2008-09-24 - Rider Down/Fatality, Holborn

You would only pass a lorry on the right if there's no room on the left!?

You would only pass a lorry on the right if there's no room on the left!?

no, i do regularly overtake lorries on the right, but i wouldn't want my mother to do the same, y'know?

so you would like to see her dead?

you'd rather she filtered on the left?

I think he is he's saying he'd rather she did not overtake at all. Which is fair enough. However you'll never stop people overtaking so it's better to advice people to overtake safely which even in the situation you describe lpg would be on the right.

Spoke cards are a start.
Whatever it takes to raise safety awareness, I'm there.

doubt it a start, how many people would actually read it? plus with the bike being in motion it's impossible!

I passed a bloke with a lots of sticker on his frame and some spoke card, I couldn't read them properly for 10 second before he set off again (the spoke card that is).

yes. i filter on the left as well as the right. i don't mind filtering on the left or the right, but it is harder to filter on the right, since you now need to be aware of traffic coming the opposite way, motorcycles in front and behind you, and getting back on to the left side when traffic frees up, and you need to be strong and confident to do this.

filtering on the left is ok as long as you know when traffic going to free up, and lorries aren't about to set off/turn left. of course, it's always going to be riskier than staying back and not filtering at all, but i wouldn't say that filtering on the right is necessarily safer than being on the left.

Very sad to hear this - RIP.

I cross this junction practically every day. No point speculating who's fault this was (it's a tragedy regardless) - but London needs some bloody cycle lanes - SHARPISH!

Saw something awful at lunchtime too: a motorcyclist had just collided with a red van on Victoria Street (near Victoria tube). The bike was smashed to bits...looked like the bikedriver had bounced off the van's window (which also was smashed). Not a pretty sight. Fingers crossed that he survived (the paramedics were there working on him).

London needs some bloody cycle lanes - SHARPISH!

No.

No?

I'm Scandinavian and we have them all over the place. They're fantastic. Also look at Berlin - double lanes on each side of the road...doesn't get better.

I dunno, it just seems that the UK is unwilling to look to other countries with better safety laws /records.

PS on a totally unrelated issue: I saw a couple cycling up merrily on Kingsland Road yesterday. No helmets, lights and iPODs. That's bloody asking for it! And people like this don't get fined either??

getting back on to the left side when traffic frees up, and you need to be strong and confident to do this.

Definitely - and it seems to me a lot of drivers have an in bred reluctance to let you back in, the same as when you are trying to move out to execute a right turn and they see it as an affront to road decency

Think the clip really brings it home, very sad news for the family and friends.

I ride a motorbike when I'm not cycling places and have just taken my test, that really helped teach me to think about defensive positioning and road awareness, not just what I'm doing but what everyone else is doing around me. Still get scared every time a truck or bus steams past inches from me or cuts me up at a junction, but I just slow down to get a bit of space and chalk it up as another near miss.

Until there's a massive change in attitudes from those people who consider the car as king of the road, or there's a reduction in speed limits to 20 mph in major towns and cities we'll all still be at risk, so as responsible cyclists we have to make sure we don't act in a way that adds to the danger.

No because there are no streets that I can think of in central London where there is room for a cycle lane of any use with out closing it to other traffic. Not that I would mind that but it will not happen.

No one try and tell me we the cycle lane in Bloomsbury is any good. It's atrocious for so many well documented reasons.

that bloomsbury cycle lane is bad!

ARRRRRRGH!!!! Look at the comment some fucking IDIOT has posted on the news story about today

"girv73ni (1 hour ago)
How awful! All those roads closed! Those poor, delayed drivers.

I think the news crew missed the point :( "

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AfSW7W-dMEw

I have just sent a scathing message to him/her tellling them what a cunt they are.
Feel free to vent as well.

I've never had a comment get past the BBC moderators.

Scratch that, he was trying to say that the report focussed more on the delayed traffic than the cyclist killed. He just didnt word it very well.

Yeah. I think he was being sarcastic!

It's sad to hear about this - I came through the junction at around 9am this morning and will be going home via the accident route tonight :-(

Saw somewhere on this page someone saying 'Most of us ride safe' or words to that effect - well maybe in reference to users of this site - perhaps - BUT . . I see A LOT of riders blatantly ignoring the rules of the road - going through red lights . . not giving way to pedestrians on crossings . . riding the wrong way down roads to take shortcuts !!! - They don't seem to think rules apply to them . . or don't give a shit about other road users/pedestrians. . . in my book - if you respect the road and it's rules you should be fine (with the one new addition - WATCH THE f*** OUT FOR OTHER CYCLISTS!!!!) - That seems to work for me - anyone else agree???

um........... how do any of you lot know he was undertaking. lets just leave the blame alone and think of his family. For all you know the truck could have over taken him and turn left onto him.

I'm thinking petition on no10 site to ban HGVs from central london...?

i agree.

we should do something to register our concerns.

but i still think we should e mail mps every time there is a death.

that way it keeps it up the agenda.

Bill, I'd be happy to sit down with assist with media strategy if you need it. I can help pull out some contacts on the nationals who will be interested in pushing this.

This whole HGV situation is out of control and something needs to be done.

anything i can do to help. just let me know.

This makes me so sad and then really mad. I was pulled under one of those massive HGV, but luckily got out just before it caught my foot. He overtook me then turned the corner and I had to stop and then his back wheel was suddenly grabbing my back wheel. My bike got pulled under and it was such a slow manoeuver. I was shouting at the guy but he couldn't hear all the way up there in his ivory tower. Took him a good ten seconds to slooowly cut the corner and crush my bike. I could only imagine what a slow death that is.
My heart goes out to anyone who suffrers this and to their family and friends. We've got to ban these HGV from the centres, or at least have proper concrete barriers between them and the cycle lanes. They do a great job in Paris. I was over there cycling everywhere and have never felt safer. They have real proper cycle-lanes that are completely shielded and seperated from other traffic. But here I rarely go out on my bike any more. I just couldn't go through an experience like that again. Next time I know I wouldn't be so lucky.
Today I heard this story and felt sick.
And when I hear people going on about it being the bad cyclists fault I have to cry because it's always the safe guys that get killed. Dare-devils rarely do. That's sod's law for you (not that I would wish an accident anyone).
Whoever you were. God bless and Rest In Peace.

"And when I hear people going on about it being the bad cyclists fault I have to cry because it's always the safe guys that get killed. Dare-devils rarely do. That's sod's law for you (not that I would wish an accident anyone).
Whoever you were. God bless and Rest In Peace."

+1

in london especially, you have to ride with confidence or look out for yourself. it shouldn't be up to the other road users to look out for you.