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Quite poor advice. Emergency stop is best used for moving hazards as you can't predict where they are going to move. Pedestrians tend to do the idiot dance of death, and then leap in the direction you have chosen to swerve. Swerve should be used for static hazards (potholes etc).
You should cycle at a speed where you can stop safely, ride far enough from the pavement/ parked cars so that you are visible to pedestrians and they can see you. Even then accidents do occur. Also beware that braking distance is increased in the rain.
However riding a bike without proper brakes, especially the front one which helps most with sudden braking raises your liability considerably.
If someone crashed into you, then you should have got their details.
dancing james-
I suppose I'm being a bit gun-ho, all scenarios are different, but I did manage to stop.
I had just peeled off of Parliament Sq onto Whitehall, you know the slightly blind corner with the traffic lights that have the extension for oncoming before the corner so traffic doesn't get a surprise red light when on the corner? I was in prime, no traffic ahead of me but with all of the 8.45 rush hour traffic in tow. The scariest thing is that when I came to after being on the floor for quite a while, the cyclist was ahead of me, face down, not really moving, but two yeards behind me was a van. That's what really shit me up, that could have been my last commute in forever. It was a big wipe out, Parliament Sq was a stand still for about half an hour. -
Emergency stop didn't work today...
Just had a pedestrian walk out in front of me after rounding the left hand corner at the bottom of Pentonville road. The light was green and there is no pedestrian crossing there. She walked out a bit, stopped then decided that she could get passed last minute, by which time I was already braking, but there wasn't enough time to stop. She got up shrieking and walked off leaving me to pick myself up off the road.
I should probably also point out that she was on her phone as well...
Antidotes
runawayjimuk
When it comes to pedestrian strikes there's usually never enough time to do anything. Whatever happens, don't try to pull an emergency stop.
I had an accident earlier this year on Whitehall involving an pedestrian and a cyclist. A ped walked out on me on a green light for traffic, I pulled a massive emergency stop which left me dead still at 45 degrees in the road only for a second later to be struck by a cyclist. I initially thought that he had clipped my back wheel so I felt really guilty about my stopping technique, 2 days later a massive yellow/black/blue tyre mark bruise on my leg appeared that lasted for two months. This put him right on my rear wheel, he was drafting me. The crash trapped my leg between his front tyre and me top tube, couldn't walk properly for about 3 weeks. Oh and the ped fled the scene.
I learnt the hard way, try to avoid the best you can without swerving into other traffic, just don't stop, I'd rather take a ped strike on the shoulder than get run over again.