Near Miss of the Day 146: The 'Normal for London' edition

As a counterpoint have a watch of this (it's only seconds): https://imgur.com/gallery/JqhHtdA

Under the standard classification the shortest recorded unit of time is the "London Second" This is defined as the duration between the traffic comming to a halt and some pointless twunt hitting his horn*
(*With apologies to those with a delicate sense of inuendo)

Hey  - I posted the vid, very interesting reading the comments.

When I say ' taxi is a bit close', its not a criticism of the taxi, he was there first, just making the point that by the time I'm alongside, there is NO room left for a sane vehicle of any type between us. It was bordering on the limit of what I choose to ride.

The first bike wasn't so bad - he had been following me, and despite leaving only an inch each side, like the idiot he is, I was aware he was there and compensated. The second bike was quite unexpected, and really spooked me, as it was at  speed and very close, and very loud, hence the swearing. If I had varied  my line slightly, or gone a bit quicker (I was going steady as I have to get across both lanes to the right before the next lights) we would have had an incident.

I've been riding London for 10 years along that route - twice a day, and right now is as dangerous as it gets, as 3 lanes are forced into two, but pedestrians and cross traffic make it difficult to make the most of the green light time, frustrating cars and bikers. For cyclists its not much drama as you just ride or even walk past the queue. It must take cars an age to get along there. 

At a junction if I'm at the front I always put myself in the cars eye line, hence slightly ahead, but I won't pull out across his line, and of course being aware of left turns.

Posting the number plates explicitly might help someone else who comes across these two idiots when they finally hit something - I'll add them to youtube video for easy searching. 

I've got another video of a van driver blocking the same junction whilst on the phone, unaware I'm even alongside his door, but that is so routine I haven't posted it yet.

I'm now using a different route to avoid the whole road, crossing north to south at that junction as it is such a disaster.

ride safe.

Not one to have a pop at the cyclist on these usually, I understand the need to filter and the right to do so.

However, when filtering you have to be aware of the pedestrians seeing stationary traffic.

Also, you (the video guy) say the taxi is a bit close when you were the one that pulled alongside it, the taxi didn't move!!!

Whole video is horror show: start to finish

Whole video is horror show: start to finish

Chris - it was more that drivers find any number of reasons to give it large on the horn (some actually understandable from the driving i've seen there) - in general I really wouldn't put it down to the action of just cyclists.

Yep, that sums up why London cycling requires nerves of steel and a calm demeanour. Neither of which I have in any great abundance.

Yep. But I guess you weren't there to see it, although it appears you may have misunderstood. Some use of the horn is required sometimes, mostly due to others driving crap or dangerously.

I don't shout at random drivers who are doing nothing wrong

What a fuss about nothing, you're acting like it was your first time in the big city. The bikers didn't cut you up, they didn't make you brake or swerve.  If you want to avoid being surprised by them, buy a mirror or look over your shoulder. They will always use all the lanes to squeeze through on that stretch, so if there's a 1 metre gap by your elbow and you've been stationary for more than 2 seconds it's inevitable that a biker will fill the space. And if one biker goes through, another will surely follow.  Publishing their registrations is a bit pathetic. If you want to make more progress and have a whole lane to yourself, nip inside the cones now and again. You could also have nipped across all the lanes to sneak behind the bus instead of waiting for it to clear the yellow box. Then you'd have been well clear of the bikers on an empty road. You're on the narrowest vehicle of all, why not take advantage of it? Maybe learn from the couriers.

Traffic doesn't care if you're white or black, male or female, middle class or poor as a church mouse.  If you're on a bike, a worrying number of motorists will endanger you deliberately or negligently, and society as a whole does not give two hoots about it. 

I always take primary position in london, and i am rarely on the inside of anything and desperately not taxis ubers (prius) or busses.

I cycled through there yesterday, not even rush hour on a work day, it was a shower of sh!te, just like the video. It's every man for himself, rules of the jungle, and it's all NFL, especially the pedestrians, I really enjoy swarms of them walking out in front of me from all directions while they stare down at their mobile phone screens. Mopeds seem to be the ones that most frequently take risks with your life and NFs given. Nearly all use the ASL box, even if it's already full of cyclists, they'll just barge in and then try to power through when the lights go green.

I commute 6 miles each way between Paddington and Camberwell, SE/NW. Some of it is actually generally fine as there isn't much traffic on the massively wide and straight Vauxhall Bridge Road. But, there are parts of it, (mostly junctions) that are nearly always terrifying. It's not the environment that is hostile (although, to be fair the environment is anti-cyclist, it's nearly impossible for me to cycle from Hyde Park to Paddington when the least "special" route means I wait at a bunch of cycle "super"highway traffic lights for 6 minutes to cover about 100m), it's drivers that are quite clearly hostile ... to everyone else on the road, and if you are a vulnerable road user, some will use that to bully you by being more hostile. Some will even bully you, just because you're on a bike, and they don't want you to filter past all of the motorised traffic. It's funny, some drivers say that cyclist always cause traffic, but whenever I filter past traffic and get near the front of the queue, it's always a motor vehicle that is causing it.

Quite often I hear a horn behind me, look back and can't for the life of me fathom any reason why the horn was used other than for someone to vent there frustration that a cyclist has filtered past them and disappeared up the road leaving them behind in the traffic. They are the traffic.

According to Mungecrundle this guy needs to have a look at what he's doing as it's clearly all wrong and needs to stop having a paddy because he's a little bit special 

Mungecrundle wrote:

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

Mungecrundle wrote:

Simpler to read nothing more into a motorist using the horn than that they are indeed alerting other road users to their presence. Having a paddy because you think someone is honking their horn at you is just a little bit special.

When it's the tenth time that week some cunt has lent on their horn for no reason, when it's the 20th time some bastard has been unlawfully tailgating you, when it's the 50th time that week some cretin has put you in fear of harm it's very likely that ANY normal person is likely to finally have enough and react and tell the person doing something they should go to forth and multiply.

I'm happy for you that you are such a perfect human being and are able to control your emotions when threatened for the umpteenth time by a cockwomble in a killing machine.

BTBS reliably special as ever. If you are finding yourself in conflict with 50, 20, or even 10 other road users in a single week then you really need to consider where the problem lies.

See bellend, in big cities you get cretin after cretin impinging upon you every single day, that adds up over a week no matter how safe you might be taking things.

You're a little bit special frankly if you can't recognise why people end up cracking and start mouthing off to others who are yet another dickhead harassing you! You think the numbers I out up were out the ordinary, go ask London/big city cyclists if that is out the ordinary and how they might react after yet another tosser has cut them up/on the horn/mouthed off.

It's necessary to work on anger management if you cycle in London

(or most other UK towns and cities).

The motor plague needs urgent restrictive action not mealy words from Will Normal some two years after mayor Khan's election.

I headed from CS3 north on a side road to escape some of the foul air a bit earlier on tiday.

I had right of way on a painted bit of 'cycle lane' on a One Way for motors side street.

Did that stop the ar5e-wipe in a large Transit from squeezing into the single lane and forcing me onto the pavement! Followed by 'Number two' (in both senses).

Come rain or shine, these 'people' need to be filtered off of quiet streets, made to drive with attention and regard or be made to sit another test* - and another - until they can get it right.

* One that includes cycling and awareness training as a significant part

HEY....why not include this idea as part of your response to the 

Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS) safety review

if you haven't done so already!

Youve got 'til this Friday (1st June) 11.45pm