Near Misses Thread Volume 2 (So close you can feel it)

fixXxer

Kids have got bikes recently so been bringing them out around Monkstown and the Farm. Quiet enough roads usually, we go slow, trying to get them used to traffic. The 5 year old is on the path and the 7 and 9 year old on the road with me. Yesterday the 9 year old had the nose taken off him by a van that decided to overtake and didn't have the space so instead of backing off he floored it and cut in hard. Go a fright but unharmed. I swear to god, what kind of person does that around kids. I'm used to it at this stage as an grown man but kids ffs.

Duckjob

doughef wrote: »

Disagree entirely.

I think the cyclist was the aggressor here.

No way!! You do ?

MojoMaker

Making that road one way and putting in a protected bidirectional cycle track would have eliminated that problem nicely.

We must try that, somewhere, sometime :pac:

magicbastarder

Duckjob wrote: »

No way!! You do ?

ARE YUO DUCK OR ARE YUO AOWL?

Mc Love

This happened to me last week, hairy enough situation

https://twitter.com/MacL0ve/status/1371366648792375296?s=20

MojoMaker

Thank God the driver dropped their phone in time.

GlennaMaddy

Blanchy90 wrote: »

Went for a cycle beside the airport today with a neighbor, very little traffic so we were side by side for some parts.

Have to say I was shocked by the amount of cars that beeped at us. Little to no traffic coming in the opposite direction so plenty of space to pass us.


We were beeped at more than 10 times and one driver stopped looking for a fight after some hand signals...

Regrettably, its been like this around there for years.

robinph

The car had to move across the central lines as well to avoid the lorry.

Stark

**** driving from that black Focus as well, not bothering to look left before pulling out of the junction.

Enduro

ED E wrote: »

It's there for ages unless the lifted and replaced it since I've been that way.

Still there. Its just one cable, attached to nothing whatsoever

magicbastarder

why are the fines so random? none of them are round figures.

Stark

Looking at the footage of the cars pulling in without giving enough room on the motorway makes me wonder how many I'd "score" if I had a dashcam on my car. Seems to be a regular occurrence any time I drive on a motorway.

MojoMaker

The offence shown at 2:01 is typical of what you see on the M50 daily. So common in fact it almost seems innocuous, yet British police handed out the second largest fine on that clip and a 6-month driving ban?

Methinks it wasn't the driver's first offence?

buffalo

magicbastarder wrote: »

why are the fines so random? none of them are round figures.

Probably converted from shillings and never touched since. Can't trust that decimal stuff, the Europeans use it.

Duckjob

Baffles me how some of those are categorised as “driving without due care” when they’re clearly pre-meditated acts of dangerous driving.

I’ve said before that I think the courts need to draw a much clearer line between acts of genuine carelessness on the roads and acts that scream “I don’t give a flying f**k about the safety of anyone around me”. Anyone convicted of the latter (ie where pre-meditated intent to do a dangerous act is obvious) should be met with lengthy bans and prison sentences.

Also for such offences, failure for registered owner to identify the driver should result in auto 1 year ban and 2 weeks in the slammer. That would help jog peoples memories on who was driving their car.

Here and UK are far far too soft on this sort of bullsh*t behavior.

magicbastarder

Duckjob wrote: »

Baffles me how some of those are categorised as “driving without due care” when they’re clearly pre-meditated acts of dangerous driving.

burden of proof? in that it's obvious that they're driving like a lunatic, but proving they *intended* to drive like a lunatic is difficult?

Duckjob

magicbastarder wrote: »

burden of proof? in that it's obvious that they're driving like a lunatic, but proving they *intended* to drive like a lunatic is difficult?

- You don't drive up and over a footpath accidentally. (0:16)
- You don't initiate an overtake on a blind hill/bend accidentally (I take the point not all those clips show initiation of overtake)
- You don't do a high speed undetaking and salmoning though other cars accidentaly (0:46)
- You don't overtake through a hatched area, or on top of solid white line squeezing though oncoming traffic accidentally (0:29)
- You don't drive though a residential street at twice the speed limit accidentally (0:38)

But leaving all that aside. Ok then, leave the "intention" part out of the legislation and call it "extreme endangerment to the public" or something similar, and hit people hard who are convicted of it. It should be a charge that people sh*t themselves at the thought of being convicted of it.

magicbastarder

Duckjob wrote: »

hit people hard who are convicted of it.

i will again go back to the most effective way of dealing with this would be to seize the vehicle for 7 days/14 days/whatever.
a financial fine is pointless.

magicbastarder

first time i've had to thump a car in a good while. southbound here, and a taxi driver saw a parking spot and dived for it - with me alongside.

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.3954328,-6.2640871,3a,75y,180.69h,77.1t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1skcNa1A0hW2AwXUSkFhb_CQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

robinph

Up to £1000 fines and 6 points on your licence for speeding on a motorway or dual carriageway with everyone else around you in a protective cage with airbags and seat belts.

Driver education course for nearly taking out a vulnerable road user on a roundabout with just a bit of foam on their head for protection.

Think the penalties need recalculating.

buffalo

robinph wrote: »

Up to £1000 fines and 6 points on your licence for speeding on a motorway or dual carriageway with everyone else around you in a protective cage with airbags and seat belts.

Driver education course for nearly taking out a vulnerable road user on a roundabout with just a bit of foam on their head for protection.

Think the penalties need recalculating.

I thought the same, but I think some of that is whether it's your first offence and whether you're remorseful.

Although probably it comes down to whether you can afford to pay the fine or spend a day at a course and you take your pick.

Breezer

I'm stopped at a light this evening and a feral 15 year old decides to pass me on the left, breaking the red, doing a wheelie, with the front wheel rotated to the right, missing my head by I reckon less than a foot. He knew what he was at too, he turned around and had a good look at me as he rode off.

MojoMaker

Designed to provoke a reaction mostly.

Sometimes a swift reaction may just be the right thing - as lollipop jimmy might point out

magicbastarder

that is *why* she drives an XC90, law of the sea.

GBX

Father and 2 kids on 3 seperate bikes crossing the junction from St Marys Road onto Crumlin Road, all quite late to go through the red. On his own he might have made it albeit late, but the 2 kids followed through the lights and did well not to get hit by anybody. Fair play champ for setting a great example to the kids. Lucky it didnt turn out a hell of a lot worse.

silverharp

2 recent one were, somewhere past Stepaside, white line in the middle , car overtakes 3 cars, I look up seeing this car, I knew he wasnt going to hit me but I wish I had it filmed , I would have made him famous. the sheer ignorance and arrogance of it.

second one, going down Ailesbury road, Im cycling on or slightly inside the parking lines, car comes up behind, grand so far, then he gets along side and now is matching my speed, odd me thinks until I realise a car is parked ahead and Im running out of road. no idea what he was at

magicbastarder

getting back out into the countryside in the last few days reminded me that there are 16 year olds driving tractors which take up nearly the full width of the road. to be fair, i had been coming downhill at speed, but he didn't even slow.

MojoMaker

Jaysus, that could have turned out differently alright :eek:

irlirishkev

sy_flembeck wrote: »

Luckily I have had very few issues lately but it is starting to creep in again. However, the only involvement of a MPV in this clip from this morning is the van driver who, thankfully, was alert to his surroundings and moved away from the danger.

Kilmacanogue, Co. Wicklow, the main Belfast - Rosslare route and roadworks going on seemingly forever. The 'cycle lane' was very obviously an afterthought. Some bollards to the right (most of which were knocked away last weekend) and a cast iron barrier to the left. This is despite strong objections from cyclists locally, all of which fell on deaf ears.

Rode on it yesterday without issue. Then today this happened as they had removed the 'cycle lane' with absolutely no warning whatsoever. I got quite a shock over this to the point that where the video stops I actually got off the bike - and I'm not easily shocked.

Language alert before viewing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhDpAMGYsIk

Jaysis me heart!

magicbastarder

If it's the same person, you'd often see that tractor parked at the coolquay lodge in normal times.

magicbastarder

worth sticking that up on twitter too maybe? with the acknowledgment that the council acted promptly?

magicbastarder

i had to deal with meath CC for a non-cycling related matter about 10 years ago, and it was an eye opener how explicit they were in a 'we're not going to do our job' reaction (related to illegal dumping of C&D waste)

magicbastarder

i was ringing on behalf of my then girlfriend (now wife) about C&D waste we found buried in her new build back garden. several tons of it, at a guess.
the response was 'well, you've bought the house now so that negates the illegal dumping'.

in hindsight, i reckon it was probably closer to 12 or 15 years ago.

magicbastarder

but you're on boards, where someone has probably also put up a picture of their dinner today...

secman

Heading up Old Bawn this morning a An Post van was parked on the left, with Hazard lights on, engine running, driver was speaking to a pedestrian on far side of the road. As I approached i looked over my right shoulder, all clear so proceeded to pass the van, as i was halfway up the van it began to pull out onto the road. I let out a few expletives whilst braking hard to avoid being hit by the van. Driver heard me and pulled back in again in front of me and stopped dead, had to brake hard again. With that driver hung out his window profusely apologising to me.
About 20 min later going by Circle K near Templeogue college i was on the cycle lane , traffic on road was at a standstill, a van parked up on the green left of the cycle lane proceeded to pull out to into a half a car space in the traffic but had to stop diagonally across the cycle lane, he did this as i was about 10 feet away from his van. Had to brake hard as could not go around it with the traffic standstill to my right. I felt like "The invisible Man" for a while this morning. Don't get me talking about cycle lanes at roundabouts.... madness planning.

Seth Brundle

Seemingly a happy ending to a dangerous overtake (not my video)...

https://twitter.com/leitheoircraosa/status/1382800482628988934

Seth Brundle

Went out for a spin this morning and this prat decided to overtake me on a narrow road coming towards a left hand bend with two oncoming cars approaching
I left the sound on it so the horn of the onconimg car was audible but this meant my use of the F-word is also audible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhERqxvTpCw

Seth Brundle

doughef wrote: »

Are you not out in the middle of the road causing an obstruction?

You're right - I'm not!
If you look carefully, you'll see some white paint indicating the middle of the road.

Seth Brundle

doughef wrote: »

But it was a narrow road- motorist was unable to pass safely with you so far out ?

I was in the left lane. Where else shoukd I be?
I have as much right to use the road as the dick from Re***kil. I am not hugging the side of the road as this is dangerous. I am following the recommendations from the Road Safety Authority on cycling safely.
If the sick behind me cannot pass safely then even if I move slightly to my left, he still can't pass me safely. It's really not that hard to understand.

Seth Brundle

Jusr to add, i am 100% in the right. My road position is as per the rules of the road.
The overtaking driver is 100% in the wrong for the following:
* dangerously passing a vulnerable road user
* overtaking on a solid white line
* overtaking on the approach to a blind bend
* overtaking while there is oncoming traffic


Do you still think I'm in the wrong and if so please explain why?

Seth Brundle

2lazytogetup wrote: »

To the video taker - you are in the right but looking at that road, it looks fairly dangerous to be cycling on. you sure you want to be exercising your right to cycle on it.

Its a quiet country road which connects two villages (L2215 approaching Batterstown Co Meath from Kilcloon).
Where should I cycle? Maybe I should have got off the bike and walked the few kms?

Seth Brundle

doughef wrote: »

The video gives a perspective of a cyclist too far out from the verge - making it unsafe for motorists to pass safely.
I understand I wasn’t there and your emotionally involved.
Sometimes emotions can get the better of us in dangerous situations

Glad nobody was hurt

It's nothing to do with emotion.
There is a mistaken belief that cyclists should be way over to the left of the lane. This belief is not correct and in fact is dangerous as it only encourages drivers to take chances.
The advice from the RSA is to cycle in the centre of the lane which is referred to as "Primary Position"

magicbastarder

doughef wrote: »

But it was a narrow road- motorist was unable to pass safely with you so far out ?

okay, i'll tackle this.
you say it's a narrow road; let's say the lane is 3m wide each side. it's probably not that wide, but we'll run with it.

Seth probably needs to cycle 50cm out from the verge for his own safety, and say Seth's shoulders are 50cm wide. we're at a metre.
it looks like a 60km/h+ zone, and the official guidance for motorists is to give 1.5m clearance when passing cyclists. we're now at 2.5m.
the car itself is 2m wide. we're now at 4.5m.

so to perform a safe overtake, the motorist *has* to use up half the oncoming lane. if you expect Seth to cycle with his shoulder right up against the edge of the road (which is advised against), there's still not enough space for the motorist to overtake safely, so the motorist simply has to wait until there's no visible oncoming traffic on a stretch of road where visibility ensures he or she can complete the overtake successfully.

and if the motorist has to use up half the oncoming lane, they are able to use it all. so Seth's positioning is now moot.

magicbastarder

VonLuck wrote: »

Why is everyone feeding the troll

if you think someone is a troll, report the post; the above sort of language is unhelpful.

Seth Brundle

John_Rambo wrote: »

Yeah, with faux concern for cyclists and their actions that put them in danger like cycling on the road, overtaking other cyclists etc...

@Seth, are you going to contact the company that own the van?

I reached out via Twitter but honestly don't expect them to respond (it would be foolish of them really to say anything). I'll head up to my local Garda Stn later and do the usual nonsense that reporting a driver entails.

magicbastarder

i used to cycle that to get to work. i had a fan, a woman (driving on her own with an L plate) who blew at me on at least four occasions.

MojoMaker

Horrible road, horrible cycle track, and unfortunately quite an entitled and horrible neighbourhood.

magicbastarder

i reckon i had more 'interactions' with drivers on that road than i think on any other road i've cycled. including a couple of full on shouting matches which i should have had the sense to cycle away from.

one i do remember fondly is a chap in an open top jag, who beeped at me repeatedly to get out of his way, so i played the innocent naif and stopped and asked him was everything alright? he gave me a very arch 'what is wrong with the cycle path, young man?' and seemed a little discombobulated when i burst out laughing and said 'everything. everything is wrong with that cycle path'.

magicbastarder

i did also once see what i reckon could have been a quite spectacular crash; i was headed in the same direction as the burgundy mondeo here, at a decent clip (40km/h at a guess), and a motorist overtook me and pulled back in far too quickly; i genuinely didn't know if he was trying to make the left hand turn, but he swerved *just* in time and at least one of his tyres clipped the kerb where that second cycle lane sign is. i reckon if his reaction times had been even a twentieth of a second slower, he'd have flipped the car at about 60km/h.

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.2764725,-6.1878957,3a,75y,205.89h,85.47t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s88rtY1vCq0e-wxLExA0t4A!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

magicbastarder

John_Rambo wrote: »

Have any of you notice when driving cars or vans if you hang back and give the cyclists space, indicate and give them lots of room the driver behind you seems to do the same?

it's quite simply follow the leader, and has its flipside. i.e. 'the guy in front of me thought it was safe to overtake so it's safe for me too'.