A white van approaches...

[Cab]

Cab

I ride everyday (at the moment) around 30 miles through central london during rush hour, and yes sometimes I come across idiots, cars, bikes, buses etc.

I probably have a "close one" twice a year, do you have more than that? Why would you think you have more incidents? Is it the area?

Could we as cyclists do more to avoid them and improve our road safety?

On Tuesday, got almost in to town, reached a narrow section (Magdelene street) where the traffic inbound has priority over the traffic outbound. Theres room for one stream of traffic. A cycle came the other way at me, no big deal you can safely fit two bikes, followed by a car, which was a big deal. Would have been still avoidable (I could stop by the left of the road, by the bollards that edge the pavement) if he hadn't decided to overtake the oncoming bicycle; so I did the only thing I could, I stopped slap bang in the middle of the lane forcing him to also stop. The oncoming bike, which he was half way around, continued, he moved over to the other side, and I held my ground. He yelled, he shouted, he threatened me...

And thats the fourth time thats happened, same stretch of road, this year.

Here in Cambridge we've got an odd mix of angry motorists; accidental close overtakes are rare but malicious and threatening behaviour is sadly not. Last Autumn I had dismounted to push my bike (I was near my destination) over a zebra crossing, was well on my way towards being across when the passenger in the van got out and threatened me (apparently I'm a f74king tool, whatever that means). Had a bloke follow me all the way to my allotment gates for having the audacity to maintain primary position and delay his arrival at the queue of traffic at red traffic lights, with his window wound down and yelling 'paedophile', that Spring this year.

Why do I have more incidents than some? Because here in Cambridge I'm forced to share the roads with more angry halfwits than I have encountered anywhere else.

 

[jezhiggins]

Mag I’m sure I’m the only one, but it “appears” that this sort of thing constantly happens to you.

...

If so what is Mag doing wrong (if anything)?

Probably nothing. Or I'm doing it too.

I work at home and consequently have a very short commute, so I'm not doing anything like the miles that Magnatom (or most people on here do). When I have been out on my bike though, my wife often greets me with "anyone try to kill you today?". Depending on the time of day and the route you take (some stretches of road definitely provoke some people), the "incident rate" for close passing/hooking/cutting up/pulling out/etc/etc can be up at one a mile.

Sometimes it's more often than that. On one particularly unpleasant morning, I had three unsafe overtakes while cycling the mile to school with my son. On other occasions, you can ride for miles and hours with a problem.

Perhaps carrying a camera makes a difference to what you consider an incident. We all have different tolerances for these things too. I was out in the rush hour traffic on Tuesday morning. The woman on the sit-up-and-beg who swished up the left-hand side of the queue seemed completely unperturbed when lights changed and the cars started passing inches from her elbow. I'd stopped in the queue precisely to avoid that. I like my elbow

 

[Nigeyy]

agreed -I really appreciate Magnatom doing it -it's always easy to criticize when it's not you. It does take fortitude to post videos of your cycling, especially if you think you made a mistake. And I'm sure we've all at one time or another done something silly.

You might have a point, but in my eyes that makes what Magna does even more valiant as he is making a sacrifice. Whatever you say about him, he is still showing a lot of balls to put footage of his cycling onto a public internet forum for everyone to analyse and pick holes in his every move. I do believe that that alone is performing a valuable public service to the cycling community.

 

[hackbike 6]

I cant be bothered to carry a camera anymore although I have had some interesting videos and the odd incident here and there they are too rare for me to bother (also it clutters up my hard drive) and I cant really be bothered going through the video for the "occasional" incident..I really regret not having a camera on when I fell off though.

 

[Cab]

I've been finding that when I have the camera, I have a lot fewer incidents. Its really prominently mounted on top of the helmet, people can see it, an I think that word is out on cycle cameras here in Cambridge.

 

[magnatom]

Blimey! Thanks for all the comments!

I don't think I'm doing anything particularly special. I just enjoy filming my rides and chatting about them. As you can imagine, I have pretty thick skin! However, I have always been open to criticism and often learn from it (harks back to my competitive judo days I suppose).

As goo suggested my incident rate is a lot lower than it might appear. I worked it out recently (in another thread) and I think it was between 3 and 5%. Only a couple of these incidents would be considered life threatening. The remaining videos I publish because somethng happened that shouldn't and I think it is worth discussion, not because I felt in any serious dange

I do post my mistakes. If I didn't I think I could be considered a hypocrit. In fact I enjoy hearing different opionions of my riding, so long as they are reasoned.

What can we do to change it? Driver education is the answer. Nearly all of the conflicts that I have are because drivers just think I don't have the right to cycle as I do, i.e. I shouldn't be in the middle of the lane. They also don't understand the reasons behind it. Maybe providing Cyclecraft with every car purchase might be a good idea!
Seriously, I think campaigning needs to focus on two things. Respect, for all, by all, and education (cyclists as well). The CTC suggesting that cyclists break the rules because of blah, blah, blah does not help and only further alienates different groups of road users.

As for my wife, she is very happy with what I do. In fact recently she mentioned that she is happier knowing I have a camera on. At every stage in the publicity she was fully consulted and supported me. If anything she is a little disinterested when I come home with tales of white vans!

I suppose if anyone is to be commended here, it's my wife!

 

[magnatom]

<< can sense Mags basking in the well deserved glow of appreciation of his fellow forummers >>

My lack of posting is because I am off today and we have the in-laws up. No basking (Mr Shark! )
I've managed to sneak on here whilst avoiding making dinner!


Although I probably should add that I am willing to do after dinner speeches for a reasonable fee.......

 

[magnatom]

Oh and keep an eye out for my blog entries in the cyclechat blog. All will be explained there!

Better go help with dinner now!

 

[BentMikey]

As I posted earlier in this topic, I have a very jaundiced eye of those claiming they don't have incidents and Magnatom is out of the ordinary. Either they are oblivious, or their tolerance level is set too high.