The Dumb Cyclists and Pedestrians thread...

[herzog]

Yeah fancy prioritizing people over motor vehicles!

FWIW, most European countries provide crossings in the throats of roundabouts and it is a good thing in my view.

In oz, drivers charge into roundabouts looking ONLY to their right and ignoring the fact that every entry point to a roundabout is a give way sign.

Bring on the crossings. If it slows down the motorists and actually forces them to look, it's a good thing.

[malnar]

True. I need to turn left into Heaths Rd at a roundabout near home. Heaths Rd is a 70k zone & the drivers on Heaths have unblocked visibility to the right as they approach the roundabout. This typically means vehicles go through at about 60 ks. This makes my left turn into Heaths quite tricky in a car. If I was to get hit in the drivers side rear corner it would be impossible for me to prove that when I commenced my left turn the roundabout was vacant.

Thankfully I don't do this route on a bike.

[Myrtone]

Yeah fancy prioritizing people over motor vehicles!

FWIW, most European countries provide crossings in the throats of roundabouts and it is a good thing in my view.

In oz, drivers charge into roundabouts looking ONLY to their right and ignoring the fact that every entry point to a roundabout is a give way sign.

Bring on the crossings. If it slows down the motorists and actually forces them to look, it's a good thing.

1) In some cases, it may be better to locate pedestrian crossings midblock. But note that cyclists can be road users too,
2) But anyone already in the roundabout is on their right.
3)But it would do the same with cyclists sharing the road space, is that a good thing?

[herzog]

2) But anyone already in the roundabout is on their right.

No, sometimes they are right in front of you.

[trailgumby]

Yeah fancy prioritizing people over motor vehicles!

FWIW, most European countries provide crossings in the throats of roundabouts and it is a good thing in my view.

In oz, drivers charge into roundabouts looking ONLY to their right and ignoring the fact that every entry point to a roundabout is a give way sign.

Bring on the crossings. If it slows down the motorists and actually forces them to look, it's a good thing.

+ 50 million

[Summernight]

2) But anyone already in the roundabout is on their right.

No, sometimes they are right in front of you.

O.M.Gosh... That's brutal. Are you healed from that accident?

[herzog]

Fortunately it wasn't me, but you're right, it was a decent hit.

Rider was doing everything right too.

[VRE]

Fortunately it wasn't me, but you're right, it was a decent hit.

Rider was doing everything right too.

I don't completely agree with that - he was hugging the left kerb heading towards the roundabout, when ideally he should have claimed the lane well before the roundabout.

Any information on how he recovered? It looks like he copped a pretty solid hit .

[bychosis]

I think he was on the news or topical current affairs program at the time as having only minor injuries. NSW Central Coast from memory.

Needs to get lock out for the suspension though, eyes are still bouncing.

[find_bruce]

Fortunately it wasn't me, but you're right, it was a decent hit.

Rider was doing everything right too.

I don't completely agree with that - he was hugging the left kerb heading towards the roundabout, when ideally he should have claimed the lane well before the roundabout.

Any information on how he recovered? It looks like he copped a pretty solid hit .

I agree that he could have moved more positively to the right, to ride in a similar position as he did before the merge. As it turned out, I don't think it made any difference to the cause of the collision, but that's not what you are suggesting is it ?

[VRE]

Fortunately it wasn't me, but you're right, it was a decent hit.

Rider was doing everything right too.

I don't completely agree with that - he was hugging the left kerb heading towards the roundabout, when ideally he should have claimed the lane well before the roundabout.

Any information on how he recovered? It looks like he copped a pretty solid hit .

I agree that he could have moved more positively to the right, to ride in a similar position as he did before the merge. As it turned out, I don't think it made any difference to the cause of the collision, but that's not what you are suggesting is it ?

You're right, I'm not suggesting it made any difference to the collision, only disagreeing with "rider was doing everything right" (and hopefully herzog won't be annoyed with me for saying that ).

[skull]

2) But anyone already in the roundabout is on their right.

No, sometimes they are right in front of you.

O.M.Gosh... That's brutal. Are you healed from that accident?

Why was he talking about a far canal for at the end?

He just got hit by a car

[zero]

Fortunately it wasn't me, but you're right, it was a decent hit.

Rider was doing everything right too.

I don't completely agree with that - he was hugging the left kerb heading towards the roundabout, when ideally he should have claimed the lane well before the roundabout.

Any information on how he recovered? It looks like he copped a pretty solid hit .

I agree that he could have moved more positively to the right, to ride in a similar position as he did before the merge. As it turned out, I don't think it made any difference to the cause of the collision, but that's not what you are suggesting is it ?

Lane position is fine, and largely unrelated to this accident - he went behind all the traffic travelling on the same road as him and I'd presume he head checked the move. ie quite possibly nobody behind him - the entry/exit divider is massive and anyone past the exit clearly signals their intention to proceed simply by being there - ie the driver had multiple seconds to be aware the rider was going straight and to give way, and the rider is plainly visible. Poor driver, combined with overly free roundabout entry path.

[find_bruce]

We are in furious agreement zero

[twizzle]

Driver would have to be drunk or blind to miss the flouro jacket. They are extremely eye-catching.


Sent from my iThingy...

[PB12IN]

Riding along the broadwater shared paths in southport with my 3 year old on her bike, my 2 year old on her trike and my brother in law (with downs) on him BMX, old lady walking her rat, sorry I have trouble calling things like that dogs, with no leash. Stupid rat runs in front of both me 3 year old and Brother in law, neither of which has the greatest control of their bikes (they can stay up right but both wobble and swerve slightly) they both manage to avoid rat, my brother in law fell off doing so, I'm coming up behind and it runs infront of me too (I'm not stoppng I want to get to BIL). Old lady says to me, oh he always runs in front of bikes. I managed not to go off as I had my kids with me and they didn't need to see that.

I can't imagine how bad it would have been if either daughter of BIL had hit it. BIL was in the car once when I hit a bird and he had nightmares for days.

Made me very angry, old women with dogs are the only thing that has ever caused me problems on shared paths.

[Percrime]

THe correct response is. "OK I,ll be back in a few minutes. If he runs in front of me again it will be the very last time" The trick is, you have to mean it

[K2]

THe correct response is. "OK I,ll be back in a few minutes. If he runs in front of me again it will be the very last time" The trick is, you have to mean it

Assuming you mean that you have to convey the threat with conviction rather than actually intending to punish the animal for the owner's stupidity, I'd counter with - unfortunately, that isn't always enough...

During the floods up here I was out taking some photos. At a local park I dismounted about 20m away from a lady on a mobile who had four rats milling about her. As I was leaning the bike up against a car barrier I felt one of the rats bounce off my leg. A glance down revealed it had tried to devour me, although because they are not blessed with massive brains, this one had attempted to do so vertically! [Your regular dog will turn its head sideways when going for a leg....all the better to get a good grip]. In effect it pretty much just bumped into me with its front teeth leaving only a couple of small scratches and I didn't think too much about it. I've had worse wounds from road debris flicking up off the front wheel.

After taking some shots I rode round to the other side of the park, and had the same rat chase me for about 50m before running out of steam. I'd just started framing a shot when phone lady rounds the corner with her quartet of rats leading the way. Same rat makes a beeline for me and proceeds to repeatedly run at my legs. I managed to dissuade it by turning to face it each time it ran at me but was quickly loosing patience.

So, as the lady was just about passing I walked over to the roadside and politely [yes, I even managed a "please"] asked her to restrain her charges. She seemed annoyed about having to terminate her phone call, so when she'd finished I repeated my request. Her response was to question my manhood based on the fact that her rats were small!!! I then informed her I'd already been bitten by one, that it was still repeatedly trying to have another go, and again asked that she do something about it.

Now at this point I expect a normal person would at least internally have registered the bite comment and be weighing up the possible serious consequences that could ensue for both herself and her animals. Apparently my expectations were too high as she continued whittering on about small dogs and big men, so with all the intent I imagine you referred to, I explained that if she was unwilling to restrain them, the next time it ran at me it would become the recipient of a kick... which still didn't stop her inane onetrackedness.

Of course I love animals as much as the next person and would only resort to violence towards them if I [or someone else] was in any real danger, so when it made its next attack I waited until it thought I wasn't going to respond to lure it closer before stomping on the ground and in my best death metal grunty voice yelled at it with a very impolite instruction to go away. It did!

Turns out for all the good it'll do you, sometimes you're better off taking up the case directly with the little one with the tiny brain. [Er, that'd be the hairy little one with the tiny brain....just in case you're dealing with someone of restricted height....or the nonbipedal little hairy one with the tiny brain if you're dealing with a hirsute person who finds gravity a bit of a challenge...or....I give up ].

And to finish off....despite her downright refusal to restrain her animals when requested and in a situation were it was obvious to even the most stupid that it was necessary, another 50m on down the road she did manage to get them all on leashes. Apparently even she recognized the danger they would be in if they proceeded to behave in a similar fashion towards the couple walking the monster rottweiler on a very tight leash towards her.

[cp123]

Almost a 3 way pile up last night. Canberra, southbound on share path around Swinger Hill (from tunnell under Hindmarsh Drive towards the tunnel at Melrose High School).

I'm tootling along at a comfortable pace, but not fanging - it's approximately 6.30 so dark. That's a fairly major path during commuting hours and there are lots of people and dogs, office people going home etc. I'd caught and passed a couple of people and some faster people had caught and passed me. Another oncoming chap heading towards us and i'm watching his light get closer and closer - while i'm staring at the left hand side of the ground to stay on the path (I sometimes find it a bit hard to see with strong oncoming lights). anyway, unbeknownst to me, there must've been a fast passer zooming up behind me. Usually I can hear them, or see their lights bouncing on my right hand side. I seriously saw or heard nothing. Oncoming man and I are about to pass (he in his lane and me in mine). The passer person decides right then and there that he wanted to pass me. He passed me within a bee's whisker of my right hand side just as oncoming man and i met. (ie it was a 3 way across the track). Dunno if it was the unexpectedness, or the closeness, or both, but I let out a JOIPERS!!!! and Mr Oncoming yells FAAAARRRRK or ARRRRRRGH or something that sounded equally similar. I don't think he saw that happening either, or maybe assumed it that I was only 1 oncoming bike.

If you were Mr Passer, then please grow a brain. Maybe you have balls of steel. But you probably have no idea how close you were to taking both Mr Oncoming and me out of the game. Just not worth it!

[Ross]

If you were Mr Passer, then please grow a brain. Maybe you have balls of steel. But you probably have no idea how close you were to taking both Mr Oncoming and me out of the game. Just not worth it!

Balls of steel but the brain of a grass seed. Some(a lot)times the commuter cyclists are more dangerous and stupid than the traffic. A lot of them think they're in the TDF while on their commute on shared paths instead of riding at a steady pace and to the conditions.

[trailgumby]

THe correct response is. "OK I,ll be back in a few minutes. If he runs in front of me again it will be the very last time" The trick is, you have to mean it

Option two:
Me: "Please control your dog!"
Owner: "It's an off-leash area. "
Me: "And this is a shared path. Do you know how much damage my bike will suffer if I run over your dog?"
Owner: "Huh?! No?"
Me: "Absolutely none. "

Notes: Helps to be on a mountain bike with fat tyres

[bychosis]

"Thanks" to the muppet pedstrian along the share path yesterday that didn't have their aging mange with legs on a lead. It was so far away I couldn't tell who it belonged to (I assume it was mr-white-plug-ears) and had to stop behind it because it ran up the middle of the path for 20-30m towards some other dogs on leads. Didn't know which way the mutt was going to go, didn't want to run it over (and cause myself damage) so I had to sit behind.

[jules21]

THe correct response is. "OK I,ll be back in a few minutes. If he runs in front of me again it will be the very last time" The trick is, you have to mean it

Option two:
Me: "Please control your dog!"
Owner: "It's an off-leash area. "
Me: "Do you know how much damage my bike will suffer if I run over your dog?"
Owner: "Huh?! No?"
Me: "Absolutely none. "

Notes: Helps to be on a mountain bike with fat tyres

i tell the owners off like pets "naughty owners! your dog should be on a leash" usually they're already looking sheepishly at the ground to avoid eye contact so it add to the effect

[Percrime]

Yes. I think the original poster is much nicer than !. He might love animals as much as the next bloke but as far as I am concerned any animal posing a threat is in danger of getting hurt. 2 or 4 legged. I am about as concerned for the fact that it comes down to the leader of the pack as the grunt on the DMZ will be if the NK's pour over the border. Yes it would be nice to be able to take out the glorious leader and if he is silly enough to have a go that might have to happen.. but I,ll be dealing with the immediate threat first. And in fact legally thats all you are allowed to do. Use reasonable force in defence of your person. To put it bluntly anything chewing on me needs my permission or its going to hurt.

I,m a nice bloke really but why the hell should I particularly care about some other persons animals? Thats their job. And obviously if that dog is chewing on me or running in front of me they can do it better.

[AKO]

I,m a nice bloke really but why the hell should I particularly care about some other persons animals? Thats their job. And obviously if that dog is chewing on me or running in front of me they can do it better.

Couldn't agree more. That's the reason I don't take my dog out of the back yard. It is a brainless twit of a thing. On or off a leash the thing is unpredictable. I don't want to be responsible for the damage he my cause (he wouldn't bite someone but he would probably dart out from nowhere and get tangled up in someone's spokes). But if someone else's brainless dog comes at me, it's probably going to end up with a headache, and the owner a sore ear.