Buffalo & Doozerie - The mild musings of two grumpy old men!

check_six

CramCycle wrote: »

Of course while waiting for them to pass (without right of way), the pedestrian light came on as my light changed so I ended up waiting on the yellow box regardless.

Once you are through the green light entering the junction, you are entitled (maybe more like required) to exit the junction on the far side even if they have switched back to red. Obviously, you should be cautious to avoid pedestrians who have started to cross the road when they get a green man.

There is that five way junction on Shelbourne Rd/Grand Canal St Upr that gets a car stranded mid-junction every other sequence. You can see drivers not realising that they may clear the junction and blocking cars coming from other directions trying to make the same turn. Bit different on a bike, I'll grant you, but same principle.

CramCycle

check_six wrote: »

Once you are through the green light entering the junction, you are entitled (maybe more like required) to exit the junction on the far side even if they have switched back to red. Obviously, you should be cautious to avoid pedestrians who have started to cross the road when they get a green man.

You are 100% correct, but there were pedestrians starting to cross, so I stopped. The 8 who passed by me on the other hand had a red light the whole time and I had to wait for them to fully pass before pushing off.

If the two bicycles had not cut through the junction in the first place I would have cleared the junction long before any of the other rubbish, it's one of my hates of being a road user, the lack of realisation that if everyone follows the rules, we all get there reasonably quick and on time, it just takes one muppet to break a rule for it to escalate from slow moving traffic to a reasonably heavy traffic jam, increasing commuting times, even for cyclists by a substantial amount of time.

There is that five way junction on Shelbourne Rd/Grand Canal St Upr that gets a car stranded mid-junction every other sequence. You can see drivers not realising that they may clear the junction and blocking cars coming from other directions trying to make the same turn. Bit different on a bike, I'll grant you, but same principle.

I see this at loads of junctions, that one is terrible, you will have cars parked after making a turn so not only blocking traffic behind them but blocking the next bit of traffic to get a green from moving. UCD Clonskeagh exit is the same, cars taking the right. 1 in 10 stop on the red that related to cars on the Clonskeagh road and not them.

CramCycle

3 different stories from 3 different days.

1. On the way out to visit OldBean the other evening , I was rolling along Camden St. when I could see an elderly man walking between cars, he never glanced up and easy enough to see I would skim him if I didn't stop. I was enjoying my ride, I slowed down and stopped about a metre short of where he was about to walk. I was going slowly and done it with my fixed wheel rather than brakes. I let out a slightly larger exhale than normal, but nothing unusual.
He turned as he stepped off the road and I had just started to pedal again and started to roar at me to stop (It appeared he meant I should have stopped, which I had). I told him I had stopped at which point he started raving at me. I said sorry, then he shouted at me to get some lights, which i had on the bike. Then he told me to f*ck off through the red lights on my bike. I shouldn't have laughed but I did, the bouncer at the bar behind me was already doubled over laughing at the guy. This did not sit well, as he came closer, and threatened to "bait" the head of me (not sure what he was going to bait it with , nor what he hoped to catch, maybe my bald spot would be shining in the evening son and he wished to catch magpies. I reeled it in and toned my laughter down to a smile. I could see the cans in his bag and his teeth rotten into spikes from years of alcohol abuse I presume. I wasn't trying to upset him, I had been quite polite, I had now apologised (for nothing at all, but it seemed to be what he wanted) but he got more and more angry, and my heart grew more and more sad for him. The light went green, I apologised one last time but his rage had consumed him. I do not know where it came from, other than potentially my slightly loud exhale of air.

2. On the way home last night, I pulled upto the main junction on Ranelgah Road/Milltown Rd. I had stopped at the lights and a racer bike came round me. Traffic was light and despite my general annoyance at such rudeness, I just ignored it. When the light went green, I ended up overtaking him after waiting for cars to pass and give me space. I reached the Beaver Row traffic lights next, stopping again, they had just went red for me. He passed me again, this time attempting to track stand but, not particularly well. I don't bother myself unless I am certain the lights are changing soon, I know it is not a skill I have in great supply. As he waited for the green, he slowly and awkwardly moved across the junction, almost falling over several times and ending up nearly on the little traffic island on the adjoining road. Again, the lights went green and I had to wait behind for a break in traffic to overtake him. This time I passed comment, and asked what was the point in jumping the queue? but I was shortly ahead of me and got no reply. I came up behind another two cyclists, and waited for a further break in traffic to safely overtake in which time he caught me and asked what I had said. I calmly overreacted (?!? not sure how), I told him that he was a douchebag and he should learn some manners and stop queue jumping. His response was to say he had caught me?!? I pointed out that I had to overtake him twice now for no reason, why would he jump the queue when I had clearly overtaken him already. Because you are on a fixed gear so you are slower. Now, I am not a mathematician or an engineer but even without these qualifications, I would have presumed that overtaking him was a clear indication that I was not. He pulled up on my inside, to say this, I had slowed to hear it, I looked at him with a look I hope screamed, "ARE YOU REALLY THAT STUPID?", and said, "look at me now, here I go, overtaking you, again" I realise now that adrenaline had kicked in as I went off far quicker than I had overtaken him before but I did get a certain sense of satisfaction from it.
3. My fault: This morning I was waiting to turn right, to head passed Google, a Beemer was coming down the hill and turning left so I waited. I could see a Brompton behind him but figured I had time. As he made it round the corner, I took off but the Beemer hit the brakes, I went slightly to his left, stopped and then his indicator came on. I stopped, barely, just missing a "men at work" sign. As this happened the Brompton rounded the corner and nearly hit me, fully my fault for pulling across without having room to clear. I apologised to the cyclist, he seemed happy with my apology and said, it happens, I apologised at least twice more, it was stupid and unnecessary. I also apologised to the Beemer driver, he had stopped to see what i was at, I think he presumed I was undertaking him, I shouted sorry but he had already lost the plot and was venting, I decided there was no gain to be made, the error was mine, other than accepting it as I hadn't went near him and technically had stopped at his rear, I am not sure what else I could do.

Moral of the story, if your in good humour, don't rub it in. If you come across a queue, have manners. Most importantly, if your in the wrong, accept it with grace, I have yet to find a situation where this was not the right course of action, I one day will but for now it is a system that works.

Bloggsie

Why is it that a large number of cyclists seem to have tales of numpty behaviour by other cyclists, I have commuted to work about 5 times this year. This morning a bloke sped past me as I was leaving the park(red lights) to go down parkgate st(another redlight @ the court) didn't stop McSpeedie going through both sets & down parkagte st towards were ever he was going.

While Im sure he imagines its all under control, if he comes a cropper(i dont want anyone to think Im tempting faith) it wount end well for him!
Take it handy, go a few kms an hour slower in heavy traffic, stop at redlights & get there safe(you are only going to work, mostly at that hour)

rollingscone

Had a little vision of paradise on my way from Terenure to Harolds cross yesterday morning, was being repeatedly impeded by slow moving red light jumpers while hemmed in by the usual wall of cars.

When I did another lifesaver a Taxi driver held back and waved me into the lane to overtake my five or six too good for the rules tormentors. I sailed past them at 35kph and tucked back in to the rightmost edge of the cycle lane exchanging a wave of acknowledgement with the Taxi as he passed.

This is the world we could live in folks.

Leroy42

On my commute I generally take a relaxed approach to things. I look out for myself, try to be considerate but am assertive in positions where I feel others are trying to take advantage. I don't get worked up by people passing me at lights and then having to go past them again. It doesn't bother me that others may break the red lights. I don't, generally, get to badly worked up when vehicles act the maggot. Sometimes I point out the error in their ways but most times I simply either avoid the likely accident or make it known that they need to take action to avoid it.

Anyhoo, something did my goat this morning. I am all for peds jaywalking, we all do it and its accepted in Ireland. It is one of the reasons why cyclists break red lights as they still consider themselves apart from the 'normal' traffic. I digress. What got to me this morning, it happens all the time but this morning was a particular extreme case. People standing at a traffic crossing and the lights are green, hence the red man is showing. Traffic is stopped so in many cases the peds walk across as nothing is moving. Coming round Trinity onto Dame St this morning two lanes. Left lane is stopped and there is nothing in the right lane, well expect for me. Lots of peds start walking across the road. OK, fine, but seriously, at least look down the road to see if there is anything coming. They all just walked out looking straight ahead. Many had earphones on so they wouldn't hear a car. I shouted at them and got a few shouts bike at me! For what? You guys are walking across the road and not even looking at where a possible vehicle might be coming from.

Seriously, we teach our kids to look before crossing the street but then seem to think this doesn't affect us when we are older? As i said, it not the crossing at the red man that annoys me, it is the lemming style attitude. Once the 1st person goes everyone else just follows without any consideration of their own risk factors.

eeeee

Heading up Patrick Street today in Dub Laoghaire. Guy in a small BMW sliver I-can't-believe-it's-not-a-jeep was coming out a side land in front of Mike's Bikes. He never once, not once looked in the direction of the traffic coming up the one way street towards him, and pulled out right in front of me. I cycled up beside him and asked why he pulled out directly in front of me. His reply? He didn't see me. I asked how he could miss me coming towards him in board daylight. He mumbled, got extremely pissed off (I kept my cool for once) and then shouted "You're the problem!". I asked him to explain just how I could be the problem but he pulled off. I ended up in front of him again at the junction, he pulled out in front of me, went up the wrong road, reversed out in front of me, I gave him a big smile and a wave, then stayed behind me all the way to Kill O The Grange. I suspect my existence was the main problem, not allowing him to pull out at will with impunity. It all happened at slow speed happily, or I would report him. You just have to wonder!

CramCycle

Yesterday, on my way into work, I had dropped my son off to creche and took the Merrion road in to town. As I was coming to the large junction at the D4 hotels and that little coffee shop that has the "best coffee in Dublin" sign, I had a green light and I could see a taxi waiting to turn right. He hadn't moved and all indications were that he was waiting for me. I wasn't going particularly fast, just tipping along. For some reason, he decided to move as I passed the junction, with that, clutch jumping rev. I had this moment of complete calm, where I had accepted that I was not going to survive the collision, first time I have genuinely though, there is no surviving this, the only thoughts that popped through my head where that this wasn't fair to my daughter in the middle of her exams and I wish I had hung around the creche a minute longer to give my son a better hug goodbye.

I sort of leaned into the turn he was making and with an almighty roar, I stopped everyone on the junction from moving, I had emptied my lungs and manged to swerve left onto the traffic island. For the briefest of moments, in my world, I had silenced D4. The taxi stopped, briefly, to smile and wave at me before driving off. A few seconds later, my heart started beating again, with an explosion inside of my chest that slowly built upto a normal rhythm. My face drained and as I looked around, people moved on, looked away from me, no one was dead, nobody cared, one girl looked so annoyed that i had interrupted her sip of coffee, that she gave me dagger eyes but she then walked away.

A garda came sprinting round the corner from up Baggot St direction, looking around, wondering what had happened. After a minute or two I wobbled over, and told him, apparently my shout was so loud he had heard me from Raglan Road. I was now whiter than white and drenched in sweat.

He was a nice guy, and eventually I just went on my way, no cameras, no injury, I decided rather than him there was nothing to do.

Last night I wasn't sure I would even get on my bike this morning. I looked at the taxi drivers license number on that app that checks details for you, its not his license, it belongs to a blonde woman from Westmeath, not a dark haired smiley man in Dublin.

It is an odd sense of guilt that fills me the past 24 hours as I looked at my children last night and felt so bad for nearly leaving them. Such is the complexity of the mind that I feel guilty for a non incident that was not my fault.

Alek

As a dad, I deeply emphatise with you Cram. Very moving post.


I'm glad you're fine.


[edit] I wanted to write more, but all words seemed trivial.. [/edit]

magicbastarder

just fired off an email of complaint to bus eireann; entering a roundabout today, a bus eireann bus entered alongside me (two approach lanes onto a two lane roundabout) and proceeded to swing so hard into my lane i briefly thought he was actually executing a left turn. afaik what he did was technically illegal even if i hadn't been there. fair put the ****s up me, anyway. thankfully i was able to memorise the reg plate of the bus.

magicbastarder

well, i got a very apologetic email, safety is our top priority, etc., saying 'the driver concerned has been identified and arrangements have been made to interview him regarding this incident as outlined by you'.

Bloggsie

My tuppence worth on drivers behaviour.

I have seen delivery vans with the rate my driving tags on them. I would love to see bus companies follow this route, praise for good, kick up the a**e for poor behavior and an actual reaction from the company, not just lip service, "we strive to promote safe driving, all our drivers are trained to the highest standards, blaa blaa blaa".

I have seen good by some professional drivers and appalling by others and from reading posts on here the reactions of the companies when its is brought to their attention that one of their staff has been party to what may have been in the opinion of a cyclist/ped/motorist questionable or reckless driving or actually was responsible for daft behaviour appear to be very poor.
I know if i make a dogs dollix of something in my professional life my boss would rip me a new one and depending on how bad my actions were, i would have consequences to deal with!

Uno my Uno.

Bloggsie wrote: »

My tuppence worth on drivers behaviour.

I have seen delivery vans with the rate my driving tags on them. I would love to see bus companies follow this route, praise for good, kick up the a**e for poor behavior and an actual reaction from the company, not just lip service, "we strive to promote safe driving, all our drivers are trained to the highest standards, blaa blaa blaa".

I have seen good by some professional drivers and appalling by others and from reading posts on here the reactions of the companies when its is brought to their attention that one of their staff has been party to what may have been in the opinion of a cyclist/ped/motorist questionable or reckless driving or actually was responsible for daft behaviour appear to be very poor.
I know if i make a dogs dollix of something in my professional life my boss would rip me a new one and depending on how bad my actions were, i would have consequences to deal with!

I wouldn't expect the various bus drivers unions to agree to this anytime soon!

Vincenzo Nibbly

To the moron in the Ford Focus who beeped me yesterday evening as I waited to turn right off Mount Merrion Ave - would you kindly go and f^&k yourself. What did you want me to do? I was stopped as near to the centre line as possible, waiting for oncoming traffic to pass and allow me to make the turn. If I had stood any further to the right, I would have been in the oncoming lane! Sorry you had to slow down by 10kmph to make sure you didn't hit me. You jacka$$..

Bloggsie

afternoon Vincenzo, did you not get the memo?
You cannot delay anyone driving along Mount Merrion Avenue, they are better than you, cos your on a bike and they are in a car!

Leroy42

Maybe they weren't beeping at you, don't be so self centered.

Maybe they were beeping at a friend across the street, maybe they were beeping in a form of solidarity with the French Port workers. Doesn't always have to be about you.

Or then again, maybe they were just saying 'Hi and huzzah to that man for taking the green approach to commuting. I shall emulate him someday but for now I must use this blasted motorised vehicle as I need to transport my cargo of toys and clothes to the children orphanage. ."

CramCycle

Got skimmed by a sulkie.cart (it was a two seater so maybe there is a different name) at a red light the other evening, never had that happen to me before. I had overtaken the two lads a minute earlier. I stopped at the next red light and they tried to cut it as close as possible to me, one leaned over the edge to roar in my ear, so he was less than 30cm from my face.

The light went green and I laughed as I overtook them again.

Bloggsie

giddy up!

buffalo

When are we going to do something about all the law-breaking pedestrians? rah rah rah!

I work in the IFSC, where some building work has necessitated the closing off of about 50m of footpath on one side of the road beside the Luas tracks. Swathes of people then just step off the path and walk the stretch along the road instead, on which there isn't space for the Luas to pass. Yesterday I watched a family of four flee from an oncoming Luas by - not crossing the road, as would be sensible - but instead running the full length of the closed section while the Luas ding-dinged along behind them.

While cycling in, I now have to dodge pedestrians (some two abreast!) who refuse to cross the road, all the while I'm trying to avoid getting caught in or slipping on the Luas tracks. When will someone introduce FPNs for these rampant hooligans? Won't somebody think of the children!?

doozerie

My life seems to be following a vaguely comic script recently. Again.

We are moving house soon, and the Dublin housing market is a source of dark humour all by itself. I won’t dwell on that part though, it’s just a form of mental (and financial) self-harm. But, for some context, we bought ourselves a shack, it’s a “pretty” shack though, or was when we started anyway. It badly needs work, we knew that, we budgeted for it, but every layer that we peel back reveals something nasty. Peeling an onion makes you cry too, but at least there is an end in sight, not so much with a house.

Anyway, I’ve been dealing with a whole variety of tradesmen for a couple of months or more now. Some have been great, some less so. Things were going well with one builder until he had a hissy fit and sent me a text basically calling me a liar - we’d asked “his” plumber to quote for some significant work and it turns out that going with an alternative plumber whose quote was 20% cheaper makes me a bad person that the builder was suddenly disgusted by and unwilling to communicate with further on any topic, including a different piece of work entirely. Curious. Not only were the toys flung out, but the pram was turned upside down and set fire to too. Strangely enough, while one part of me is highly offended another part has some respect for a builder who has such (misplaced) loyalty for his plumber. My judgement is clearly impaired, you probably couldn’t expect anything better from a bad person though I guess. Bad me.

Then there is the electrician who wired/re-wired things soooo badly at the distribution board. No, it’s grand though. It’d be fine so long as we didn’t use the washing machine. Or the dishwasher. And if we chose to use both together we should almost certainly be sure to vacate the house first. Sound, like, we are paying for a professional to do it not so that it’s done right, but just so that we have a good grasp of the very real consequences of the mess he has left behind. Sure if I did it myself it might be dangerous. Oh, and don’t look behind that socket that he was working on either. And if you do, just remember that electrical regulations are for wusses, real men laugh in the face of them and contravene them at every turn. This electrician was a real man.

Some things you can brush off, some things you can’t. Losing lots of sleeping hours to having to find and diagnose cowboy workmanship doesn’t help with the shrugging off bit. If I were a kettle I’d be well past the simmering stage at the moment, I’d be on the verge of launching my lid across the room, possibly in the direction of some choice individuals. I don’t often handle conflict well, looks like I might be getting more practice soon.

So I’m out of sorts. To the extent that I find myself seeking humour/solace in the misery of others. I try not to, and I usually don’t, but my barrier is being lowered day by day right now. Which brings me to the point of this post (yeah, I know, it took me a while, it always does), I shouldn’t laugh about this but we’ve already established I’m a bad person so…

I was cycling through Rathmines one evening last week. Traffic was busy there, as ever, with lots of cyclists and motorists heading southbound. I opted not to overtake the bus which looked like it was about to pull away from a bus stop. A swarm of impatient cyclists swept past me to go around it. Taking up the rear was a guy cycling one-handed, his left hand holding a pizza-sized box horizontally. I’m pretty sure his left elbow clipped the bus as he passed it, but he held onto the box.

Bus pulled out and on I went. I came up to the guy with the box. He was now sitting up and riding no-handed, in the cycle lane with cars moving to his right. Impressive enough, in it’s own way, not something I’d do myself in those circumstances mind you. He merrily rode through narrowing gaps without a bother on him, one hand on the box, the other hand flailing joyfully in the air.

This all had comedic potential, I stayed behind him. We were approaching the car park just before the Swan Centre, we were doing a reasonable speed. There was a car ahead, indicator on, angled in towards the car park. Yer man on the bike didn’t flinch, he held his line, hand in the air as if he just didn’t care. You should be caring, I thought to myself, there is nothing even vaguely resembling a clear path ahead.

On he went, by now I realised I was mentally working out the distance ahead and the associated consequences. You’ve plenty of time to get to your brake now and you’ll definitely stop in plenty of time too, I thought. He didn’t budge, he sat upright, legs still pumping. The distance shortened. Go for your brakes now and you may skid a little but you’ll stop in time. Nothing, onward he went. About enough time left to slam on one-handed and maybe, just maybe, stay upright. No motion towards his brakes at all.

I was on my brakes at this stage. I must have looked very boring, nothing like the awesome that yer man was conveying to those nearby with his no-handed skillz. Trouble is though, there is a very fine line between awesome and idiot, and the more danger you throw in the more blurred the boundary becomes. And this guy was heaping on the danger. Another couple of metres passed before he lunged for his brake. Barring some phenomenal and unnatural bike-handling skills, the only question remaining at this stage was where and how he was going to land.

The evidence suggests that it was his front brake that he jammed on. His arse-over-tit skills were mediocre at best, his back wheel kicked high into the air, he took a header right over the bars, box still in hand. It was disappointingly conventional, I expected more flair. It was also inevitable, one reason for my lack of sympathy - even if I wasn’t a bad person my sympathy would have been extremely limited in the circumstances. He did manage to slide on his arse though, which added some variety, and a small carton of sauce left a comedic splatter on the road too so some merit points for execution. The box seemed to survive though, it would have been far more impressive if he’d landed on it so there is some room for improvement there.

His facial expressions and body language passed through a range. Shock first, then anger towards the motorist (the motorist that had legally made a safe turn), then realisation of what had just happened, then embarrassment, he then focused all of his attention on the box probably to distract himself from the fact that a cluster of people were now staring at him. Some of the pedestrians nearby rushed over to help him. I didn’t. In fact, I realised that I was track-standing within the circle of attention, I tend to just do it automatically when I stop. Reminding myself of that fine line between awesome and idiot, I pedalled onwards before my inner idiot kicked in.

I wonder what was in the box though. Probably just a very distraught pizza.

Rogue-Trooper

doozerie wrote: »

Epic tale of Darwinian pizza.

If you had fallen too, would that be the Domino's effect?!!


I'll get me coat.........

magicbastarder

Rogue-Trooper wrote: »

If you had fallen too, would that be the Domino's effect?!!

i give that effort a four star verdict.

Kav0777

magicbastarder wrote: »

i give that effort a four star verdict.

it's not apache on other puns.

buffalo

Why are people who want to teach you a lesson by slowly running you over always outraged when you react?

Lusk_Doyle

Saw Wishbone Ash getting squeezed by a left turning car at a roundabout in Lusk this morning. He was also turning left and was ahead of the car, the driver of which was so stupid that they absolutely had to get past at the junction because there is definitely no way to pass on the big wide road that was to follow.

Some amount of idiots out there.

Nice dissappointed shake of the head from WA.

Got squeezed at fast speed by an idiot myself a little further down the road to Blakes Cross yesterday evening. A real punishment pass as there was no traffic coming the other way at the time.

NeedMoreGears

Not a rant but more of a FFS. Cycling towards the Texaco in Portmarnock this morning and a van ahead slows down (I think someone ahead of him was pulling into the garage). I slow down to stay back and we're both doing about 20-25 kph. Next thing a car pulls alongside me. For the next five to ten seconds I'm rolling along with a car about a three quarters of a metre to my right. I wasn't exactly in mortal danger but at the same time I had nowhere to go if there was a problem because this dummy had me boxed in. Pure carelessness and lack of thinking on his part put me at more risk. No harm done but FFS!

HivemindXX

NeedMoreGears wrote: »

Not a rant but more of a FFS. Cycling towards the Texaco in Portmarnock this morning and a van ahead slows down (I think someone ahead of him was pulling into the garage). I slow down to stay back and we're both doing about 20-25 kph. Next thing a car pulls alongside me. For the next five to ten seconds I'm rolling along with a car about a three quarters of a metre to my right. I wasn't exactly in mortal danger but at the same time I had nowhere to go if there was a problem because this dummy had me boxed in. Pure carelessness and lack of thinking on his part put me at more risk. No harm done but FFS!

No doubt if something had happened that driver would blame you for being in his blind spot.

buffalo

It's been a long time since I was the receiving end of any abuse on my ten minute commute, but thankfully one Dublin driver wanted to show that there's still an occasional prick out there.

Toddling along behind three other commuters on Custom House Quay, I check behind - lots of space, indicate, move out, overtake. *beep* I pass him less than 100m later where he's sitting in his Landrover in a queue of cars.

"There's a f**kin' cycling lane."

Resist urge to key his car, smile instead, wave jollily, and cycle on.

Lusk_Doyle

buffalo wrote: »

It's been a long time since I was the receiving end of any abuse on my ten minute commute, but thankfully one Dublin driver wanted to show that there's still an occasional prick out there.

Toddling along behind three other commuters on Custom House Quay, I check behind - lots of space, indicate, move out, overtake. *beep* I pass him less than 100m later where he's sitting in his Landrover in a queue of cars.

"There's a f**kin' cycling lane."

Resist urge to key his car, smile instead, wave jollily, and cycle on.

Did he not know that you have done the Ras?

buffalo

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Did he not know that you have done the Ras?

I didn't have my cap on today.