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Video round-up: Bad driving, bad cycling & a great brother

An 8-year old carries his disabled brother on a triathlon, a flasher in Hull + more

There's a lot of bad driving and bad cycling on show in this week's video round-up, so those of you with a nervous disposition may want to skip to this week's second video.

Our first example of bad driving comes from Bristol, where one driver really has it in for cyclists. Later on there's a tailgating driver in America and a London cyclist who t-bones an oblivious driver. 

On the bright side, you'll want to look out for inspirational Noah Aldrich, who carried his disabled brother through a triathlon and an American policeman who's keeping the streets safe for cyclists.

Also, right at the bottom of the list, there's a flasher in Hull who's been riding his bike about the city. Have you seen him?

Cyclists in Bristol

Here we have a driver from Bristol who has saddled himself with a vendetta against cyclists.

Following an incident where a cyclist allegedly scratched YouTuber jediknight 1345's car, the intrepid videographer took it upon himself to film his every encounter with a cyclist to prove that Bristol’s investment in cycling infrastructure, to encourage cycling, is misplaced.

While there are a couple of salient points, and actual examples of poor-to-illegal cycling, the delivery of jediknight's often-unfounded frustrations leave plenty to be desired - and a lot of the stuff he flags up as poor cycling, such as riding primary, isn't illegal in the first place.

If this video isn't quite enough to satiate your hunger for distinctly average filmmaking, don't fear, the 'part 1' part of the title would suggest that there's more footage in the pipeline.

A Brother’s Love: eight-year old takes disabled brother on kids’ triathlon

On a more human note: as if completing a triathlon - albeit a kids’ triathlon - at the age of eight isn’t tough enough, Noah Aldrich wanted his brother Lucas, who suffers from a genetic condition called lissencephaly, to come along and experience the highs and lows with him.

Noah completed the course in 54 minutes carrying, pushing and dragging his brother for the entirety. An inspiration if we may say so ourselves.

Should cyclists obey traffic laws?

“Cycling is catching on in America,” is how the Economist opens this video which debates the frustrations drivers have with cyclists who don’t obey the traffic laws.

The video, which looks to balance both sides of this timeless debate, goes on to refer to the American roads as the “land of the SUV,” which succinctly describes the attitude and road infrastructure problems which plague roads around the world.

The video concludes with the point that road laws need improving to deal with the rise in cross-demographic cyclists taking to the streets. Hmm.

Instant justice for tailgating driver

As we saw in the last video, cycling is on the rise in America. Fortunately, the police across the pond seem to be catching on, and are - at least in this case - keeping an eye out for the safety of cyclists.

Whether or not this example is indicative of a trend throughout the USA or not, we don’t know. But it seems that the filming cyclist Kevin Selagea is pleased with how the incident turned out.

WTF

Suitably titled, this video features a cyclist being outrageously cut up while riding in a cycle lane in London.

His reaction, which is loud and impassioned, is justified - if not by the pain caused by the impact - by the fact that he was riding a brand-new bike as he prepared to ride the 160km Kuantan 160 in Malaysia.

Hull flasher caught on bike?

Over to Hull now, and there’s a flasher on the loose. There have been ten reported incidents between July 7 and July 9, and police are on the look out for the culprit.

The man on the bike in the video above is who the police are looking for at the moment. If you happen to recognise him, please call Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

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36 comments

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jollygoodvelo | 9 years ago
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I sympathise with the guy who T-boned the VW on CS2 - but anyone who rides in London frequently will know that this happens all the time. I had a conversation (calmly and sensibly) with a woman who did similar to me last week with her kids in the back of her car... "I didn't see you" she said (predictably). I was wearing a fluo yellow top that day, so quite reasonably suggested that she might try looking a bit harder next time...

Think I might get myself a video camera, just in case.

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The _Kaner | 9 years ago
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Irrespective of a 30MPH sign flashing...bikes are not goverened by road speed limits...as they are for motor vehicles. And what is with disabling comments on his Youtube video....scared he'll actually get some sane and sensible replies to his diatribe!??
Complete and utter incompetent moron...yes there were a few 'naughty' cyclists...but he looks to have committed as many 'rule breaks' as those that have transgressed upon himself...because he is definitely a law unto himself....
...and knows less about the highway code than my 9 and 12 year old daughters....

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The _Kaner | 9 years ago
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of course we all know that 'Jedi-Knight' is cockernee rhyming slang for a big 'sh1te'..

In the 'WTF' video...

At 27 secs into the video I spotted that (the 'culprit') vehicle on the left. The sane and sensible thing to do here was to assume that he was going to pull out given any gap in the traffic and not continue to cycle along at full pelt....but hey I've only been driving for 28 years and cycling for 40....so I'd say there's blame on both sides in this incident.

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Matt eaton replied to The _Kaner | 9 years ago
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The _Kaner wrote:

In the 'WTF' video...

At 27 secs into the video I spotted that (the 'culprit') vehicle on the left. The sane and sensible thing to do here was to assume that he was going to pull out given any gap in the traffic and not continue to cycle along at full pelt....but hey I've only been driving for 28 years and cycling for 40....so I'd say there's blame on both sides in this incident.

However, there was no gap and the driver pulled out anyway. The cyclist does seem to be pushing on but the idea of slowing for every car poking it's nose out of a junction on a journey through London is too much.

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The _Kaner replied to Matt eaton | 9 years ago
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Matt eaton wrote:
The _Kaner wrote:

In the 'WTF' video...

At 27 secs into the video I spotted that (the 'culprit') vehicle on the left. The sane and sensible thing to do here was to assume that he was going to pull out given any gap in the traffic and not continue to cycle along at full pelt....but hey I've only been driving for 28 years and cycling for 40....so I'd say there's blame on both sides in this incident.

However, there was no gap and the driver pulled out anyway. The cyclist does seem to be pushing on but the idea of slowing for every car poking it's nose out of a junction on a journey through London is too much.

Beats injury, loss or damage to possibly expensive property and loss of life....

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Matt eaton replied to The _Kaner | 9 years ago
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The _Kaner wrote:

Beats injury, loss or damage to possibly expensive property and loss of life....

Sort of, and I'd take this approach if cycling in the counrtyside on the odd occasion that there was a car poking out of a junction like this. In the city, however, it's a bit different. Every junction you pass could have a car poking out of it and as we have seen from other recent videos there's also the hazard of cars turning into the junction. We should ride defensively but we should also be making progress on our journeys, just like all other vehicles. The roads only work because we can all assume that, on the most part, users obey the rules and priorities that have been defined.

There is also the factor of drivers following you in situations like this. What sort of response are we likely to get from your average Brit driver by taking primary and dropping our speed by 5mph every time we pass a side junction? I'd venture that it would not be universally possitive.

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7thGalaxy replied to The _Kaner | 9 years ago
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The _Kaner wrote:

of course we all know that 'Jedi-Knight' is cockernee rhyming slang for a big 'sh1te'..

In the 'WTF' video...

At 27 secs into the video I spotted that (the 'culprit') vehicle on the left. The sane and sensible thing to do here was to assume that he was going to pull out given any gap in the traffic and not continue to cycle along at full pelt....but hey I've only been driving for 28 years and cycling for 40....so I'd say there's blame on both sides in this incident.

Doesn't really matter what you'd say.. the driver was clearly in the wrong. No blame to the cyclist in this situation - there's no reason to assume that everyone's going to drive their cars at you.

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WolfieSmith | 9 years ago
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Bristol Driver. I think that 30 mph warning sign was set off by you - breaking the speed limit to catch the cyclist in front who er, wasn't.  35

Love the frustration though. Let's hope the numpty is driven insane.

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bendertherobot | 9 years ago
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Also, bear in mind the person making the overtake is best placed to judge what's coming the other way. Not the person several cars back.

Queing motorists hate filtering cyclists not because they are worried about their welfare. But because they perceive some injustice that the cyclist will get there first.

Many of those motorists have the same choice to cycle. But they choose not to.

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spen | 9 years ago
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Strange that Bristol driver complains about a cyclist overtaking on the wrong side of the road then puts themselves in the same position so they can continue filming! Wonder if they wouod have included that if he'd been on a motorbike. I think not.

At 2:58 he claims that the road sign lights up showing the cyclist is speeding yet they're closing on the cyclist and the light probably wouldn't be activated by a cyclist. Maybe they should glance at their speedo every now and then

You can see why they haven't allowed comments on the vid.

What a rectum!  14

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turboprannet | 9 years ago
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how is holding your line and staying out of the door zone "suicide"?

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bendertherobot | 9 years ago
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7's quite good fun, isn't it?

Clearly visible cyclist, obviously going quite slow on a very narrow stretch with no chance of a safe overtake.

So he approaches him at light speed. If the cyclist hadn't turned off what would have happened next?

But he's right, of course, I mean, I've never seen any motorist fail to signal.........

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muffies | 9 years ago
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As a long time commuter (5 days a week) in a big city - I agree with a lot of points from the driver in the first video.

Taking over in the middle of the lane is fucking suicide. Blindly taking over is suicide.
Going on the road when you have a pretty decent bike path is stupid. Theres a little more dirt so? It's a bike. It's not even less comfy. Its a lot safer in the bike lane.

Going through red lights without even checking - nevermind. Going through red lights while checking is still bad in most conditions (its safer sometimes but thats certainly the exception).

And that guy at the end, expecting the car to see him... Not, cars can't see you at such turns, but you can see the fucking car. If you wanna whine, sure, sprint in the car. If you wanna live, stop being stupid.

Heck, motorcyclists deal with a lot of the same problems and know that stuff very well. Its not about showing how you're the god of the road and fuck everyone else they'd better respect me - its about biking safe and not getting hurt.

Even with perfect drivers, shit happens.

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glynr36 replied to muffies | 9 years ago
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muffies wrote:

As a long time commuter (5 days a week) in a big city - I agree with a lot of points from the driver in the first video.

Taking over in the middle of the lane is fucking suicide. Blindly taking over is suicide.
Going on the road when you have a pretty decent bike path is stupid. Theres a little more dirt so? It's a bike. It's not even less comfy. Its a lot safer in the bike lane.
.

Well I commute in to and out of , and cycle out of a large city centre every day if the week as well.
Taking the centre of the lane is essential at times, gets you out the door zone, reduces close overtakes as it forces a driver to get into the other side or lane to do it
Fail to see how you think it's suicide?

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CXR94Di2 replied to glynr36 | 9 years ago
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Controlling road position is an essential method to be used sometimes, where pinch points and obstructions would be more dangerous than holding traffic behind you.

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giff77 replied to muffies | 9 years ago
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muffies wrote:

As a long time commuter (5 days a week) in a big city - I agree with a lot of points from the driver in the first video.

Taking over in the middle of the lane is fucking suicide. Blindly taking over is suicide.
Going on the road when you have a pretty decent bike path is stupid. Theres a little more dirt so? It's a bike. It's not even less comfy. Its a lot safer in the bike lane.

The only issue I have are the RLJ's and footpath hoppers. As for the overtaking, well the cyclist in the first instance moved into a lane that was not for oncoming traffic, so perfectly safe. His second overtake the lorry didn't swerve as the cyclist pulled back in. Even motorists do this. The bike lanes you say the cyclists should be in, they look to me to be shared use. I'd rather take my chances on the road in primary than dodge jog gears and dog walkers. I don't know about the bike lanes where you live, but in the UK they are usually on a stretch of road that the councils don't want to clean. There's a stretch of my commute with a bike lane that hasn't been cleaned for 5 years. And I know because I use it daily. I've also found that motorists in the UK have a tendency to hug the nearside and that white line that identifies the bike lane, well they use it as a marker, others meanwhile think the bike lane is a parking area. Though did anyone else notice the wee shoulder check the cyclist made before jumping the red and hoping onto the footpath in case Bristols finest were there.  7

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FluffyKittenofT... replied to muffies | 9 years ago
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muffies wrote:

Taking over in the middle of the lane is fucking suicide.

Weirdest comment I've ever seen here.

You just carry on cycling in the door-zone as cars overtake you inches away at 40mph. I'm sure it will go well for you.

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dp24 replied to muffies | 9 years ago
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muffies wrote:

Going on the road when you have a pretty decent bike path is stupid. Theres a little more dirt so? It's a bike. It's not even less comfy. Its a lot safer in the bike lane.

'Pretty decent' being the key term there. Rode home from work on Friday, first ride in the wet for about a month, along a stretch of path that many drivers would no doubt consider 'pretty decent'. I managed about 3km before I picked up a puncture from the various 'little more dirt' in the lane. Outcome: me standing in the pissing rain for 5+ minutes (on what is normally a 20-25 min ride) fixing the puncture.

I quite happily ride on cycle paths when they are actually decent. Unfortunately they're the exception, rather than the rule - particularly in the sort of weather we tend to get in this country for 9 months of the year.

There's nothing dangerous about riding the roads on my commute route, aside from shite drivers.

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Chris | 9 years ago
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Am I the only one who's disappointed not to see any actual flashing in the last video?

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Stumps replied to Chris | 9 years ago
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Chris wrote:

Am I the only one who's disappointed not to see any actual flashing in the last video?

Depends on your sexual persuasion i suppose  7

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chokofingrz | 9 years ago
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In the Bristol video I counted 5 cyclists being proper idiots, 2 who were blatantly fine, and 7 edge cases where they may be perfectly legal and within their rights but there's probably a better way of riding it.

E.g. left hook guy @ 0:16, I ride that road every day and have never felt the urge to overtake any cars on their right immediately before making my left turn onto the bridge. Maybe he remembered he left the oven on.

E.g. Portway guy @ 3:20, yes you can ride it on the road, it might be a tad quicker at 20mph, but the surface is shit and you get a much more pleasant ride on the shared pavement path doing 12-15mph. Maybe he doesn't know this or had other reasons. (I admit I'm being a hypocrite here because I ride up and down the similar Hartcliffe Way on the road, ignoring the cycle path.)

The car driver is a plonker but if you disregard his bilious text, you can observe plenty of cyclists being equally plonkerish (=impatient).

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turboprannet replied to chokofingrz | 9 years ago
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chokofingrz wrote:

In the Bristol video I counted 5 cyclists being proper idiots, 2 who were blatantly fine, and 7 edge cases where they may be perfectly legal and within their rights but there's probably a better way of riding it.

E.g. left hook guy @ 0:16, I ride that road every day and have never felt the urge to overtake any cars on their right immediately before making my left turn onto the bridge. Maybe he remembered he left the oven on.

E.g. Portway guy @ 3:20, yes you can ride it on the road, it might be a tad quicker at 20mph, but the surface is shit and you get a much more pleasant ride on the shared pavement path doing 12-15mph. Maybe he doesn't know this or had other reasons. (I admit I'm being a hypocrite here because I ride up and down the similar Hartcliffe Way on the road, ignoring the cycle path.)

The car driver is a plonker but if you disregard his bilious text, you can observe plenty of cyclists being equally plonkerish (=impatient).

I ride the Portway every day, I'm legally allowed to use the road and there's a cycleway painted onto the tarmac for a fair part of it. I'll use that cheers, fed up of the banana skins and other stuff from the running clubs and the number of punctures I've had since I stopped riding on it has been much much lower. I have had 3 punctures on one ride outbound on the path before - it's just not worth it. The only sketchy bit of surface is approaching the tunnel built to catch the jumpers where it's bumpy.

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bikebot | 9 years ago
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Good job there Mr Jedi.

So long as utter numpties such as him are the ones speaking against cycling investment, our work is already half done.

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brooksby | 9 years ago
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@ jediknight 1345 in Bristol - "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

Seriously, man, most of those cyclists were doing stuff they are completely legally allowed to do. Deal with it.  37

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bendertherobot | 9 years ago
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Is that it? all of that? A few dumb and illegal acts but the rest?

Seems to pass pretty close to cyclists as well. And shout as he passes them doing something legal.

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Bob's Bikes | 9 years ago
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That chap from Bristol complains bitterly about the cyclists in his video but fails to say ANYTHING re the car in front of him who's near side brake light isn't working!

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denzzz28 | 9 years ago
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Re: Cyclist in Bristol video Part 1

This guy have a "absolutely!" no idea on what he's talking about. he needs to go out and ride a bike. I really hope he can read this as he turned off the comments on his video.

first off, "road tax???????" after almost 80 years since it has been abolished in 1937, most motorist still dont know it doesnt exist anymore. Roads are now paid for via general and local taxation. they are still confusing "Car tax" to "road tax". this means anyone who pay tax can use the roads and that includes everyone.

the only thing i agree with him is cyclist running through red lights. I myself hate those idiots! but overtaking is not "driving at the wrong side of the road" technically you are but youre not. as a motorist my self id rather have a cyclist overtaking than undertaking me.

oh by the way I also pay "Car tax" as i also have a car, I have personal liability insurance and I have bicycle insurance. the only thing I dont have is a seat belt on my bike as it is not been invented yet.

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HoldTheWheel replied to denzzz28 | 9 years ago
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Well said. The road tax/insurance/MOT argument is laughable.
Road tax doesn't exist, Vehicle Excise Duty does and based largely on emissions (some low emissions cars don't pay anything, are they not allowed to use the road either?).
A lot of us are members of BC/CTC and therefore have 3rd party liability and many of us have our bikes covered either through home insurance or specific bicycle insurance.
MOT? Why? How many bikes fall apart whilst riding? If you're brakes work and your tyres aren't worn out then what else is there to check. How would you check the millions of bikes in the country? Would it apply to kids bikes? Do you need it to ride on the road, but then if so, why not cycle paths because your dangerously under-maintained bike could fall part and parts could hit somebody walking their dog. My mums bikes been in the shed and hasn't been out for a couple of years, should it have had an MOT done on despite sitting there?

His video would be so much better if it wasn't so biased and wasn't based largely on what he finds inconvenient about cyclists, rather than cyclists acting dangerously and breaking the law. Let's not even mention the music.

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Hoisting on Petards replied to denzzz28 | 9 years ago
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Wonder how the guy will react to seeing his driving analysed, by Highway Code standards, (and him failing  1 ) - compared to his very own specially invented Code just for cyclists.

He's turned off comments? Fine - he can see it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dWFqvTtIic

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couldgetacarforthat | 9 years ago
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Classic FM drivers take the biscuit when it comes to self righteousness. He seriously needs to undo the top button of his shirt.

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