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

She shouldn't have crossed until the yellow box was clear.

'what do you mean I came right across the lane?'

She was completely oblivious to the presence of the bike lanes and the meaning of them, all she saw was the road ahead.

In fairness, a) he was probably surprised by someone pulling straight out like that… usually you can spot them as they slowly nudge out, and b) given how forcefully she drove straight out into the bike lanes he possible expected that she would continue on and clear the lane in time for him to pass. Split seconds, he may have made the call not to haul on the brakes to accommodate the ignorant cow.

Honestly, that's impossible to tell from the camera's vantage. We have no definitive read on how far away he was. However, this goes back to my first point - if these were two cars, the blame would firmly be place on the car that pulled out without looking. Traffic already on the road has right of way. Just because one of those vehicles is a bike, suddenly we're having a discussion about whether the cyclist could have stopped in time.

I have the original, less compressed version, and while it's still hard to say for sure - it doesn't seem so. It looks like she (the car driver) is only looking right, as that's where the vehicular traffic comes from.

Okay, fair enough, I guess I'm wrong. 👍️

junction of Collins Ave. + Swords Rd. this morning. Really getting pissed off with red light jumpers coming from the Beaumount direction, turning right onto the Swords Rd., heading north. Traffic was backed up and tried to steer through the hold-up only to be clipped by a long-van driver who bulled through. Stayed up, but he clipped my brake lever with the end of his van

Just the old attempted murder coming up to these lights today. Cars as usual parked in the dedicated parking spots with bike signs on them.

Lights going red as I passed the car currently parked just before the colour change on the cycle lane and I was moseying up going to turn right and a car overtakes me as I'm still on the left of the lane. Space there but he just cuts in front of me and I'd to swerve to avoid contact with him. Was very close.

I was like WTF but continued past him into the red box. He slides up and rolls down his window to say I should be in the cycle lane. I completely lost it with him. I was like do you not see the cars there? Told him to get away from me and moved further up. He continues forward and says the same thing again. By this point I'm just like fúck off and get away from me, the light had gone green and the car behind beeped him so I could only really go straight at this point so continued on.he was beside me right through the junction until I could get on the naturally blocked with cars cycle lane the other side.

Didn't get his reg or anything but at least the guy behind stopped and gave me the "what an asshole".

I find women just as bad, if not worse.

Have heard a passive-aggressive response would be to open the back door of the offending car and cycle away, leaving the driver to have to get out & close it before continuing. I havnt been brave enough to try but have been sorely tempted …. On a couple of occasions (when cars pull out & stop or else cut in front) I will rap on the roof just to wake them up and hopefully show how close they were ….. have been surprised that I got NO response from this, not even mild shock at the unusual noise. Maybe thats just Birmingham drivers!

I do think that more and more people (ped , cyclist & drivers) are in their own world with headphones / podcasts / phones / radios distracting them …. I love my earbuds and a good podcast or audio book does help the time go by on my commute, so I know I am distracted from time to time and I am one who makes an effort …. so I am not pure myself.

On the "how could they not see me?" thoughts all cyclists have, I think the answer is "because they didnt look for you" … no matter what lights / jackets you have , no matter what size you are or your position in the road, some drivers wont see you because they are not looking for a bike (I think motorcyclists will say the same).

Yeah, no I agree with you there… ignorance, incompetence and stupidity is equal across every demographic from my experience.

I know you told me to fcuk off and mind my own business but to the person with the two little kids in the cargobike who goes down the Lusk and Rush road in the mornings, would you ever have a bit of concern for your kids safety and ditch that cargobike.

I go up on the path cycling that road because its fcking dangerous to cycle on. Most people cycling do. I know you wont fit on the path but Jesus think about those two kids. Ive seen you nearly get clipped a few times now. If you dont care about yourself, think about your kids.

You may think that its up to the people driving cars to avoid you, but not everyone in a car cares. While they are idiots and in the wrong, its your kids who will suffer. Dont do this to them.

The drivers arent going to stop someone putting their kids lives at risk on a cargo bike on a dangerous road. All of the drivers that care about them are being more careful around them, but the ones that dont care arent going to be changing anything.

So now the chice becomes. Bring your kids on to the firing range and trust the people shooting to follow the rules and look out for you, or dont take the chance at all with your kids.