Comments on a video

[caimg]

The current video aside, SOTW is a very ‘interesting’ head-cammer.. Without checking, I’d probably categorise his videos as:

33% ‘London fun experiences’. These are the ones I love to see pop up. Just chance encounters with normal people. They are almost ‘sickly’ to watch , but I can’t help loving them – they are a welcome relief from some of the other videos that are posted.

33% road incidents when I have some empathy with the guy. Times when other road users are behaving irresponsibly, and are well captured by the camera. The kind that are good to discuss.

34% videos that I feel embarrassed when I watch them. Embarrassed that I could be associated with him as a cyclist, and a headcam user.

I believe his intentions are good, but he definitely needs some further guidance on the road, and his inflammatory language is a real problem.

It’s a personal choice – but I rarely discuss an incident on the road at the time. You’re far too involved, the adrenalin is pumping, and anyway – if you are right – the driver is going to be defensive!

+1. To me, as a headcam cyclist, if anything report-worthy was to happen to me I'd do just that, report it. That's what roadsafe is for. I can understand maybe posting a vid before reporting to get second (read: lots of) opinions on whether it should be reported but if you feel something bad has happened then just report it. Posting number plates, chasing drivers, double-backing to argue is all OTT in my book - but the whole point is it makes for interesting viewing > more subscribers > more views. But it's unfair on those motorists that perhaps make a one-off mistake and then have their details, car and face plastered on the Internet to then be abused, or worse still, unfair on motorists who have done nothing wrong but have been chosen as a 'YouTube entertainment candidate' by having a cyclist forge an incident.

SotW / traffic droid is fast becoming a really positive advert for cycling in London, the enjoyment it can bring and the experiences that come with it, so I hope he manages to curb getting carried away with his own hype and stop forging 'interesting' videos just for hits and subscribers. He's a very useful (and generally positive) member of the cycling and headcam community IMO.

 

[caimg]

As I see it you cam cyclist have your little world of cam community

Nothing wrong with that. i think it would be a good idea to have Mr SotW come / get invited on this here forum and defend his actions.

Agreed - us football fans love it on the rare occasion a ref talks openly about his decisions whilst under fire, I think this is a good opportunity for a popular London cyclist to have his say!

 

[BentMikey]

Actually, the gaining of views and subscribers isn't nearly as important to me as the comments a particular video gets from the YouTube community. I think it's very important that the driver gets feedback on what he did wrong and what other people think of his driving. Lots of feedback telling him he's a plonker is more likely to cause him to rethink his actions, and it's more likely to be a better and effective consequence than a private passworded video that only he and Roadsafe have seen.

 

[caimg]

Actually, the gaining of views and subscribers isn't nearly as important to me as the comments a particular video gets from the YouTube community. I think it's very important that the driver gets feedback on what he did wrong and what other people think of his driving. Lots of feedback telling him he's a plonker is more likely to cause him to rethink his actions, and it's more likely to be a better and effective consequence than a private passworded video that only he and Roadsafe have seen.

I don't think it's that simple. I'm sure you care a good deal about the amount of people watching your vids, and you post lots of them (again, I think you're a valuable member of the community even if I don't agree with everything you post). But it seems that once someone has built up a bit of a following, some react to negative or constructive criticism as trolling, and brush it off as incorrect. I don't think SotW does this actually, because he responded to criticism of his approaching every driver he felt wronged him to then just capturing them on film without bothering them (as a reaction to 'advice' on YouTube).

No doubt, the ideal thing is to take onboard criticism (aside from 'get in ur car u nob') from the comments but if you're not willing to do that, don't post videos of exaggerated or avoidable incidents. I'm positive that we all know when something is worthy of analysis and when the 'ooh I could get some video hits, yay!' wrongly takes precedence.

 

[Hip Priest]

I felt sorry for the bus driver.

The cyclist put him in an awkward position by undertaking him, then unleashed a torrent of verbals.

 

[Boris Bajic]

I felt sorry for the bus driver.

The cyclist put him in an awkward position by undertaking him, then unleashed a torrent of verbals.

This can be overlooked and is worth some thought. Had a (fictional) car driver with a dash-mounted camera driven poorly alongside a cyclist and thenstopped alongside and unleashed his wisdom in verbal form, handed out a calling card and posted the video on YouTube... there would be consternation in many quarters of the cycling community.

I'm sure Master of the Wind (or similar) is a sterling fellow at most times, but that does not mitigate the posting of something that looks eerily like a slightly less pernicious version of road rage.

It is pleasing to see that most of the comment on this thread is both moderate in tone and less than fully supportive of what I thought looked like poor riding and poor PR for cyclists.

 

[gaz]

This can be overlooked and is worth some thought. Had a (fictional) car driver with a dash-mounted camera driven poorly alongside a cyclist and thenstopped alongside and unleashed his wisdom in verbal form, handed out a calling card and posted the video on YouTube... there would be consternation in many quarters of the cycling community.

There are dashboard camera motorists out there. And they contribute to silly cyclists.

Some people [not saying you] presume it is cyclists against motorists, where as it is really good road users against bad road users.

 

[HLaB]

I don't know the area (or when that a pinch point was coming up) but I think anyone with sense would have said SotW was parallel to that bus for too long, hopefully he has learnt that too and will drop back in future before he's squished.

 

[locker]

There are dashboard camera motorists out there. And they contribute to silly cyclists.

Some people [not saying you] presume it is cyclists against motorists, where as it is really good road users against bad road users.

It`s a shame most people (motorists & cyclists) don`t see it as "really good road users against really bad road users" but as a "cyclist" & "motorist" with a camera in every orifice & also who has got carried away with playing up to the camera & been a complete dick sometimes, I feel that hopefully SOTW will change with time as I have. I like the bloke, he`s interesting, loveable & sincere more than I was when I first started downloading vids to youtube.
Hopefully he will be looking at these comments & take note but only change if he feels he needs to.
What an un-interesting world if we were all the same.

 

[locker]

[QUOTE 1840376, member: 9609"]I will get wrong here for going all off topic, BUT, what was the end story with that incident you were involved in a month or two ago - the one where that woman made a few mad manoeuvres across the road in front of you, knocked you off, then left the scene? (or am I getting mixed up with someone else)[/quote]

it`s been 2 months now & I`m still suffering with my knees so I haven`t been on the bike as much as I would have liked, also still waiting for the police to let me know what she is being charged with & CTC solicitors are engaged for personal injury, Thanks for asking.

 

[400bhp]

It looked as though the bus may have moved left to cut the bend, squeezing the cyclist, as the bus finished up some distance from the centre line. However, the cyclist came up the inside of the bus from behind and at no point had he got in front of it, so he was quite foolish to hold that position into the narrower part of the road.

^^This

 

[daSmirnov]

If that was on my camera I would have watched the video and deleted it, embarrassed at how much of a twit I was. Would never have been uploaded, if it had would be under the title Silly Cyclist loses temper, fails to anticipate, thinks bus I fail to undertake should stop so I can squeeze down the inside.

And of course by disabling comments, we now have a thread here and now far more people are aware of it, rather than just learning from the experience posting an update on it saying he was wrong, now it seems like he can't take criticism.

 

[ianrauk]

in fact, daSmirnov makes a good point.
Gaz... include the clip in one of your silly cyclists videos.
It certainly deserves to be.

 

[jonny jeez]

Excuse my rural ignorance.... Are Son of the wind and Trafficroid one and the same item?

Posts in this thread seem to suggest that they are.

There is another person that posts under traffic droid.
When I met SOTW he mentioned to me that he wanted everyone on the roads (including pedestrians) to be traffic droids. So it is a term which he has come up with but wants others to use.

but yes...he is the chap that was on t'telly as the droid.

 

[Bassjunkieuk]

Have to agree he doesn't do himself any favours in some clips. He either carries on riding into a clearly dangerous position OR hounds drivers far too aggressively. I do recall one where a driver with a trailer came a bit close to taking him out. He had a word with him at the next set of lights but then carried on pretty much ALL the way down the road when he could/should have just ridden on.

I left a comment along the lines of "yes it was wrong but I think you hassled him too much" I said if the incident effected him that much he should have either pulled over and took 5 minutes to chill OR worked out the aggression with some interval sessions ;-)

Did catch him last night (hence I appear in one of his latest uploads....I hate the way I :-D) on my way home as I waited to turn onto Vauxhall Bridge Road. Witnessed the Droid Horns being deployed on a taxi that pulled out on him and 2 female Bo-Bikers. I said hello as I approached and his bellowing "HHEEEEYYYY" almost made one of the the poor girls jump off her bike ;-)