Nearly Got Run Over by an Effin Bike!!

[Wobbles]

Sometimes you don't even have to be actually moving to nearly hit these gormless chavettes........
First set of lights on the south side of Tower bridge; I came to a stop for the red on the line. Unbelievably, this dumb cow, on her mobile, not even looking into the road wanders onto it(not near the ped crossing) and realizes at the last split second she was walking into me.

Cue "F***** CYCLISTS SHOULD STOP AT THE F****** LIGHTS" to her friend on the other end of the line (and obviously to my benefit).

I couldn't muster up anything more than a flabbergasted "I wasn't even moving??!!"

Talk about blame-culture.
If in doubt, accuse someone else ..........I just don't understand!

 

[goo_mason]

They behave exactly like someone I know:

"I ain't never done nuffin' or nuffin, so SHUT UP ! And don't go givin' me evils !!"

 

[orbiter]

All this reminds me of the Jason Howard (Buckingham) incident in July where a YL very sady died, hitting her head on the kerb; after walking into the path of a cyclist in much the same way? And Jason was of course pilloried by the press.

 

[HF2300]

I'm down to two a day .. they're so fattening.

That's why I'm putting on weight...!

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

That's why I'm putting on weight...!

Yep. They are choc full of empty calories. Especially the chocolate coated ones.

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

Sometimes you don't even have to be actually moving to nearly hit these gormless chavettes........
First set of lights on the south side of Tower bridge; I came to a stop for the red on the line. Unbelievably, this dumb cow, on her mobile, not even looking into the road wanders onto it(not near the ped crossing) and realizes at the last split second she was walking into me.

Cue "F***** CYCLISTS SHOULD STOP AT THE F****** LIGHTS" to her friend on the other end of the line (and obviously to my benefit).

I couldn't muster up anything more than a flabbergasted "I wasn't even moving??!!"

Talk about blame-culture.
If in doubt, accuse someone else ..........I just don't understand!

Oh yes. We were on a family ride going along an off-road path which does a bit of woodland, bit of field and so on. There's the cycle route and also a footpath .. they generally run parallel and quite close to each other, sometimes separating for a bit, sometimes crossing.

So we were on a (quite muddy and bumpy) section of the cycle path when a family walking with two small children plus third in push-chair came the other way, struggling because this bit wasn't really suitable for their non-sensible shoes and OK-in-a-shopping-centre-but-not-much-else buggy .. the well-surfaced footpath which was 10 yards away would have MUCH better for them. Anyway, the mum commented to the dad that there "was a lot of b****y bikes on this path today, didn oughta be allowed". My flabber has never been so gasted.

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

Confession Time

So after all that self-righteousness yesterday, I managed to cock up last night and upset a driver.

The main drag through the OTHER estate on my way home is quite wide and has one of those nice white lines painted down either side of it about 1m from the kerb, with a pretty picture of a bicycle in it. The two sides of the road are separated from each other by a grass covered island in the middle.

I don't tend to use this bit of road very much anyway because some joker of a planner decided that it would be good traffic calming, or maybe just aesthetically pleasing, to put intermittent much-wider islands in. What you basically get then is a pair of chicanes - one at each end of the bigger island - as the road sweeps in and out, and cars invariably catch you up on the chicanes and you end up spoiling their PB on the way home from the station, and it all gets messy. And there's a couple of small (but not quite mini) roundabouts where the "cycle lane" just vanishes.

For the short bit that I use, I do tend to be more or less in the cycle lane but claim primary for the roundabouts and other pinch points. It varies: if there's just a single car behind me, I might slow down and let them pass before going for primary. You know the drill.

So last night, approaching the roundabout, I did a check behind and could see some cars maybe 200m behind so I thought it was time to go for primary. Cars on this bit tend to not be going that fast as there's hazards, not least the roundabout, so I should have had plenty of time. So I signalled, another check, and move out. About 2 seconds later, the first car appeared alongside me .. how fast was he going? did he speed up? I don't know. But there wasn't a real lot of room .. I'd obviously not moved out far enough 'cos he could just about get alongside me. So two mistakes: not spotting how fast he was going, but he must have been shifting, and not getting far enough out - though that might be a blessing in disguise 'cos I think I'd have ended up on his bonnet - he didn't seem interested in slowing down.

Course, he was having to slow down a bit for the roundabout and starting to edge me over. I had no choice but to slow down and let him go .. the other cars I'd seen were still a way back. Which I did.

That wasn't the one I upset .. well, I might have but I don't really care tbh. The one I upset was the one coming from the right on the roundabout to turn right as I got to it .. he had right of way but I was so busy faffing about trying to sort myself out after my evasive action I ended up going in front of him.

Luckily he was moving off from standstill and it's quite a tight roundabout so it wasn't especially dangerous, but he did have to slow. Bless him, maybe he'd spotted the other car so he didn't even beep or curse at me .. he did give me a bit of a look, though. I did say sorry and thanks as he went past me - nice and wide - so hopefully no harm done.

Another lesson learnt. I do long posts, don't I ?