for anyone who cycles in london...

[tricky69]

you will be able to relate to this,

I hate it when anyone over takes you and then immediatly turns left across infront of you.... Buses seem to do this all the time !!
Taxis that fly down the bus lane and think it is alright to miss your handle bar by half and inch !
People who are cycling much slower than you so you over take them, but when you come to a traffic light they go past and pull in and stop right in front of you so you have to ove take them again !!
People opening their car doors without looking...
People cossing without looking....

rant over.... for now

[SystemParanoia]

Some drivers are great though... like the flatbed van/pickup drivers that don't complain when you skitch.

[johnnywb]

I can empathise with all of that. I also hate pedestrians who stand at a zebra crossing and dither meaning you have to stop, whereas if they'd just got on and bloody crossed, you'd have managed to keep some momentum up.

Doors being opened without looking is a nasty one, almost came a cropper to that on the Kings Road.

[tricky69]

johnnywb said:

Doors being opened without looking is a nasty one, almost came a cropper to that on the Kings Road.

some one did that to me not that long ago... luckily i was climbing a hill so was only do about 10mph so pretty much managed to stop but hit the inside of his door and cracked the plastic and broke his speaker.... then swore at him and cycled off, think i came off the better side of that exchange !!

Edited by tricky69 on Wednesday 27th August 12:01

[jerwatt]

It's not just London that you have that, although can imagine it'd be worse there. Someone almost had me going into their door at 30mph the other day after turning right from the other direction (my left), probably assuming anyone on a bike can't do more than 2mph. I don't think she even noticed me almost hitting her either, completely oblivious. Thankfully had mountain bike tyres rather than road ones, otherwise would have hit her.

[fergus]

tricky69 said:

you will be able to relate to this,

I hate it when anyone over takes you and then immediatly turns left across infront of you.... Buses seem to do this all the time !!
Taxis that fly down the bus lane and think it is alright to miss your handle bar by half and inch !
People who are cycling much slower than you so you over take them, but when you come to a traffic light they go past and pull in and stop right in front of you so you have to ove take them again !!
People opening their car doors without looking...
People cossing without looking....

rant over.... for now

Unfortunately, most of those problems can be overcome if you cycle further out from the kerb, or move right to the front of the lights?

People jumping lights on bikes winds me up. I used to do it, but saw one accident and a couple of very close calls, so wait the extra 30 secs or so now. People intent on doing this seem to just fly through groups of stationary cyclists on their way to their own near miss. Tactful positioning of the bike, or pivoting it on the front brake and lifting it up on a clipless pedal and swinging the back end around by a foot or so soon has them slowed down though...

[Noel]

I think picking your route is key in London. My route is from Rotherhithe to Mayfair, I used to take the Embankment but after far too many near misses I now stay south of the river until Westminster Bridge and enjoy it much more.

I also love the fact that most evenings I can fly passed mile after mile of stationary traffic.