Would appreciate any views on this situation, which arose this morning on the way to work.
Albany Road in Cardiff is a bit of a mare for cyclists – main trunk road, yet narrow, lots of parked cars and commercial traffic on either side, with a fair number illegally parked next to junctions. Added to this, lots of shoppers crossing away from pelicans from between parked cars. Lots of stationary traffic queues, often stretching back east from the picturesquely named five way “Death Junction” (at the western end of the street shown in the map), almost along its full length
Anyway, this morning, about 11, was on my way to work using my usual route, which takes me along Angus Street and onto Albany heading west (see map). There was a particularly long queue of traffic, caused by a coach which was trying to turn into Diana Street (right turn up ahead in Streetview here, very narrow: not the sort of road you want to be driving a coach down) . So as is my habit, I filtered right of the queue, staying just right of the centre line. Thanks to the coach blocking the road, the right hand lane was entirely free of oncoming traffic up to Diana Street. Nonetheless, I was going reasonably slowly. Ahead of me in the queue (probably level with the parked blue car on the left in Streetview) was a blue builder’s lorry (high cab), which reduced visibility and filled the lane.
As I drew closer to the cab, I could see there was a sizeable gap (one car and a bit more, I think) between the lorry and the car in front. As I drew level with the cab, a red Fiesta suddenly shot through this gap out into the right hand lane. Presumably the builder’s lorry had stopped and left the space to let the driver out. Nonetheless, the Fiesta was hardly edging out into the lane – it accelerated hard, aware I suppose that the other lane was empty of east bound traffic thanks to the turning coach.
Despite going fairly slowly, I had to swerve violently as well as slam the brakes on, but even so my pedal made contact with the rear door on the driver’s side – so a nice scrape there, no doubt. I managed to stay on the bike. Don’t know where the car went, or whether the driver was even aware of me.
The builder’s passenger made it clear that he thought it was entirely my fault, and that I was probably given to self-abuse to boot. I pointed out to him that I was filtering, and carefully (and left it at that) but I wonder (as one always does) whether I could have done more to avoid what happened?
For example, I could have stayed further out into the right hand lane to improve my line of sight. But then perhaps I would actually have been hit by the Fiesta, given that it pulled out quickly rather than edging out.
Any thoughts?
Albany Road in Cardiff is a bit of a mare for cyclists – main trunk road, yet narrow, lots of parked cars and commercial traffic on either side, with a fair number illegally parked next to junctions. Added to this, lots of shoppers crossing away from pelicans from between parked cars. Lots of stationary traffic queues, often stretching back east from the picturesquely named five way “Death Junction” (at the western end of the street shown in the map), almost along its full length
Anyway, this morning, about 11, was on my way to work using my usual route, which takes me along Angus Street and onto Albany heading west (see map). There was a particularly long queue of traffic, caused by a coach which was trying to turn into Diana Street (right turn up ahead in Streetview here, very narrow: not the sort of road you want to be driving a coach down) . So as is my habit, I filtered right of the queue, staying just right of the centre line. Thanks to the coach blocking the road, the right hand lane was entirely free of oncoming traffic up to Diana Street. Nonetheless, I was going reasonably slowly. Ahead of me in the queue (probably level with the parked blue car on the left in Streetview) was a blue builder’s lorry (high cab), which reduced visibility and filled the lane.
As I drew closer to the cab, I could see there was a sizeable gap (one car and a bit more, I think) between the lorry and the car in front. As I drew level with the cab, a red Fiesta suddenly shot through this gap out into the right hand lane. Presumably the builder’s lorry had stopped and left the space to let the driver out. Nonetheless, the Fiesta was hardly edging out into the lane – it accelerated hard, aware I suppose that the other lane was empty of east bound traffic thanks to the turning coach.
Despite going fairly slowly, I had to swerve violently as well as slam the brakes on, but even so my pedal made contact with the rear door on the driver’s side – so a nice scrape there, no doubt. I managed to stay on the bike. Don’t know where the car went, or whether the driver was even aware of me.
The builder’s passenger made it clear that he thought it was entirely my fault, and that I was probably given to self-abuse to boot. I pointed out to him that I was filtering, and carefully (and left it at that) but I wonder (as one always does) whether I could have done more to avoid what happened?
For example, I could have stayed further out into the right hand lane to improve my line of sight. But then perhaps I would actually have been hit by the Fiesta, given that it pulled out quickly rather than edging out.
Any thoughts?
