How many incidents in a mile??

[BentMikey]

I hate to say it but this reads like a cyclists who has never dealt with close proximity traffic on a bike in the UK & also someone who doesn't seem to understand UK road markings correctly.

LOL, that's much what I thought. Never ridden in London.

Come on Ian, let's see some footage of your rides.

 

[BentMikey]

Like I said, I haven't had a serious problem in over a decade, and I certainly don't get close calls every week or even every month or every few months, so I must be doing something right - it can't be just luck.

I suspect you're doing one or more of the following:
Drawing the line at what you describe as an incident very differently to the rest of us.
Not riding much mileage.
Not encountering much traffic at all.

 

[Mugshot]

I suspect you're doing one or more of the following:
Drawing the line at what you describe as an incident very differently to the rest of us.
Not riding much mileage.
Not encountering much traffic at all.

I was about to post precisely the same thing, pratically word for word.
It doesn't matter how much primary you take, how much hi-viz you wear, how many lights you have flashing or how many helmets you have on, you WILL get somebody trying to squeeze past you, you WILL get somebody coming towards you on a single track lane that thinks you should jump in the hedge and you WILL get people that pull out in front of you from side roads. Whether you believe any of these is considered an incident or a close call is another matter.

 

[Mugshot]

Where did you learn how to ride? I've seen your videos - I wouldn't say you'd had any training in proper lane positioning.

The problem with this kind of statement is that a newbie may believe what Ian's saying rather than taking the opportunity to learn something from Gazs videos.

 

[Mugshot]

Also, I always avoid bike paths due to the higher potential for intersection conflicts. I avoid bike lanes whenever possible, as they are usually not placed in the correct lateral position (they can't be, since the proper lateral position can change depending on conditions) and so they tend to increase the chances of a conflict. Though it can be difficult to avoid using bike lanes here, as Maryland law requires cyclists to use bike lanes if they're present on the road you're using. But usually there are parallel roads with no bike lanes, so I either use them, or I break the law and just ignore the bike lane.

Hello Ian, remember this thread? You, me and a couple of others were having a chat about cycle facilities. I wonder if you wouldn't mind popping back in, you've left a number of interesting questions unanswered and good examples ignored

 

[Boris Bajic]

The problem with this kind of statement is that a newbie may believe what Ian's saying rather than taking the opportunity to learn something from Gazs videos.

Yes... but no.

I say this as a wizened and middle-aged cyclist of some decades' experience (much of it unhelful and unheeded by self) and as someone who takes a slightly wry view of some of the helmcammery he sees:

1. The most callow of beginneringly beginners would not be fooled for a moment by the moral-high-horse barminess and potificating of Herr Cooper. Comments from other contributors on his Ivory Tower Decrees on Do-It-My-Way absolutism have to date been perceptive and accurate. He appears to have fooled no-one but himself. No UK cyclist (urban or rural) will read his thoughts for anything more than their entertainment value - in which sense they can be a rich source.

2. A cursory glance at the videos of Gaz (and one or two other constructive video-helmeteers) will demonstrate that there is value to them.

Mr Cooper is a harmless and amusing sideshow, but I really don't think he's in danger of being taken seriously on a forum like this.

... other than by himself.

 

[Mugshot]

Today's idiot driver almost took me out on a round-a-bout. Having right of way and with no traffic to the right I set out over the road only to have a van driver decide not to wait in the queue of traffic, instead he came down the wrong side of the road and straight at me!
I had to stop sharply - not easy in the wet and on my little metis - while he and the boy racers in the next car laughed loudly at my profanities!

Having somebody barrelling down the road at you is horrible, THIS is a section of one of my commuting routes, as you can see it's single track with passing places. It's not unheard of for people to just keep on coming at me rather than waiting for me at a passing place. It's also not unheard of for me to stop and stand in the middle of the road until they are forced to stop, then I will make my way around them. But everytime I do it, I've got my fingers crossed that they do stop! Discretion is often the better part of valour after all.

 

[Mugshot]

Mr Cooper is a harmless and amusing sideshow, but I really don't think he's in danger of being taken seriously on a forum like this.

... other than by himself.

Mr Bajic, that is quite beatifully put, and as with all your posts makes absolute sense. I do hope that Mr Cooper has a chance to read it as I suspect we may both soon be on ignore.

 

[400bhp]

I wish it was that simple, my experiences of riding assertively are not the same as yours.

I think he lives somewhere where there are no cars.

Must be a pleasure cycling in his own mind.

 

[400bhp]

An example: in your video
(which I picked at random)...

At 0:17, you undertake - at unsafe speed - a potentially turning van whose driver probably has not seen you. At 0:40 you're concentrating on reading a license plate (of a car that wasn't really a serious threat) when you should be checking your right rear and/or watching for pedestrians. I understand you were stressed, but still. 0:48, slightly too far left for a curved road. Between 0:56 to 1:15, you're too far right. 1:55, too far left - not adequately controlling your lane. 2:09, too far right. 2:25, very good. 2:33, too far left - the lane is out of your control. 2:52, too far left...

The thing is, you are one of the best cyclists I've seen on the road, but you are still not controlling your lane properly and at times you go too fast in threatening situations. This is my opinion.

Quoted for future ridicule.

 

[Sandra6]

I can't find the quote button?????
So Hippo - famous? moi? In my own lunchtime maybe.
And yes maybe I am prone to a wee bit dramatisation of these incidents, but in general I don't worry about drivers overtaking me or turning in front of me unless it causes me to slam on the brakes or feel that I'm inches away from being thrown off the bike.
The four incidents on the carpark were 1 - just before the carpark a pedestrian stepped off the kerb right in front of me and I had to swerve to avoid him -he then proceeded to shout at me how it was my fault for being there.
2 - Reversing car resulting in my emergency stop -I knew they were going to do it though so it wasn't too dramatic.
3 - This was the one that got me seeing red, a motorist driving into the carpark (there are 3 entry points and one road right through the middle which is where I was) pulled in front of me and slammed on his brakes so my front wheel touched his bumper. I then followed him and shouted at him a lot until he apologised.
4 - two pedestrians who decided to walk down the road straight at me - not exactly a life threatening incident, well not for me anyway, although I did tell them if they didn't move I would ride right over them.
I ride all over the place, to get to places and just because I can. I use country lanes, cyclepaths and main roads - I rarely have any incidents apart from on the one mile trip to and from work.

 

[BentMikey]

You can ignore mr_hippo. He likes to wind up people like that.

Boris, I do think that was a little overly harsh on Ian.

 

[adds21]

I think it depends massively on your risk perception, cycling style and location.

I commute between 50 and 100 miles a week on a mixture of rural and urban roads, and occationally do ~50 miles at the weekend, and I reckon I get one "incident" every few weeks, so probably every 300 or 400 miles.

However, one of my neighbours, who cycles once a week if the weather is nice, and who cycles roughly my route at roughly the same time (in the morning at least), is often telling me about near misses. In fact, he stopped riding in for a few months because it was "too dangerous".

I, honestly, enjoy my commute, and any interactions I have with drivers is almost always positive.

 

[Boris Bajic]

Boris, I do think that was a little overly harsh on Ian.

BM, I fear you may be right. I tried to be jocular, but I may have strayed into petty invective. Mr Cooper, I went too far.

You do well to pull me up on that BM; I appreciate it.

I think the thing that sent my prose out of its own orbit was the apparent dichotomy in several of Mr Cooper's earlier posts between some fairly harsh and damning invective about cars and car drivers, some oddly Biblical language about the evil of cars and the statement that his wife drives a car.

In conjunction with some of his pontificating about how wrong others are, this had an unhelpful effect on my inbuilt politeness meter.

I went too far in my mocking and I apologise.

 

[Mugshot]

Like I said, I haven't had a serious problem in over a decade, and I certainly don't get close calls every week or even every month or every few months, so I must be doing something right - it can't be just luck.

I'm sorry to keep returning to this thread if it seems like goading, however you invited me to your blog on another thread and I have been reading it.
You state in the blog
"Yet in 40 years and over 20,000 miles of cycling in 15 countries (all of it on the road with traffic and most of it in big cities), I've never been hit by another vehicle."
By my reckoning this works out at around 500 miles per year or just under 10 miles per week, this may be the reason you have so few incidents.