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#11
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Gentle morning commute... Grrr
On Feb 11, 5:48 pm, "PeteSig" wrote:
Riding into work today was feeling pretty good. The eighth day in a row of cycling, headed out with plenty of speed, negotiating the first few traffic bottlenecks smoothly. Then approaching the Whitehorse Rd crossing, moving well, clear of traffic with the green light, just one car waiting to turn right. Then... WTF! Whoah! The car is heading straight at me! Visions of me and my bike crashing across the bonnet. I hit the brakes hard, and the bike skids and spins. Unfortunate that it was to the left, into the line of the car's direction! We come to a halt with my bike in front of the car - back wheel just a centimetre or two from his bumper Probably not a good move, but involuntarily I let fly with a stream of abuse "What the f*%$!! Where did you get your licence? Out of a f*(%ing weeties packet!" I walked clear, across the intersection, just a tad shaken. Nothing from the driver, no wave, no aggro (good I guess) no sorry. Typical! So to the inscrutable oriental gentleman, in the red/brown 1980s Mitsubishi Magna - you are an insult! You need to wake up and develop some driving competencies Rest of the ride was much more peaceful. Even got a nice draft off a bus moving slowly in flowing traffic But it was a wake up call, to be ever-vigilant. -- Cheers Peter Ha! I can go one better than that! This morning, I was being overtaken by a beat-up courier truck (rainy weather) who was being overtaken by a snappy little Alfa, then Alfa driver realised there was a stopped truck in the filter lane ahead going right, so ducked a bit too hard in front of the courier, who rear ended him in the off-side quarter panel, pushing him along the road about 10 metres in front of me at approx. 40 km/h. There was a B-Double right behind me leaning hard on his air brakes. I thought I was going to die. Shiny suit real estate agent type Alfa driver got out and started to go the poor African courier dude, then tried to push him around. I had to play traffic cop in an attempt to stop shiny suit decking courier dude, who was really shaken up. I wasn't so stable with the adrenaline going, either. Finally, using my best Year 10 in the playgound dust-up control technique, I got them to talk to each other rationally. Then rode the remaining 500 metres to work and scraped the brown stains off my knicks. I'm still a bit jumpy typing this now. |
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#12
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Gentle morning commute... Grrr
BT Humble wrote:
On Feb 13, 9:14 pm, Aeek wrote: On 11 Feb 2008 21:06:18 GMT, Zebee Johnstone wrote: The two wheeler develops habits that move across into 4 wheels. The average four wheeler never develops those habits, never gets into active safety. I presume thats true of motos. Its definitely NOT true for some cyclists, especially somewhere like Canberra where you can ride almost entirely on shared paths and footpaths(legally). Well, they do develop habits, bad habits. Yep. Like the 3 schoolkids (all in separate incidents) this morning who, without exception, moved to the *right* when I called out "passing". It's pedestrians in general - and I don't know why. Whether it's on the footpath or in a shopping centre, it seems to me that MOST people will move to their right when approaching a passing situation. |
#13
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Gentle morning commute... Grrr
Peter Cremasco Wrote: It's pedestrians in general - and I don't know why. Whether it's on the footpath or in a shopping centre, it seems to me that MOST people will move to their right when approaching a passing situation. ... which is why I prefer to slow, but remain silent when passing people on shared paths. If they're in front of me, it's my responsibility to miss them. Can't stay silent all the time though, I have to say something if the whole path is blocked by a group walking along like brown's cows. Ritch -- ritcho |
#14
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Gentle morning commute... Grrr
On Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:09:25 +1100, ritcho
wrote: .. which is why I prefer to slow, but remain silent when passing people on shared paths. If they're in front of me, it's my responsibility to miss them. I say "Good Morning!" as I do that (in the morning). Defuses any agro about not ringing my bell. |
#15
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Gentle morning commute... Grrr
In aus.bicycle on Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:26:59 +1100
Aeek wrote: On Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:09:25 +1100, ritcho wrote: .. which is why I prefer to slow, but remain silent when passing people on shared paths. If they're in front of me, it's my responsibility to miss them. I say "Good Morning!" as I do that (in the morning). Defuses any agro about not ringing my bell. I gave up on voice because so few people thought it was directed at them. Whereas most peds on a path can make the bell-bicycle-move connection. I ring reasonably early and watch for which way they move. Had 2 the other day who went one to each side, so I slowed right down to ride between them. Mostly they'll move one side or the other. If they are already off to one side, I'll go as far as I can to the other side. Zebee |
#16
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Gentle morning commute... Grrr
Zebee Johnstone wrote in
: In aus.bicycle on Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:26:59 +1100 Aeek wrote: On Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:09:25 +1100, ritcho wrote: .. which is why I prefer to slow, but remain silent when passing people on shared paths. If they're in front of me, it's my responsibility to miss them. I say "Good Morning!" as I do that (in the morning). Defuses any agro about not ringing my bell. I gave up on voice because so few people thought it was directed at them. Whereas most peds on a path can make the bell-bicycle-move connection. I ring reasonably early and watch for which way they move. Had 2 the other day who went one to each side, so I slowed right down to ride between them. Mostly they'll move one side or the other. If they are already off to one side, I'll go as far as I can to the other side. I do any or all of the things mentioned so far, depending on time of day, location and my assessment of the peds' activities and body language as I approach. Bell and voice are useless if the ped is wearing earphones, but the very worst ones are those who are having an argument with somebody on the other end of a mobile. They can jump all over the place without regard for anything coming up behind. I note that signs have recently gone up on Pyrmont Bridge, restricting the south side to pedestrians only. That is a good idea. Now if only they would paint a nice big green strip down the other side, with little white bicycles painted at frequent intervals. -- beerwolf |
#17
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Gentle morning commute... Grrr
On 15 Feb 2008 11:23:19 GMT, Zebee Johnstone wrote:
In aus.bicycle on Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:26:59 +1100 Aeek wrote: I say "Good Morning!" as I do that (in the morning). Defuses any agro about not ringing my bell. I gave up on voice because so few people thought it was directed at them. Whereas most peds on a path can make the bell-bicycle-move connection. My voice is too late to affect them, just being "friendly". I bell sometimes, and sometimes I have a bell. |
#18
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Gentle morning commute... Grrr
Aeek wrote:
On 15 Feb 2008 11:23:19 GMT, Zebee Johnstone wrote: In aus.bicycle on Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:26:59 +1100 Aeek wrote: I say "Good Morning!" as I do that (in the morning). Defuses any agro about not ringing my bell. I gave up on voice because so few people thought it was directed at them. Whereas most peds on a path can make the bell-bicycle-move connection. My voice is too late to affect them, just being "friendly". I bell sometimes, and sometimes I have a bell. My experience is mostly based on Canberra's mixed use recreation paths - note that they are not cycle paths despite the white line down the middle. My voice is big enough to be effective, and seems to produce a more predictable outcome than any bell, buzzer or horn. I call "bike behind" in a sonorous voice and they mostly do the right thing. Most predictable - single joggers. Least preductable - groups of four talking and strolling. Most dangerous - two people with three dogs. |
#19
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Gentle morning commute... Grrr
beerwolf wrote:
Zebee Johnstone wrote in I ring reasonably early and watch for which way they move. Had 2 the other day who went one to each side, so I slowed right down to ride between them. Mostly they'll move one side or the other. If they are already off to one side, I'll go as far as I can to the other side. I do any or all of the things mentioned so far, depending on time of day, location and my assessment of the peds' activities and body language as I approach. Bell and voice are useless if the ped is wearing earphones, but the very worst ones are those who are having an argument with somebody on the other end of a mobile. They can jump all over the place without regard for anything coming up behind. The best (worse?) I've come across was the bloke who, as I approached from the rear with a "excuse me, coming through on the right", told his girlfriend who was walking side-by-side with him to "stay where you are - don't get off the path". Which is one reason why I really do prefer mixing it with traffic on the road, rather than shared lanes. |
#20
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Gentle morning commute... Grrr
Peter Cremasco wrote:
The best (worse?) I've come across was the bloke who, as I approached from the rear with a "excuse me, coming through on the right", told his girlfriend who was walking side-by-side with him to "stay where you are - don't get off the path". Which is one reason why I really do prefer mixing it with traffic on the road, rather than shared lanes. LOL, reminds of the time I was trying to get my motorbike up onto the footpath in the CBD at the lights. A group of young stockbroker types (I worked just up from the Exchange) were kind of in my way when one of them deliberately moved in front of me (with a smirk to his mates) so I couldn't get up onto the footpath. He soon found out that wet tyres and dirty roads combine to make a big mark on a nice clean suit when he was nudged out of the way. DaveB |
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