Roundabouts Hazard !

[airbrake]

it's not like cars are going any faster than maybe 20mph on them anyway.

Kookas, take a look at this one. Cars can travel on here at high speed - it's a real nightmare with cars sometimes cutting across in front and behind simultaneously !

If you drag the yellow man to get streetview, you can see how the wide, sweeping curves are so inviting to drivers. I had to stop using it due to the danger.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?rlz=1...=uk&sa=X&ei=UU6cULCVDcTI0QWDi4FY&ved=0CHAQtgM

 

[Kookas]

Kookas, take a look at this one. Cars can travel on here at high speed - it's a real nightmare with cars sometimes cutting across in front and behind simultaneously !

If you drag the yellow man to get streetview, you can see how the wide, sweeping curves are so inviting to drivers. I had to stop using it due to the danger.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?rlz=1...=uk&sa=X&ei=UU6cULCVDcTI0QWDi4FY&ved=0CHAQtgM

Fair point. I live in the city, so never seen a roundabout that wide except off motorway on-ramps (in a car). Even the biggest ones here are too sharp to take at the speed limit.

 

[summerdays]

I think traffic lights on large roundabouts are good at keeping the speed reduced a little, but even that doesn't work on the largest motorway ones especially when they are either about to join or leave the motorway.

 

[Globalti]

Oh I agree there - big fast roundabouts are the only places where I sometimes ride on the pavement.

 

[GrasB]

It takes a very small roundabout to force a car driver down to 20mph, and road bikes can take corners considerably faster than most cars.

What like these 3? Hard to do much over 25mph in a car on any of them due to the shape of the bell mouths in a car but on a (motor)bike you can easily be doing 35mph if it's clear.

 

[lulubel]

What like these 3? Hard to do much over 25mph in a car on any of them due to the shape of the bell mouths in a car but on a (motor)bike you can easily be doing 35mph if it's clear.

Ooh, I found that hard to make sense of. I was imagining approaching that roundabout, and I could see a fairly smooth line that I could take quite fast in a car, and then I realised there was a lorry coming towards me! Then I remembered you drive on the left in the UK, and go round roundabouts the other way! (I don't think I was helped by the photo being taken from the right side of the road, though.)

Roundabouts like that are not too bad, where the shape of the entrance is designed to force drivers to slow down. It's the fast and flowing ones that I've always found unnerving.

 

[Peter Armstrong]

This bit "frowning expression on his face as he turned to look at me - what are you doing there...?" makes me more angry than the incident itself.

 

[Big boy]

Thanks Big boy.

I've given this a lot of thought, and it's partly the mileage that I have done since '96. I've now done around 200,000 miles. Risk increases in proportion to time spent on the roads. I don't have a car - I travel everywhere by bike, and I predominantly ride in urban areas where (particularly over the last few years) there has been additional roundabouts and junctions built to service new build estates.

Prior to this incident, I have been knocked off the bike once at low speed (driver went through a red light talking on his mobile). This happened at around 90,000 miles. But... the number of near misses I would guess must be around a 100 or so. I have skidded, swerved, jumped onto pavements, and all the usual escape tactics. Sometimes, drivers just don't realise that a cycle can actually shift pretty quick, and they have totally misjudged the situation. The ice crash was my own fault of course...

However, what else can I do ?? I love cycling. There is an element of risk to many rewarding things in life, all we can do is try to learn from our experiences and those of others.

The driver running the red light obviously could have caused serious injuries - I was very very lucky with just ripped clothing and a wheel needing truing. So...is 2 bad outcomes in 200,000 miles a good accident / mileage ratio ? Compared to miles traveled by car I suppose it isn't, but I don't want to drive a car

Btw, I ride in South Yorkshire / Derbyshire

Wow thats a lot of miles explains a lot,

 

[jdtate101]

People creeping out from the left as you are on the R-A-B, just missing your back wheel, all to save themselves 0.1s is one of my worst fears on the bike. It happens far too often and one of these days I know someone will clip me. I can understand doing this in heavy, relatively slow moving traffic (don't condone it in any scenario), but to do it on a clear and traffic free R-A-B when I'm the only one there is sheer lunacy. No amount of bright clothing or lights will change the way these impatient idiots drive, most of them wouldn't even change if they knocked someone down.
Don't know what the answer is, either from a law point of view, or as a cyclist trying to stay safe, other than avoid R-A-B's, which just isn't possible.

Stay safe out there everyone, and OP hope the wrist is better soon.

 

[GrasB]

Ooh, I found that hard to make sense of. I was imagining approaching that roundabout, and I could see a fairly smooth line that I could take quite fast in a car, and then I realised there was a lorry coming towards me! Then I remembered you drive on the left in the UK, and go round roundabouts the other way! (I don't think I was helped by the photo being taken from the right side of the road, though.)

Roundabouts like that are not too bad, where the shape of the entrance is designed to force drivers to slow down. It's the fast and flowing ones that I've always found unnerving.

Yeah they're designed nicely. When the road is clear it's quite funny on a 'bent to see a car driver who tries to overtake you by flooring it between the roundabouts. They never manage it because I gain so much distance by simply not needing to slowdown much for the round abouts.

 

[Legomutton]

A lot of scary posts there...

I learned something the other day that really doesn't make me feel any safer, but maybe it helps to understand why, sometimes, we genuinely aren't seen even when we are almost ahead of the driver.

At a roundabout, it's possible to look right, see there is nothing coming round the roundabout, then look ahead without seeing a cycle in between the two directions even though their eyes have swivelled across the cyclist's position.

All is explained. They really can't see us...

http://www.londoncyclist.co.uk/raf-pilot-teach-cyclists/

 

[airbrake]

This bit "frowning expression on his face as he turned to look at me - what are you doing there...?" makes me more angry than the incident itself.

Yes Peter, that really wound me up - the sheer ignorance and contempt...

 

[airbrake]

People creeping out from the left as you are on the R-A-B, just missing your back wheel, all to save themselves 0.1s is one of my worst fears on the bike. It happens far too often and one of these days I know someone will clip me. I can understand doing this in heavy, relatively slow moving traffic (don't condone it in any scenario), but to do it on a clear and traffic free R-A-B when I'm the only one there is sheer lunacy. No amount of bright clothing or lights will change the way these impatient idiots drive, most of them wouldn't even change if they knocked someone down.
Don't know what the answer is, either from a law point of view, or as a cyclist trying to stay safe, other than avoid R-A-B's, which just isn't possible.

Stay safe out there everyone, and OP hope the wrist is better soon.

Thanks jd, that creeping forward is scary... and particularly bad at one roundabout in Sheffield where there are 3 lanes of traffic 'competing' with each other to enter the RAB. The worry is that (if it doesn't hit you), the nearest vehicle sets off and triggers the rest to follow suit. Luckily - so far, nothing has happened... There are pedestrian ramps underneath the road so I think I will be taking them in future.

 

[airbrake]

All is explained. They really can't see us...

http://www.londoncyclist.co.uk/raf-pilot-teach-cyclists/

Thanks for that Legomutton. This should be incorporated into all driver / motorcycle / cycle tuition.

Interesting to read the comments on how the Dutch have improved safety for cyclists on local roads by slowing down traffic speed at junctions. In this country it seems to be all about 'improving' traffic flow to benefit the economy...

 

[markharry66]

Or maybe like 9 out of 10 traffic accidents they dont look. I have a min roundabout at the end of my road.
Not heavy traffic. I take primary for the last few yards. The amount of times I bet the horn honked, tough shoot I say. I never do anything do provoke the situation but have been shouted at I Ignore dickheads