Glad I moved from primary

[simonali]

Slower overtaking means more time spent on the wrong side of the road and more chance of meeting this hypothetical truck coming the other way. I agree he looks a little out of control and maybe going a bit too fast in the wet conditions (?), but I think that if you have to overtake on a bend, as this driver did, fast is the way to do it. A cyclist coming the other way has hearing on his side to hear an oncoming vehicle and a driver would have the parked vans in sight and should take the appropriate cautionary measures. Had I been cycling there and heard an engine being gunned around the corner I'd have slowed right down 'til I knew where the noise was coming from.

Don't mean to be argumentative, but I'm looking at this from both sides, being a car driver and a cyclist. My own opinion is that the van drivers are the ones at fault and that maybe that stretch of road needs some double yellers on it.

 

[Tynan]

speed kills though init, if it really is blind, and it isn't really is it, he has to be able to stop in time, slow means the corner opens out as he goes round, always leaving him stopping distance, toot of the horn if it really is blind

his speed means he cuts the corner, no way can speed be the answer to that bend

everyone has to able to deal with the conditions, you can't blame the conditions for an accident if you haven't responded to them correctly

anyway, it might as easily have been roadworks or something, cocks like drive them just the same

with respect

 

[WJHall]

But most drivers here do that on perfectly straight bits of road.

Met a woman driving up a curving urban hill only yesterday, row of parked cars on the far side, me going down, her driving happily up on the right hand side of the road at about 30 mph, left me about half the width of my lane. (Bicycles are only 700 mm wide after all.)

Makes the driver in the film look almost careful.

 

[domtyler]

Simonali, you are totally and completely and utterly wrong. If you don't know why then you need to grow up and take a long hard think about it. If you really do drive as you say then I just hope that you only kill yourself when you eventually learn your lesson the hard way.

 

[Terminator]

Crikey Bollo! I'm glad that wasn't more serious. You seem to be getting all the exciting footage lately, I hope you don't keep on going like this.



Oh yes I would!

I know it was a stupid comment really.

 

[Amanda P]

Dom's being a touch harsh I think, but:

I can understand your point about using speed so as to be on the wrong side of the road for the minimum time, simonali, but you need to think about it some more.

If you're caning it down the wrong side and you do meet an oncoming vehicle, it'll hurt more when you hit it; you'll have less time to react to it (and it to you), and when you steer and/or hit the brakes to avoid it, you're more likely to lose control.

That's not to say you should hang about on the wrong side.

The prudent approach might have been to approach the white vans carefully and circumspectly, "creep and peep" around them if possible, and when you have the best view you're going to get, move briskly but cautiously past them and back into the left lane.

The driver in the video doesn't seem to have done any of these things - I don't think his Fiesta reached the speed we see in the vid from a standing start beyond the vans - he was clearly coming at a lick and didn't slow for the vans or the bend.

 

[Arch]

Slower overtaking means more time spent on the wrong side of the road and more chance of meeting this hypothetical truck coming the other way. I agree he looks a little out of control and maybe going a bit too fast in the wet conditions (?), but I think that if you have to overtake on a bend, as this driver did, fast is the way to do it. A cyclist coming the other way has hearing on his side to hear an oncoming vehicle and a driver would have the parked vans in sight and should take the appropriate cautionary measures. Had I been cycling there and heard an engine being gunned around the corner I'd have slowed right down 'til I knew where the noise was coming from.

Don't mean to be argumentative, but I'm looking at this from both sides, being a car driver and a cyclist. My own opinion is that the van drivers are the ones at fault and that maybe that stretch of road needs some double yellers on it.

There are very few of us here who aren't also car drivers, even if we don't currently run cars.

There's overtaking fast and there's overtaking quickly. Approaching with care, getting as close as possible, then very quickly nipping round, which is what he ought to have done, or sweeping by at high speed, apparently oblivious, which is what he actually appeared to do. I doubt very much that the driver actively thought, as he approached the bend "Oh, I have to overtake, so in order to minimise my time on the wrong side of the road, I'll do so quickly". I suspect what he did think, if at all, was "Wheyhay, corner, overtake, welly down..."

 

[Arch]

Ah Phil, you beat me to it...

 

[wafflycat]

There are very few of us here who aren't also car drivers, even if we don't currently run cars.

And quite a few of us also enjoy driving as much as we enjoy cycling. I suspect there's lots of us here who also walk a bit too, so we see road use from the POV of pedestrian, cyclist & motorist. IMO having to undergo proper cycle training and show competency *cycling* on road should be a prerequisite for being able to get a driving licence. Why? Too many motorists are non-cyclists and can't/don't want to understand why, when motoring, we should be paying *particular* attention to more vulnerable road users. Not sure how that could be implemented, but I can see a use for it.

 

[Tynan]

that driver was lucky it was only a cyclist coming the other way, someone driving like him and he's got real problems

 

[Crackle]

A slight aside but still relevant to this thread: Does anyone practise the 'What If' scenario in their head as they ride. i.e you're riding along and looking at a possible situation and thinking 'if this happens, what will I do?' I bet most do, subconsciously at least. I learned to do it very consciously when I had a motorbike, right down to which way I was going to throw myself in the event of an emergency bail out. It means that in a situation you don't just react but react in the correct way. It's a bit tenuous I know but I'm hoping you'll follow my drift.....

 

[Amanda P]

It's been my contention for years that about ten percent of road users are the ones driving like the guy in the video. The other 90%, most of the time at least, are paying some sort of attention.

This means that, most encounters involve two reasonable drivers, or one reasonable one and one prat. In the reasonable/prat encounter, the reasonable takes account of the actions of the prat, and accidents are thus avoided.

In Bollo's vid, Fiesta is clearly a prat, and Bollo, equally clearly, is reasonable.

Occasionally, however, two prats bump into each other. Or a normally "reasonable" person makes a mistake, has a lapse of concentration or whatever.

Unfortunately, because, most of the time, prats' actions are allowed for by reasonables, prats get away with being prats and go unpunished by any "accidents"....

 

[Tynan]

yes but not to planning what to do as such, I do read the road for bad things

learnt that scootering but also my first driving instructor used to tell me to 'imagine your worse nightmare' when approaching any sort of blind spot/bend/dodgy

 

[HJ]

Why were the parked vans there? I hope they had good reason. It looks like a very dangerous place to park.

They look to me like they might be electricity or water company vans, so maybe parking close to the site of some work. Why they couldn't park better though, I dunno... All that verge to park on...

If you look carefully you will see to men working just to the right of the parked vans, so there was probable a good reason for the vans to be parked where they were.

The car driver was defiantly driving in a dangerous manor, lucky for him that it was Bollo coming the other way and not something bigger. Good riding Bollo.

 

[Tynan]

indeed Phil, I always say that people like that are bringing 50% (or more) of an accident with them and just need to meet someone carrying the other half