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Posted

I used to drive big trucks so I am quite familiar with the blind spot phenomenon. It amazes me how utterly clueless some people can be!

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Posted

That could partly be simply lack of awareness, I remember seeing a programme where a cycle campaigner was made to sit in the cab of a truck, and they were suitably surprised to find how invisible a cyclist can be. Many lorries now have far better mirrors and sensors than ever before, but the driver cannot look everywhere at once. 

It is not just cyclists and pedestrians either, 'if you cannot see my mirrors, I cannot see you' is equally aimed at those motorists who are seemingly just as oblivious.

As the above post also shows, 'no reversing without a banksman' is an all too necessary requirement in many situations.

Many of the above posts have mentioned mobile phones as a factor, it seems that many now simply fixate on their phone and any other task like walking or pushing a buggy is simply a thoughtless automatic process that occurs whilst they text.

 

Matt

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Posted
On 11/15/2024 at 1:09 PM, treker_ed said:

She was NOT at a junction, She was NOT waiting to cross - she literally stepped out. She had given NO indication of wanting to cross the road as I had turned right into the road, driven about 20 meters, along the road and then she stepped out into the road, without any warning whatsoever! I literally had to swerve out of the way to avoid hitting her, because she decided to put herself, and her child in danger by just stepping out and not giving me any chance of being able to stop in time! That was the issue! I had already turned right INTO the road before she had started to cross the road. As she started to cross the road, she looked straight at me, saw me and still carried on crossing! She was at fault in that instance, not me! I literally COULD NOT HAVE STOPPED IN TIME due to the way she just stepped out into the road. All i could do was to swerve out of the way. It is only sheer luck no other vehicles were around at the time.

 

 

My money's on the metal vehicle , not the squishy meat-sack.   Irrespective of what the highway code says, surely self-preservation dictates that you should avoid getting into arguements with vehicles when on foot,as you're going to come off much much worse ?

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Posted

To carry on the cycle way discussion, designing cycle ways is about the only sort of highway engineering my team gets commissioned to do.  We do a lot of work trying to get designs to the current English standard (local transport note 1/20) but trees, gas pipes and houses get in the way so we end up compromising in places but generally we achive a good width with segregation from the carriageway and in urban areas these routes cost millions of pounds each to build. Yet they are little used. It’s got to be a rare thing that HM Government spends a lot of money on things the public doesn’t bother to use. 
 

Chris

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Posted
53 minutes ago, Chrisj2003 said:

Yet they are little used. It’s got to be a rare thing that HM Government spends a lot of money on things the public doesn’t bother to use. 

Its a strange one. My understanding is that councils were given money (Active travel fund) to produce cycle paths (amongst other things). It seems the only metric for success was the miles of cycle path produced, so I suspect this influences where they were put them more than actual cyclist's requirements. 

 

Cheers

 

Colin

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Posted
1 hour ago, Chrisj2003 said:

 It’s got to be a rare thing that HM Government spends a lot of money on things the public doesn’t bother to use. 
 

Chris

It happens all the time here in the States! 💸

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Posted

There is a steep hill in town, and many mornings you will see a queue of traffic waiting to overtake a cyclist going up rather slowly.

 

There is, on the other side of the road, a cycle lane on an expanded double wide pavement.

 

According to local cyclists, they don't use it because "its on the wrong side".

 

Now, they could only make it on that side, because they had to widen the pavement, and that side of the road was the side with the council owned verges/bushes that they could remove, the other side would have required removing peoples front hedges etc and using part of their gardens, so not really an option.

 

The other issue, which I can agree with, is that with the cycle way being incorporated in to the footpath, every time it comes to a junction it stops. Ideally they should have moved the path and widened the road, but that would probably have been very expensive to do.

 

And now it is late autumn, the cycle way is covered in leaves that are slippery when wet and lethal when frozen and the council isn't clearing them away. Oh, and the part opposite the primary school is just the right size to park your 4x4 on for the school run, or the Amazon Van...

 

But, boxes were ticked and a cycle lane built, and no doubt the council patted themselves on the back and posed for pictures when it was opened...

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Posted
34 minutes ago, John_W said:

The other issue, which I can agree with, is that with the cycle way being incorporated in to the footpath, every time it comes to a junction it stops. Ideally they should have moved the path and widened the road, but that would probably have been very expensive to do.

 

 

Ok that isn't current standards, cycle and pedestrian priority across the junction should be established by drop kerbs and marking or where practical a table.

 

Chris

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Posted

You should see the cycle lanes that go over the Grosvenor Bridge in Chester.  They're incredibly narrow, but so is the road, and the traffic lanes are consequently now SO narrow that you can barely fit your wheels between them.  If you're a truck or a bus, forget it.  I was behind a bus one day, and its wheels were well outside, and there wasn't even a bike in the lane.  TBH, the cycle lane isn't often used either, and stops just after the bridge. :shrug: 

 

This is the same council that unilaterally introduced a ton of Bus Lanes a few years ago, and on the day they were opened, Chester ground to a halt.  Every single road into and out of Chester was jammed, and you couldn't get anywhere without huge delays.  After several weeks of campaigning by the locals, the "paused" the lanes, and have left them that way ever since, which confuses the hell out of any non-locals that join the road after any of the few signs that advise of this.  They're probably too proud to remove them, as it would admit failure, and cost more money.  The cretins have all the planning skills of a stale sausage roll. :poop:

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Posted
3 hours ago, Chrisj2003 said:

established by drop kerbs and marking or where practical a table.

Probably expressing a lack of knowledge here - but what's a 'table' in this context?

Posted

"Table" sections of road are usually situated at junctions so that each approach is a speed ramp. The city that I live in, every junction round the housing estates (bar a few older areas and major roads) has them.

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Posted
On 15/11/2024 at 13:52, Mike said:

As a former cyclist, I am sick of others not obeying the rules giving the rest of us a bad name.  

 

You are lucky.  For the first time we both have BMW's in the household so one look at the car no one expects us to indicate far less be a courteous driver.  I find I try really hard to disappoint heir expectations  :D

 

On the matter of cyclists my wife pointed out that while out and about on our country roads we stop for them where the road is narrow and slow right down if the road is wide enough to pass or if they are coming through from the other direction and we give them a cheery wave.  No recognition and they all look so flaming miserable.  Cycling is supposed to be fun yet never seen a happy cyclist yet around our way.  Walkers, horse riders and other drivers yes but cyclists, no. :shrug:  We get excessively wavy and smiley just to wind the miserable gits up. 

 

Anyone driven in Edinburgh recently?  They don't need traffic calming measures there.  I have never seen so many potholes and very deep ones at that.  There is one street in Colinton Mains that looks like the army at nearby Redford Barracks had been using it for extended mortar practise.  I don't mean the odd regular pothole but dozens of big ones six inches deep and 18 inches wide within say a 10 feet length and that goes on for hundreds of yards at a time.  Really dangerous for car drivers, cyclists, motor bikers and pedestrians all alike.  I've never seen anything like it.  It is pretty bad on other streets too.   I have learned to pick my routes carefully when going into the city

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Posted

Brandon in Suffolk is similar.  A year ago the council had a big blitz and fixed all the potholes.  Made a really good job of it as well.   Unfortunately it didn't last.  The main road is the A1065 which carries a lot of HGV traffic.  It's now as bad as it ever was.   I've seen villages in Afghanistan with better roads.  :sad: 

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Posted
2 hours ago, Enzo the Magnificent said:

Brandon in Suffolk is similar.  A year ago the council had a big blitz and fixed all the potholes.  Made a really good job of it as well.   Unfortunately it didn't last.  The main road is the A1065 which carries a lot of HGV traffic.  It's now as bad as it ever was.   I've seen villages in Afghanistan with better roads.  :sad: 

They don't seem to use tar to seal around the edges near me any more, so consequently the weather gets in, and after the first freeze the road just turns into a gravelly mess.  No supervision, no skills, and not a care about the job they're doing. :(

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Posted

A lot of councils have stopped  using the tar or rubberised asphalt to seal edges because it was very smooth with no grip. Put on in too wide a strip it was found to be dangerous for motorcyclists and even bicyclists

I had many a spill in an area I lived until I persuaded that council to stop using the 'over banding'

 

On the pedestrian crossing the road at a corner et cetera

I will always give way to a pedestrian crossing or waiting to cross, as per the Highway Code

But, but. . . I had a case the other day.

I was turning right into a minor road from a major one

I turned right on the green light and nearly hit a ped. 

They were crossing the minor road, on the green man on the lights of the ped crossing

Somehow the two green lights came on at the same time

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Posted
22 minutes ago, Black Knight said:

Somehow the two green lights came on at the same time

 

That's scary!  If that case ever came to court I can see someone from the local authority going to jail over that.

Posted
On 11/21/2024 at 11:15 PM, Black Knight said:

I was turning right into a minor road from a major one

I turned right on the green light and nearly hit a ped. 

They were crossing the minor road, on the green man on the lights of the ped crossing

Somehow the two green lights came on at the same time

We have the same traffic regulation mentioned earlier concerning pedestrians, which deals with that issue - basically, if the motorist is performing a turn, and the pedestrian crossing is following the travel direction of the main road then the pedestrian has right of way (because the motorist is 'exiting' the major travel direction) regardless of traffic lights - the general rules still have precedence. 
You clearly have something similar. It's an often overlooked part though...

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