In the last two days....

[LOGAN 5]

I've seen motorcycles in cycle lanes (with dotted line), truck driving over the base of a traffic island to get past a queue, motorbikes and cars mounting the pavement to undertake traffic queuing, prisonor transport truck merrily making his way down the bus lane after Vauxhall right behind me and tooting. Standards are getting very poor out there or maybe it's just London

 

[BentMikey]

It's the time of year mate, around the equinoxes and the clock change things always get worse.

Anyone remember seeing AndyB's noisy prison van video on youtube?

 

[bryce]

Sounds like some of london's bike commuters have turned to various forms of motorised transport as it's got cold!

 

[Maz]

It's the time of year mate, around the equinoxes and the clock change things always get worse.

Has someone done a study into this or was this a humourous comment?

 

[Origamist]

Has someone done a study into this or was this a humourous comment?

My understanding is that when the clocks go back there is an increase in RTAs as all road users and peds take time to adjust to driving, walking and cycling in the twlight/dark. I don't have the study link, but I might be able to dig it up later.

 

[fossyant]

The two weeks after the clocks go back were a nightmare on the motorways when I worked some distance from home. Regular pile ups and two hour journies...so not good... Once folk got used to the sudden lack of light it wasn't too bad....

 

[hackbike 6]

Logan5 just don't say that word.(London)

 

[domtyler]

My personal theory is that it is more than just changing the clocks. I think there is a biological origin to this change in peoples behaviour linked to the changing of the seasons and the onset of the colder months.

 

[Arch]

My personal theory is that it is more than just changing the clocks. I think there is a biological origin to this change in peoples behaviour linked to the changing of the seasons and the onset of the colder months.

Hmmm. <thinks of spurious reasoning>

As the winter season set in, hunter gatherers found their resources dwindling, and so became greater risk takers in order to get enough to eat....

Except that doesn't necessarily work, as some resources could increase in winter (new game animals migrating into area etc....)

I wouldn't be suprised though, considering the effect changing day length has on all sorts of animals, we're unlikely to be immune...

 

[maxcherry]

Folks just don't like getting cold and the onset of winter, plus the knowledge that the universe is conspioring against them.

 

[dondare]

It is a bad time of year just now. All the schools, Colleges and Universities are back so everyone has returned from holiday and the school run is clogging up the roads again. The sun is very low and dazzles drivers, and in the evening it's just getting dark at going home time but half of them forget to put their lights on (and many cyclists are unlit, too). A couple of weeks after the clocks change we'll all be used to it and it won't seem so bad.

 

[LOGAN 5]

oh and one more. A taxi mounting the pavement in last evening's rush hour to get round a queue to gain 2 yards. I gave him "the look" as it's no use saying anything to them.

 

[Cab]

I tend to see that many and more stupud things every single day. This morning there was a woman rushing to overtake me to get to a red light 30 yards away, stopping only after the third car to go straight through said red light in front of her dragged his heels a bit. Then there was a bus driver for whom 'give way to oncoming traffic' didn't mean him, a cyclist who hopped straight off the pavement inches in front of another cyclist who was riding along using both hands to text (how the heck they didn't both come off I don't know, but there was a lot of swerving and some swearing), a horde of cyclists using the pavement to get past delivery vehicles that couldn't get into bays so they just stopped in the (one lane, one way) road.

It ain't the time of year, its the general level of ignorance and impatience on our roads.

 

[hackbike 6]

I despair of the human race sometimes.