Jerk in a Merc (Reg T9 TSK) has a dispute with cyclist

[saaby93]

Live leak video isn't very good here.
If you're being overtaken you should drop back if necessary to allow an overtake to complete
However I'm not convinced about the distances - can someone post up some stills
When the red car comes the other way the Merc isnt well over to the left
When the bike begins the overtake there doesn't look much of a gap between the Merc and the car in front.
Are you sure the Merc knows he's being overtaken and isnt just sitting about the distance from the car in front he was anyway?

At most usual two idiots
Bike made mistake overtaking there and Merc hasnt allowed for it

[KAgantua]

'a gap that isnt there'

as my old instructor used to say

[popeyewhite]

I fking hate it when dheads speed up as you overtake them. In the video, not too dangerous. When they leave you on the wrong side of the road at 70 though... . MB driver needs physical 'adjustment'.

[scrubchub]

BrownBottle said:

Yes completely irrelevant comment apart from the 'highlight' of the video being someone attempting an overtake in a queue of traffic doing 20mph through a park...

Sorry, still not getting your point. Overtake was poor (as were all of them). Overtake block was downright dangerous. Why does you saying that you don't see cars doing that kind of overtake have any relevance?

[BrownBottle]

scrubchub said:

Sorry, still not getting your point. Overtake was poor (as were all of them). Overtake block was downright dangerous. Why does you saying that you don't see cars doing that kind of overtake have any relevance?

You suggested that if it was a car overtaking under the same circumstances people in the thread would be reacting differently. I then commented that a car generally wouldn't be overtaking under those circumstances.

Pretty straight forward stuff to comprehend.

[anonymous-user]

80sMatchbox said:

You should read the rubbish driving caught on dashcam thread, as there's many cases on there of people having saved a fortune due to having proof of non fault.

Well so far personally I have had no need of one, and I have a very good theory as to why that might be.

I cringe when I hear the utterly pathetic 'You're going to be on YouTube' threat! Some people need to get a life!

[yellowjack]

FeelingLucky said:

Wilmslowboy said:

Willy Nilly said:

doesn't the 20 limit apply to the cyclist as well? He strikes me as a bit of a plonker.

This

Speed limits don't apply to bikes, along with red lights, no entry signs and one way systems.

Denaris said:

bl00dy cyclists out looking for trouble! what an ar$e! surely he was breaking the speed limit by overtaking anyway. It takes a tragedy before idiots like this learn their lesson. Bet he had on the wrap around shades and full lycra with 'Team Sky' written all over as well.

Regardless of what bks rules the Royal Parks are trying to apply to cyclists, their "the speed limit applies to all" has yet to be tested in court. Which is where the law actually gets applied, not by some suit writing up some new bylaws because he felt like it.

And for the rest of you dumb fks, NO. The way that UK law is written, the speed limits posted on the lollipop signs along our highways do NOT apply to cyclists. That's just the way the law is, and for it to change there would have to be a massive re-write of a bunch of other laws dealing with "Construction and Use" type regulation of bicycles. Which would reduce cycling uptake, and will therefore NEVER be a priority for any Parliament's order of business. Pedalling Furiously? A myth, by many accounts. If a Police Officer were to witness a cyclist who was cycling recklessly, or dangerously, then charges could be brought, but they're not 'absolute' offences like speeding is, and would rely on the officer concerned feeling strongly enough that any offence was sufficiently dangerous/reckless so as to be "in the public interest" to gather evidence and present it to the CPS for a prosecution to be considered. And because cyclists, when they get it wrong, seldom endanger anyone but themselves, then we (quite rightly, IMHO) seldom see it as being a proper use of Police/CPS/Court time to prosecute.

As for the sarky "red lights, etc, etc..." comment? ALL of the red-light offences I've witnessed lately have been perpetrated by motor vehicle drivers. Including one blatant twunt who drove through a red light while a pensioner was half way across it. What made it worse was that he'd already been stopped (in a queue) before the light even turned red, and his ignoring the red only bought him thirty yards or so, before the queue ground to a halt again.

wc98 said:

if a nice relaxing cycle for that bloke means riding at over 20 mph i take it he is a tour de france regular ? pair of idiots imo,each as bad as the other.

Que? It's Richmond-bloody-Park. If you can't hold 25mph on the flat around there, you're doing cycling wrong.

For the record, the 'Strava' KOM for the 6.7 mile "Tour de Richmond Park" lap is 13.57 seconds, or an average speed of 28.9mph. Oh, and it's a PHer who holds that record right now...
5,788 out of 27,194 Strava users who've ridden that segment have done so at an average speed of 20mph or greater. So somewhere in the region of 20% of cyclists manage to AVERAGE 20mph or more over the full 6.7 miles, including corners and gradients.
The full 1.1 mile Sawyers Hill (uphill) segment has been ridden at 27.0mph average. Our very own PHer, and pet cyclo-Stig, could only manage 26.0mph on the same section. That's U-P-H-I-L-L too. So quit being so incredulous when some of us are coasting around at a relatively relaxed 20mph on a straight, flat section
Tour de France regular? For the past 20 or so years, the average speed of the winning rider in the TdF has been up around the 41km/h mark. That's over 25mph in old money, and is the winner's race average for the whole race, including the climbing stages in the Alps, Pyrenees, etc. The TdF peloton, at full gas, could easily make 30mph to 35mph through Richmond Park if it so desired.

Some of you nuggets are proper hypocrites too. You'll all fawn over a video of some daft sliding a BMW onto the wrong side of the road into a bank of fog while leaving a Sunday Service, but the moment a bicycle is "ridden enthusiastically" you're all out for blood. Laughable double standards.

As for that clip? Why would the Mercedes driver not just drop back and open a safe gap for the bike? He's not going anywhere fast in that queue, what with traffic from the opposite direction being quite a regular occurrence. The bike, on the other hand, seemed capable of making decent progress with multiple overtakes. Had that been some form of 'performance' car, there'd have been rounds of applause for the overtakes, and unanimous condemnation of the blocking driver. Would I have overtaken there? I don't know. Cameras can compress the image, and the resultant footage often doesn't look like it did "on the ground", so I can't say. But I can assure you that, no matter how dangerous I thought the cyclist's overtake to be, as a driver I'd have made space ahead of me, rather than hang him out to dry like that. Two wrongs don't make a right, and the far greater wrong was the blocking of the overtake.

The really annoying one that I regularly have to deal with is the impatient overtaker who passes me seconds before anchoring up due to an obstruction on 'our' side of the road. Range Rovers and similar are the worst for it. FFS chaps! I had sufficient clear space alongside the parked car to pass safely, even with the oncoming traffic. But now, you're stopped there for an indeterminate amount of time, blocking me from making progress. If'n you'd just held off from your overtake for like 2 seconds, I'd be hundreds of yards further up the road by now. Oh, and the "can't wait to join the back of the queue" brigade? They can fk off and die too. Passing me (usually far too closely) as they are already braking for the back of the queue that has been visible ahead for at least a ¼ of a mile. Then what happens? Well, I pass the fecking lot of you, on the offside, naturally, using the narrow strip in the middle for my 'safe and legal' overtake, saving myself from waiting through about 7 phases of the traffic light, unlike all you suckers who are sat there, one to a car, blaming cyclists for causing delays when it's your own inept driving, and stubborn insistence on taking the car when it's not the best way of crossing town, that is actually causing the tailbacks.

I stopped counting how many slow moving cars I passed after I got to 60 the other day. This, after some stupid fat knobhead in a tipper truck got 'on the horn' to pass on his displeasure that I wasn't on the cyclepath. I gave him a cheery wave as I re-passed him, sat in a queue, hemmed in by traffic cones and "Keeping Hampshire Moving" signs while I slalomed around those traffic cones, just to rub it in

Sayonara, losers!

[colonel c]

colonel c said:

Most motor insurance policies have an exception clause relating to pace-making or speed testing and so on. The trouble with many cyclists today is that they are constantly doing something very similar by trying to better their Strava stats on public roads. This leads to frustration with traffic and bad tempers when things don't go well.
Sadly it can some times have tragic consequences. I wonder if that was what happened to the unfortunate gentleman who was killed after colliding with a stationery tractor and trailer local to me.

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/cyclist_died_after_fai...

yellowjack said:

Que? It's Richmond-bloody-Park. If you can't hold 25mph on the flat around there, you're doing cycling wrong.

For the record, the 'Strava' KOM for the 6.7 mile "Tour de Richmond Park" lap is 13.57 seconds, or an average speed of 28.9mph. Oh, and it's a PHer who holds that record right now...
5,788 out of 27,194 Strava users who've ridden that segment have done so at an average speed of 20mph or greater. So somewhere in the region of 20% of cyclists manage to AVERAGE 20mph or more over the full 6.7 miles, including corners and gradients.
The full 1.1 mile Sawyers Hill (uphill) segment has been ridden at 27.0mph average. Our very own PHer, and pet cyclo-Stig, could only manage 26.0mph on the same section. That's U-P-H-I-L-L too. So quit being so incredulous when some of us are coasting around at a relatively relaxed 20mph on a straight, flat

I rest my case.

[Impasse]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOnL2UNZyjU

[SlimJim16v]

yellowjack said:

Blah blah cyclists are saints blah blah, butter wouldn't melt blah blah, it's never cyclists fault blah blah, cars are the spawn of Satan blah blah, the roads are there for cyclists private time trials blah blah

Cycle like a , don't complain if sooner or later you end up in A&E. Darwinism at work.

[james7]

yellowjack said:

Que? It's Richmond-bloody-Park. If you can't hold 25mph on the flat around there, you're doing cycling wrong.

For the record, the 'Strava' KOM for the 6.7 mile "Tour de Richmond Park" lap is 13.57 seconds, or an average speed of 28.9mph. Oh, and it's a PHer who holds that record right now...
5,788 out of 27,194 Strava users who've ridden that segment have done so at an average speed of 20mph or greater. So somewhere in the region of 20% of cyclists manage to AVERAGE 20mph or more over the full 6.7 miles, including corners and gradients.
The full 1.1 mile Sawyers Hill (uphill) segment has been ridden at 27.0mph average. Our very own PHer, and pet cyclo-Stig, could only manage 26.0mph on the same section. That's U-P-H-I-L-L too. So quit being so incredulous when some of us are coasting around at a relatively relaxed 20mph on a straight, flat section
Tour de France regular? For the past 20 or so years, the average speed of the winning rider in the TdF has been up around the 41km/h mark. That's over 25mph in old money, and is the winner's race average for the whole race, including the climbing stages in the Alps, Pyrenees, etc. The TdF peloton, at full gas, could easily make 30mph to 35mph through Richmond Park if it so desired.

Some of you nuggets are proper hypocrites too. You'll all fawn over a video of some daft sliding a BMW onto the wrong side of the road into a bank of fog while leaving a Sunday Service, but the moment a bicycle is "ridden enthusiastically" you're all out for blood. Laughable double standards.

As for that clip? Why would the Mercedes driver not just drop back and open a safe gap for the bike? He's not going anywhere fast in that queue, what with traffic from the opposite direction being quite a regular occurrence. The bike, on the other hand, seemed capable of making decent progress with multiple overtakes. Had that been some form of 'performance' car, there'd have been rounds of applause for the overtakes, and unanimous condemnation of the blocking driver. Would I have overtaken there? I don't know. Cameras can compress the image, and the resultant footage often doesn't look like it did "on the ground", so I can't say. But I can assure you that, no matter how dangerous I thought the cyclist's overtake to be, as a driver I'd have made space ahead of me, rather than hang him out to dry like that. Two wrongs don't make a right, and the far greater wrong was the blocking of the overtake.

The really annoying one that I regularly have to deal with is the impatient overtaker who passes me seconds before anchoring up due to an obstruction on 'our' side of the road. Range Rovers and similar are the worst for it. FFS chaps! I had sufficient clear space alongside the parked car to pass safely, even with the oncoming traffic. But now, you're stopped there for an indeterminate amount of time, blocking me from making progress. If'n you'd just held off from your overtake for like 2 seconds, I'd be hundreds of yards further up the road by now. Oh, and the "can't wait to join the back of the queue" brigade? They can fk off and die too. Passing me (usually far too closely) as they are already braking for the back of the queue that has been visible ahead for at least a ¼ of a mile. Then what happens? Well, I pass the fecking lot of you, on the offside, naturally, using the narrow strip in the middle for my 'safe and legal' overtake, saving myself from waiting through about 7 phases of the traffic light, unlike all you suckers who are sat there, one to a car, blaming cyclists for causing delays when it's your own inept driving, and stubborn insistence on taking the car when it's not the best way of crossing town, that is actually causing the tailbacks.

I stopped counting how many slow moving cars I passed after I got to 60 the other day. This, after some stupid fat knobhead in a tipper truck got 'on the horn' to pass on his displeasure that I wasn't on the cyclepath. I gave him a cheery wave as I re-passed him, sat in a queue, hemmed in by traffic cones and "Keeping Hampshire Moving" signs while I slalomed around those traffic cones, just to rub it in

Sayonara, losers!

You appear to have some sand stuck in your vagina

The speed limit applies to everyone in the royal parks because they say it does and they make the rules as its their park.
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-cycli...

The problem is if too many abuse it then it will change and for the worse, most likely.

I think you have highlighted one of the problems and that is the aspect of racing. Its not a good idea on public roads and imo Strava et al should be banned from being used for timing on roads and or in public places. I have seen lots of cyclists racing and/or trying to beat their strava times and silly risks are being taken to better their time in some cases.

The cyclist in the video in the op had nowhere to go ie no gap to fit into but went for it anyway which would mean that the merc would have had to slow down. Try doing that to a cyclist and see where it gets you.
The merc didnt do any better and should have let the cyclist get on with his journey. However in this country there is an attitude towards "pushing in" and the cyclist should know this if he has ever used the roads before.

[berlintaxi]

dhead meets dhead, one gets all sweary and prissy, nothing new here.

[Blakewater]

Royal Parks have speed limits within their bylaws that cover all road users including cyclists. The parks have their own police forces that use speed guns and do stop cyclists for speeding. Many cyclists seem more keen to prove they don't have to abide by the speed limits than they are to respect the fact they're sharing paths with other people and have a responsibility to ride safely when both motorists and pedestrians could come into conflict with them.

http://www.parkcycle.co.uk/cycling-information/saf...

If someone on PH was to post up a video of himself driving, showing him going for an overtake with oncoming traffic in the distance and no clear landing spot, and he tried to garner sympathy when the video showed him calling the other motorist all the names under the sun when his overtake didn't work out, I imagine he would get torn to pieces on here.

Remember as well that much of the call for ever more 20mph limits on roads comes from the shouty, camera wearing cyclist brigade and so it is somewhat annoying when one is driving at 20mph in a 20mph limit to have them barging past screaming that they should be given space to hammer through. It's the cyclists going excessively fast past the slower and stopped cars that cause much of the danger and alarm to pedestrians. Just like the road isn't a race track for motorists, a park full of old ladies and children isn't a race track for cyclists.

[Blayney]

Spot on with the strava guys - it's becoming an issue. My gf volunteers as a Marshal for the local park run. It happens at the same time every Saturday morning, they put out cones and signs to warn people and they have marshals along the course with high vis jackets on warning people that there are a large group of runners ahead. Yet every Saturday there's at least one guy in a team sky outfit that thinks he's Wiggins. Shouting at people for getting in his way and ruining his time. It's a public foot path...

Maybe they need track days for cyclists?

[V8LM]

Blakewater said:

Royal Parks have speed limits within their bylaws that cover all road users including cyclists. The parks have their own police forces that use speed guns and do stop cyclists for speeding. Many cyclists seem more keen to prove they don't have to abide by the speed limits than they are to respect the fact they're sharing paths with other people and have a responsibility to ride safely when both motorists and pedestrians could come into conflict with them.

http://www.parkcycle.co.uk/cycling-information/saf...

If someone on PH was to post up a video of himself driving, showing him going for an overtake with oncoming traffic in the distance and no clear landing spot, and he tried to garner sympathy when the video showed him calling the other motorist all the names under the sun when his overtake didn't work out, I imagine he would get torn to pieces on here.

Remember as well that much of the call for ever more 20mph limits on roads comes from the shouty, camera wearing cyclist brigade and so it is somewhat annoying when one is driving at 20mph in a 20mph limit to have them barging past screaming that they should be given space to hammer through. It's the cyclists going excessively fast past the slower and stopped cars that cause much of the danger and alarm to pedestrians. Just like the road isn't a race track for motorists, a park full of old ladies and children isn't a race track for cyclists.

I read somewhere that they revised the byelaw a few years ago and part of that was to add a description of 'vehicle' being mechanically-propelled.

The cyclist here is a tool.

[CrutyRammers]

Very ambitious/stupid overtake IMO, with no bail out possibility. That said:

Northernchimp said:

Why would you attempt such a manoeuvre on a bike? There was a car coming the other way. The Merc driver did nothing wrong, is he supposed to stop to compensate for your stupidity and let you in?

Well, yes actually. Assuming he'd seen the bike, he should have let him in, not hung him out to prove a point. It's no good getting involved in a crash just because "you were in the right". Save people from their idiocy, smile at your superior anticipation and skill, and move on.

[Tuvra]

Merc driver deserves a slap for misbadging his car.....

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

wolves_wanderer said:

Dr Doofenshmirtz said:

The cyclist was 100% in the wrong - thy were speeding and overtaking.
Yet some people are blaming the Merc driver?
Never go full retard even if you're a cyclist yourself

If you overtook traffic at 65 on an NSL and they sped up to block you I guess you'd be 100% at fault?

With only 5mph to play with...it'd be a risky overtake on my part.


(Carefully straightens halo)

[Johnnytheboy]

Blayney said:

Maybe they need track days for cyclists?

[powerstroke]

hornetrider said:

Cyclist is a complete fking cock. That is all.

I think its safe to assume most are these days , risk taking, aggressive and lawless these lycra louts have been encouraged to belive anything that happens is someone elses fault so its no wonder he is now shouting at a driver thats done nothing wrong apart from being on the same road as the tt..