Most dangerous commute this morning in a long time

[ttcycle]

Well...made it in one piece into work thankfully!

Am an assertive, confident cyclist and thanks to assessing hazards well ahead of time as well as slowing when needed, the usual daily occurances of people pulling out, peds wondering in front, cars lack of indicators but turning anyway, being cut up by cars or them speeding up at the most inopportune times doesn't usually bother me as they can be anticipated for but this morning's commute was in a dangerous league of it's own!

I'm a considerate cyclist that takes heed of other road users on the road and don't always see the need to push ahead first and will slow and stop for others if it's safer or when needed.

At the beginning of my commute there is a road that then turns into two lanes - the left lane going left and one going straight right ahead. I was making good progress at about 18-20mph and was in the primary position stuck my right arm out to indicate, looked behind and it was safe to proceed as no motors speeding up as I was going to be needing the right lane which I merge into and take up a secondary position as the road is less wide now. Suddenly there is this honking behind me - I look behind and see a HGV - I make eye contact and indicate again with my right arm to show my intention of being in the right lane. The guy continues to honk on his horn, I turn round whilst maintaining my speed- probably wrongly so and shout 'what?' at him with my right palm face up in exasperation. He continues to press his horn and now tailgates me with his HGV- which frankly means his ability to see me is massively reduced - considering the 4odd metres in front of a HGV are a blind spot. I hold my line, keep my pace and stop at the traffic lights. The HGV then appears in the left hand lane (if he needed the left lane why was he harrassing me in the right lane anyway) and the guy shouts from his cab - farcking C**t. Lovely. I can't see any other reason for his behaviour other than to try and intimidate a cyclist- who he saw as an obstruction in the road- am I reading this wrong? Any less confident cyclist would have been forced to the side of the road which would have been less safe. What a knob!

Further along in the commute (oh trust me it doesn't end there!) See another HGV in three wide lanes of traffic drift into the left hand lane then back into the right and then edges back into half of the left lane- I stay well behind this one at a slower speed and watch a poor cyclist kerb hugging on the left with this juggernaut of a vehicle edging unpredicatably..On the same stretch of road where I am positioned in secondary- another high sided vehicle -7.5 ton vehicle parps his horn and I turn to look-make eye contact and assess it as he is looking to let me know he is there as he makes no other other indications. I continue at pace along the road and all of a sudden a few metres up the road this one cuts into me (misjuding my speed no doubt) and only indicates once he nearly makes contact with me and bike, when he has already made the manouevere and is nearly wholly into the left lane. It would have been nice to have had an indicator at the start rather than just merging left when you fancied it and what happened to only changing lanes when safe to do so?

Finally on the home stretch to work - I wait behind a car with ample distance for them to see me as a large vehicle is pulling out of the entrance of the road into my work- it moves out and then the cars move forward-a WVM cuts into the left hand side so much he hits my shoulder with his wing mirror- I look in and he mouths SMIDSY. If he would have gone faster I would have been knocked off for sure.

Phew - not had one of those commutes in a long while! Though tbh there were plenty of motorists today who were considerate, who I let out first and plenty who let me out first and who got a thank you wave from me.

Thankfully no cyclist pancake for me today -I live to ride another day!

 

[potsy]

Wow,if this was Magnatom's morning we could have had a full length movie out of it
Glad you're ok sounds a real nightmare ride.

 

[Origamist]

If the lorries were liveried vehicles - complain to the company concerend about their intimidatory/dangerous behaviour as it's bad for the reputation of the company.

Roadside "dialogues" are rarely fruitful in these situations (apart from venting your anger) so utilise the proper channels.

 

[ingenuitylee]

Scary stuff.

 

[ttcycle]

Thanks Potsy- maybe I should PM Magnatom and ask to borrow his cam!! Hahaha

 

[ttcycle]

If the lorries were liveried vehicles - complain to the company concerend about their intimidatory/dangerous behaviour as it's bad for the reputation of the company.

Roadside "dialogues" are rarely fruitful in these situations (apart from venting your anger) so utilise the proper channels.

Yeah I completely agree with you as it just leads to more aggression from said driver. Unfortunately one HGV was a rusty-dustbucket of a vehicle with no signage and the other two were non descript vehicles that I couldn't quite make out the signage of - I'll remember that for next time though.

 

[jonny jeez]

TT, sorry to hear about the journey in today.

I cant believe you had such a poor run. You seem to adopt a really good style and approach to riding and it seems even more unfair that this happened to you in particular.

Spookily, (and if it helps!) I don't usually have issues myself but this morning I also had a really bad experience (My first I guess) and was going to post (just like you) about it as it really frustrated me and to be honest, it really scared me too.

I had a fright on the Earls court road this A.M (a section I usually avoid) by a lorry pulling a trailer of porta-loos (big blue ones), Nothing too bad, He just pulled out from behind a bus and didn't look, I was lucky as I was travelling pretty slowly and just pulled out with him as I had already (luckily) checked over my shoulder to see what was behind as I approached the same stopped bus.

But at the next lights I pulled up alongside and let him know what he had done, no agro, I was pleasant and even offered a smile, he responded by saying sorry, etc etc. I then rode off, leaving him in traffic. 10 seconds later as I rode along side a bus (in the left lane), he squeezed alongside me on the left (in a gap that didn’t exist!!) pushing me into a secondary position right up against the bus (in the middle lane), then his trailer followed (an even wider obstacle) and pushed me off into the bus hitting me hard on my left arm and forcing my right arm into the bus equally as hard. I had no space and even my bar ends scrapped on the bus as I just held tight hoped for the best.

The guy was clearly trying to have the last word and , effectively tried to kill me to make his point.

I didn’t get a name or a Reg, all happened too fast and I was too distracted trying not to get killed, he turned left into open road ahead and sped off and my light was green so I didn’t even get time to stop and spot his reg or livery.

Will drop TFL a line as I previously sent them a congrats letter on the standard of London bus drivers and got a good reply, I'll see if any of them have video etc.

Can you do the same with your local bus company? Were there any traffic cameras around?

Hope you can recover from your bad experience and put it down to "Monday".

It'll be better tomorrow, so don’t give up. I wont either (But I will be keeping an eye out for this particular guy, He *WILL* regret seeing me again)

 

[ttcycle]

oh jonny, there's something in the London air today!

I'm glad you're still in one piece but it sounds like your commute was a bit hair raising too!

I learnt a while back that it's not worth even explaining to people what mistakes they made as it just puts their defenses up even if you're polite and reasonable and when people in a car/vehicle take out their passive aggressiveness on a cyclist it can be very dangerous. Though the person in question sounds frankly gutless, trying to take it out on you - to scare you maybe but in his immature fashion has maybe not even realised that by doing that he could actually seriosuly injure you or kill you.

My 'events' this morning weren't bus related otherwise I'd drop TfL a line. Fingers crossed you get some footage as that was some intimidating, dangerous and mostly stupid driving.

 

[bryce]

Sounds bad - I hate going anywhere near HGVs let alone having one tailgate me and honking. Think I would have stopped in front of him and saluted him.

1 other serious point though - all this talk of 'secondary' and 'primary' makes me wince. If you want to nanny the driver of a 1+ tonne lump of speeding metal by infuriating him by cycling 'in primary' then go for it but you're a cert for a Darwin award sooner or later. IMHO it's an incredibly dangerous style of cycling unless absolutely necessary. It may feel safer but I don't think it is due to the aggravation it creates from following drivers.

 

[jonny jeez]

oh jonny, there's something in the London air today!


I learnt a while back that it's not worth even explaining to people what mistakes they made as it just puts their defenses up .

That's good advice, and definitely my lesson for the day.

Thanks TT...sorry to hijack your thread!!

 

[ianrauk]

Presumably this complete and utter cretin could see that you are a woman..

and the guy shouts from his cab - farcking C**t.

 

[ttcycle]

Sounds bad - I hate going anywhere near HGVs let alone having one tailgate me and honking. Think I would have stopped in front of him and saluted him.

1 other serious point though - all this talk of 'secondary' and 'primary' makes me wince. If you want to nanny the driver of a 1+ tonne lump of speeding metal by infuriating him by cycling 'in primary' then go for it but you're a cert for a Darwin award sooner or later. IMHO it's an incredibly dangerous style of cycling unless absolutely necessary. It may feel safer but I don't think it is due to the aggravation it creates from following drivers.

I disagree on your point bryce - I would refuse to hug the kerb (in fact many cyclists wrongly feel that this is safer) and I do think being out a little further is safer - secondary mostly where the left tyre of a car would be rather than primary unless it's a very wide road as you can be seen by more road users rather than cycling in their blind spots. My post also states that when I filtered into the right lane I was in secondary and maintaining a good speed 20mph on a 20 limit road so wasn't holding anyone up - that is unless people were wanting to speed. Moving out into the middle of the road at a very slow speed granted can be frustrating for motorists but that's not how I cycle.

Though technically Bryce if going at that kind of speed and just stopping in front of him would have meant me under his wheels..funny image of you saluting but not practical!

 

[ttcycle]

Presumably this complete and utter cretin could see that you are a woman..

yes he could see I was a woman (though not emblazoned in anything pink coloured -which you'd think was de rigeur after going to the cycleshow this weekend-another story) and there was no way I was letting the tosser intimidate me into shifting as he wasn't even attempting to overtake as there was room to do so and his use of the word C**t doesn't massively offend me either but if that's his most intelligent word that he has in his arsenal of somewhat limited language then I won't lose any sleep over it!

 

[BentMikey]

1 other serious point though - all this talk of 'secondary' and 'primary' makes me wince. If you want to nanny the driver of a 1+ tonne lump of speeding metal by infuriating him by cycling 'in primary' then go for it but you're a cert for a Darwin award sooner or later. IMHO it's an incredibly dangerous style of cycling unless absolutely necessary. It may feel safer but I don't think it is due to the aggravation it creates from following drivers.

That might be your opinion, but it's utterly wrong in the opinion of many experts.

Primary is extremely useful in reducing the numbers of incidents, but it won't stop someone from, for example, overtaking if they really want to drive badly. OTOH it does discourage most less cretinous and determined drivers from making that stupid overtake that they would do when a rider is in secondary. It does no more than play the odds, and leaves you with room to duck out of the way if you need to correct for a poor driver.

 

[BentMikey]

Gah, sorry to hear of your troubles, TT and Jonny. Those commutes sound like awful ones, and really very scary. Mucho sympathy! Here's a virtual hot cuppa and a ginger nut for you both.