Can we have a bad motorist, wagon driver, bus driver, cyclist thread ongoing?

[Accy cyclist]

Instead of posters posting individually about their near misses with bad road users could we have an ongoing thread where we post our experiences every time they happen. It'd be interesting to see how fast it'd fill up with different near miss, collision, road rage experiences being posted.
For example, this week i've had three near misses. One of them involved a dog running around a park on the road while the owner sat there eating his sandwiches totally oblivious of his responsibilty to keep the bloody thing under control! The other was when i was on a main road on Thursday evening when i was confronted by that impatient hissing brakes sound from either a wagon or a bus. You know the one, where Mr impatient keeps hissing just to let you know that he's on your tail and "You're stopping him from passing you"! Anyway, he eventually passed me at i'd say about two feet, which as many of you will know it's not a nice experience to imagine what'd happen if you fell to the right! The so and so then pulled up at the bus stop a few seconds after passing me causing me to either wait or try and overtake him while he sat there letting passengers on and off. Why he couldn't have let me go ahead knowing that he was going to pull in only he will know. I put it down to him trying to prove a point and just being a clever prick in uniform!! I decided to gingerly half cycle half push myself past him on the right, then he without indicating or warning hissed his brakes then pulled out nearly hitting me. Bear in mind that i had bright orange Night Vision jacket on,and a flashing headlamp but he wasn't bothered.

Would it be beneficial to have such a thread or shall we just post a new thread everytime an incident occurs?

 

[ohnovino]

I'd like an "Incidents" sub-forum, so "Commuting" can actually be about commuting and not near-misses (and so I can just ignore it if I don't want to get my blood pressure up).

 

[jonny jeez]

I understand the sentiment but think it would be a really, really , really bad idea.

The CC site is a resource for those who enjoy cycling and as such it attracts new members (and potential new riders) every day. If the first thing potential new riders see is a dedicated thread that only points out all the bad things associated with riding, it'll put a lot off.

It would provide too much focus on a proportionally very small issue.

If you were to do this the only balanced way to do so would be to start a "nothing happened" section too, which as you know would fill up 1000 times quicker.

And that's the point really, good experience out weighs bad by a massive majority and a thread just exposing the bad is unbalanced.

 

[ohnovino]

The CC site is a resource for those who enjoy cycling and as such it attracts new members (and potential new riders) every day.

That's the reason why I'd like the sub-forum. People who are interested in taking up cycle commuting and are looking for tips might stumble across the Commuting forum via a Google search. Of the 20 threads on the first page right now, 13 of them are about incidents (inc. crashes, abuse, helmet camera shenanigans), with only 7 threads about regular commuting stuff (lights, clothing, route choice, etc.)

If a beginner saw that they might have second thoughts about taking up cycling, and I'm sure no of us want that to happen.

 

[Accy cyclist]

What i was hinting at was a sort of twitter thread, where you might post something like "Had a near miss with idiot and dog in local park" for example, as opposed to posting a whole thread about about every individual incident. I think posting about every incident looks petty and trivial to some who have the impression that us cyclists go out looking for confrontations.

 

[jonny jeez]

That's the reason why I'd like the sub-forum. People who are interested in taking up cycle commuting and are looking for tips might stumble across the Commuting forum via a Google search. Of the 20 threads on the first page right now, 13 of them are about incidents (inc. crashes, abuse, helmet camera shenanigans), with only 7 threads about regular commuting stuff (lights, clothing, route choice, etc.)

If a beginner saw that they might have second thoughts about taking up cycling, and I'm sure no of us want that to happen.

That's true...and like I say I understand the sentiment (or perhaps reasoning is a better word) but this issue is only true of the moment....and the moment is currently tainted by the Wiggins effect as two or three thread on commuting all relate specifically to this and the fact that its darker and a little more dicey out there.

Today

However, last week there were lots of threads in commuting's front page about tyres and punctures. The week before about riding in the wet and a month or so ago there were plenty of posts celebrating the joys of riding around in the sun with tons of summer riders all enjoying the Olympic events.

If we took today's snapshot and froze it on the front page, then we would kill off the opportunity for the site to reflect the changes in attitudes, weather, seasons and cycling.

Like I say the only fair way to do it would to add some ying to that yang and create an opposing thread.

 

[jonny jeez]

What i was hinting at was a sort of twitter thread, where you might post something like "Had a near miss with idiot and dog in local park" for example, as opposed to posting a whole thread about about every individual incident. I think posting about every incident looks petty and trivial to some who have the impression that us cyclists go out looking for confrontations.

that's also very true and i couldn't agree more. I'd also like a way to "minimse" the discussion of bad experiences, not because I want to hide them but because it's just not reflective of the real story. Bad news sells and very few of us create threads such as "nothing happened today" or "how fantastic is this riding lark"...although we have tried a few times in the past.

Perhaps another way is to counter the view and "infect" the front page with a positive thread or two of your own whenever you see it all getting a bit negative.

I'm off to do just that.

 

[ohnovino]

There is the Tales from today's commute thread for mini-rants.

 

[jayonabike]

The other was when i was on a main road on Thursday evening when i was confronted by that impatient hissing brakes sound from either a wagon or a bus. You know the one, where Mr impatient keeps hissing just to let you know that he's on your tail and "You're stopping him from passing you"

I drive a lorry, lorries have air brakes. The hissing sound is the noise of the driver using his brakes, it doesn't mean he is being impatient, just that he is using said brakes so not to hit you. Just thought you should know.

 

[Monsieur]

No deriding Audi drivers, eh?

 

[Pat "5mph"]

I understand the sentiment but think it would be a really, really , really bad idea.

The CC site is a resource for those who enjoy cycling and as such it attracts new members (and potential new riders) every day. If the first thing potential new riders see is a dedicated thread that only points out all the bad things associated with riding, it'll put a lot off.

I agree with this: when I started to consider commuting by bike I idly googled "cycling in Glasgow".
Magnatom's you tube videos came up it nearly put me off cycling on the roads.
As a matter of fact, it took months of reading cycle chat before I left the safety (and glass induced flats) of the cycling path.

 

[theclaud]

No deriding Audi drivers, eh?

Why ever not? Tossers, mostly.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

I have never really understood the near miss threads.. you might as well be posting "today on my way to work I did not have an accident" they are a non event and just really puzzle me.
I often wonder if motorists on car forums create posts similar to this.... "on my way to work, I had a near miss, while sitting stationary in traffic a cyclist came filtering past me, and the shock made me nearly drop my iPhone and pay attention. Bastards don't pay road tax so should queue like everyone else"

 

[Deleted member 20519]

I understand the sentiment but think it would be a really, really , really bad idea.

The CC site is a resource for those who enjoy cycling and as such it attracts new members (and potential new riders) every day. If the first thing potential new riders see is a dedicated thread that only points out all the bad things associated with riding, it'll put a lot off.

It would provide too much focus on a proportionally very small issue.

If you were to do this the only balanced way to do so would be to start a "nothing happened" section too, which as you know would fill up 1000 times quicker.

And that's the point really, good experience out weighs bad by a massive majority and a thread just exposing the bad is unbalanced.

What about the inspired new cyclists who plan to commute and then go to that section only to see lots of threads about people almost being hit - wouldn't that put them off?

 

[jonny jeez]

What about the inspired new cyclists who plan to commute and then go to that section only to see lots of threads about people almost being hit - wouldn't that put them off?

I dont really understand your point here Jazloc,

which section?...a new "groan" section or the existing commuting one? if its the latter then I've made my point about this issue up thread already.Actually if its the forma I've also made this point.

Confused