The daily "I cycled to work" thread
Discussion
GarryDK said:
very very wet this morning!
Very lucky girl on Clapham highstreet this morning, stepped out infront of the guy that was infront of me, he locked up, slid sideways but somehow managed to avoid her, I wish I'd got it on film. She was looking down at her phone with a coffee in the other hand, absolute madness!Close call with a minibus this morning passing me ridiculously closely. How his wing mirror missed me I don't know. Gave one of his passengers a fright when I slapped the window as hard as I could, didn't even have to stretch my arm out more than half way he was so close. Annoyingly he jumped the next traffic light 100m up the road as it turned red.
lufbramatt said:
Close call with a minibus this morning passing me ridiculously closely. How his wing mirror missed me I don't know. Gave one of his passengers a fright when I slapped the window as hard as I could, didn't even have to stretch my arm out more than half way he was so close. Annoyingly he jumped the next traffic light 100m up the road as it turned red.
Driver probably jumped that light because he was terrified of getting a damned good kicking. Are you 'powerfully built' by any chance 
AyBee said:
Very lucky girl on Clapham highstreet this morning, stepped out infront of the guy that was infront of me, he locked up, slid sideways but somehow managed to avoid her, I wish I'd got it on film. She was looking down at her phone with a coffee in the other hand, absolute madness!Yesterday, I was heading home along Chiswick High Road, following another cyclist - doing about 25-28 kmh I reckon. A woman stepped out on the road at a Pelican crossing (which had a "red man" for her and a "green light" for us) without looking. What's worse is that she was pushing a child in a buggy ahead of her. MENTAL! The cyclist ahead of me just swerved to miss them and I just stopped in time. Poor kid nearly got two bikes and two powerfully built riders in his lap.
Of course, she gave us the indignant look - I bl**dy hate middle-class, self-entitled, image-obsessed Tabitha-Samantha-Summer-Rose types. I bet she drives a black Touareg. F**wit (acutally what I shouted was "For F*ck Sake Get Off the F**king Road C*ntface").
OK, that's my quota of sweeping generalisations and swearing used for today....
AyBee said:
Very lucky girl on Clapham highstreet this morning, stepped out infront of the guy that was infront of me, he locked up, slid sideways but somehow managed to avoid her, I wish I'd got it on film. She was looking down at her phone with a coffee in the other hand, absolute madness!She’d walked out from behind a police car and wasn’t looking at what was coming but was concentrating on her phone. She was actually pretty apologetic about it and the police gave her a bit of a telling off as it was totally here fault. It wasn’t any fun at all though and around busy areas now at busy times and in this sort of weather I’ve dropped my speed right down. Ultimately it makes a couple of minutes difference and if I smash my bike up hitting or avoiding a pedestrian it’s going to be me that will end up paying for it.
yellowjack said:
Driver probably jumped that light because he was terrified of getting a damned good kicking. Are you 'powerfully built' by any chance
No, I'm 6'2" but not really "powerfully built" haha 
Just want to know what goes through peoples minds sometimes. It wasn't as if I was hard to miss in a bright yellow nitevision jacket!donfisher said:
I had a very similar situation on a very similar morning near the end of last year except I knocked her over. I nearly went over some railings and only just avoided falling over while clipped in.
She’d walked out from behind a police car and wasn’t looking at what was coming but was concentrating on her phone. She was actually pretty apologetic about it and the police gave her a bit of a telling off as it was totally here fault. It wasn’t any fun at all though and around busy areas now at busy times and in this sort of weather I’ve dropped my speed right down. Ultimately it makes a couple of minutes difference and if I smash my bike up hitting or avoiding a pedestrian it’s going to be me that will end up paying for it.
I agree with this. There are certain bits of road on my commute that it is just not worth riding quickly down - we can piss and moan about it, but if there's a coming-together with a pedestrian, I'm going to be the one putting hand in pocket.She’d walked out from behind a police car and wasn’t looking at what was coming but was concentrating on her phone. She was actually pretty apologetic about it and the police gave her a bit of a telling off as it was totally here fault. It wasn’t any fun at all though and around busy areas now at busy times and in this sort of weather I’ve dropped my speed right down. Ultimately it makes a couple of minutes difference and if I smash my bike up hitting or avoiding a pedestrian it’s going to be me that will end up paying for it.
lufbramatt said:
yellowjack said:
Driver probably jumped that light because he was terrified of getting a damned good kicking. Are you 'powerfully built' by any chance
No, I'm 6'2" but not really "powerfully built" haha Just want to know what goes through peoples minds sometimes. It wasn't as if I was hard to miss in a bright yellow nitevision jacket!This morning was a case in point. I was driving the wife to work, and was briefly unable to overtake a female cyclist (ponytail, nice bum, Hi-Vis, etc) due to traffic islands, road width and oncoming traffic. So I held back, briefly enjoyed the view, then about 15 seconds later a long clear, safe gap on the opposite side of the road, so mirror, signal, mirror, manoeuvre, and I'm safely around her, nearly fully across onto the opposite lane, stay out to get clear and smoothly move back to the left.
Twunt in the Astra behind me, despite my masterclass practical demonstration of how to do it properly, decides that the way to do it is to get as close to the white line as possible without going over, show no regard at all for the cyclist, poor girl, who's now jammed up as hard against the kerb as she can safely get, as the Astra drops a gear and revs hard (punishment pass, I believe they're called by some), accelerating pointlessly before having to deploy an anchor to avoid hitting me. Then a Transit tipper behind the Astra brakes hard to avoid hitting the girl, who by now is trying to get away from being trapped beside the kerb. I reckon the Transit driver may not have seen her, because the Astra driver made no obvious manoeuvre to get around her, so she was hidden from his view. Throughout this whole situation, the opposing lane remained clear of oncoming traffic, too, so no excuses at all, and the biggest irony of all is that we 'lost' no time at all, because I caught the car ahead of me before we had to slow down for the roundabout at the end of the road
It's the likes of the Astra driver who get people killed, and I imagine they're the same idiots who get a massive case of the mentals when they get overtaken on single carriageway roads, flashing lights and blasting horns. They seem to believe that it's somehow illegal to cross that broken white line, or that, so long as they don't cross it they don't need to bother with indicators when passing a cyclist. Never mind that use of the indicator in this situation might just alert following traffic to the cyclist's presence, and potentially prevent a collision.
Happily, no attractive female cyclists were hurt in the telling of this story
Glad you were OK, as well. It doesn't take much movement of the steering wheel to turn a near miss into a RTC. Much like you, I wonder what goes through these peoples' minds.
yellowjack said:
as the Astra drops a gear and revs hard (punishment pass, I believe they're called by some), accelerating pointlessly before having to deploy an anchor to avoid hitting me.
My pet hate- drivers who rev their bolloks off when passing you! Why do they do it??? most of the time they do it when there are cars coming the other way anyway so its not like they are trying to get past in an alotted time. f
king retards.thiscocks said:
My pet hate- drivers who rev their bolloks off when passing you! Why do they do it??? most of the time they do it when there are cars coming the other way anyway so its not like they are trying to get past in an alotted time. fking retards.
I believe what they are trying to say is "Look!, I have a car!, a car!, me!, I own a car!, you only have a bicycle!, you are poor!, hear my 4 cylinder 1600cc engine roar!" I had one this morning, it was a Datsun 200ZX chavved up to look a bit like a drift car (ebay 10 pack sticker kit, dangly thing hanging from the tow hook etc etc) and he waited till he was alongside me before booting it, lots of noise, very little forward momentum or all fart and no poo as my mate would say.... king retards.Blowing a the mother of all sou' westerlies outside, got to be worth some PBs...
yellowjack said:
There's a real problem with many drivers (some say a tiny minority, but it's most, judging by my experiences locally).
This morning was a case in point. I was driving the wife to work, and was briefly unable to overtake a female cyclist (ponytail, nice bum, Hi-Vis, etc) due to traffic islands, road width and oncoming traffic. So I held back, briefly enjoyed the view, then about 15 seconds later a long clear, safe gap on the opposite side of the road, so mirror, signal, mirror, manoeuvre, and I'm safely around her, nearly fully across onto the opposite lane, stay out to get clear and smoothly move back to the left.
Twunt in the Astra behind me, despite my masterclass practical demonstration of how to do it properly, decides that the way to do it is to get as close to the white line as possible without going over, show no regard at all for the cyclist, poor girl, who's now jammed up as hard against the kerb as she can safely get, as the Astra drops a gear and revs hard (punishment pass, I believe they're called by some), accelerating pointlessly before having to deploy an anchor to avoid hitting me. Then a Transit tipper behind the Astra brakes hard to avoid hitting the girl, who by now is trying to get away from being trapped beside the kerb. I reckon the Transit driver may not have seen her, because the Astra driver made no obvious manoeuvre to get around her, so she was hidden from his view. Throughout this whole situation, the opposing lane remained clear of oncoming traffic, too, so no excuses at all, and the biggest irony of all is that we 'lost' no time at all, because I caught the car ahead of me before we had to slow down for the roundabout at the end of the road
It's the likes of the Astra driver who get people killed, and I imagine they're the same idiots who get a massive case of the mentals when they get overtaken on single carriageway roads, flashing lights and blasting horns. They seem to believe that it's somehow illegal to cross that broken white line, or that, so long as they don't cross it they don't need to bother with indicators when passing a cyclist. Never mind that use of the indicator in this situation might just alert following traffic to the cyclist's presence, and potentially prevent a collision.
Happily, no attractive female cyclists were hurt in the telling of this story
Glad you were OK, as well. It doesn't take much movement of the steering wheel to turn a near miss into a RTC. Much like you, I wonder what goes through these peoples' minds.
Did you give him a brake check? Ya know, to get him back? This morning was a case in point. I was driving the wife to work, and was briefly unable to overtake a female cyclist (ponytail, nice bum, Hi-Vis, etc) due to traffic islands, road width and oncoming traffic. So I held back, briefly enjoyed the view, then about 15 seconds later a long clear, safe gap on the opposite side of the road, so mirror, signal, mirror, manoeuvre, and I'm safely around her, nearly fully across onto the opposite lane, stay out to get clear and smoothly move back to the left.
Twunt in the Astra behind me, despite my masterclass practical demonstration of how to do it properly, decides that the way to do it is to get as close to the white line as possible without going over, show no regard at all for the cyclist, poor girl, who's now jammed up as hard against the kerb as she can safely get, as the Astra drops a gear and revs hard (punishment pass, I believe they're called by some), accelerating pointlessly before having to deploy an anchor to avoid hitting me. Then a Transit tipper behind the Astra brakes hard to avoid hitting the girl, who by now is trying to get away from being trapped beside the kerb. I reckon the Transit driver may not have seen her, because the Astra driver made no obvious manoeuvre to get around her, so she was hidden from his view. Throughout this whole situation, the opposing lane remained clear of oncoming traffic, too, so no excuses at all, and the biggest irony of all is that we 'lost' no time at all, because I caught the car ahead of me before we had to slow down for the roundabout at the end of the road
It's the likes of the Astra driver who get people killed, and I imagine they're the same idiots who get a massive case of the mentals when they get overtaken on single carriageway roads, flashing lights and blasting horns. They seem to believe that it's somehow illegal to cross that broken white line, or that, so long as they don't cross it they don't need to bother with indicators when passing a cyclist. Never mind that use of the indicator in this situation might just alert following traffic to the cyclist's presence, and potentially prevent a collision.
Happily, no attractive female cyclists were hurt in the telling of this story
Glad you were OK, as well. It doesn't take much movement of the steering wheel to turn a near miss into a RTC. Much like you, I wonder what goes through these peoples' minds.
Last few days I've nearly been left hooked 4 times. Utter, utter morons. This morning, the guy actually realised what he'd done, so stopped to let me through. Of course I went around him on the right (properly) to which he beeped me.
I'd really like to cycle both ways to work (12 miles each way) but just don't want to expose myself to the risk.
I'd really like to cycle both ways to work (12 miles each way) but just don't want to expose myself to the risk.
donfisher said:
AyBee said:
Very lucky girl on Clapham highstreet this morning, stepped out infront of the guy that was infront of me, he locked up, slid sideways but somehow managed to avoid her, I wish I'd got it on film. She was looking down at her phone with a coffee in the other hand, absolute madness!She’d walked out from behind a police car and wasn’t looking at what was coming but was concentrating on her phone. She was actually pretty apologetic about it and the police gave her a bit of a telling off as it was totally here fault. It wasn’t any fun at all though and around busy areas now at busy times and in this sort of weather I’ve dropped my speed right down. Ultimately it makes a couple of minutes difference and if I smash my bike up hitting or avoiding a pedestrian it’s going to be me that will end up paying for it.
This evening I stopped at a red light and was overtaken by a RLJer on a Boris bike.
When the light went green I set off and overtook said bike.
Came to the next set of light which turned red as I approached, so I stopped.
Boris guy turns up shortly afterwards and sails through the red light again........closely followed by a copper on a pushbike complete with siren who pulled him over and was having a chat when I passed once more
When the light went green I set off and overtook said bike.
Came to the next set of light which turned red as I approached, so I stopped.
Boris guy turns up shortly afterwards and sails through the red light again........closely followed by a copper on a pushbike complete with siren who pulled him over and was having a chat when I passed once more
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