This morning's commute and other commuting stories

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I had to gmaps that, I've never heard of it before. I'll check it out sometime. When I have crampons and Kendal mint cake with me.

So, I'm afraid I now hate people who ride with speakers on their bikes.

For nearly my entire journey in today I was joined by two people with competing speakers. One blasting out Latin pop, the other blasting out really horrible autotuned lazy hiphop.

Get some fucking headphones, like I wear so no one has to listen to my weird techno, which I could barely hear over your shit.

Called out an Ocado van for left hooking me, so that I had to slam on the braks.

Checked with other commuters up the road, and the van had been indicating for some time, and I'd just not been laying attention.

myfaultentirely/10

Just because they're indicating doesn't mean they should drive over the top of you though.

^ this and if they've been indicating coming up behind you between shoulder checks (edited before I get called out for no shoulder checking), what chance do you have?

The driver needs to check the left mirror before indicating and should check again before turning.

If you stuff it up the inside of an indicating vehicle between their mirror checks bad things happen.

@c00ps that’s something altogether different. They just cut you up. Ocado vans are named after fruit. Take note of the fruit, freeze some, beat the driver with said fruit until you have a salad of sorts. Then eat the evidence mess with cream fraiche, a cracked merange and a sugar glais. Trust me it feels good and contributes to your five-a-day.

And while shoulder checks are helpful, to protect against left-hooks at every cross street you'd never look at what's in front of you; the onus has to be on the person doing the overtake.

the onus has to be on the person doing the [left turn].

To a point, big vehicles have a blind spot. I have seen riders pull off from traffic lights and sit in a vehicle's blind spot for ages. There is only so much the driver can do, if they've indicated for a good length of time and manoeuvred slowly then at some point it becomes the rider's responsibility to not be invisible to the driver as it's not possible for any road user to be completely, fully aware of everything around them at all times. Just like if your rear view is obstructed, the best you can do is slow down as gradually as possible and hope there's no one sat 1 meter behind you. Or if you're in front of a cyclist, indicate left, start slowing down and then they decide to undertake you.

Note, I'm not talking about barely overtaking then turning left here, just normal left turns. @TW didn't say whether s/he was overtaken dangerously or just was safely behind the van as per normal

Edit: point is, if you sneak up into a van's blind spot and get hit when they turn left, that's on the rider

Slow as molasses this morning. I almost stopped to check whether there was something wrong with my bike, but I knew in my heart it was I who was to blame. ;__;

safely behind the van

I was behind. Until I went up the inside while they were indicating...

I was of the impression that if you're both moving freely and you move past on the left that is undertaking, if you pass them whilst they're stationary then it's filtering.

I seem to be the only person on cs7 most mornings who would rather slow (not even stopping in most cases) to allow a vehicle up ahead which has been indicating for a large period of time make their turn instead of just bombing it through the space that if they do decide to go would put you under their wheels in a split second just to win some kind of phyrric victory over who has ultimate right of way.

big vehicles have a blind spot
at some point it becomes the rider's responsibility to not be invisible

Lolocopter.

What other area of life would be tolerate this? Would you fly in a plane that only had a radar working for 'most' of the area around it, we'll just let the pilots guess for that blank spot there?

Vehicles with a flaw like that shouldn't be on the roads.

The latter method only works so many times...

I mean, I agree with you, but they are on the road so that's how it works. As long as everyone understands the flaws in the system and behaves appropriately then it works.

Life is a big fat compromise and vans with blind spots is the one of the compromises we have to put up with. I'm sure there'll be blind spot cameras any day now (if they don't already exist) and hopefully they'll be made mandatory sooner or later. Then we can undertake to our hearts'e's content.

Rider tries to call himself out for bad riding.

Forum piles in to exonerate rider. :)

"The latter method only works so many times..."

If God didn't want us to undertake white vans, why did he paint all those undertaking lanes everywhere for us?

Yeah, ok - frozen sausages on your lawn from the van driver.

It was an Ocado van, so they'll probably be fancypants arisan organic sausages from a free range llama farm.

If the nearside of a van or truck is a blind spot it means the driver's on the road illegally:

Road haulage industry love to promote this blind spot nonsense.

Last commute to work by bike today. I am moving out and now having to get a train :(
Praying to the cycle gods that I don't get another puncture tonight when I go home (had three last week).

Fun times on my commute this morning , a chap stepped out in front of me causing me to skid stop, he then threatened to "smash my stupid dickhead cyclist face in" lol , apparently U ok hun ? is not what he wanted to hear .

please say you have that on video?

Sad times. Welcome to the club. Do you have an excuse for a Brompton / other folding biek? Is there a mini bikeable trip at either end of the commute?

Wishing you good fortune with the puncture gods dude.

is your dickhead face now smashed in?