He has to look out for me ...

daymobrew

On the way into work this morning I was cycling along Alfie Byrne Road. I saw a guy, coming from the other direction, swing off the cycle track onto the road. He didn't look behind him before the move and was, IMO, lucky that the approaching car was sufficiently far behind. The car didn't beep.

I told the cyclist (50s male) that he was nearly rear ended by the car. "He has to look out for me" was his misinformed reply. I corrected him but he ignored it.
He did have a hiviz vest on and hiviz strips on his ankles and wrists but, in a more congested scenario, the car would not have been able to move out and the results very different.

It's up to the rest of us to be extra well behaved to make up for people like this guy.

Gavin

Yeah going by UCD Clonskeagh entrance I see this all the time. Either almost going into another cyclist (me) or cars having to pull around.

It certainly weakens cyclists position. It's the nature of cycling in Ireland unfortunately and without serious cycling education in schools, or as a last ditch effort, licencing, I don't think it will change.

fish-head

He has to look out for me?!

Don't make me laugh..

PeadarofAodh

See this sort of thing all the time. It's very common to see people signalling their intention to turn and swinging onto the road at the exact same time which is completely pointless as if there's a car close behind it's game over. Personally I always take a look over my shoulder, assess the distance and then signal - leaving a pause before moving onto the road so the car has an opportunity to reduce speed and recognise me.

If only everyone was like me...:D

kona

meh attitude of the irish tbh, 90% are ignorant arseholes.

humm im on a bike, combined weight 100kgs at 10mph, car 2,000kgs at 35mph, are sure **** it the car wont do damage:rolleyes:

these people sort themselves out although if hes 50 he has some luck:D

kenmc

How the hell has he managed to live to 50 without realizing that these days everyone is only looking out for themselves - has the Mahon tribunal not taught him anything yet?
Oh well, as long as he's carrying an Organ Donor card.....

niceonetom

i see this kind of thing fairly regularly. there a particular breed of cyclist who, once they've got the helmet and highviz everywhere feels that they have placed the responsibility for their safety on everyone else. they tend to have full beards too...

kona

what about the gob****es who just wear a hi vis, no lights, nada???

or the idiots who are buying a bike, dont buy a helmet because it looks dumb, they will look plenty dumb when they crack their skull off a kerb:mad:

maybe we should have a thread for the dumbest bikes/cyclists etc. they may even find themselves here:D

seamus

This is a standard occurence. My experience of cycling in Dublin is that the second biggest danger to cyclists (after pedestrians), is other cyclists.
They come out of side streets and turn corners without even looking for other cyclists or cars, they break lights in front of you, they cycle through traffic without checking for motorbikes or bicycles, they cross the road without looking, they stop in the middle of the road without checking what's around....

I could go on. However, I've seen a number of near-misses on my commute and most of them could have been downgraded from pant-wetting to mere annoyance if the cyclist just applied a little bit of roadcraft. Most accidents can be seen coming a mile away. Unfortunately, most people aren't looking for them. You can't control what mistakes other road users make, but you can adjust your cycle to expect them.

Gavin

I remember sitting on the bus on Westmoreland st (a lazy day). Lights were red, traffic was zooming down the quays and this chap on a bmx just flies out from westmoreland st onto O'Connell bridge into the traffic weaving through them. My jaw literally dropped, I couldn't believe it. What a loon !

I established my theory at that point and reckon the fatal & serious accidents generally happen to these sorts of cyclists. I expect that anyone with some degree of cyclecraft has a massively lowered probability of being in an accident, compared to these guys. It reassures me.

daymobrew

seamus wrote: »

You can't control what mistakes other road users make, but you can adjust your cycle to expect them.

Bingo! This attitude has kept me accident free since I started cycling almost 30 years ago (I started cycling when I began secondary school in 1983; 3 mile trip each way).

bobtjustice

daymobrew wrote: »

I told the cyclist (50s male) that he was nearly rear ended by the car. "He has to look out for me" was his misinformed reply. I corrected him but he ignored it.
He did have a hiviz vest on and hiviz strips on his ankles and wrists but, in a more congested scenario, the car would not have been able to move out and the results very different.

Its the naive attitude of this guy that gets me, I've been cycling in Dublin for a few years now, and you just have to treat everyone on the road, pedestrians, other cyclists, cars, vans etc etc as completely unpredicable and adjust constantly for that. This guy sooner or later is going to find that out the hard way.:(

Raam

Yeah I see the same all the time. It used to really annoy me, now I just shake my head at it. The GF sees a lot more of it than I do. She cycles in to town everyday and is always ranting about them.