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

kennethsmyth

VonLuck wrote: »

I'm always wary of Twitter posts like that. A completely innocent individual's life could be ruined because of trial by social media. In all likelihood the incident did play out as she said, but why can't they just let the Gardaí deal with it? If they need to post something online, at least blur out anything that might identify the person or the company he works for.

Don’t condone the post relating to possibly the same guy in case it isn’t. However it is not an allegedly that the pictured van driver did threaten and assault the cyclist - it’s direct from the cyclists partner while giving statement to gardai. It’s from the horses mouth not a he said she said.

magicbastarder

VonLuck wrote: »

I'm always wary of Twitter posts like that. A completely innocent individual's life could be ruined because of trial by social media.

+1, and to address the above post - an allegation has been made, a statement given to gardai, but this does *not* remove the 'allegedly' caveat. it being from the partner of the victim delivered on twitter is precisely a he said she said scenario.

i've removed identifying information; if there are statements from the gardai, etc., we can let them stand, but a photo identifying someone accused of some pretty scummy crimes with no proof won't be allowed.

AndrewJRenko

VonLuck wrote: »

I'm always wary of Twitter posts like that. A completely innocent individual's life could be ruined because of trial by social media. In all likelihood the incident did play out as she said, but why can't they just let the Gardaí deal with it? If they need to post something online, at least blur out anything that might identify the person or the company he works for.

Gardai don't deal with it though. It's happening regularly to varying degrees with no action from AGS.

VonLuck

kennethsmyth wrote: »

Don’t condone the post relating to possibly the same guy in case it isn’t. However it is not an allegedly that the pictured van driver did threaten and assault the cyclist - it’s direct from the cyclists partner while giving statement to gardai. It’s from the horses mouth not a he said she said.

It is allegedly because we don't know for sure if what he said to her is the truth! It more than likely is, but you can't just assume everything that is posted on social media is the truth. Even if the core of it is true, there can be embellishment which can change your opinion of the situation. At least with the video clips that are posted here you can clearly see what happens and then can make up your own mind.

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Gardai don't deal with it though. It's happening regularly to varying degrees with no action from AGS.

Well they are dealing with it seeing as they are seeking information from the public and there are even news articles about it.

MojoMaker

Let's not be naive here.

robinph

Driver in Arizona crashes into a charity cycle ride, and then the police shoot him.

BBC News - Arizona police shoot driver who crashed into charity bike ride
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57542454

Fighting Tao

robinph wrote: »

Driver in Arizona crashes into a charity cycle ride, and then the police shoot him.

BBC News - Arizona police shoot driver who crashed into charity bike ride
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57542454

I'm sure most of us here would just be happy for the Gardaí to take reports seriously, without going as far as shooting.

De Bhál

Fighting Tao wrote: »

I'm sure most of us here would just be happy for the Gardaí to take reports seriously, without going as far as shooting.

Smee_Again

Fighting Tao wrote: »

I'm sure most of us here would just be happy for the Gardaí to take reports seriously, without going as far as shooting.

Using a motorist's logic as long as the Gardai miss with their shots then there's no problem. Doesn't matter how close they get.

silverharp

interesting point for motorists brought up in this one, dont slow down to let cars out of minor roads

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

Wildly Boaring

Ah here.
Cyclist needs to look after himself here.
There's no harm in the white Audi stopping to let out a car.

Cyclist should be out at near the white line with right arm out.
And definitely not assume the Audi going to let him cross the road.

Audi should have seen him before moving off but cyclist fairly shot across in front of him.

cletus

Having watched the video, I think the point re letting drivers out is it's fine in stop start, or heavy slow moving traffic, but if you're lane of traffic is moving along, then stay moving along with it.

I agree that the cyclist did a series of things wrong here

magicbastarder

i had a guy on a scrambler pull a wheelie towards me on the bracetown - kilbride road on saturday. he was accompanied by three other people on similarly loud motorbikes.

that's one thing i'm going to ban when i'm in charge, loud motorbikes. some of them are nearly as loud as a car horn.

Blanchy90

magicbastarder wrote: »

i had a guy on a scrambler pull a wheelie towards me on the bracetown - kilbride road on saturday. he was accompanied by three other people on similarly loud motorbikes.

that's one thing i'm going to ban when i'm in charge, loud motorbikes. some of them are nearly as loud as a car horn.

A loud exhaust on your motorbike will save your life. Gardaí need to go after the scumbags on scramblers doing wheelies on public roads not the rest of us bikers just trying to be safe

magicbastarder

some of these lads pass my house and you'd swear they'd be doing 120km/h by the sheer volume of noise they're making; and they pass at maybe 50km/h. if your vehicle is that loud (and i'm talking about a *small* minority of bikes here) i'd be amazed that's allowed at the NCT (or NBT, i'd guess)

AndrewJRenko

VonLuck wrote: »

Well they are dealing with it seeing as they are seeking information from the public and there are even news articles about it.

To me, that's more like 'being seen to be dealing with it' rather than actually dealing with it. I'll believe they are dealing with it when I see the Court report.

AndrewJRenko

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

To me, that's more like 'being seen to be dealing with it' rather than actually dealing with it. I'll believe they are dealing with it when I see the Court report.

I should buy a lotto ticket, given my ability to predict the future.

and again. please don't post identifying information which accuses people of scummy crimes when there's no corroborating evidence.
and i would not be at all surprised if that is why the gardai are not acting here - if someone is accused of a serious criminal offence, the word of the victim is not enough to secure a conviction (i hope!)
perhaps witnesses may come forward or someone might have camera footage.

fat bloke

That is the way it works isn't it. Cyclist has to take a slap off the van in order for him to get a slap on the wrist.

secman

2 examples this morning, i was overtaken by a bmw520 on the Airton road coming to a left turn, in fairness he indicated but held off turning to allow me to proceed straight on but me being the better guy i slowed up and gestured to him to turn left .
At the next left turn a learner driver in an instructor's car overtook me and dived in ahead of me and braking hard to take the left turn
In both instances the drivers could have waited the 3 to 5 seconds to allow me to proceed ahead and take the left turn behind me.
The second one was more concerning though

CramCycle

Had a small SUV try and block me from filtering as I slowed coming up to a red light (DB was already stopped so I slowed in advance to roll up). Overtook and pulled in and as I approached, moved over with a jolt to try and block me filtering. Anyway, loads of space as there was a turning lane, I rolled up and the light went green and myself and the DB moved into the bus lane. Now there is a left turn about 200m after the junction, so typically, and understood by 99% of people driving, I merge out on to the right of the bus lane so that they don't get the idea to overtake on the wide sweeping bend. I am not too far off the back of the bus anyway before it goes uphill so there isn't really space to get between the two of us if you consider braking distance etc. until it speeds up and I slow down up the hill. Needless to say, the guy who attempted to block me was aggrieved by this, pulled up beside me to ask what the f*ck I was doing, before merging over to overtake into the braking space. At the point he had caught up with me, because I had moved over, there was actually space to take the turn behind me and if he had any concept of time, he would have realised he would have been further along his journey if he had stayed behind me and merged like everyone else.

fatbhoy

secman wrote: »

2 examples this morning, i was overtaken by a bmw520 on the Airton road coming to a left turn, in fairness he indicated but held off turning to allow me to proceed straight on but me being the better guy i slowed up and gestured to him to turn left .
At the next left turn a learner driver in an instructor's car overtook me and dived in ahead of me and braking hard to take the left turn
In both instances the drivers could have waited the 3 to 5 seconds to allow me to proceed ahead and take the left turn behind me.
The second one was more concerning though

I absolutely hate when they do that. I really don't know why they do it but they seem to think it's the right thing to do; perhaps driving instructors teach this technique nowadays. Why can't they just hold off behind you; there's no way I'm trusting a car that's a couple of metres ahead, stopped with its left indicator on, is not going to left-hook me as I pass, so I always go round its right and fly on ahead. In fact, that's pretty much what you should be doing when a car is ahead of you and about to turn left.

buffalo

Near my house is a 600m stretch of dual carriageway (no hard shoulder) with a roundabout at which I have to turn right. Being a confident and assertive cyclist, I have no problem cycling in left-hand lane, and then indicating and moving to right-hand lane 100-200m before the roundabout.

It is astounding that any time I do this and there's more than five cars on the same stretch, somebody gets annoyed. If you can't overtake a cyclist on a dual carriageway, please tear up your licence.

Yesterday I got a beep as I moved into the right-hand lane. Turns out it was from the driver who had been behind me and now had a clear run. Told me I should be in the cycle lane (yawn), I replied that I was turning right ahead, and he gave me the finger as he drove away.

I debated having a chat with the Gardaí about it, then remembered it would be a waste of my time, as they'd probably see it as a waste of theirs.

secman

fatbhoy wrote: »

I absolutely hate when they do that. I really don't know why they do it but they seem to think it's the right thing to do; perhaps driving instructors teach this technique nowadays. Why can't they just hold off behind you; there's no way I'm trusting a car that's a couple of metres ahead, stopped with its left indicator on, is not going to left-hook me as I pass, so I always go round its right and fly on ahead. In fact, that's pretty much what you should be doing when a car is ahead of you and about to turn left.

The guy in the bmw520 stayed out way to my right and almost came to a stop, i wasn't chancing it and gestured to him to take the turn, all totally unnecessary had he waited the max of 5 seconds to turn after me proceeding straight.

fatbhoy

buffalo wrote: »

Near my house is a 600m stretch of dual carriageway (no hard shoulder) with a roundabout at which I have to turn right. Being a confident and assertive cyclist, I have no problem cycling in left-hand lane, and then indicating and moving to right-hand lane 100-200m before the roundabout.

It is astounding that any time I do this and there's more than five cars on the same stretch, somebody gets annoyed. If you can't overtake a cyclist on a dual carriageway, please tear up your licence.

Yesterday I got a beep as I moved into the right-hand lane. Turns out it was from the driver who had been behind me and now had a clear run. Told me I should be in the cycle lane (yawn), I replied that I was turning right ahead, and he gave me the finger as he drove away.

I debated having a chat with the Gardaí about it, then remembered it would be a waste of my time, as they'd probably see it as a waste of theirs.

Those bloody cycle lanes have a lot to answer for: a lot of drivers expect you to use them. I'd prefer the old days when there was none...none at all. This is for several reasons. But that's just me.

AndrewJRenko

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Last edited by magicbastarder
and i would not be at all surprised if that is why the gardai are not acting here

Huge if true. If AGS have a problem with any Twitter posting, they can report it to the Data Protection Commissioner, or they can publish a policy as to how they expect to handle reports. They can't be making off-the-cuff decisions NOT to proceed with prosecutions because they think the complainant is a bit too uppity for them.

CramCycle

fatbhoy wrote: »

Those bloody cycle lanes have a lot to answer for: a lot of drivers expect you to use them. I'd prefer the old days when there was none...none at all. This is for several reasons. But that's just me.

Cycle lanes are a catch 22 situation, we need them because cycling appears dangerous to certain peopl and otherwise they won't cycle. If they don't cycle, there will be more private motor vehicle usage on the roads, making the roads more dangerous, meaning less people want to cycle. The other side if that the roads are dangerous because of some private motor vehicles, and the only way to make the roads safer is for those motorists to behave better, either through societal pressure or enforcement. By moving the cyclist out of the main traffic group and into cycle paths, you then encourage these dangerous drivers to continue to drive dangerously as, incorrectly, the only thing they might cause a risk to has been removed from in front of them, meaning they can drive more dangerously and anyone not in their place deserves it if anything goes wrong.

So if you build cycle lanes, cycling doesn't get safer, it just appears too. If you don't build them it appears to still be risky and dependent on the situation, it may or may not be.

The only commonality in all these scenarios are a subset of dangerous drivers who need to be taken off the roads or drive as if they will be if they do anything stupid. In this scenario, you can build bike lanes or not, it won't make much difference, as everyone will be better off regardless.

Paddigol

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Huge if true. If AGS have a problem with any Twitter posting, they can report it to the Data Protection Commissioner, or they can publish a policy as to how they expect to handle reports. They can't be making off-the-cuff decisions NOT to proceed with prosecutions because they think the complainant is a bit too uppity for them.

Nothing to do with being 'uppity' (I don't think anyone else used that term?) but rather the quality and strength of evidence available and the likelihood of a successful prosecution.

magicbastarder

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Huge if true. If AGS have a problem with any Twitter posting, they can report it to the Data Protection Commissioner, or they can publish a policy as to how they expect to handle reports. They can't be making off-the-cuff decisions NOT to proceed with prosecutions because they think the complainant is a bit too uppity for them.

my comment was not in relation to the twitter post. my comment was in relation to the possible/probable lack of corroborating evidence.

Mc Love

One from our friend at Gandalfs corner

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INQvKJdcot4

CramCycle

Mc Love wrote: »

One from our friend at Gandalfs corner

Have to say his videos are a lot more palatable and understandable when he doesn't confront the drivers, probably gets alot more people as well.