First Incident :(

[Lyrical]

Having trouble sleeping so I guess I'd get this up here...

Long story short, I hit a pedestrian this morning... a wonderful lady in full motorcycle gear texting away.

As for how, well *tries to set the scene* stationary traffic, I'm going down the middle of the road... a large lorry to my left, she steps out from it right into me, I somehow manage to swerve (Didn't hit her 100% head on, thank god) end up hitting her, getting whacked by her motorbike helmet, going over the handlebars and onto the other side of the road.

I just count my lucky stars there wasn't any close on comming traffic or I'd of been up shoot creek without a paddle.

First thing I did was pick myself up off the tarmac, make sure she's ok, then the bike and finally myself.

Ripped my shorts (Brand new pair, super), pretty nasty (imo) road burn on thigh, multiple cuts on left hand side of body and leg, road rash on shoulder and I'm sure some nice bruises on my rib cage in the morning.

She was very apologetic, in tears, I just wanted to make sure she was ok. According to Strava I was doing ~20kmh.

What's the best plan of action in these situations? I feel I did everything I could of given the circumstances, and please forgive my lame story telling.

 

[gaz]

The key is to read the situation and take it a bit slower, this may mean going slower than 20km (~12mph) if you can't clearly see that there are no pedestrians (such as when a truck is blocking you path).

This is a situation that I regularly come across on CS7, many cyclists will continue to blast down the superhighway at high speeds while traffic next to them is stationary. Pedestrians will often step out, not look, and there will be a collision or a near miss. As I said above, take it a little slower when you can't clearly see what is happening. Worst that will happen is you may have to stop at an extra red light or two but at least you don't have any close calls or actual collisions.

I hope you get over the road rash soon, that stuff can be nasty, try not to loose sleep over this. Everyone is ok at the end of the day

 

[Miquel In De Rain]

Also Central London CS2,Pedestrians everywhere,I also had two incidents,the first in 1991 the second in 2006 although under slightly different circumstances,I take it well easy especially in heavy traffic.Not worth rushing in traffic because it can be unpredictable where pedestrians are going to come from and whether it is their 'fault' or not,it's not worth an incident.

I would blame myself more for the 1991 incident because I should have seen it coming although in 2006 I missed three pedestrians running from the other side of the road.

 

[eddiemee]

Sorry to hear that. Hope you heal up soon.

If I understand your post correctly, you were filtering to the right of traffic. If that's the case, I would suggest not going quite as fast as 20kmh in future. Granted I'm pretty conservative and rarely filter, but when I do I'm always very conscious that situations like this might arise. From the point of view of the pedestrian, they will probably have edged through the stationary traffic, looked left and seen that there was nothing coming the other way and presumed that it was safe to cross. Given that she was a biker, I would have though she might have anticipated that there could be someone filtering, but obviously didn't.

In short, sounds like an unfortunate accident. She should probably have been more careful before stepping out, you might have been going a bit slower. (In light of recent posts on this forum, these comments are meant as constructive criticism, not a personal attack).

 

[User269]

Accidents happen, and it sounds like you both behaved very decently and also avoided serious injuries.

 

[Beebo]

Hope you are OK.

The odd thing here is that the lady was a motorcyclist, so should have had a better understanding than the average pedestrian that bikes could be filtering down the line of traffic. She should be thankful that you werent on a motorbike.

 

[buddha]

Can somebody please write an app. to tell peds when they are approaching a road.

 

[RoadBikeRecommendation]

I work in London but too far to commute so I'm always on foot. The amount of pedestrians I see crossing the road through stationary traffic without looking is quite incredible. My boss has been hit twice by motorbikes and I'm surprised there aren't more accidents. Whenever I'm riding in heavy traffic I slow to a crawl but I guess that would render commuting by bike in London pointless.

 

[Hawk]

Can somebody please write an app. to tell peds when they are approaching a road.

"WARNING, you are approaching a road"

 

[Lyrical]

The key is to read the situation and take it a bit slower, this may mean going slower than 20km (~12mph) if you can't clearly see that there are no pedestrians (such as when a truck is blocking you path).

This is a situation that I regularly come across on CS7, many cyclists will continue to blast down the superhighway at high speeds while traffic next to them is stationary. Pedestrians will often step out, not look, and there will be a collision or a near miss. As I said above, take it a little slower when you can't clearly see what is happening. Worst that will happen is you may have to stop at an extra red light or two but at least you don't have any close calls or actual collisions.

I hope you get over the road rash soon, that stuff can be nasty, try not to loose sleep over this. Everyone is ok at the end of the day

This actually happened on Trinity Road heading towards Wandsworth, but yeh, I should probably take it a bit slower in hindsight.

Sorry to hear that. Hope you heal up soon.

If I understand your post correctly, you were filtering to the right of traffic. If that's the case, I would suggest not going quite as fast as 20kmh in future. Granted I'm pretty conservative and rarely filter, but when I do I'm always very conscious that situations like this might arise. From the point of view of the pedestrian, they will probably have edged through the stationary traffic, looked left and seen that there was nothing coming the other way and presumed that it was safe to cross. Given that she was a biker, I would have though she might have anticipated that there could be someone filtering, but obviously didn't.

In short, sounds like an unfortunate accident. She should probably have been more careful before stepping out, you might have been going a bit slower. (In light of recent posts on this forum, these comments are meant as constructive criticism, not a personal attack).

Haha, no need for the disclaimer. I don't care if someone was to make an attack on me or not \o/ flame on if so :P

Ah well, it's all a lesson learnt really and a cheap one at that, everything could of been all the more worse

Thanks for all the kind words

 

[BSRU]

Maybe it is a "familiarity breads contempt" situation, I very rarely need to filter but when I do I do it very slowly. Although when I used to ride a motorbike I would often filter at an inappropriate speed on sections of road I was too familiar with.

 

[jdtate101]

I think she should be thankful that she was hit by you and not a car. People walking out from behind parked objects is one of my pet hates and always puts the 'willy's' up me when it happens. Only thing you can do is, as gaz mentions, is a little less speed and maybe some more room (if the situation permits). As I always say to my wife, I'm confident of my bike handling, just not sure about everyone else, so an accident is bound to happen at some point. Just glad you got away relatively lightly. Heal up soon and get back on that bike.

 

[MrJamie]

It sounds like one of those things thats easier to avoid with hindsight, but if the timings unfortunate and people arent 100% on the ball itll happen from time to time. She should have looked for bikes (but a lot of people wouldnt think about it) and you could have slowed down more for silly peds. Sounds like you were both reasonably okay and acted maturely about it.

"WARNING, you are approaching a road"

The weekly recycling truck here is similar to that, the warnings are so loud it warns you while youre still indoors.

 

[schocca]

I've had 2x ped accidents in my London cycling time (8+ years).

The first was in the middle between 2 way stationary traffic on Ludgate hill - I was going medium speed (mini-Dahon presto Lite, so 10 mph ish), but not that fast. I came off into the ped who just walked out between the cars without looking... Looking back on this, I used this incident to change my attitude to cycling in London. The very next day I bought an old style bike bell - works fantastic as everybody knows what the sound of a bike bell means.
- Additionally, I now filter much slower than I did in the past and often pick routes where filtering in the middle or LHS is minimised.

The second was about 5 years ago - I'm travelling along at approx 12mph, clear road, and a ped just walks out in front of me with a phone to his ear... we both went flying. He apologised for the road rash to my hands and we both went our separate ways... This kind of accident I doubt I can do much about...

Other incidents:
Ped near miss - Last year I was watching a ped literally about to walk out in front of me and I rang "ma bell" - worked a treat, the guy even tipped his hand to me in recognition that he had not looked...

Filtering incident - Last month, I was LH filtering stationary traffic eastbound on the CS2 near the Bow flyover (slowish speed) when a van turns into a lay-by right in front of me without indicating... I hit the side of the van and bruised my arm - everything else is good - the guy gets a bollocking (no apology from him though grrr). If I was filtering faster then I suspect that this may have a different outcome...

So my recipe for success is to filter slower and get a nice shiny bike bell... :-)

 

[EthelF]

This actually happened on Trinity Road heading towards Wandsworth, but yeh, I should probably take it a bit slower in hindsight.

Slightly OT, but have you considered alternative routes to Trinity Road, such as Beechcroft Road-Lyford Road and past the prison? Might be a bit slower, but I live just off Trinity Road and avoid it at all costs, it's waaay too busy and narrow - cars and vans either gridlocked or speeding like lunatics.
Back OT, sounds like both of you handled the aftermath well, and I agree with other posts that the best advice to avoid future repeats is to filter more slowly. My only serious collision with a pedestrian was principally caused by her stepping into my path without warning (with her back to me, never looked; cars were stationary but there was a 2m-wide cycle lane inside of them) but I couldn't help but blame myself too as I was going too fast (c25kph). Lesson learned.
GWS!