their way these days and i take it alot handier on the road in general. but if i hada had this information all those years ago i might not have had the accident. luckily i lived to tell the tale.
dont see why you have to be so smug when all im doing is posting useful information. anyway im not stooping...

 

[maims bond]

hah! youre pretty smart.
i dont think its all that obvious considering that we've got massive hgvs zooming all through our urban areas and small rural roads right across the country. up until recently it was unheard of to ban hgvs from the city centre and now theres supposed to be some kinda ban in place but i still see alot of them.
i had an accident myself with a truck a few years ago so i keep well out of their way these days and i take it alot handier on the road in general. but if i hada had this information all those years ago i might not have had the accident. luckily i lived to tell the tale.
dont see why you have to be so smug when all im doing is posting useful information. anyway im not stooping...

Smug? I thought it would have been all the more obvious because there are hgvs all over the roads? Besides, the blind spot effect is just as applicable to cars and buses as hgvs.