Rachel Aldred's Near Miss Project

[growingvegetables]

Heads up, lads and lasses - this just caught my eye, http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/mar/24/cycling-near-miss-close-pass-road-rage

Off to read and explore further. Not found the report yet.

 

[andyfraser]

I was reading this yesterday. I don't know what to make of it yet but a lot of the anecdotes in the Guardian piece rang bells with me.

I've actually changed my route home because of my own similar anecdotes. I feel safer on the main road because it's wider and there's room for me plus a lorry with oncoming traffic than I do on the quieter but narrower back roads where everyone is just trying to push passed.

 

[growingvegetables]

[QUOTE="andyfraser, post: 3609782, member: 31884"...... but a lot of the anecdotes in the Guardian piece rang bells with me. ...[/QUOTE]

Worse - two of them ARE mine! I remember that Friday evening well. Etched in my memory.

 

[downfader]

Changed routes several times because of issues. Really it just feels like you're rejigging where the close passes and the cut-ups come from.

These sorts of things have become common and although not major do put other riders off:

View: https://vimeo.com/122675071

View: https://vimeo.com/120705596

View: https://vimeo.com/120521608


I have some worse ones from this week. It also seems that the slower you are as a rider the worse people drive around you. My Mother has been subject to some foul treatment in the past. Like the motorcyclists who use the bikelanes and overtake her in the damn thing with traffic jams to their right.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

There's a similar, or somewhat down the same lines, collisions and near misses site here - http://collideosco.pe/ Interesting to see how your route has fared.

 

[andyfraser]

No one's reported any incidents in my area. I can't see what they do with the information and whether it's worth reporting incidents.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

No one's reported any incidents in my area. I can't see what they do with the information and whether it's worth reporting incidents.

The collideosco.pe one claims to be built on the Fix My Street network, so has established input to councils and highways departments. The trouble with related and similarly well-meaning projects is that information goes to one or the other but not to any aggregating site that can give the bigger, more reliable, picture.

 

[andyfraser]

I thought it looked like Fix My Street. Maybe I should start reporting incidents there. The second half of my commute is on cycle paths now so maybe there won't be many incidents to report.

 

[downfader]

CTC also did the stopSMIDSY site for a while and near misses were logged on there. Later there were samples taken and a report made to Government about the issues we've faced.

 

[jonny jeez]

I gave up when i read all about the "toxic road system" and the URGENT need for segregation....sigh.

Campaigns like this, however well meaning, need an opposing view to really paint the picture.

The... "I rode in, thoroughly enjoyed it and had no reason to be concerned at all"..site would show balance...but who would bother filling in that every single day. Far more emotive to visit a site to vent anger over some dodgy driver or another.

All of this will simply reinforce the view that cycling in town is sooooooo dangerous.

How do people like this think that this can actually help. Can you imagine if we did the same for every day life and recorded in detail every tiny incident that made us angry whilst ignoring all the good stuff.

You would never leave the bedroom

 

[andyfraser]

I think anything that can raise awareness is a good start. All the advice seems to point to what cyclists can do to protect themselves. We do this and we're still at the mercy of motorists.

One piece of advice that we see a lot is about positioning. A local piece about making right turns (that I can't find right now) advised riding 1 metre from the curb (a piece of advice we've all heard and many practice) to be part of the traffic flow rather than next to it. That only works on the roads I use if they're wide enough or there's nothing coming the other way. On several roads I use every morning cars will still try to push through forcing me to move closer to the curb. No one with any authority seems to want to do anything about this behaviour, certainly not the police. I'm starting to feel less safe and starting to hate my morning commute because of this. Before Christmas it didn't happen anywhere near as much. I don't know what's changed. I've been left shaken by a few very near misses recently so maybe that's changed my perception.

I honestly feel that motorists couldn't care less about me and there's nothing I can do about it. As I said, the police don't want to know. I don't get to talk to these motorists either. Maybe they don't know how scary it can be and maybe at least a few would change their behaviour if they knew.

The mentality of some motorists is shocking. Whenever the local papaer runs a piece on a cyclist getting hurt at least one motorist will comment that all cyclists jump red lights etc. Someone has just been hurt! They're licenced to use a very dangerous vehicle and their first thought is to comment and have a go at cyclists. These people shouldn't be on the roads!

So I'll say it again. Anything that can raise awareness and get motoroists treating cyclists with some respect for their safety is a good start.

 

[Clanghead]

I'm pleased to see local authority adverts recently appearing along my local high street advising cyclists to (a) ride outside the car door zone, and (b) take the lane [my words] when the road narrows.

Although ostensibly aimed at cyclists, it'd be good if more drivers took note, to understand why we ride where we ride.

 

[summerdays]

I'm pleased to see local authority adverts recently appearing along my local high street advising cyclists to (a) ride outside the car door zone, and (b) take the lane [my words] when the road narrows.

Although ostensibly aimed at cyclists, it'd be good if more drivers took note, to understand why we ride where we ride.

We've got those ones up at the bus stops again. It's the second time they have done the campaign here I assume they rotate it around different towns or give it a rest so that people notice them as fresh.

I don't usually get that much verbal hassle about my road position but some **** decided to wind down his drivers window to give me his opinion of my road position to inform me that I was too far out (I was at the lines at the roundabout about to turn right), asked him where did he think I should be and he pointed to the gutter on the other side of his car. An unpleasant bloke complete with no seatbelt, and mobile phone in his hand, but I didn't want to get into an argument as he wasn't going to listen and he was bigger and more thug like than me.

I think these projects can be useful, for a start there are certain places where I'm more likely to get a close pass than others due to poor road layout, and I'd rather that came to light before someone became an accident statistic.

 

[fimm]

Note that the participants in the Near Miss Project had to nominate a day to report on in advance so that if nothing happened on that day you'd record "nothing happened today".

 

[summerdays]

Note that the participants in the Near Miss Project had to nominate a day to report on in advance so that if nothing happened on that day you'd record "nothing happened today".

Yep and I was expecting to report nothing and in the end I had three incidents to mention on the day I had chosen including an idiot who MGIF, approaching a blind bend on the wrong side of the road (and I could hear the car approaching that he couldn't). I can't remember what the other two were but that's the one that sticks in my head. I think it was in October last year.