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@ev
I was cycling down Guilford Street this afternoon when a car door opened into me. I’d read somewhere that you should cycle one metre away from parked cars to avoid this sort of situation, and this was pretty much what i was doing. However, I don't know if I was just inside 1 metre or the car had a long door (it was one of those estate cars) but one metre really isn't enough. Thankfully the door only clipped my pedal and I landed on my hands and feet.
The driver was quick to get out and was very apologetic, saying that he was simply not paying attention and was even a cyclist himself. I was a bit shocked but as there was no damage to my bike and the driver seemed to be having some sort of emotional breakdown I decided to leave as I didn't really have anything to say to him.
I now have a new rule. Cycle 1.5 metres away from parked cars, never closer.
I’ve been cycling in London for a couple of years now and have been incident free until three weeks ago. I was on my way to work when a pedestrian ran out into the road, there was just no time to stop and I went straight into him. I flew over the handlebars my chin slammed into his head and I landed on my arm.
I’m not the most experienced of cyclists but I'm not a total noob either and try to ride safely, never compromising my personal space nor that of other peoples and communicating my intentions at all times. What made this encounter strange though was that I wasn't cycling near the pavement, I was cycling on the white line between the two lanes - a whole lane away from the pavement. This guy ran out so far that there was nothing I could do, he looked at the last moment but it was just too late. I wasn't even cycling fast!
The bike was fine (piece of shit anyway) but I had 5 stitches in my chin and my upper arm was badly bruised and useless for a couple of days. I took a week off from work in total. I've thought about compensation but the guy was badly hurt, in addition to the injury sustained during the actual collision he was knocked backwards and banged the back of his head on the ground. The actual incident itself is a bit of a blur but I do remember immediately after it happened I rolled off my side and shouted over 'are you ok?', he screamed 'no, I cant move'.
Thankfully he did start moving again after a couple of minutes but his head was bleeding in two places and was really baadly shaken up, it was an ambulance ride for both of us.
I'm really grateful to roxy's accident thread as I'm prepared legally but I'm not going down the compensation route. I guess the story is that you can't really ever have enough space in london. Today 1 metre wasn't enough but three weeks ago i had a whole lanes worth and that still wasn't enough.