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What's going on here? It's not just that they're all running the light, but they're also driving as if there are two lanes. This is coming off Regent's Park towards Baker St.
https://twitter.com/angryaboutbikes/status/1172182408940150785
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Wierdly enough just seen a very similar video
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It's undoubtedly the simplest explanation, that one of the drivers somehow misses the fact the lights are red and others follow them, a well-known effect in traffic. Here, I think they probably get 'lucky' because they're going through the All Green Pedestrian Phase, although that's not visible in the video. You can see some people crossing on foot in the background, but that's not at this junction.
That there is only a cycle contraflow lane but not full two-way working is not good; I noticed that when I observed the junction a while ago when the scheme (which is generally not bad, although not without problems) was completed. The behaviour of the drivers there is probably a continuation of how people drove when it was two lanes in that direction.
Obviously, the reason why the one-way (now with contraflow) is there is because if it weren't lots of drivers would drive around the Outer Circle to get to Camden, and TfL and Camden want them to 'turn right' at the pseudo-roundabout a little further on to go along the A5205 Prince Albert Road. As the filtering of the Outer Circle has proved terribly controversial and the scheme has been defeated for the time being, I don't expect too much progress to be made on that in the near future.
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This seems more serious than the previous example and looks as if drivers (at least the first one, and perhaps others) are actively exploiting the fact that they can see no oncoming traffic in the eastbound lane. There probably is a bit of 'following effect' in action, but not in the same way as at the Baker Street junction, I think; there, drivers are driving through a red light without being able to see all potential conflict with other traffic (other than pedestrians), so it looks more like a genuine mistake. If at Blackfriars they drove in this way through a green phase for cyclists, that would certainly be a very problematic manoeuvre.
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Boris Becker:
While Becker doesn't seem to have crashed into any bike stands yet (perhaps for him the equivalent would be to veer into a tennis court through a wire-mesh fence), he reminds me so much of Jan Ullrich in the sort of trouble he gets into. Both seem quite similar in being pretty rudderless following their athletic careers.
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I was back in That London the other week on work.
Holy crap the junction of Oxford Street and TCR is an absolute clusterfuck now. It was a massive clusterfuck back when it was part of my commute a year ago, now its reach pure clusterfuckception. It's criticalclusterfuck. The event clusterfuck horizon.
I kicked a taxi as I was crossing the road on a green man and he decided to just cruise right through.
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What exactly did you consider problematic there? It's certainly a better design than what was there before, simpler and better geometry. It's obviously still an insanely busy junction. I personally don't like what they've done with the Tube station entrances, which I think are terrible designs leading to an even more disjointed streetscape than before. I'm sure that influences behaviour, but as far as the junction design itself is concerned, that's about as simple as you can make it, which is the best thing you can do in a location like this.
I kicked a taxi as I was crossing the road on a green man and he decided to just cruise right through.
Well, that's green men for you. They're constantly rebelling and don't care about any rules.
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What exactly did you consider problematic there?
Huge amounts of red light jumping by everyone. Traffic getting stuck in the middle then just cruising through busy pedestrian crossings. Traffic making turns apparently in conflict with traffic coming in other directions. Total unmitigated shitshow.
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Was punish-passed a couple of weeks ago when riding with a friend. I'd filtered in front of the guy at some lights, despite him practically going up on the kerb to prevent me coming down the cycle lane into the ASL box. After the lights went green and we moved off, the driver drove at me - his car was angled towards the side of the road as he came past me a couple of inches from my front wheel. I was half expecting it so managed to slam on the brakes and avoid him. He then brake-checked my friend and I multiple times before we just stopped to let him drive off.
I wasn't recording video but got a photo of the guy's car and his number plate. Reported to the Met without evidence, knowing that he definitely wouldn't get charged with anything but thought he might at least get a warning.
I've just been told "this case was closed as there was no video footage or no independent witnesses to support your allegation so we are unable to pursue the matter". To which I asked what I'm supposed to do the next time someone tries to kill me with their car if I don't have a video? And if I'd reported someone attacking me with a knife, would they also need video evidence of that?
Their reply:
You would need an independent witness who witnessed the incident and who is willing to go to court to be a witness if the case was to go to court. If the car was to touch you then we send it to a different department who will investigate as that is not a traffic offence. If you was threatened with a knife then again we send it to another department as we report this as a crime.
So, couple of questions. Is there any point in pursuing this particular matter, as the guy is clearly dangerous and will likely end of seriously injuring someone?
And in future, short of videoing every ride, which isn't practical, is there anything else I could do when this inevitably happens again? In hindsight, I maybe could have got my friend to be a 'witness', but he's hardly independent.
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So, couple of questions. Is there any point in pursuing this particular matter, as the guy is clearly dangerous and will likely end of seriously injuring someone?
Got the registration? Hunt them down and shit on their bonnet.
And in future, short of videoing every ride, which isn't practical
It actually kinda is....it's just a PITA.
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It didn't look like the sort of car to ever get cleaned and if he does ever run someone over, I doubt they'd appreciate having shit in their wounds as well as having been hit by a car.
The battery on my (admittedly old) GoPro only lasts for about an hour and even if I wanted to carry spare batteries with me, I doubt I'd remember to change them. I think even the newest GoPros only last about 1.5 hours?
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Have a read of the camera thread - not sure what the latest and greatest are like but the cycle specific stuff is going to be better than Go Pro.
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/183209/?offset=775#comment14234950
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Was left hooked by a taxi driver turning from Great Queen's Street onto Kingsway as I was going across to remnant street a few weeks ago. No indication so assumption that driver was also going straight on. Then as they turned they beeped the horn at the cyclist who was in front of me and them and the pedestrians who had started to cross. The other cyclist was able to avoid a collision but I was knocked by the rear left door section and took a tumble. Taxi driver drove away and had to run after them as they were completely oblivious to anything that had happened it seems. Didn't exchange any information at the time because my head was a bit all over the place and when I came to my senses and turned back to do so they had driven off. Caught it on my camera so roadsafed and received a letter the next week to say an investigation had been opened. Got in today to find a letter stating 'insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction' so 'it has been decided to take no further action on this matter'. Not particularly happy with the outcome given how little of shit the driver had and how clueless they appear to be driving a large vehicle around such a busy city but that's that, hope their fare who was in the back at the time at least didn't tip. Will upload a video and tweet to TfL or something if I can be bothered but don't fancy a bunch of Taxi drivers getting agro at me.
Edit to include video, the sound is removed from the end to save people from the horrible noise of running on the camera:
https://streamable.com/hn6ye -
Huge amounts of red light jumping by everyone. Traffic getting stuck in the middle then just cruising through busy pedestrian crossings. Traffic making turns apparently in conflict with traffic coming in other directions. Total unmitigated shitshow.
Forgot to reply to this. Interesting--I haven't seen it as being much worse than most junctions of this busy-ness. I'll certainly be watching with interest how the crash record develops here. The last few times I've gone through, there have been large roadworks in Oxford Street and it hasn't been possible to do proper junction observation (i.e., stand there for about 15 minutes and get a general feel for it while recording typical junction usage and notable incidents in a notebook). I'll do that sometime (when the junction is reasonably finished).
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If you have their details claim against their insurance. Civil cases don’t require as much as criminal ones. IANAL
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@dancing james
Edit Roadsafe link in 1st post? -https://www.met.police.uk/ro/report/rti/rti-a/report-a-road-traffic-incident/
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Please report dangerous drivers to the police - Roadsafe. Report to plod, not just whinge here.
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@dancing james
If you think of how much driving in London must be costing now with CC+ULEZ+Parking+whatever. Cloned plates and not paying CC+ULEZ for a month daily is something like £1k so it soon gets to be that if they catch someone once a year and the fine is less than 10k they are morally bankrupt but quids in.