Today i got hooted at....

blorg

cast_iron- so someone reports dangerous driving to the gardai and your response is "I'm glad you have nothing better to be doing." A small minority of motorists put cyclists lives at risk on a daily basis; I'm grateful to anyone who actually does something about it.

EDIT: And I presume you _do_ know Traffic Watch is not just for cyclist complaints, it's for everyone who uses the roads.

TempestSabre

blorg wrote:

Sure, ....(if you stay in the lane even if slowing down or stopping many motorists will indeed _not_ turn across you or at least take forever until they are 100% sure you are not going on, so changing lane and getting behind them is the most sensible thing to do if you are letting them turn.)...

Good point. Though I'd still stop as I'd be wondering what you are doing, as its untypical. I'd be expecting you swerve and undercut me or make a right turn if you left the lane like that. I'm a pessimist when it comes to all road users.

cast_iron

blorg wrote:

cast_iron- so someone reports dangerous driving to the gardai and your response is "I'm glad you have nothing better to be doing." A small minority of motorists put cyclists lives at risk on a daily basis; I'm grateful to anyone who actually does something about it.

To me there is a difference between reporting dangerous driving and someone getting stuck (throught their ignorance and stupidity) on a pedestrian crossing and getting reported.
If the poster stuck to reporting the more serious traffic infringements, the guards may have more time to do a decent job.

blorg wrote:

EDIT: And I presume you _do_ know Traffic Watch is not just for cyclist complaints, it's for everyone who uses the roads.

Yes

RainyDay

tywy wrote:

Yeah it's Richmond Ave South.

Wow - small world eh? I'd suggest you hold your nerve. They won't run you down. They may try and mount the path to get past you, but dropping your bike in front of their car tends to stop them in their tracks. THat will give you time to take a few pictures on your phone and call it in to TrafficWatch. I got a call from Rathmines Garda Station today in relation to my complaint, so I'll be calling in to make my statement next week.

cyclopath2001

cast_iron wrote:

To me there is a difference between reporting dangerous driving and someone getting stuck (throught their ignorance and stupidity) on a pedestrian crossing and getting reported.

I see this every day. As a rule, I treat a pedestrian crossing like a box junction, I never enter unless I can see a clear exit. People who 'get stuck' on crossings are just selfish oafs. They ignore wheelchair users who can only cross where the path is dished.

Blocking a pedestrian crossing constitutes driving without reasonable care or attention. It endangers pedestrians as it forces pedestrians to dodge between cars and trucks as they cross.

If the poster stuck to reporting the more serious traffic infringements, the guards may have more time to do a decent job.Yes

But maybe we should be trying to nip careless & inconsiderate driving in the bud before it comes dangerous driving?

Victor

Verb wrote:

I was under the impression that in fact the driver has the right of way when turning to the left.. Similar to how buses are required to give way to cars turning to the left. I shall go read up on it.

Erm..... no!

blorg

cyclopath2001 wrote:

I see this every day. As a rule, I treat a pedestrian crossing like a box junction, I never enter unless I can see a clear exit. People who 'get stuck' on crossings are just selfish oafs. They ignore wheelchair users who can only cross where the path is dished.

Blocking a pedestrian crossing constitutes driving without reasonable care or attention. It endangers pedestrians as it forces pedestrians to dodge between cars and trucks as they cross.

Agreed completely, and many people "stuck" on pedestrian crossings decide to edge their way on through against pedestrians, and I have been hit as a pedestrian by such a person (just tapped, not injured.)

daymobrew

cyclopath2001 wrote:

Blocking a pedestrian crossing constitutes driving without reasonable care or attention. It endangers pedestrians as it forces pedestrians to dodge between cars and trucks as they cross.

I was not going to respond to cast_iron's post - agree to disagree type scenario. Most of my reports are people breaking red lights (I don't report those that are by a small margin). Various Gardai at various levels have encouraged my reporting of these incidents.

I reported the driver blocking the pedestrian crossing because it made it quite difficult for me to cross and it was near the NCBI training centre in Drumcondra.

cyclopath2001/blorg: Thanks for the supportive posts.

TempestSabre

I'm not a fan of these kinda black and white lines in the sand. Its very easy to get caught out at a junction or a crossing. As you commit yourself moving across into a space, or across a junction some bully comes from nowhere and swerves dangerously last second into your free space, leaving you stranded.

Then someone comes along and takes the situation as it is, not as it happened.

Bunnyhopper

TempestSabre wrote:

As you commit yourself moving across into a space, or across a junction some bully comes from nowhere and swerves dangerously last second into your free space, leaving you stranded.

Good point. You shouldn't really be allowed to change lanes while crossing a yellow box: you should have to leave in the same lane as you entered.

But then that might be a sensible rule, so it's unlikely ever to happen.

TempestSabre

Bunnyhopper wrote:

Good point. You shouldn't really be allowed to change lanes while crossing a yellow box: you should have to leave in the same lane as you entered.

But then that might be a sensible rule, so it's unlikely ever to happen.

Even if there was a rule the bullies would ignore it.

RainyDay

TempestSabre wrote:

I'm not a fan of these kinda black and white lines in the sand. Its very easy to get caught out at a junction or a crossing. As you commit yourself moving across into a space, or across a junction some bully comes from nowhere and swerves dangerously last second into your free space, leaving you stranded.

Then someone comes along and takes the situation as it is, not as it happened.

Nothing is black & white. By reporting the issue to Garda Traffic Watch line, due process kicks in. The offending driver will have his day in court and can try out his excuses on the judge. I doubt if the judge would give too much credibility to such excuses, mind you.

The scenario you pain seems a little far-fetched to me. For any case that I've reported to Traffic Watch, I have had full visibility to the movements beforehand that led to the offence, and I'd expect it is the same for the other cyclists on this thread who stand up for themselves.

TempestSabre

Well in the many years I've been driving/cycling I've seen it happen a lot, I can give you specific junctions where it happens all the time too.

RainyDay

TempestSabre wrote:

Well in the many years I've been driving/cycling I've seen it happen a lot, I can give you specific junctions where it happens all the time too.

How frequently have you seen cyclists berating the bullied driver and/or phoning the gardai when it does happen?

TempestSabre

RainyDay wrote:

How frequently have you seen cyclists berating the bullied driver and/or phoning the gardai when it does happen?

Quite often. There usually a load of verbal abuse and perhaps some attempt at damaging the car.

Civilian_Target

Absolutely. One of the classics which I've seen before is grabbing your U-lock from its holder on your bike and smashing the base of it into the offending vehicle - leaves a very expensive dent!

Not that I would condone that sort of behaviour, it's childish and illegal.

DirkVoodoo

Whites cross last night, driver in a punto went straight thru the red light (had not JUST turned red, he could have stopped, but raced it). Garda in the opposite lane, top of the que, coming from newtown park eve. direction did not react. Maybe he didnt see him, but it seems like he couldnt be bothered to turn around and pursue.

Had I not seen it and started off a bit sooner, I may have ended up all over the road. The gardai need to clamp down on this sort of behaviour, running a red light is NOT ON!

Oh, and didnt a senior garda commissioner come out there a while ago and say that the traffic hot-line was just a PR thing made by the politicians and the gardai did not waste time purusing matters? ( think it was during the summer)

RainyDay

TempestSabre wrote:

Quite often. There usually a load of verbal abuse and perhaps some attempt at damaging the car.

Now this is laughably far-fetched, in the context of the 'bullying' scenario you originally described. Confrontations between drivers & cyclists are rare enough on their own, let alone in the particularly narrow circumstances you outlined.

DirkVoodoo wrote:

Oh, and didnt a senior garda commissioner come out there a while ago and say that the traffic hot-line was just a PR thing made by the politicians and the gardai did not waste time purusing matters? ( think it was during the summer)

I didn't hear any such comments, and this certainly doesn't reflect the reality of what's happening on the ground. I had a call from a garda in Rathmines station last week to get me to come in & make a formal statement about an incident I reported to TW a couple of weeks earlier.

TempestSabre

RainyDay wrote:

Now this is laughably far-fetched, in the context of the 'bullying' scenario you originally described. Confrontations between drivers & cyclists are rare enough on their own, let alone in the particularly narrow circumstances you outlined.....

I must see at least a couple confrontations every week.

TempestSabre

I guess that lends more weight to blorgs point...

blorg wrote:

... I'm just pointing out that the facilities and laws are designed to encourage inconsiderate and dangerous behaviours.

Traumadoc

RainyDay wrote:

Now this is laughably far-fetched, in the context of the 'bullying' scenario you originally described. Confrontations between drivers & cyclists are rare enough on their own, let alone in the particularly narrow circumstances you outlined.

I have to disagree with you I see them quite often.

RainyDay

TempestSabre wrote:

I must see at least a couple confrontations every week.

SO 2 a week, or about 100 per annum - And how many of these 100 confrontations relate to drivers being 'bullied' in junctions as you described earlier?

TempestSabre

RainyDay wrote:

SO 2 a week, or about 100 per annum - And how many of these 100 confrontations relate to drivers being 'bullied' in junctions as you described earlier?

That assumes the ones I see are the only ones that happen. I'd have thought that not very likely. Its not like I count them, its just something you see a lot of, if you are driving in city center a lot. Nearly every second junction has a yellow box will multiple lanes, and conflicts are common. To be honest I think its kinda normal when I see it now. I avoid junctions where it happens a lot myself, as I always thought theres a good chance a cop will turn up (usually on a motorbike) miss read the situation and hey presto you'll have a few points for being bullied.

Around christchurch in all directions this is rife. Taxi drivers, and delivery vans are especially good at driving up an empty or moving lane along side a queued one then dangerously jumping in at the top at speed across a yellow box. I'd say you could write tickets around there all day for it.

Civilian_Target

Pfft - I got intimidated pretty impressivly today. Some guy in a red honda behind me as I was cycling down the South Ealing Road - with cars parked either side so I had to cycle in the middle of the lane. This guy behind me just put his hand on the horn and kept beeping at me for I'd say a good minute. He even tried to overtake me in the middle of a junction and almost ran into a traffic light, so he sat back and kept beeping.

It wasn't like I was going slowly, I was doing 18 or 20mph. Funniest of all, as soon as he passed me, he turned left about 50m further down the road into a traffic jam.

Clearly not getting any off the wife...

RainyDay

TempestSabre wrote:

That assumes the ones I see are the only ones that happen. I'd have thought that not very likely. Its not like I count them, its just something you see a lot of, if you are driving in city center a lot. Nearly every second junction has a yellow box will multiple lanes, and conflicts are common. To be honest I think its kinda normal when I see it now. I avoid junctions where it happens a lot myself, as I always thought theres a good chance a cop will turn up (usually on a motorbike) miss read the situation and hey presto you'll have a few points for being bullied.

Around christchurch in all directions this is rife. Taxi drivers, and delivery vans are especially good at driving up an empty or moving lane along side a queued one then dangerously jumping in at the top at speed across a yellow box. I'd say you could write tickets around there all day for it.

Nicely evasive answer - Have you considered becoming a Government minister?

tywy

I got hooted at about 10 minutes ago on my way into college. I'm still angry! I don't know if anyone knows there's a left turn off of that road that goes from the dodder to dundrum that a lot of cyclists take to UCD...it brings you into that group of roads like maple road. Well just after you turn left there is a roundabout...I stuck out my hand to indicate I was going right at the roundabout and moved into the middle of the road as I've almost been knocked down by cars going straight ahead when trying to turn right there before. So anyway this red toyota yaris sits on her horn. I was like wtf!?! I didn't really know what I did wrong. So I slowed down still in the middle of the road, I have to admit I did it partly to annoy the one in the car. Anyway she shouts out the window while giving me the finger "I coulda ****in knocked you down". She only would have knocked me down if she'd been impatient and tried to overtake me (which she was trying to do) when I had my right hand out indicating that I was going right. GAH I'm SO annoyed right now...I'll calm down in about 10 mins :P

TempestSabre

RainyDay wrote:

Nicely evasive answer - Have you considered becoming a Government minister?

What answer were you expecting. 42.99999 ?

DirkVoodoo

Blackrock on the N11, woman coming out of driveway in nice 3-series convertible decides that footpath and cycle lane dont need to be checked before pulling off....close shave!

cast_iron

tywy wrote:

I got hooted at about 10 minutes ago on my way into college. I'm still angry! I don't know if anyone knows there's a left turn off of that road that goes from the dodder to dundrum that a lot of cyclists take to UCD...it brings you into that group of roads like maple road. Well just after you turn left there is a roundabout...I stuck out my hand to indicate I was going right at the roundabout and moved into the middle of the road as I've almost been knocked down by cars going straight ahead when trying to turn right there before. So anyway this red toyota yaris sits on her horn. I was like wtf!?! I didn't really know what I did wrong. So I slowed down still in the middle of the road, I have to admit I did it partly to annoy the one in the car. Anyway she shouts out the window while giving me the finger "I coulda ****in knocked you down". She only would have knocked me down if she'd been impatient and tried to overtake me (which she was trying to do) when I had my right hand out indicating that I was going right. GAH I'm SO annoyed right now...I'll calm down in about 10 mins :P

The people that use those roads use them as a rat-run, so there's only one thing on their mind - getting home/work as fast as possible.

cast_iron

RainyDay wrote:

Confrontations between drivers & cyclists are rare enough on their own,

You musn't cycle too much in town, or pay too much heed. I probably average once a week myself - taxi drivers mostly.