Meeting Road Safe London

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gaz

Cycle Camera TV
Location
South Croydon
Read everything i have to say on my blog post

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Today i went to meet a few of the officers that work behind the scenes of the road safe london website. Clearly the officers know what they are talking about, and i hope i can apply what i learnt form them to my cycling to be more aware and cycle safer.

A few of them actually suggested that in some cases I should behave like a motorcyclists as i'm going at their speed rather than the speed of what cyclists are perceived to go at.

Unfortunately their computers couldn't play my videos, so we couldn't run through a commute i had brought along. But we did go through a few videos on you tube.

The basic advice given was; plan ahead, make your actions clear, expect the worst, give way where possible and drivers don't always understand why you are where you are!
 
What format did you have your vids in then?

The basic advice given was; plan ahead, make your actions clear, expect the worst, give way where possible and drivers don't always understand why you are where you are!

Basically agree with that...also read ahead and concentrate.I sometimes glance in the car in front to see how well they are concentrating as well...Sometimes I see them going for the indicator like Clint Eastwood pulls a gun and it warns me...esp coming up to a turning.
 
Windows Media Player is just a player, it can play any format (almost) providing a codec is provided for it.

.mov is a(n apple centric) container
h264 is the codec

Neither of these are included with windows (you'd think they'd want to play most videos, but they are just happy with wmv kthxbye apparently).
 
Should have converted it to either mpg or avi.

Try gomplayer as well...not sure if it playes mov files though...unless it can get the codec.Oops not sure if you can get gomplayer for mac.
 

Crankarm

Guru
Location
Nr Cambridge
drsquirrel said:
Windows Media Player is just a player, it can play any format (almost) providing a codec is provided for it.

.mov is a(n apple centric) container
h264 is the codec

Neither of these are included with windows (you'd think they'd want to play most videos, but they are just happy with wmv kthxbye apparently).

You might as well be talking gibberish as that has gone right over my head ;).
 
If you want a "play all" player, without the codecs (ie the decoding is built in), then VLC is the way to go (although I don't like the programme).

If you want to play .mov without quicktime on your machine (grrr) get QuicktimeAlternative. There is also a RealAlternative too.

CCCP+QuicktimeAlt+RealAlt = win (although there are other semi decent codec packs out there.


I already told Gaz, VLCPortable on the cameras memory card ;)
 

NigC

New Member
Location
Surrey
drsquirrel said:
If you want a "play all" player, without the codecs (ie the decoding is built in), then VLC is the way to go (although I don't like the programme).

If you want to play .mov without quicktime on your machine (grrr) get QuicktimeAlternative. There is also a RealAlternative too.

CCCP+QuicktimeAlt+RealAlt = win (although there are other semi decent codec packs out there.


I already told Gaz, VLCPortable on the cameras memory card ;)

That's the one - the program will play just about anything and the portable version works without the need to install anything :wacko:

As for the advice: It sounds spot on. I'd like to think I take that exact same approach, but I'm sure I can improve :sad:
 

NigC

New Member
Location
Surrey
NigC said:
I'd like to think I take that exact same approach, but I'm sure I can improve :smile:

Famous last words :sad:

Fortunately, I did expect the unexpected this-morning: Coming down a hill approaching a roundabout where I need to turn right. It's a decent hill, so I'm doing 20-25. I'm checking behind me a LOT as I see a car gradually creeping up on me. I must have looked 4 or 5 times and I know he's seen me. He's not made any attempt to pass, so I take it he knows what I'm planning and I stick out my arm..... just as he decides he IS going to pass ;) Fortunately he did leave me a good space or I may well have whacked his window :wacko: But somewhere in the back of my mind, I just knew he was going to do that, so I was ready to pull my arm back quickly :biggrin:

We shared the usual "you're an idiot look" :biggrin:
 
The advice is great, act like a motorbike if doing a similiar speed, give way where possible to give a courteous impression... you still get the odd numpty who sees (and ignores) 'bike' rather than 'vehicle at speed', but it does help drivers understand what is going on infront of their eyes.
 

Tinuts

Wham Bam Helmet Cam
Location
London, UK.
gaz said:
The basic advice given was; plan ahead, make your actions clear, expect the worst, give way where possible and drivers don't always understand why you are where you are!

Interesting. Can't quite understand how the response to my complaint (https://www.cyclechat.net/) was so lacking in a basic understanding of cyclists' rights on the road. Clearly there are roadsafe officers who are appreciative and some who appear to be relativley clueless about what constitutes acceptable driving when it comes to the treatment of cyclists.

And what exactly does give way where possible mean?
 

Matthames

Über Member
Location
East Sussex
Tinuts said:
And what exactly does give way where possible mean?

This is so that you allow extra space when you encounter muppets, for them and their own stupidity. Just because you have just as much right to be on the road as any other road user, being a vunerable road user you need to exercise a lot more self preservation. In some situations you may have right of way, but it is no good if you end up dead trying to exercise that right.

As for cycling as if you were riding a motorbike, that is so true. I ride as if I were riding a motorbike, the only difference is that I don't have that many horses on tap so have to adapt my riding to account for that.
 
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