So I hit my first pedestrian today...

Canis Lupus

I hate hate hate pedestrians.... As a cyclist I always look where I'm going but my god some people are idiots....

I have hit one person who turned, looked me dead in the eyes turned his head straight forward and then walked right off the pavement into my path. Managed to brake enough to not hurt him and I landed on my feet but jeez what a stupid thing to do.

Every night I cycle home down a two laned 1 way street going through a busy shopping area in London and it's just a matter of dodgy lemmings all the way down it. If they can't hear a car they charge across or else put a foot onto the road without realising bikes travel that close to the curb.

My PET PET PET PET PET HATE is people who walk out, know they are on a collision course but keep walking slowly and expect me to take evasive action around them. I quite often keep on the same path to put the ****s up them.


God.... it actually makes me angry thinking about cycling up that road

Dandelion6

I had a near miss on Parnell Street a while back, with some tracksuited moron who thought the cycle lane was a spillover lane for the footpath. Unlike most of the pedestrians in this thread she was not in the least bit apologetic and swore at me as if it was my fault. Part of me actually wishes I'd hit her.

Builderfromhell

I would be happy to crash into pedestrians who wander onto road (often with mobile to ear) to teach them a lesson, but always brake as an instinctive reaction.
I do, however, wonder who is legally in the wrong. The pedestrian for walking in front of you or the cyclist for not cycling with due care and attention - in other words being ready to brake and cycling at a speed to allow for emergency stops.

blorg

Builderfromhell wrote: »

I would be happy to crash into pedestrians who wander onto road (often with mobile to ear) to teach them a lesson, but always brake as an instinctive reaction.
I do, however, wonder who is legally in the wrong. The pedestrian for walking in front of you or the cyclist for not cycling with due care and attention - in other words being ready to brake and cycling at a speed to allow for emergency stops.

As in almost any situation blame would be distributed. If you don't brake or try to avoid them when you reasonably could have done I would definately say you were in the wrong (very stupid thing to do anyway as you are going to damage yourself and your bike along with the ped, I'd be avoiding as much for my own sake as theirs.)

Pet peeve of mine would be cyclists who bomb through pedestrians crossing on a red (because they are "in the right.") Happens (or at least used to) at the top of Grafton St a fair bit.

Gavin

Well this is a slightly awkward one. If you stop, the pedestrians keep walking, the light turns green for them, red for you and then you're stuck waiting.

I tend to keep going at a reasonable rate, ready to brake if someone is completely ignoring me. Sometimes if I'm in a foul mood and being a spa, I'll skid, which scares the peds.

I used to have a bell and would ring away but found that it was not particularly useful given the amount of peds with earphones. Or even people without earphones just don't seem to hear the bell, or pay any attention to it. An Airzound is just OTT for pedestrians.

blorg

Well this is exactly what I do also, I don't stop but I proceed slowly and at a safe pace through the peds. Sometimes get a few glares doing that but would hardly bother me.

What I am referring to is cyclists who tear through. Ironically these are unlikely to be the sort of cyclist who will stop when the light is red for them!

oobydooby

I try to live up to my ideal that road users should respect more vulnerable users. If I'm on a bike, I look out for pedestrians. If I want to train I go up the mountains. These dopey pedestrians are the same dopes when they're in cars too and I really hate it when a car driver decides to 'teach me a lesson' when he/she perceives me to be in their space...

I wish I was on my bike now in the hills... away from work...

fenris

Isn't this thread amazingy similar to the driver V cyclist ones to be found elsewhere on boards?

Personally I love the way that we can growl at pedestrians/cyclists/cars/other big things when piloting the aforementioned mechanical deamons, then within minutes of changing transport mode, we saddle up our amazingly tall pony and lambaste people for doing what we did!

The human condition in a nutshell!

Ste.phen

I've thought about this a lot since starting to cycle, and especially since last week.

At the end of the day, everyone breaks the rules and does stupid things they're not supposed to:
Cyclists run red lights and cycle down the far right hand side of one way streets (wrong way), cars drive in cycle lanes and block yellow boxes, pedestrians walk out into moving traffic and expect it to stop.
This is a given, people do minor stupid/illegal things because it saves them a few seconds.

The problem is that some people don't accept responsibility when it comes back to bite them in the ass.

If I cycle up on the path to avoid some obstacle on the road, I know damn well i'm not supposed to be there. If i were to almost hit a pedestrian, I'll apologise a lot and be on my way and think twice next time. Conversely, if a pedestrian jumps out onto the cycle lane to walk around someone slow in front of them, I'd expect them to put their hands up and apologise.

Doing things wrong sometimes is OK; pretending you weren't wrong to do them isn't.

Karma

I watch out for the peds everywhere. dropping my shoulder leaning forward to the left usually, especially coming to the front of buses and 5 axel trucks(really thought they where banned!)
but try and find one of these
http://www.onlinesports.com/pages/I,MW-AZ3333.html
you can attach a 2litre coke bottle to it if you wish but to gets to unwieldy.
Best buy ever to add to a bike, best to use it close to the target(sorry ped) the further away you are they MORE LIKELY they will ignore you.
helmets are a must. A bell is a bonus.
in the rules of the road, peds are only allowed to cros the road where it is safe for them and anybody else(ie those allowed to be on the road-cars bikes buses etc).
That yield to the smaller thing on the road is there but is ignored by everyone bigger than a bike.

be safe.

tywy

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11103

This is slightly cheaper and probably as effective :P

hardCopy

Well, I finally hit one today on the coast road cycle track coming home from Howth.

Crowd of teens sprawled across the track walking towards me, they opened a gap to let another cyclist through from behind them, then 1 guy stepped in front of me just as I was passing through.

Managed to protect myself & the bike with my shoulder, we both stayed upright, nobody killed. Kid must have been drunk or something, I fairly smacked him and he just laughed.

Cue me cycling off shouting abuse like an angry old man.

SetOverSet

I'm only back cycling a month or so after a few lazy years but have already had several very near misses. Most recently on the [Knocklyon?] road between the Templeogue Bridge and Mortons Pub in Firhouse when a girl got off a bus and decided to cross right in front before it pulled off - missed her by mere inches. Another day on the same stretch, I'm in the cycle lane and some twat gets off the bus, runs across the cycle lane right in front of me and screams at me to watch where the f*** I'm going !

DJ WIPEOUT

I've been cycling since the age of 4 years old (now 30) and in the last 6 months I've been cycling every working day to and from work. Only in this time have I encountered a dopey pedestrian and a cyclist.

The pedestrian
Dropped off the kerb in pouring rain with the hood up on her rain jacket and not a single glance to see whether a car/cyclist was coming. I was doing a speed that would have guaranteed serious injury to one of us. I just shouted 'oy' at her and managed to avoid the hit due to having only just tightened my breaks a few days prior to this happening. To be honest it's the same with certain pedestrians even when you are a pedestrian yourself and I find some people are just so tuned out to their surroundings that they don't have a clue!

The cyclist
This guy decided (in the rain) to get a big gossy together and spit it out to his side not looking to see if someone was coming up behind! Of course that someone was me! I raised the fist and boy was he close to getting a dislocated jaw! I somehow decided not to do it as he was just being plain stupid and didn't do it maliciously.

I find that in life it's a bit of a contradiction really! Even though some people are so tuned out they can be really successful somehow - still have to work out the secret but will never let myself be a zombie when it comes to this sort of stuff!

Brian?

Never really cycled in town much, so I've never hit anyone but had a few near misses.

The funniest was about 15 years ago or more, cycling in a community games race. Came belting down a hill doing a good 60km/h I reckon(on my own as I was dropped by the leading group as usual), when an old couple step out into the road about a 100m ahead, lots of breaking and swerving so I just miss them. I stopped to warn them there was a race on and they better keep an eye out, when the old man starts shouting at me that I should have a bell on my bike. Needless to say I was stunned into silence and just cycled off.

72hundred

I find grafton street the worse for pedestrians - they're bleed'in everywhere!

72hundred

What's the best thing to do if a pedestrian is at fault and you hit 'em and some serious damage has been done to the bike?? ... as in will cost a lot to fix.

Call Gardai? ...if they don't just run off...

arybvtcw0eolkf

On a more serious note.

I was knocked down by a cyclist, cycling against the flow of traffic and through the lights at Queen St. Bridge (Dublin) a few years back.

The little fvcker's antics caused me two broken elbows, a broken scaphoid bone (its a little bone in your wrist) and eleven months off work :mad:

The sh*thead got up and cycled off.

72hundred

^^^^^

In retrospect is there anything different you would have done about getting the little f'er?

I guess calling Gardai at the scene mightn't be very helpful, but at least they can record the incident, and maybe then other options might be open CCTV etc...

blorg

Sorry to hear that Mairt, I'd consider that hit and run same as if a car did it. I hope you did report it to the Gardaí- if so did they do anything? Did any passers-by help?

studiorat

^^^
I know a guy who hit a pedestrian a few years ago. Pedestrian hit the deck, smashed his skull and died in hospital that evening. Been living with it ever since.

Traumadoc

have seen it before - elderly woman hit by a cyclist- died a few days later.

arybvtcw0eolkf

blorg wrote: »

Sorry to hear that Mairt, I'd consider that hit and run same as if a car did it. I hope you did report it to the Gardaí- if so did they do anything? Did any passers-by help?

I reported the incident, but nothing happened.

As for passer's by, not one person stopped to help me.

A week later a garda motorcycle rider was killed by a cyclist at Heuston train station. The cyclist went through the lights at the bridge causing the garda motorcyclist to crash.

studiorat

When you hear stuff like that, it reminds you how careful you should be in the city.

ollaetta

Potentially worst thing I've seen in ages happened a few weeks ago between Terenure and Harolds Cross near the pedestrian crossing at Brighton Square. I was cycling towards town about three cycle lengths behind another cyclist and we were moving fairly fast.

There is a bicycle rack at this pedestrian crossing and a guy had just unlocked his bike. Without looking he went to mount the bike and cross the road right across the other cyclist. She missed him by inches but he stopped dead in my path. I slammed on and just managed to stay upright. I let him have a few choice words and got a stream of f**ks back. There could have been a serious three bike pile up but the gobsh*te just couldn't see it.

Also in Terenure recently, a woman in her 50s with a small child stepped off the path onto the cycle lane to jaywalk in front of me through traffic. I shouted "Don't" to warn her and her reaction was also a stream of f**ks. If it wasn't for the child I would have responded but I decided not to. Silly cow didn't realise the example she was giving to the child.

studiorat

trust no-one. all the worlds a gobshlte.

arybvtcw0eolkf

ollaetta wrote: »

Also in Terenure recently, a woman in her 50s with a small child stepped off the path onto the cycle lane to jaywalk in front of me through traffic. .

Actually I'm just back in the saddle after a five year break and I was only thinking today...

Driving a car I've never noticed the amount of pedestrians who are choosing to walk in the cycle lanes against the flow of traffic until the last few weeks.

I'm cycling 30k a day to and from work now and I don't think there's been a journey go by without seeing this at least once.

The five o'clock rush hour seem's to be the worse time, are the paths not wide enough any longer?.

dubman25

Igy wrote: »

(as title says)

Coming down Gardiner St (Southbound) this morning in the cycle lane and a pedestri-lemming steps out suddenly in front of me. Jammed on both brakes, shouted, but t'was a bit too late, smacked him fairly hard.

The fecker just wandered back onto the footpath and kept going while i was picking back up the bike so I didn't get a chance to scream at him, but he did eventually cross at the pedestrian lights, so maybe i did some good in the world, i dunno.

Anwyays, I've been cycling almost every day for 2/3 months now and i've yet to have even a near miss like that before today, I wasn't going too quickly (20KPH, tops), and i thought i had a decent clear run, but seriously, he practically jumped onto the road, *smack*

The people in the car whose bonnet my back wheel landed on were fairly sympathetic though, which was nice, i was half expecting them to shout at me.

So how do you guys deal with it when it happens, and any tips to prevent it happening again?

On the stretch in question, a lot of the pros (you guys, i'm guessing :P) seem to cycle down the middle of the 2 traffic lanes, which are usually stationary. I don't personally like doing that, as I lose the range of vision to my left and i'm not terribly comfortable with that yet...

Im sure you deserve it because you should obey the speed limit and keep observing the road!Hope the other chap was ok!

ratsam

About 7 years back a woman opened a door as i was cycling down quite a steep hill in Drogheda knocking me off in the process... Didnt hurt myself but the door actually came off...! The funny thing is she had just had the door fixed from a similar incident a few weeks before hand.! Well so she said as she was apologising...! Nice hah...!

Rats

IanCurtis

Mairt wrote: »

On a more serious note.

I was knocked down by a cyclist, cycling against the flow of traffic and through the lights at Queen St. Bridge (Dublin) a few years back.

The little fvcker's antics caused me two broken elbows, a broken scaphoid bone (its a little bone in your wrist) and eleven months off work :mad:

The sh*thead got up and cycled off.

About time somebody got some sense here. You lot are making it almost sound heroic to hit a pedestrian.

:eek:

No one is the enemy, try and remember that it's not a war out there, just a commute - safer for everyone.