Camsters

[montyboy]

Well I guess I am thinking about things like cycling in primary/outside the door zone which motorists are sometimes impatient with. I think that some less assertive cyclists are "bullied" into driving in a less safe position and therefore trade off their own safety with not irritating some mororists.

Ah, I see. I hadnt read point 2 in the right context.

Point taken.

 

[Thomk]

I commute over 150 miles a week in London (I leave home at 7.30am) and have very little problems.

I have no experience at all cycling in London so would be interested in your opinion. Do you think some people are driving too assertively (aggressively) and their problems stem from that?

 

[ianrauk]

I have no experience at all cycling in London so would be interested in your opinion. Do you think some people are driving too assertively (aggressively) and their problems stem from that?

Do you mean 'ride' assertively?

If so, then no.
If anything it's the opposite. There are far too many cyclists not being assertive enough. Control the road and you will have very little problems. Car drivers appreciate knowing and seeing what a cyclist is doing. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen a cyclist either not indicate properly, undertake and rlj in front of motorists. That's what get's a motorists back up.

There are a huge amount of commuting cyclists in London now and cars drivers are aware of that (how can they not be) & make allowances for the fact. I think it was Delzeqq who said that he counted over 40 cyclists at one junction one morning.

 

[Thomk]

Do you mean 'ride' assertively?

If so, then no.
If anything it's the opposite. There are far too many cyclists not being assertive enough. Control the road and you will have very little problems. Car drivers appreciate knowing and seeing what a cyclist is doing. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen a cyclist either not indicate properly, undertake and rlj in front of motorists. That's what get's a motorists back up.

There are a huge amount of commuting cyclists in London now and cars drivers are aware of that (how can they not be) & make allowances for the fact. I think it was Delzeqq who said that he counted over 40 cyclists at one junction one morning.

Yes.

There are a number of assertive riders on this forum who do seem to have a large number of incidents which they post on Youtube, many more than you it seems. How do you account for this?

 

[MrHappyCyclist]

There are a number of assertive riders on this forum who do seem to have a large number of incidents which they post on Youtube, many more than you it seems. How do you account for this?

I do seem to have a fairly high number of "incidents". I think this is partly due to the particular place I cycle (Greater Manchester). When my daughter and I have gone for long rides, we have commented on how much nicer it is once we get outside the Greater Manchester area (Cheshire, across towards Southport, north into Lancashire, etc.) and how unpleasant it gets once we are back in GM.

I do think I have fewer really scary incidents since I started riding more assertively, and looking back at my videos, I think a very high proportion are when I failed to be as assertive as I perhaps should be.

EDIT: I also commute about 100 miles per week, which is not massive, but probably higher than most.

 

[ianrauk]

Yes.

There are a number of assertive riders on this forum who do seem to have a large number of incidents which they post on Youtube, many more than you it seems. How do you account for this?

There are very few 'real' incident's being posted in here.
I think we need make a distinction between incident's such as near car misses and smidsy's and those that are 'other' ie motons on mobile, rlj'ers etc. I would not call those incident's.

Seeing as London has more then it's fair share of commuting cyclists, now many with cams, then the amount of vids being posted would be Londoncentric.

 

[Thomk]

There are very few 'real' incident's being posted in here.
I think we need make a distinction between incident's such as near car misses and smidsy's and those that are 'other' ie motons on mobile, rlj'ers etc. I would not call those incident's.

Seeing as London has more then it's fair share of commuting cyclists, now many with cams, then the amount of vids being posted would be Londoncentric.

But a very few helmet camers seem to have several incidents each per week. OK quite a few are not worth the "incident" label but it still seems as though they may have heated exchanges several times a year.

 

[MrHappyCyclist]

There are a number of assertive riders on this forum who do seem to have a large number of incidents which they post on Youtube, many more than you it seems. How do you account for this?

Also, one ought to consider cause and effect. Most of the cycle cammers I know say they got the cam because they were fed up with all the bad driving incidents. Perhaps they have also become more assertive for the same reason.

 

[ianrauk]

But a very few helmet camers seem to have several incidents each per week. OK quite a few are not worth the "incident" label but it still seems as though they may have heated exchanges several times a year.

I have heated exchanges several times a year but that doesn't make it several incident's per week does it?
The difference with me is that I don;t feel the need to capture it on film and show the world.
Others do and fair play to them if they do.

However I do think there cammers out there who do a great job, (of which I can honestly say have helped me become a better commuting cyclist) and there are cammers out there that are pretty rubbish and play up to the cam.

 

[gaz]

You gotta take into account the kind of roads people are using. Different volumes of traffic, different layouts, bus lanes etc...
I'm normally the only cyclists on the road for half of my route. Where as the other half I'm on a route that has hundreds of cyclists using it per hour. Guess which half I get the most 'trouble' on.

As someone has mentioned distance is an important factor, I do 170 miles a week just commuting, all of which is done in heavy traffic. And I would say I've had less than 10 real bad incidences in 2 years. And most of them involve blackcabs

 

[BentMikey]

Hey Ian, 'fess up now. You ride with me once and have an incident in just 10 miles. Oh, I see, it's because of my camera, yes? All my fault, I'm dreadfully sorry.

 

[ianrauk]

Hey Ian, 'fess up now. You ride with me once and have an incident in just 10 miles. Oh, I see, it's because of my camera, yes? All my fault, I'm dreadfully sorry.

If you weren't there Mike I wouldn't have been speeding to get away from you and your camera and I wouldn't have had an incident so yes' it's your fault. be ashamed.

 

[BentMikey]

LOL!! What I did like most about that is that the driver came on the video and apologised very contritely. I took off her number plate from the title and tags as a result.

 

[Thomk]

I have heated exchanges several times a year but that doesn't make it several incident's per week does it?

Not sure if you're impling that I meant that you did but if so I didn't. This probably just confirms what I originally thought which is that some cyclists, even you it seems, are far more likely to have "incidents" than others due to location and miles cycled. My other point is that it may be due to cycling style and I guess the cyclists reaction to perceived wrongs which is just a conjecture and I have nothing really to back that up. I should think it unlikely that I will have several heated exchanges in a year (none so far).

 

[ianrauk]

Not sure if you're impling that I meant that you did but if so I didn't. This probably just confirms what I originally thought which is that some cyclists, even you it seems, are far more likely to have "incidents" than others due to location and miles cycled. My other point is that it may be due to cycling style and I guess the cyclists reaction to perceived wrongs which is just a conjecture and I have nothing really to back that up. I should think it unlikely that I will have several heated exchanges in a year (none so far).

No I didn't read it that way at all Thom. I know what you mean.

Of course, the more traffic and cycling miles done, the more likely of an incident. That is true
But as I said previous, a lot of cyclists bring trouble on themselves when there is no need to.
I like to think I have less 'incidents' then most due to my cycling style.