I was cruising downhill past the bridge over the canal heading south on Ladbroke Grove in the bicycle lane, a bus stopped in the "cars'" southbound lane. I started to slow down for the tipper truck that had just turned left from the adjoining road and blocked the lane ahead, suddenly the bus started sounding his horn, and a car turned right across my path with me about 15ft away doing maybe 15mph. Swerved a bit, jammed on the brakes, but had the old slow motion impact, bonnet, fall onto floor thing.
There were three police there inside a minute (they were stopping traffic 100 yards down the road trying to catch insurance/tax dodgers). Driver very sorry and apologetic, but I didn't appreciate him trying to haul me to my feet. Scratched and bruised down right leg, cuts on left ankle, but nothing severe at all. Bike is fine. I thought the front wheel was buckled, but once I'd wobbled the front caliper a bit it turns dead straight. Forks not bent. All good. Hooray for aluminium forks. Rode the rest of the way in to work very uneventfully.
Police took a very small statement, but occifer says he'll pop in to my work tomorrow to take a longer statement. I asked if that was necessary, says "it's just the way we do things".
I'm usually pretty careful at this junction, as often there are unsighted cars turning right across the bike lane, but I think I got distracted by the tipper truck ahead, and was just slowing for it rather than paying more attention to the more immediate hazard. Cheap way to learn my lesson, I think.
I've always had mixed feelings about cycle lanes, and I guess this is going to make me think even more about whether they are encouraging me to perform riskier manoeuvres.
The funny thing is that I was far less adrenaline rushed than if I'd had a shouting match with a driver over something much more trivial. When that happens I'm angry all morning, but I was totally relaxed when I got to work...
There were three police there inside a minute (they were stopping traffic 100 yards down the road trying to catch insurance/tax dodgers). Driver very sorry and apologetic, but I didn't appreciate him trying to haul me to my feet. Scratched and bruised down right leg, cuts on left ankle, but nothing severe at all. Bike is fine. I thought the front wheel was buckled, but once I'd wobbled the front caliper a bit it turns dead straight. Forks not bent. All good. Hooray for aluminium forks. Rode the rest of the way in to work very uneventfully.
Police took a very small statement, but occifer says he'll pop in to my work tomorrow to take a longer statement. I asked if that was necessary, says "it's just the way we do things".
I'm usually pretty careful at this junction, as often there are unsighted cars turning right across the bike lane, but I think I got distracted by the tipper truck ahead, and was just slowing for it rather than paying more attention to the more immediate hazard. Cheap way to learn my lesson, I think.
I've always had mixed feelings about cycle lanes, and I guess this is going to make me think even more about whether they are encouraging me to perform riskier manoeuvres.
The funny thing is that I was far less adrenaline rushed than if I'd had a shouting match with a driver over something much more trivial. When that happens I'm angry all morning, but I was totally relaxed when I got to work...
A car cut right across me this morning turning left, I managed to stop literally a cm or so from its rear wing. There just happened to be a couple of groups of pedestrians walking by who all yelled at the dozy mare driver.
