Anyone know this idiot?

[GrumpyGregry]

This junction seems purpose built to create conflict between cyclists, who are usually invited to filter down the left side of traffic to reach an ASL. So they find themselves, in this case, stranded in the left turning lane and have two choices ; race the first vehicle away from the lights or hold back. Most of us, and most of that group in the video have the kegs to outstrip a wagon away from the lights, and you can see the group split - with our protagonist, being tha last of the group, getting ahead of the wagon mementarily. But what he didn't allow for was a fast (unladen?) truck who proceeded to aim his nearside front wheel at a point a few inches off the kerb. He knew that there were cyclists because the handful raced off in front in clear view. But he chose to drive in such a way tgat any cyclist caught between the kerb and the truck would be taught a lesson. He damn well knew that the cyclist was there because he stopped and jumped out of his cab to berate him, so I don't fall for the suggestion that the cyclist was invisible to him. So yes the cyclist took a risk but he was out in front of the truck until it passed him and squeezed him over. The infrastructure is very poor, and puts people into conflict, but in my view the truck driver was out to prove a point. He failed in his duty of care.

Also. All this talk of blind spots. The road environment is full of cyclists. We think of cyclists being dropped into this environment with dangerous vehicles all around which they're supposed to beware of. We should be looking at it from another perspective. The urban environment is full of vulnerable pedestrians and cyclists. Dropping a 40 ton machine into this is madness. Particularly when the operator can't see out of the farking windows! Why do we put up with vehicles on our roads that possess blind spots? The truck driver is a cyclist hating nobber who knew very well what he was doing.

Sorry, but, for me, it falls over at "they find themselves..." doesn't ever recover. Sure the infra is carp. So ride defensively. Sure the roads are full of badly operated heavy plant that will kill and maim. Ride defensively.

Think about what you are doing, assess the risks, make your choices, and, if you make poor ones like chummy, the consequences are yours and yours alone.

Or ride like a mindless lemming, copy the other lemming nobbers on your morning race to work and then claim "It's London... everyone does it" when it goes tits up?

 

[I like Skol]

Just watched the clip again and it doesn't get any better with repeated viewing. It is only a matter of luck that we don't witness a frail fleshbag getting popped under the wheels of a 40T truck! It makes me feel a bit queasy

If this incident had been between two vehicles we all, without fail, would be criticising the vehicle in the left lane for not stopping when he realised he had nowhere to go. Luckily the girl in the white coat and pink gloves had far more sense and dropped back to wait for the truck to pass while our 'invincible' hero continued to race to a position he was never going to achieve, that of being in front, and visibly in front, of the truck.
IF the truck driver made one mistake, and it is a big IF, it is that even though he may have known he had cyclists on his left he assumed that surely not one of them would be stupid enough to throw themselves in front of/under his truck. Amazingly he assumed wrongly!
That cyclist was incredibly lucky and deserves all the criticism he gets. I hope if he is aware of the furore he has caused that he has the sense to accept it in good grace, thank his lucky stars he was able to cycle away and learn never to be so stupid again.....

 

[Siclo]

The whole thing looks like a lesson in 'what not to do'. Up the inside into a closing gap, up the inside of a left indicating taxi at speed, plonk yourself in the most hazardous position you can find. As to the pull off the lights, the mind truly boggles, the slightest miscalculation or bit of bad luck, wheel-spin, cleat unclips etc. and there's a stain on the road. He'd clearly got the wrong gear to make that acceleration but persists anyway

 

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

Just watched it yet again. I noticed that at the end of the clip the camera guy reenters the flow of traffic without so much as a look over his shoulder. It's only after three vehicles have passed him that he looks. To me that says an awful lot about the standard of his riding.

 

[swansonj]

The thing i enjoy least about cycling in London is peer pressure from other cyclists.

I am naturally a fairly cautious rider and I often choose to wait in my place in a line of traffic rather than filter. Do that in London and you'll have swarms of other cyclists under and overtaking you. Stop in line with a gap that you've decided is too narrow or too risky and other cyclists will weave past you, quite probably displaying irritation at you being in their way.

I find it adds up to being made to feel inadequate for sticking to my usual style, and considerable peer pressure to choose a higher risk profile. If I were a stronger person I expect I could resist it. In that instance, with all those other cyclists taking the left lane, I suspect I'd have bowed to pressure and done the same.

 

[I like Skol]

I find it adds up to being made to feel inadequate for sticking to my usual style, and considerable peer pressure to choose a higher risk profile. If I were a stronger person I expect I could resist it. In that instance, with all those other cyclists taking the left lane, I suspect I'd have bowed to pressure and done the same.

Yes, but when you saw the way things were unfolding and realised you weren't actually out accelerating (the presumably unladen) truck would you have ploughed on into danger regardless or done what the only other person in the clip that demonstrated any sense did and held back?

 

[davidphilips]

The thing i enjoy least about cycling in London is peer pressure from other cyclists.

I am naturally a fairly cautious rider and I often choose to wait in my place in a line of traffic rather than filter. Do that in London and you'll have swarms of other cyclists under and overtaking you. Stop in line with a gap that you've decided is too narrow or too risky and other cyclists will weave past you, quite probably displaying irritation at you being in their way.

I find it adds up to being made to feel inadequate for sticking to my usual style, and considerable peer pressure to choose a higher risk profile. If I were a stronger person I expect I could resist it. In that instance, with all those other cyclists taking the left lane, I suspect I'd have bowed to pressure and done the same.

Thats the dangerous thing about bad cyclists in that even if they dont have an accident they could influence other cyclists into bad road craft and danger.

Perhaps best just to obey highway code enjoy your cycle and be as safe as you can be on a bike even if at times it may take you a few seconds longer.

 

[Racing roadkill]

The thing i enjoy least about cycling in London is peer pressure from other cyclists.

I am naturally a fairly cautious rider and I often choose to wait in my place in a line of traffic rather than filter. Do that in London and you'll have swarms of other cyclists under and overtaking you. Stop in line with a gap that you've decided is too narrow or too risky and other cyclists will weave past you, quite probably displaying irritation at you being in their way.

I find it adds up to being made to feel inadequate for sticking to my usual style, and considerable peer pressure to choose a higher risk profile. If I were a stronger person I expect I could resist it. In that instance, with all those other cyclists taking the left lane, I suspect I'd have bowed to pressure and done the same.

I know it's tough to resist, but you have to do your own ride, and if a bunch of muppets want to prove something to someone ( what or to whom is a mystery to me), you have to just let them get on with it.

 

[rugby bloke]

I know it's tough to resist, but you have to do your own ride, and if a bunch of muppets want to prove something to someone ( what or to whom is a mystery to me), you have to just let them get on with it.

Pretty much this. When I ride in London I'm on a Boris bike so am at a significant disadvantage in terms of both width - those things are properly wide and some gaps you just cannot squeeze through and acceleration - you are not going to beat anything in a drag race. I just hang back and let the idiots do their thing. Getting killed saving 10 seconds riding to the office is not how I plan to go. Once you are in your own little zone it is surprisingly calming.

 

[Origamist]

All 8 of the cyclists in the left turn lane were going straight ahead with a HGV to their right. This clearly puts them in dangerous position and they should not be there. Particularly as there is another vehicle to the HGV’s right going straight on, meaning it will likely stick to the left. Once you’re in that dubious position as a cyclist, you’ve got two choices – out sprint the HGV or hang back (the latter usually gives you more options). The cyclist who is hit does neither - he fails to clip-in properly and finds himself in the worst position – the front left blind spot of a HGV as three lanes become two. The camera cyclist also finds himself in a precarious predicament as he is being squeezed to the kerb (I’m surprised he didn’t take the dropped kerb escape route) and it could have ended disastrously for him as well.

I suspect the driver can see most, but perhaps not all of the cyclists to his left as he waits at the lights (he has a class V side close proximity mirror) and I think his driving whilst not criminally negligent is less than I would expect from a skilled and observant HGV driver.

Given that you are likely to come across less proficient HGV drivers, do not put yourself to their left, in the wrong lane, as the road narrows.

 

[TheJDog]

.... truck who proceeded to aim his nearside front wheel at a point a few inches off the kerb.....

A HGV is wide, I'd expect it to take the full lane. Especially with cars outside him.

....chose to drive in such a way tgat any cyclist caught between the kerb and the truck would be taught a lesson....

Any cyclist who put themselves there is such an utter utter fool I wouldn't expect them to be there.

...yes the cyclist took a risk but he was out in front of the truck until it passed him and squeezed him over.

How much have we heard about lorries and their blind spots in London over the years? He was barely in front. He's utterly mental.

The driver may well be a cyclist hating nobber, I've no idea, but if this is the sort of riding that he encounters I wouldn't blame him. I hate this particular cyclist. How he's lasted as long as he has bewilders me.

 

[Origamist]

The driver may well be a cyclist hating nobber, I've no idea, but if this is the sort of riding that he encounters I wouldn't blame him. I hate this particular cyclist. How he's lasted as long as he has bewilders me.

You hate this particular cyclist? Given that he was very close to being killed and was in shock, I can understand his immediate, post-incident rationale, even if I disagree with it.

 

[TheJDog]

You hate this particular cyclist? Given that he was very close to being killed and was in shock, I can understand his immediate, post-incident rationale, even if I disagree with it.

I hate him for doing something so utterly stupid in the first place. Maybe this will make him reconsider in the future. Maybe.

 

[mickle]

The cyclist took a risk.

He was ahead of the truck.

The truck driver cannot claim not to have seen the cyclist because he immediately stopped and jumped out of his cab after he swept him to the kerb.

The cyclist was an idiot.

The infrastructure contributed to the clash.

The truck driver is a farking psychopathic cyclist hating scumbag who shouldn't be on the road.

 

[TheJDog]

The truck driver cannot claim not to have seen the cyclist because he immediately stopped and jumped out of his cab after he swept him to the kerb.

The cyclist hit the door. He might have heard that?