Should I tell the Gardai?

w123

el tonto wrote: »

I despair of this attitude and in my opinion, its cyclists like you that give the rest of us a bad name.

w123 wrote: »

I have three kids, and I don't want them to grow up without a father, so if I'm being honest - I only do these things if there is absolutely no risk to me - Mainly the lights I break would be ped lights after the ped has crossed, if I ever break lights at a junction, It would be absolutely clear - the point that I'm trying to make is that there are really two sets of rules of the road one for Motorised vehicles and one for Pedestrians, the cyclist ( in my view) lies somewhere in between. And as long as they are being considerate and don't have a death wish should be alowed to be both a road user and a ped.

It's worked for me so far thousands of miles under my belt and no accidents.

Remember - It's nice to be nice.

I thought about this after polyfusion's post and reviewed the way I cycle, a shrinking voilet will get hurt or give up - and I think it would be foolish not to take advantage of the manouverability of a bike on streets designed for cars.

I'm just digging a hole here, amn't I?

Lumen

w123 wrote: »

I thought about this after polyfusion's post and reviewed the way I cycle, a shrinking voilet will get hurt or give up - and I think it would be foolish not to take advantage of the manouverability of a bike on streets designed for cars.

I'm just digging a hole here, amn't I?

The problem with your strategy is that whilst it may be perfectly safe, it pisses people off, and pissing people off is best avoided.

FWIW it annoys me no end that I wait at the red light on my bike, then have to wait a few more seconds for all the red-light-jumping and yellow-box-sitting cars to clear the junction, but I can't change the world and can only account for my own behaviour.

DirkVoodoo

w123 wrote: »

I thought about this after polyfusion's post and reviewed the way I cycle, a shrinking voilet will get hurt or give up - and I think it would be foolish not to take advantage of the manouverability of a bike on streets designed for cars.

I'm just digging a hole here, amn't I?

Shrinking violet or not, cycling without regard for the law only perpetuates the stereotype that cyclists are a law unto themselves. Look at the "Tim Allen" driver, who sees cyclists as a menace because we jump red lights and ride on the pavement. If no one cycled like the way you describe, Tim would have nothing to use against us. Similarly, Eggball mentions "the cyclist probably broke the law before and after the incident". Irrelevant, but that is the image that you put forward everytime you do that. It makes it harder for the cyclists who obey the law.

DirkVoodoo

Lumen wrote: »

FWIW it annoys me no end that I wait at the red light on my bike, then have to wait a few more seconds for all the red-light-jumping and yellow-box-sitting cars to clear the junction, but I can't change the world and can only account for my own behaviour.

Everday, without change at white's cross and then further down the dual carriageway at stillorgan you will see cars go through red lights at speed. This is not the "orange to red" or "just gone red", it's "red light and green man is doing his thing". It annoys me, but I don't hold it against car drivers and go onto the motoring forum complaining about it, or try attacking random motorists who get in my way because they are all the same.

I had some old woman a few weeks back beep at me furiously as I cycled down past booterstown ave. because I was in the bus lane. I could see her arm waving in the direction of the cycle path. Why? Yes I was in the bus lane, not holding anyone up and I will never use the cycle path there (it's crap, off camber, in front of driveways, a bus stop. Bin collection day is like a slalom event). Why do other road users feel that they have a special right to educate cyclists? They don't do it to pedestrians, other cars might get beeped at or flashed at for hogging the outside lane. But cyclists get a special brand of "No, not this time, now I teach you a lesson!". I'm just glad that old lady wasn't driving in the bus lane.

Chips Lovell

w123 wrote: »

I'm just digging a hole here, amn't I?

Kind of, yes. Because while you may feel you aren't risking your skin, your behaviour is indirectly putting others at risk. Why? As evidenced in this thread there is a minority of dangerous drivers who feel entitled to "teach cyclists a lesson" because they see sizeable numbers breaking road traffic law. Of course it's wrong, but it happens nonetheless.

Chips Lovell

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

I had some old woman a few weeks back beep at me furiously as I cycled down past booterstown ave. because I was in the bus lane. I could see her arm waving in the direction of the cycle path.

I hope you gave her a big cheerful wave.

Jip

Yeah, it seems a particular thing to do, try educate cyclists that is. I was taking the third exit at a particularly big roundabout one morning and took it as you would in a car, remained to the left of the right lane and as I came to my exit had a check over my shoulder and moved out to the left lane to take the exit. As I done so I noticed some cow was attempting to drive around me on the left as I was about to exit :eek: But I held my position, it would have been mental to let her around to my left while the more patient drivers came round to my right. She beeped so I signalled to my right for her, she wasn't having any of it so I made an inappropriate gesture. She eventually came along to my right, slowed, wound down her front and rear windows ready to berate me but I was going left then anyway so she never got her chance.

tomasrojo

Lecturing cyclists about what they should do is very common, yes. I guess it's part of the whole mindset that motorists are responsible adults with jobs, and cyclists are somewhat like annoying teenagers hanging around the mall.

DirkVoodoo

el tonto wrote: »

I hope you gave her a big cheerful wave.

I just ignored her. I thought about asking her what the problem was at the lights but I couldn't really have cared what she thought. I just thought it was funny she got worked up enough about something in her peripheral vision that she had to start beeping and pointing.

Incidentally, another old couple at a bus stop started waving and telling me to use the cycle path one day. Ironically they could have caused a crash by trying to stick their arms out at me as I passed by.

JuliusCaesar

I feel the OP should report the incident to the Gardai and to Dublin Bus (which he has done) - but he should also complain to Dublin City/County Council about the cycle lane.


In addition, I have only once ever seen a sign saying drivers should give cyclist 1.5m clearance when overtaking them - and that was in Galway. We need lots more of them! (having been knocked off my bike by a passing car, the wing mirror of which clipped the edge of my handlebar).

bbosco

tomasrojo wrote: »

Lecturing cyclists about what they should do is very common, yes. I guess it's part of the whole mindset that motorists are responsible adults with jobs, and cyclists are somewhat like annoying teenagers hanging around the mall.

I was berated for about a minute, while still cycling, by a motorcyclist on the outer ring road near Lucan, while using the bus lane at 8am on a Sunday morning. He had two whole other lanes to use. There wasn't another vehicle in sight. I gave a him a big friendly smile and a wave and he sped off at a speed I would guess was in excess of the 80kph limit.

Convict

Thanks everybody for all the advice and particularly to Eggball for clarifying matters for me. For the record, I'm not a hippy. I was not cycling in any way erratically on that afternoon. I was, as I admit, on the road. I would argue, as many others here have, that the cyclelane is dangerous. That's in mittigation. I did nothing to provoke that driver. I am, in general terms, a good cyclist - respecting red lights, not cycling on pavements etc. Goddammit Eggnog, I even wear a helmet. That said, I make no claims to canonisation.

I do not hate bus drivers or indeed car drivers. A bus driver told me that what happened to me would be indicative of a general view of cyclists amongst his fellow drivers. He told me I would have to follow the matter up myself if I wanted any sort of satisfaction.
This is what I've done. I've complained to Donnybrook Garage. I've also complained to the press office in Dublin Bus because their complaints process is not transparent. I - as the man who is dealing with it told me - wont know whether that particular driver gets two weeks in the Canaries or a two week suspension. I pointed out this forum to them and said that it would appear what happened last Friday was not an isolated incident. I've asked them to look aty the phenmenal numer of hits on this thread in a little over 24 hours. They've assured me of a response.
Finally, I've also informed the Garda traffic Bureau and that complaint has been passed onto Pearse Street. I'm sure I'll hear from them in due course. It may be, as the man in Donnybrook, said that what happened to me didn't look that serious when viewed on CCTV but.....
as I said to them in the correspondence...

"For the record I would like to state that what happened was a bus, weighing several tonnes, cut me off on a road that was virtually empty and drew to a sudden stop in front of me, causing me to pull up to avoid (a) being driven up on the pavement or (b) rear-ending the bus. It is my contention that the driver was attempting, at best, to intimidate me and that he was using a vehicle with paying passengers on board to do this. Above all he placed my life and the life of at least one other cyclist in danger........

The driver might well argue that he was in full control of the bus but that’s not something I would ever want to be seeking odd on."


Anyhow, that's where it rests for now. Thanks again for all the help - this is one mighty forum.

kincsem

Well done with following through.

Most of the time when on the road I'm in my car. Does anyone think having this on the rear window of the car would be of any use

http://www.stickergiant.com/bike-to-work_mcs196.html

(forget the "bike to work" description. I just think having a bike logo might put out a "think bike" message to other car drivers)

tracert

Cycling on Dublin's streets is being covered on Prime Time on Thursday. They showed a clip at the end of tonight's episode including biker-cam views of close calls with buses. Hopefully something will happen now.

Eggball

w123 wrote: »

I do break rules, I cycle down one way streets the wrong way, I break lights, I cycle on the footpath slowly, the difference between a cyclist doing these things and a motorist doing them is that a cyclist is putting themselves in danger if they break the rules, and so, when breaking them must ensure that they mitigate against all risk - which is to say I will break a red light if nothing is coming - I will go down a one way street or on a footpath ready to dismount or pull in etc.

I am not a nasty or malicious person, however I do adopt an extremely aggresive riding style for my own protection and would advocate the same for any right thinking cyclist, there is nothing to protect us on the road other than our wits.

Isn't this just bloody typical? We get a thread started by one cyclist giving out about a bus driver supposedly breaking the rules, and we end up with an assumption - not even an proper explanation, but merely an assumption, as though everybody had agreed to this - that those same rules are only advisory when it comes to cyclists. Being special people, we can ignore them when they become inconvenient, is that the effort?

tomasrojo

I see you nimbly stepped over all the posts that don't fit with your world view and zoned in on the only one that advocated rule-breaking.

What identity have you assumed today, by the way? Bus passenger? Bus driver? Scarlet pimpernel?

Sniipe

Eggball why did you just pull that post? Are you hell bent on seeing only one side? There are posts after it saying that its not correct.

niceonetom

Eggball wrote: »

Isn't this just bloody typical?

No. It's atypical. It's the only one of its kind in this whole thread. See the way you had to ignore all the other posts that disagree with the one you quoted? That's how I know it would be foolish to take you seriously.

Could you come back tomorrow? Please?

Jumpy

Eggball wrote: »

Isn't this just bloody typical? We get a thread started by one cyclist giving out about a bus driver supposedly breaking the rules, and we end up with an assumption - not even an proper explanation, but merely an assumption, as though everybody had agreed to this - that those same rules are only advisory when it comes to cyclists. Being special people, we can ignore them when they become inconvenient, is that the effort?

No one here agrees with that post. But in saying that, no one agrees with yours either.

By the way, just for the record Mr Bus Driver, have you ever deliberately obstructed a cyclist in a similar way to the OP? Would you?

scotchy

Just adding myself as someone who has experienced this Dublin bus bicycle intimidation tactic on the Stillorgan rd. Its happened to me several times now including once when I was forced to hit the pavement and come off the bike.


:mad:

.

w123

Wow! What a sanctimonious bunch you are.

Am I to assume from the replies that I'm the one cyclist here who breaks the rules, interesting.

So you're sitting at a red light which our brilliant traffic planners have timed for rush hour, but it's Saturday, not another sinner on the road and you just wait.

Obviously none of the other cyclists in front of me or behind me going through a ped X when there are no pedestrians are on here.

And nobody takes a short cut down a one way steet to work around the wonderful traffic systems in the city centre.

Get real.

At least I'm honest - If most of you examined your routes you'd see that there are places where you take short cuts.

As I've already stated - I don't want to get hurt, and I don't want to hurt anybody else, I take care and I am courteous to other road users. I just have a more liberal interpretation of the rules.

As for you Eggroll - I only speak for myself - The general conensus from this holier than thou bunch is that I'm in the wrong - which I freely admit to.

And when's the last time you read of anybody being killed by a bike - get a grip - have some courtesy. I'm sick of being pushed off the road by busses speeding up to the next traffic jam - If BAC had any punctuality policy I could understand - but as they won't even put up times of arrival at individual bus stops they don't.

Lumen

This may help.

DirkVoodoo

w123 wrote: »

So you're sitting at a red light which our brilliant traffic planners have timed for rush hour, but it's Saturday, not another sinner on the road and you just wait.

Most lights. There is one in all of Dublin, but it's an on path cycle lane so you are allowed to keep going, I just hop into the bus lane after. I never sail through red lights the way a lot of people seem to (I'm looking at you red FCR man!), it's not worth it.

w123 wrote: »

And nobody takes a short cut down a one way steet to work around the wonderful traffic systems in the city centre.

Nope.

w123 wrote: »

Get real.

I don't know what this means, am I not cool now?

w123 wrote: »

At least I'm honest - If most of you examined your routes you'd see that there are places where you take short cuts.

Everyone here is honest, I've cycled with a lot of them and they don't break red lights. Your not being honest, your breaking the law, there is a subtle difference.

Like I said earlier (and it has sort of been proved), your actions have allowed this narrowminded road user to brand us all as reckless, law breaking hippies. Even though no one here agreed with you, you've given him all the reason he needs not to change, in his mind at least.

Jip

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Nope.
........

Everyone here is honest, I've cycled with a lot of them and they don't break red lights. Your not being honest, your breaking the law, there is a subtle difference.

Me too, I don't break red lights, it's not worth it. Plus it's always fun to catch the RLJs that do.

DirkVoodoo

Jip wrote: »

Me too, I don't break red lights, it's not worth it. Plus it's always fun to catch the RLJs that do.

This is the added bonus. It's only fun when they become frustrated, if they don't acknowledge your superior ability then it's even more annoying.

Chips Lovell

w123 wrote: »

So you're sitting at a red light which our brilliant traffic planners have timed for rush hour, but it's Saturday, not another sinner on the road and you just wait.

Yes

w123 wrote: »

Obviously none of the other cyclists in front of me or behind me going through a ped X when there are no pedestrians are on here.

Looks like it.

w123 wrote: »

And nobody takes a short cut down a one way steet to work around the wonderful traffic systems in the city centre.

Nope.

w123 wrote: »

As I've already stated - I don't want to get hurt, and I don't want to hurt anybody else

I can't imagine there are too many law breaking cyclists who want to hurt themselves or others.

w123 wrote: »

I take care and I am courteous to other road users. I just have a more liberal interpretation of the rules.

You're not being courteous at all. You've decided to take your own interpretation of the rules because it suits you and you alone. Never mind the fact that there are some drivers out there who take your and other's behaviour as an excuse to try and run cyclists off the road. The next time I'm on the receiving end of road rage I'll be sure to remember how courteous you've been.

petethedrummer

w123 wrote: »

Am I to assume from the replies that I'm the one cyclist here who breaks the rules, interesting.

No, I have a foot in both camps.

EDIT: I'd just like to clarify that I think there is a distinction to be made between discourteous behaviour, dangerous behaviour and rule breaking whether you're on a bike, in a vehicle or going by foot.

Eggball

Jumpy wrote: »

No one here agrees with that post. But in saying that, no one agrees with yours either.

By the way, just for the record Mr Bus Driver, have you ever deliberately obstructed a cyclist in a similar way to the OP? Would you?

Where does it say I'm a bus driver? Seems I'm not the only one making assumptions.

alfalad

I'm always amazed when i see people cycling the wrong way down a one way street, it seems like the most dangerous thing you can do!

Chips Lovell

Eggball wrote: »

Where does it say I'm a bus driver?

Ummm, here:

Eggball wrote:

I'm a driver from Harristown depot....

cosmic

scotchy wrote: »

Just adding myself as someone who has experienced this Dublin bus bicycle intimidation tactic on the Stillorgan rd.

It has happened to me too but not on this particular stretch of road. It happened to me once on Fairview Strand when, due to the massive piles of soaking wet leaves covering the entire bike lane/shared footpath, I felt it was safer to take the road. I was wrong!

Jumpy

Eggball wrote: »

Where does it say I'm a bus driver? Seems I'm not the only one making assumptions.

NONCHALANCE FAIL.

tomasrojo

Eggball wrote: »

Where does it say I'm a bus driver? Seems I'm not the only one making assumptions.

Initially I was concerned that a bus driver would have such barely suppressed anger towards cyclists and would find intimidatory tactics excusable.

Now I'm more worried that you don't seem able to concentrate on what's in front of you.

blorg

Eggball wrote: »

Isn't this just bloody typical? We get a thread started by one cyclist giving out about a bus driver supposedly breaking the rules, and we end up with an assumption - not even an proper explanation, but merely an assumption, as though everybody had agreed to this - that those same rules are only advisory when it comes to cyclists. Being special people, we can ignore them when they become inconvenient, is that the effort?

No, it is not about bus drivers "breaking the rules", it is about bus drivers DELIBERATELY using their vehicle to intimidate cyclists.

If a bus driver lets a passenger off in between stops onto a cycle track causing a danger to a passing cyclist, they are "breaking the rules" and causing a danger but no-one would argue that their AIM with this is to cause injury to a cyclist.

If a bus overtakes a cyclist closely and then slams on their brakes, or as with me, overtakes closely and then edges their bus into me, their INTENT with this is to intimidate me.

To be honest whether a cyclist breaks red lights or whatever else in his spare time really has no bearing on whether it is OK to DELIBERATELY drive a 15-ton vehicle into a cyclist with the aim of "teaching them a lesson."

I saw a motorist break a red light yesterday, therefore, I can shoot him- right?

Nisio

Shoot no. Overtake him too close and nudge him off the road to teach him a lesson.

Beasty

Eggball wrote: »

Where does it say I'm a bus driver? Seems I'm not the only one making assumptions.

Maybe justice has been seen to be done, and he (/she?) is no longer a bus driver?

Sparks

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Why do other road users feel that they have a special right to educate cyclists?

It'd be nice if cyclists felt they didn't have a special right to 'educate' other cyclists as well. Case in point, I'm cycling home this evening. I cycle the wrong way up Lombard street. Hands up, I know it's breaking the rules. I make no excuses on that point. I do it because cycling from TCD down Pearse St and Tara Street and over the bridge there scares the living bejesus out of me and I'll happily take the penalty for cycling the wrong way on Lombard, compared to the penalty for being in the legal place on the road when I get hit by traffic on the Pearse/Tara route. When the new bridge opens, I will very happily add a hundred yards to my route home and cycle down Fenian St and then Erne St instead and not break any rules, and I will be genuinely happier about it. And I don't do it anywhere else, Lombard street is my one sin.

However, if you're going to haul me up about it, it would be nice if:

• you didn't flag me down by cycling directly at me and then trying to clothesline me with your arm so I have to stop or cycle into a parked car
• you had lights on your own bicycle (of any kind), and that they were turned on (since it's illegal not to have them on at night and because you didn't, I didn't see you until you were almost right on top of me)
• you had a reflector on the rear of your bicycle (since again, it's illegal not to have one)
• you were demonstrating safe cycling yourself (ie. wearing a helmet, wearing high-visibility or light-coloured clothing or some form of retroreflective material, or whatever)
• you didn't kick the spokes of my rear wheel as you head off
• that you were a Garda officer who knew the relevant laws and whose job it was to enforce them and who would display some degree of professionalism in so doing (as opposed to someone who just felt aggrieved at witnessing my sin and felt a near-accident on a busy road was a good way to highlight my shortcomings).

I mean, none of those things mean you would be incorrect about the legality of what I was doing (and as I said, I make no excuses there), but it would be nice if it wasn't a bit like being told off about my table manners by Idi Amin.

Lumen

Sparks, I was sort of with you until you mentioned the H word.

I think bitching about an unsafe cyclist bitching about your unsafe cycling risks creating some sort of recursive black hole from which we may never emerge*.

I sympathise with your perspective but seriously, if you can't find a route which doesn't involve salmoning you really ought to consider using another form of transport. It can't be that hard, surely?

Yes, I know. I'm bitching about someone bitching about someone bitching...

eightyfish

Eggball wrote: »

OTHER THREAD: I'm a driver from Harristown depot

Eggball wrote: »

most cyclists are nasty and malicious people [...] I've lost count of the number of times I've wanted to punch some self-entitled cyclist engaged in this childishness and if I feel that way as a passanger, I can only guess what the driver is feeling.

Ah, but you know what the driver is feeling. I didn't want to think that a bus driver would actually have disdain for all road users on two wheels, but it appears that was wishful thinking.

Sometimes a bus driver will do something stupid - and it seems like they did it deliberately because they have a chip on their shoulder about cyclists. I dismissed those thought as ridiculous. You've just shown that they're not.

petethedrummer

I'm going mad Ted

Bunnyhopper

Sparks wrote: »

When the new bridge opens, I will very happily add a hundred yards to my route home and cycle down Fenian St and then Erne St instead and not break any rules, and I will be genuinely happier about it. And I don't do it anywhere else, Lombard street is my one sin.

If the extra time and distance won't bother you then why not, in the meantime, just walk the length of Lombard Street instead of salmoning it? It's only a few hundred metres. If I want to take that sort of shortcut I just hop off the bike and walk it because I reckon that's safer than cycling the wrong way up a busy street - safer for me and everyone else. (I'm not trying to be sarky - it's obvious from what you say that you take safety seriously.)

Sparks

Lumen wrote: »

Sparks, I was sort of with you until you mentioned the H word.

I know, I know. And I'm not saying I was in the right. It's a rule and I deliberately break it, nolo contendere. I'm commenting on a moment of cognitive dissonance - there I am, standing there in retroreflective trouser clips (a lesson learnt from the first time the trousers went into the chain and nearly had me off the bike on Nassau street), ESS glasses (a lesson learnt from the first faceful of gravel from a truck on the quays), a front light, a rear light, a third light on my chest, a reflective messenger bag (with stabilising strap lest it swing out and have me off the bike like one did last year), and backup dynamo lights and reflectors and gloves for when some random BMW puts me into the wall; and well, it'd be nice if the chap trying to dress me down had any safety kit on. I mean any. At all. If you cycle without a helmet, I get it, I've seen the questionable stats, I'm not judging, there are very valid arguments against it, I just wear one because I'm paranoid. But it's night and it's dark and if you're dressed in dark casual clothing (I don't mean bicycle shorts, I mean torn jeans and a dark t-shirt) and you aren't wearing retroreflective kit of any kind, anywhere (well, maybe his shorts were but we didn't get to know one another all that well), and you have no lights and no reflectors on the bike (which frankly, could have done with a bit of a service as well) - well, it does seem somewhat incongruous. I mean, yes, I'm breaking one law; but if you're breaking two yourself, as well as a half-dozen good common sense rules, maybe you could dial a notch or so back on the disdain? Just the one notch? It doesn't make you wrong, just less... odd.

Lumen

Sparks, you should have just punched him.

Then we'd at least have the possibility of a "I got punched by a superilluminated salmon" thread when he got home and logged on to boards.

Sparks

Bunnyhopper wrote: »

If the extra time and distance won't bother you then why not, in the meantime, just walk the length of Lombard Street instead of salmoning it? It's only a few hundred metres.

Because I'm a bad person. I'll work late and realise I have to be home in five minutes in order to go pick herself up, or it'll be a day with absolutely filthy weather, or I'll just be plain lazy and justify it by getting ticked at our not having contra-flow cycle lanes like sane cities do.

But roll on the opening of the new bridge, and I can conquer that laziness by noting the proximity of a chipper to my homeward route as a reward for following the rules

it's obvious from what you say that you take safety seriously.)

Well, be fair - I'm serious about my safety - don't go making out that I'm all altruistic or anything

Sparks

Lumen wrote: »

Sparks, you should have just punched him.

Well, I might have, but it's a Sinn Fein area and we were outside a fairly-well-known 'ra pub, so I'm cautious about whom I approach in that area, and more so about whom I punch. Besides, I'd have to have seen him to do it right and I didn't until he was about thirty feet or so away.

Then we'd at least have the possibility of a "I got punched by a superilluminated salmon" thread when he got home and logged on to boards.

Great, now even I feel cheated

Doctor Bob

Just a thought- might he have seen you lit up like a christmas tree and going the wrong way and thought to himself 'Bloody Cycle To Work Freds- all the gear and no road sense!'? (Not that that excuses his delightfully nuanced advice.)

Suggested alternative route- legal and requiring no dismounting (though you'd have to walk 30 metres to Magennis Place!)-

Magennis Place
Magennis Square
Townsend Street (I think we'll forgive you bumping over the median at Townsend-Sandwith)
Creighton Street
City Quay

Pretty sure that works.

Sparks

Ooo, I like that, it works better than my route (the Biotech institute building works have hidden away Magennis Place for months behind hoardings and skips and the like so I never even noticed it). It's Hanover Street once you cross Lombard though, not Townsend (which had me puzzling over google maps for a few minutes there). Queued up for testing tomorrow evening.

Sparks

Doctor Bob wrote: »

Just a thought- might he have seen you lit up like a christmas tree and going the wrong way and thought to himself 'Bloody Cycle To Work Freds

Naw, couldn't have been. My name's not Fred for a start, and I was coming from work...

tomasrojo

Sparks wrote: »

• that you were a Garda officer who knew the relevant laws and whose job it was to enforce them and who would display some degree of professionalism in so doing (as opposed to someone who just felt aggrieved at witnessing my sin and felt a near-accident on a busy road was a good way to highlight my shortcomings).

Reminds me of this:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/2949103/Cyclist-pepper-sprayed-for-not-wearing-helmet

A Nelson police officer is to stand trial on assault charges after pepper-spraying a cyclist not wearing a helmet and then ramming him into a bank with his patrol car.

Kind of like the old military paradox: To save the village they had to destroy it.

Doctor Bob

Sparks wrote: »

It's Hanover Street once you cross Lombard though, not Townsend (which had me puzzling over google maps for a few minutes there).

My mistake! Or rather, a mistake on Bing Maps. It is indeed Hanover Street East. I knew as I was looking last night that it didn't make complete sense in my head, but I didn't have an OS map to hand.