Riding on pavements: Two reminders this morning.

[ngalbrai]

1) A small part of the start of my commute I ride up the pavement to join the road at the pedestrian crossing at a set of lights, this morning I fell into the trap of not paying enough attention and crossed a road without looking, nearly got hit by a car (WAKE UP), totally my fault, apologised to driver, off we went.
2) On the road now but only about a minute later and I am turning left, guy shoots off the pavement, nearly hits me, brakes and clatters to the ground. I moved of from a road green and the ped light probably had gone green too but I just didn’t see the guy on the bike as he was travelling so much faster than a ped would be and wasn’t in my field of vision, I checked he was ok and he called me an a-hole several times, off we went.

Anyway I accept fault for both of these but it’s a reminder to me from two angles that the best place for a bike to be is on the road in the primary position. I will be altering my route slightly now to remove the small and only section that’s on the pavement. I hadn't the heart to point out to the guy that crashed that if I had been a car he would have crashed into the side of me and that he still has to look himself.

[ColinOldnCranky]

1) A small part of the start of my commute I ride up the pavement to join the road at the pedestrian crossing at a set of lights, this morning I fell into the trap of not paying enough attention and crossed a road without looking, nearly got hit by a car (WAKE UP), totally my fault, apologised to driver, off we went.
2) On the road now but only about a minute later and I am turning left, guy shoots off the pavement, nearly hits me, brakes and clatters to the ground. I moved of from a road green and the ped light probably had gone green too but I just didn’t see the guy on the bike as he was travelling so much faster than a ped would be and wasn’t in my field of vision, I checked he was ok and he called me an a-hole several times, off we went.

Anyway I accept fault for both of these but it’s a reminder to me from two angles that the best place for a bike to be is on the road in the primary position. I will be altering my route slightly now to remove the small and only section that’s on the pavement. I hadn't the heart to point out to the guy that crashed that if I had been a car he would have crashed into the side of me and that he still has to look himself.

Am I reading it right? He was coming off the footpath? If that was so in most jurisdictions in Oz he is not allowed to be there (with a few exceptions). Regardless, any tool who is travelling faster than the norm is a fool to expect others to factor that in - there is too much already for the mind to absorb and process.

[ngalbrai]

Yes he was on the footpath, the fact that he was unable to brake in a straight line was evidence of his cylcing skills.

[Summernight]

One of my greatest fears when driving my car is that I will be turning left and checking for peds etc. who may be stepping out from the footpath, and not see a cyclist who may be barrelling down the footpath at road speed. I check to the left of my car on the road just in case a cyclist is coming on my left (when I'm turning left) and I check the footpath prior to the turn, but it is still there in the back of my mind.

Once, years ago, my father was driving the car (I was a passenger) and we're about to come up on an intersection and turn left (intersection has a stop sign), and a skateboarder comes burning out from behind the building on the corner and shoots in front of us without even checking his speed or checking the road. He was about two metres from the stop line on our side, so any usual car will drive up to the stop line and stop there to check the intersecting road. Lucky for the skateboarder that my father was already slowing down for the intersection so could stop faster but the skateboarder still missed the bonnet by centimetres. I think that experience has just stuck in my mind.

[ishanhoupe]

so true, i definitely see many incidents like this on a weekly basis while commuting. Ride safe guys!