Motherfucking 4x4s

The car was indicating it was going to make a left hand turn.
Riding up the left hand side of this car is stupid.
That's it.

He was indicating, yet you still went for the undertake move. That's a fail on your part. Lucky it's not more serious. Heal quick.

i was in the left hand lane, he was in the middle lane. NOT a fail on my part i think.

Jack you are going to get hurt again and again. Some of these dumbos think "indicator on" means "clear the area!" I think even in a car I would have given this one the benefit of the doubt and anchored up.

de Selby, i think if you had been there, you would not have given the car the benefit of the doubt, i'll admit that i was at fault with assuming that the car had seen me, but it was purely down to dangerous driving.
end of.

OK dude. You the one that got hit. I'll just do what I do.

You keep telling yourself that.

http://www.roadsidelawyer.co.uk/questions/driver-stopped-in-middle-of-road-as-if-about-to-turn-right-but-as-i-passed-on-his-left-he-set-off-again-running-into-the-side-of-me-who-is-liable/?searchterm=nearside

"It is your duty to make sure that the third party was aware of your presence on the road, which he appears not have been, before attempting to pass him."

I don't know if this is law or not but it doesn't matter. Drivers struggle to indicate as it is, so if a driver is indicating it's pretty damn certain he's going to turn. Passing him as you did was stupid.

End of.

I had no option but to go to the left. I was between him and the parked cars on the side of the road, and using brake and feet, I did my best to stop.

And I appreciate you all looking out for me.

Bear in mind that
a) cars always pull across bus lanes to turn left, so every side-road should be approached with caution and an already-planned escape route

b) at weekends (and at certain other times) most bus lanes aren't bus lanes any more, and the only reason that they are empty is that people are too dumb to read the blue signs.

Unlucky man, if only it was two wheel drive you would have escaped injury.

On my commute this morning, a bus by clapham common tube started to pull out, basically bumping into a female nodder, she was rightly angry and conveyed this to the driver, who said that it's "the queens highway" and you shouldn't be overtaking indicating vehicles... is this bullshit?

At the time I was quite annoyed and conveyed this to the driver, but got less annoyed as I got further away from him... must be very annoying knowing the laws like that and every other fucker not caring...

Wish I'd taken his bus number but was late for work...

You can indicate to your heart's content, but traffic already in the lane isn't obliged to vanish in a puff of your convenience. What the bus driver was referring to was probably:
223

Buses, coaches and trams. Give priority to these vehicles when you can do so safely, especially when they signal to pull away from stops. Look out for people getting off a bus or tram and crossing the road.

He seems to have missed the bit about "when you can do so safely" and/or mistaken himself for the Metropolitan Police escort group or something.

Thing is he probably didn't check his mirrors, or if he did he couldn't give a fuck. Traffic changing lanes must ALWAYS give way to that already in the lane, whether it is a bus or not. letting them out is mere courtesy.

Buses indicate then pull out, and I have lost count of the number of times they have done it when I am half-way alongside them. If I can, that's the point at which I speed up, get in front of them, and then go as slowly as fucking possible right in the middle of the lane.

I've said this in another thread (maybe this one) but London's bus drivers are definitely the best i've seen, and they never pull out on me and in most cases give me right of way, doing things like pulling in front of them and purposely going slowly is just going to make them less helpful to cyclists, i'm sure you wouldn't like it if a bus pulled in in front of you and purposely went slowly just to piss you off.

@Khornight,
Depends what kinds of risk you want to take? If a bus ahead indicates I slow down and wait for it to pull out. I know who is bigger.

If you have checked what is behind you and indicate in time to turn right, do you expect people to overtake you?

That was nice of the guy stopping to check up if u were okay.....but still a fucking c*nt for not checking his mirror!
Good that u r ok!

.......a massive black lexus started indicating left to go down a side road, and i thought 'he's seen me in his mirror'.........

Trusting the driver was a mistake.

Steff, thanks you are probably right, i'll try to memorize that for next time a bus driver says somethign similar.

I've said this in another thread (maybe this one) but London's bus drivers are definitely the best i've seen,
I wouldn't go that far, more importatnly I wasn't suggesting all bus drivers were fuckwits, just this one. Most are good, a lot seem to have been told to drive in a way that may put other smaller road users in harms way as it'll get the job done. And there are a very small number of absolute cunts driving buses... mostly they seem to do circles of elephant and castle.

But you've got to give them and other people who make their money driving on london's roads their dues. It's not a job I would like to do for 8 hours a day. It's bad enough driving in london once a month for a couple of hours.

Note, I wasn't complaining about the bus pulling out on me, I like to think I can handle myself and wouldn't have shot the gap the nodder did, but the bus shouldn't have pulled out when there was basically no space just to make the gap for this nodder smaller... it was typical "I'm stuck in traffic not going anywhere so I'm going to get within 1 inch of the vehicle infront" behaviour... the vehicle in front being a cement mixer.

Bluequinn, I used to go slow infront of dangerous vehicles, but I'd much rather go as fast as possible, they'll end up being stuck in traffic anyway... it's much more fun leaving traffic in your wake, than being nudged off the road as happened to me once.

To be fair I only do this if they pulled out into me - i.e. I was already occupying the bit of road that they decided to put their bus in. If they do it when they are ahead of me then that's perfectly fine.
It started out as me just having to speed up to stay safe, and then being too knackered to keep it up - it's developed into a habit. I am very naughty. I figure if they see that they nearly ran a cyclist off the road they are more likely to check properly next time, whereas if I brake and go behind then they'll never know their error.

@ McCarthy, I get the impression that everyone who pulls out of me then goes ridiculously slowly :-)
If I can do a decent speed why can't they? Admittedly when I'm on a bike with an engine I feel this way a bit more often than on the pedals, but it's pretty common on the pedal bike too!

To be fair I only do this if they pulled out into me - i.e. I was already occupying the bit of road that they decided to put their bus in. If they do it when they are ahead of me then that's perfectly fine.
It started out as me just having to speed up to stay safe, and then being too knackered to keep it up - it's developed into a habit. I am very naughty. I figure if they see that they nearly ran a cyclist off the road they are more likely to check properly next time, whereas if I brake and go behind then they'll never know their error.

@ McCarthy, I get the impression that everyone who pulls out of me then goes ridiculously slowly :-)
If I can do a decent speed why can't they? Admittedly when I'm on a bike with an engine I feel this way a bit more often than on the pedals, but it's pretty common on the pedal bike too!

No I definitely agree with you that there are cases on an open road where I overtake cars, and i'm not going stupidly fast, some people are just less confident on the road (particularly understandable in London) but if someone roared past you only to slow down just to annoy you, you wouldn't be too happy i'm sure =P

hahaha. ab classic tale there! "the road rage fracas that wasnt".

(gonna get my students reading this. In pairs, roleplay ..
Read the text and answer the questions in pairs.
1 Why did the bricks fall
2 What type of car was it?
3 What occupation did the driver have?
4 Say how you were feeling when you saw the pick-up start to turn..
5 Say what YOU would have done.

there, a lesson plan in a minute)

but 'assume nothing' is my golden R. Has kept me metal free for 12 years
well survived dude:) Impressive calm after the horn

On my commute this morning, a bus by clapham common tube started to pull out, basically bumping into a female nodder, she was rightly angry and conveyed this to the driver, who said that it's "the queens highway" and you shouldn't be overtaking indicating vehicles... is this bullshit?

At the time I was quite annoyed and conveyed this to the driver, but got less annoyed as I got further away from him... must be very annoying knowing the laws like that and every other fucker not caring...

Wish I'd taken his bus number but was late for work...

While I can't really work out how exactly this scenario played out, yes, what the bus driver said was basically nonsense--there is no firm requirement on a cyclist to let a bus pull out (although it's nice to allow it to do that). Most likely, the cyclist was too close alongside the bus, and while the driver should have seen her, didn't see her. In any case, it doesn't sound like a very dangerous situation. Did she fall off her bike?

NB every cyclist should know their Highway Code, if only to be able to be firmly unimpressed by people conveying their own faulty interpretation of it.

And if you do get into a highway code discussion, try doing your best condescending policeman impression. Perhaps make out that they are lucky you are off duty and don't have your warrant card on you.
You know the sort of thing:
"oh dear sir, giving PSV licences away in cornflakes packets are they now?"

Agree with previous posters - you don't get right of way, simply by turning on a flashing yellow light. It is there to alert other drivers to your intended actions. My rule of thumb with the indicating buses is, if I am behind, let them out - open hand gesture to show I'm offering them the space and I'm safely back far enough (I know Highway Code says don't give directions to other road users but I don't care), that way they get out and sped up and out of my way quick smart and I get something to chase. If I'm alongside, speed up and GTF out the way, in case they didn't see me. If they push me out (which none ever have yet), then it'd be cross words and a mobile phone photograph of the driver, so you can prove which one it was.

You remember the case of that 6ft girl who was ejected from a bus because she was "too tall"? They couldn't work out exactly which driver it was from the bus route number and the description, so a quick photo would have resolved the matter simply enough I reckon.

He was indicating, yet you still went for the undertake move. That's a fail on your part. Lucky it's not more serious. Heal quick.

Whenever I'm on the roads, riding or driving, I treat every vehicle as if they're a 50 ton lorry.

In this case, the cyclist had priority and whether indicating or not, the Lexus shouldn't pull across a lane of traffic to make a turn. One asks whether they would have made the same move if it was a double decker bus coming up the inside.

Whenever I'm on the roads, riding or driving, I treat every vehicle as if they're a 50 ton lorry.

In this case, the cyclist had priority and whether indicating or not, the Lexus shouldn't pull across a lane of traffic to make a turn. One asks whether they would have made the same move if it was a double decker bus coming up the inside.

You are right he had priority but if you see a potential situation developing and decide not to have a back up plan and not react in any way you are acting somewhat foolishly.

Just because the driver was in the wrong does not make the cyclist in the right.