Moron Motorists #3

[BianchiCam]

OK, so hooked up the go pro and filmed the part where that nob in the Navara decided to MGIF just in front of the roundabout.

[outnabike]

This is really just testing my new mobius camera the other day. And whilst viewing it with the very good VLC free viewer I came upon this stunt and took some stills from the video. It is a bit shaky in the video dept, and that is on a stable helmet mount, but as far as taking number plates it is excellent.

Not really a MM but more your average Joe unskilled driver that we see every day. It just shows that we can flood the police with complaints if we want to.
I am coming down a hill from a mates place and easily fall in line behind this car.



We are both going a short bit left and then we will turn right.



Have a look at the road markings and where the driver in front takes their line. I reckon that cabbie on the front line is thinking "Holy crap"



At first I thought they were going to clip the stationary car in the road we were turning into.Bur conrats are in order and they made it OK.
Of course I stuck to the grid, signalled, and followed the arrow with no problem.

[dmwill]

Team Sky Bus driver using phone while driving.

Seems it was taken down at some point after I made a comment.

[InTheWoods]

Not sure what this bus driver was thinking, he gets up very close and personal. He was trying to pass me with maybe 25cm to clear, when he got up really close I had to put my right arm out to try to dissuade him (I had my eye on him in my mirror). There was a queue of vehicles and a red light in front, I never saw him again so its not as if he was at all delayed.

To my right is a stupid BAZ, with cars parked in it, and I have had people throw their doors open without warning along here before.

[outnabike]

The calibration marks worked better than a flag, He was too scared to run over them. It looks a good set up.

[Mulger bill]

Driving lessons with the lad...

Freeway, he's holding his 2-3 second gap in lane 2/3. Nil right, two at about 7 O'clock, speed close to limit.

We're ~80M from an exit when the bloke at 12 O'clock decides it's HIS exit and noone will stop him getting there. Yep, out with the anchors and hard a'port Cap'n.

VERY impressed with the lads perception and reactions, he was off the throttle before the brake lights came on. Discussing it later he said he "had a feeling."

Irony on the way home, he's RH lane, overtaking legal when an X5 screams up behind doing the full highbeam/horn thing. The lad moves over when clear, the X5 sticks the boot in but before it's got 30m in front there's a Landy monstertruck thing giving her the same "I'm bigger than you, outta my way!" treatment.

[GeoffInBrisbane]

Had a good one this morning. Montague Rd, West End. Stopped at the first red, bloke in white Holden drew alongside, asked if he could cut in front (ie cut right back into our lane) when the lights changed. No problem. Nice chap. He did so. The next light was also red, so he stopped. We roll up behind, light turns green, he pulls away and we keep rolling. Ms Toyota can't possibly wait to pass (we claim the lane at this spot on the ride, it is safer, especially with the Zebra crossing and the right turn into Hope St) so cuts into the right turn lane and tries to go straight on. Drives alongside the pack while on the wrong side of the road with approaching vehicles...

EDIT: sorry about the poor blurriness. Must have smooshed the lens with my sweaty hand at the end of the previous ride and nkt realised it!

[mikeyg63]

Driving lessons with the lad...

Freeway, he's holding his 2-3 second gap in lane 2/3. Nil right, two at about 7 O'clock, speed close to limit.

We're ~80M from an exit when the bloke at 12 O'clock decides it's HIS exit and noone will stop him getting there. Yep, out with the anchors and hard a'port Cap'n.

VERY impressed with the lads perception and reactions, he was off the throttle before the brake lights came on. Discussing it later he said he "had a feeling."

Irony on the way home, he's RH lane, overtaking legal when an X5 screams up behind doing the full highbeam/horn thing. The lad moves over when clear, the X5 sticks the boot in but before it's got 30m in front there's a Landy monstertruck thing giving her the same "I'm bigger than you, outta my way!" treatment.

I hope your lad is not put off by the MM's.

I genuinely believe that as well as having to pass the technical aspects of driving through a test they should also test on courtesy and patience. I don't know how that could be applied in a test but nowadays there seems to be a lack of courtesy and patience.

[skull]

Not sure what this bus driver was thinking, he gets up very close and personal.

That is a defence vehicle.

[jasonc]

Had a good one this morning.

that's a nissan not a toyota

[GeoffInBrisbane]

Is it? Rats. If I hadn't gone for the soft focus effect I could probably have seen the badge...

[yugyug]

Team Sky Bus driver using phone while driving.

Seems it was taken down at some point after I made a comment.

"Snitches get stitches" would otherwise be a kinda funny comment, but the thumbs down after it just make that commentator sound like a nob.

Anyway, that driver doesn't deserve to be driving a pro-cycling team bus. Doesn't deserve to be driving at all.

[Boognoss]

Bit too hard to actually look for traffic already on the roundabout. Clearly.

[Summernight]

Road rager - Couldn't cope with little ol' me on a bike on the road at 8.00PM last night. Virtually no other traffic around, so I don't understand his angst.

Warning: language



No bike lane, parked cars, tram on my right and not enough space to share the lane. I'm claiming it, thank you very much. I made absolutely no indication at any time that I'd heard him at all. I don't think he liked that.

And he certainly didn't like that my take-off at the set of lights was so so slow given I was in too heavy a gear. Whoops.

[ldrcycles]

Road rager - Couldn't cope with little ol' me on a bike on the road at 8.00PM last night. Virtually no other traffic around, so I don't understand his angst.

Warning: language



No bike lane, parked cars, tram on my right and not enough space to share the lane. I'm claiming it, thank you very much. I made absolutely no indication at any time that I'd heard him at all. I don't think he liked that.

And he certainly didn't like that my take-off at the set of lights was so so slow given I was in too heavy a gear. Whoops.

What a tosser. I had a bloke in a new mercedes benz behind me last night (driving home) who flashed his high beams at me for daring to only do the limit and not speed like he wanted to. Problem was with the fancy new lights he had (HID or LED?) high beam even for a split second was incredibly dangerous, if my rear view mirror had been angled just slightly differently i would have been temporarily blinded.

[Scarfy96]

Not sure what this bus driver was thinking, he gets up very close and personal. He was trying to pass me with maybe 25cm to clear, when he got up really close I had to put my right arm out to try to dissuade him (I had my eye on him in my mirror). There was a queue of vehicles and a red light in front, I never saw him again so its not as if he was at all delayed.

To my right is a stupid BAZ, with cars parked in it, and I have had people throw their doors open without warning along here before.

So just ride wider. Don't invite them to pass you by riding a little bit wide and then stick your arm out to dissuade them, ride in the middle of the lane or in the verge, not just a little bit into the lane. Motorists see a gap and think they can squeeze through, if you don't want them to think about that don't present them the gap.

This graphic shows why but there is a great one showing how motorists think their car will fit when it doesn't.

[InTheWoods]

I understand your point. Being a single lane road, I think it could be argued that if I ride in the middle of that lane I am not riding as far as practicable to the left of the lane. While riding in the dooring zone is not practicable, it is practicable to ride outside of it. I'm not sure the fact that some drivers are tossers and will shave you as a result doesn't mean its not practicable to ride in the left of the lane. Then again, its not like a motorbike rider is expected to ride to the left of the lane - but there is a specific exclusion for motorbikes having to obey this rule, there is no exclusion for bicycles. See 129 (2).

Having said that, it didn't stop me from riding in the middle of the lane on this road a bit further up this morning. Cue angry engine revving pass from a car who had not been held up as I was matching the speed of the car in front. He then had to slam on his brakes to avoid crashing into said car in front... Must have personal inadequacies.

[Scarfy96]

I understand your point. Being a single lane road, I think it could be argued that if I ride in the middle of that lane I am not riding as far as practicable to the left of the lane. While riding in the dooring zone is not practicable, it is practicable to ride outside of it.

Sure but that still puts you in danger of a close pass. If I have to ride wide at speed then I take the lane, I would prefer a revving engine or a honking horn than a side swipe or a mirror to the back of the head.

If a copper wants to pull me up for it I will explain my situation, if he wants to book me I will explain it to the judge.

Each situation is individual and you have to make a judgement call but if you don't think there is sufficient room for a car to pass you safely if you are riding outside of the door zone then take the entire lane and force the issue. Your safety is more important. When I take the lane I always try to take it considerately and for as little time as possible, if for example I know I am holding up some traffic and I see a long run of clear space on the left where parked cars are normally but there is like 10 or 15 blank parks in a row I will pull into those and wave cars past, slow a fraction if need be and then pull back into traffic where there is a decent gap. I take the lane a LOT and rarely ever cop any angst from motorists, maybe I am just lucky.

[InTheWoods]

I do get it.

My main concern is if I either receive a close pass, or get hit, I may be found to be at least partly to blame as I was disobeying the road rules at the time. The police don't need any excuses to not take any action over accidents or close shaves as it is. I don't want to hand over excuses on a platter.

[Scarfy96]

If you are riding wider and get a close pass you can still react by quickly drifting left 30cm or so.

Each to their own. I ride with a group of guys at times who gutter hug and then complain when someone passes them. I keep pointing out that if you leave them the opening they will take it. Don't leave the opening and don't give them the opportunity. Nothing works 100% of the time and even less with total morons but every time you go on the road (even if driving) you are rolling the dice, I try to stack them as strongly in my favour as possible that's all. It is hard from a 30s video grab on youtube but a lot of the incidents posted in this thread (NOT all) I think could be totally avoided with more assertive road positioning. I agree I wasn't there so can't 100% comprehend the situation so I may not always be right about that in any particular instance but that is my opinion.

[InTheWoods]

I do agree on the whole, I just prefer to claim my space when needed in a legal manner. At least the bus didn't actually pass, and I'm not sure if it was my arm or a change of mind that stopped him from making the pass.

Last night I went through cleaning up videos from the last couple of years to free up hard disk space. (Didn't delete them, just cropped and compressed them). It was interesting to see how bad some of the passes were in the past, yet this year I haven't had anything as dangerous as some of those in previous years. At first I thought it was road position but I was as bold then as I was now looking at the vids. The road where I used to have most of my problems, I now get the occasional tailgate or horn, but nothing like the shockers I've had before (so far). Its like all the punishment passes have been shifted out an extra 1-2 feet.

I can only think the increased education (or the threat of a fine) with the new rule has resulted in an improvement in behaviour.

I still get close passes but more in the 75cm-100cm range and I do not report these. I would if it was accompanied by horn abuse or tailgating, but haven't had that combo yet. Everybody who gets on the horn backs right off as soon as I point to the usually empty lane beside me - and my 2 cameras.

Closest one this year was yesterday, but not where I normally have trouble - and it was going from an almost standstill at lights and the driver was just a crap driver rather than actually malicious. If they had clipped me I would have maybe fallen over and scraped my knee. Last year I was getting close passes at 40-50kmh.

[yugyug]

IntheWoods, maybe by your definition of what practicable you are already breaking the law by not riding in the doorzone. Why is it practicable to avoid a potential risk like being doored, but not practicable to avoid a risk like being hit by a close pass?

You get to decide what's practicable, not the driver behind you.

[InTheWoods]

IntheWoods, maybe by your definition of what practicable you are already breaking the law by not riding in the doorzone. Why is it practicable to avoid a potential risk like being doored, but not practicable to avoid a risk like being hit by a close pass?

You get to decide what's practicable, not the driver behind you.

In this instance, you are incorrect - I'm not breaking the law by avoiding the doorzone - as the keep left as far as practicable only applies to the road lane, so I am not required to ride on the shoulder of the road (which is where the dooring zone is on this road).

[jules21]

motoring editor punched in confrontation over close pass of cyclist
i'm sick of these aggressive arrogant cyclists. or is that motorists? i'm confused

[human909]

I understand your point. Being a single lane road, I think it could be argued that if I ride in the middle of that lane I am not riding as far as practicable to the left of the lane. While riding in the dooring zone is not practicable, it is practicable to ride outside of it. I'm not sure the fact that some drivers are tossers and will shave you as a result doesn't mean its not practicable to ride in the left of the lane. Then again, its not like a motorbike rider is expected to ride to the left of the lane - but there is a specific exclusion for motorbikes having to obey this rule, there is no exclusion for bicycles. See 129 (2).

I prefer not to make excuses to myself on why I should compromise my own safety....

Up to you but I personally would be riding wider.