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Belated third dibs.

Charge plug rider with a shaved head and solo jersey on CS7 today. caught up to me at stockwell and we were in the same group all the way to E&C.

you wouldn't have seen it but the dynamo rider who did the wobbliest trackstands known to man 5 foot over the line at every set of traffic lights did not take kindly to you destroying him off the lights from foot down stationary position and him trackstanding with a headstart. the second you passed him he was out of the saddle chasing you giving it 'the beans' while you did what all good fixed riders do and kept your arse on the seat and made it look like you were just pootling along without a care in the world. It was no coincidence that he jumped the next set of lights to get ahead when he failed to pass you on the open road. I did a lol.

Yes, that was me. What bike were you riding? I'll say "hello" next time.

I see the wobbly Dynamo rider quite regularly, he joins CS7 at Clapham Common.

The last time I recall being spotted on lfgss was nealy 4 years ago by Clefty, in similar circs, on the 28th Jan 2008, to be all too precise:

chap in black with a shaved head bombing past me on a shiny Charge plug with red contis and red bar tape coming up to Elephant roundabout of doom, second time i've seen you, never get a chance to say hello, are you on here?

See you all in Jan 2016.

Chilling video from Gaz.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTOPTocYrMA

Update on this vid from the cyclist:

[B]Fined £400 + £85 costs and 6 penalty points applied to their license. A good result for some pretty dangerous driving?[/B]

The fine is pretty substantial compared to some of the other cases I’ve seen about dangerous drivers bullying other road users. This fine was how ever for failing to nominate a driver.

The registered keeper of this vehicle was sent several letters by the Police and failed to respond to all of them. They were summoned to court for Failing to Nominate a driver and were fined £400 + £85 costs and given 6 penalty points.

More info here:
http://croydoncyclist.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/1306/

There's a bit more detail here:

JOSEPH:CEMENT MIXER DRIVER WHO KILLED CYCLIST SPARED JAIL

WESTMINSTER, FULHAM, CLAPHAM. A cement mixer driver who killed a cyclist while carrying an excessive load and an unrestrained dog in his cab has been spared jail. Civil servant Everton Smith, 48, died after he collided with Paul Joseph's truck in Bessborough Gardens by Vauxhall Bridge, central London. The father of three had been cycling home from a game of squash on May 22 last year when Joseph, 45, struck him as he moved from one lane to another. Medics from a passing ambulance and an air ambulance fought to save the cyclist's life but he was later pronounced dead at the scene. A police investigation found that the cement mixer was almost 2,000kg overweight and that there was a dog in the cab, but said neither factor was responsible for the collision.

http://www.courtnewsuk.co.uk/newsgallery/?page=2

Link:

http://windermereroadies.com/temp/FDOT_BDK82%20977-01_rpt.pdf

Thanks, I knew I had forgotten something.

A dull sounding US report, but with some quite interesting findings (following on from Walker's: "Drivers overtaking bicyclists: Objective data on the effects of riding position, helmet use, vehicle type and apparent gender" 2006).

Operational and Safety Impacts of Restriping Inside Lanes of Urban Multilane Curbed Roadways to 11 Feet or Less to Create Wider Outside Curb Lanes for Bicyclists
Septmeber 2011

The relationship between a motor vehicle’s distance from other motor vehicles and the lateral positioning of bicyclists from the curb is depicted in Figure 6. Intuitively, one would expect that the closer you ride to the curb, the more lateral separation you have. On the contrary, the results presented in Table 4 and Figure 6 show that riding closer to the curb results in a smaller separation. Field observations revealed that when bicyclists ride closer to the curb, some motor vehicles, especially compact cars attempt to fit in the lane without laterally shifting to the adjacent lane, hence causing lesser distance. On the other hand, the results show that riding too far from the curb also results in a shorter distance. It seems that there is a spot between 3 and 4 ft from the curb that results in the greatest lateral separation between motor vehicles and bicyclists. It should be noted however, that higher standard deviations were observed. This was mainly caused by the fact that some drivers choose to stay within the outside through lane while others laterally shift to the inside lane.

It is.

The first right turn after the lights takes you into Joiner St (which takes you to the front of London Bridge station) and it's for all vehicles. The right turn about 10m further on into Duke St Hill, is for buses only. TFL would not re-design the junction to allow cyclists to make a right turn down Duke St Hill.

The little mirror on the top left of the windscreen?

I had a look at that, and whilst obviously I couldn't see it that well from where I was standing it didnt' look like it was positioned in such a way that it would show the area in front of the left had side of the cab.

It looked like it was angled in such a way as to show the area in front of the right hand side, but it would have needed to have been rotated maybe 15-20 degrees to have shown the left.

Yes, that's the class vi mirror. Hopefully, the police will check the position of the mirror relative to the driver's position (eye-height) in the cab to establish its field of view.

If this mirror is correctly set-up (and the correct mirror has been used), it should show what is to the front left of the vehicle.

There's a lot of info here on LGV mirrors and their respective fovs: http://www.truckview.net/TRLreport.pdf

A chilling set of photos and it's a relief that the cyclist was not seriously injured or killed.

Good on you, Dammit for helping.

If you look under the LGV's sun visor, there does appear to be a class VI front view mirror. Whether it was correctly positioned and/or if the driver checked it, is of course, a different matter.

But there have been numerous cases where claims were 100% proved with camera evidence but judges said were inadmissible in court.

I know of a number of cases where helmet camera film from cyclists has been used in magistrates' courts, but I don't know of any instances where it has been deemed inadmissable. Do you know the cases? I'm genuinely interested.

Here is one of the more recent cases that I am aware of (from earlier this month):

Hit by a car - Result - YouTube

I was hit by a car back in February, the driver was in court today, charged with driving without due care and attention.

The driver was found guilty, given 3 penalty points onto his licence, fine and court costs totalling £465.

I was surprised that the driver did not plead guilty originally, considering the video evidence. The defence tried to imply that I had hit out at the car, causing me to fall, and the driver claimed that no contact was made.

I think the defence was trying to imply that I go around looking for trouble since I have a helmet camera, but the magistrates would not allow them to question me about my other videos.

I don't think anything would have happened without the video evidence - I had 2 witness details, but neither attended court, so it was his word against mine. I don't think the driver would have been found guilty without the camera footage.

I have included additional footage after the collision, to prove that I did not chase after the car shouting "c*nt c*nt f*cking c*nt"...

Primary position piece in the Guardian Bike Blog (including refs to Dave D and LFGSS):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2011/aug/01/cyclist-take-the-lane

That's a shame. However, if everyone used this service every time they encounter dangerous driving it at least adds to the pressure for cyclists' concerns to be listened to and builds up some statistics about how often cyclists encounter such behaviour.

Indeed. I'd still encourage people to use the RoadSafe site and the CTC's Stop Smidsy site when reporting incidents.

This should be re-posted on other relevant threads.

Chief Inspector Ian Vincent of the cycle Safety Squad is keen to hear reports about aggressive drivers. These can be sent via this website:
http://www.met.police.uk/roadsafelondon/

If he really is 'keen' I suspect that weekly or daily reports from LFGSS members will be manna from heaven for him.

However, without camera footage or corroborating witness accounts, a letter will now no longer be sent to the road user specified in the complaint. Previously, this was the general procedure for "cycling near misses". Other offences were dealt with differently.

The RoadSafe team were advising regular users of their service to invest in a camera.

another anti primary blog...

http://voleospeed.blogspot.com/2011/07/problem-with-assertive-cycling.html

TFL have been discussing giving taxi drviers training and raising awareness of cyclists' needs, but the campaign seems to be going through an interminably long gestation period.

I would have liked this taxi driver to have had a better understanding of why I was riding in the centre of the narrow bus lane in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m030uFpV14E

@MrDrem - keep the title of the vid neutral (perhaps the location of the incident) don't use anything that can be considered mildy insulting ("numpty" qualifies, I am afraid). I would not recommend posting a video in which you swear either - a cyclist was warned that if he persisted to use offensive language in his videos they would forward the vids to the CPS for possible prosecution under the Public Order Act 1984...

AFAIK, the Met do not have a problem if you film the face of the road user or upload the registration details of the vehicle. However, YouTube have removed videos after privacy complaints from (presumably) the driver of the vehicle after they have been sent the link via RoadSafe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6ZPbgLTxnE

@origamist: it is not a TfL study but TRL for DfT.

Thanks, I often conflate them when I'm typing. It's particularly poor considering I gave the TRL report no in the same sentence!

Thanks for the link: http://www.trl.co.uk/online_store/reports_publications/trl_reports/cat_road_user_safety/report_drivers_perceptions_of_cyclists.htm

Interesting paper that is utterly crap, cause the writers were probably ignorant of best practice cycling and how it helps also motorists, so they fail to notice that the needed solution is to cyclists to use best practices and the motorists told how and why cyclists should/do behave like that.

Have you read the paper?

Look at the findings on pp.19-24 re: cyclist positioning and behaviour and how this affected driver perceptions in scenarios with refuges, cycle lanes and cycle lanes combined with refuges:

Different road positions were considered as were other variables:

a cyclist travelling straight ahead along the road to the left hand side of the carriageway;
a cyclist travelling straight ahead along the road in the centre of the carriageway. This cyclist was positioned so that they were outside the area designated as an advisory cycle lane in the Worlds where a lane existed;
and a randomised ‘wobbly’ cyclist, who veered back and forth at random within fixed parameters.

When I go from riding my fixed bike to my BMX I'm always surprised by how much room I'm given. I've always put it down to a combination of the erratic pedaling, wide bars and the general publics perception of how a BMXer might think/act compared to the smooth, fast and streamlined riding position on my fixed gear. I do tend to ride all over the road on my BMX though.

In the TFL study "Drivers' Perception of Cyclists" (TRL 549) they examined various factors (different bikes, different clothes, different riding styles etc ) that might effect motorist behaviour towards cyclists. Here's a few paras of conclusions from the qualitative research:

Drivers consistently awarded space, speed reduction and more caution to the stunt cyclist than to the professional cyclist or the everyday cyclist (although the differences between the everyday cyclist and professional cyclist were marginal). It was also found that, with the everyday and professional cyclists, drivers were more likely to concede speed than space and more likely to concede space than caution. Similar proportions of all driver types said they would drive more cautiously, slow down and give more room when overtaking the stunt cyclist – the general impression being that this cyclist is less predictable and thereforewarrants special attention.

However, this summary of the findings does not disentangle what factors are doing what to motorists' perceptions and how these different perceptions translate into actual behaviour in a road environment.

Back to the OP. When I used to ride a folding bike regularly, I did notice a change in others' behaviour, but it was mostly from cyclists (who seemed to take umbrage at being passed by someone with small wheels) and pedestrians who would laugh, point, stare, or talk to me about the bike (that was before folders became more popular though).

However, I can't say I noticed too much difference in general road user behaviour when I rode a Brompton, Trek, or Birdy. That said, I would contend that there is a discernible change in the way motorists treat you on the road when you ride an unusual bike, i.e a recumbent, a unicycle, or a laden cargo bike..

The point about "default" is moot, cause the system defaults to the default only when all other factors affecting the position cease. So you assume the default position only when the positioning matters the least, at situations where the overriding edge-hazard, lane-width and junction-approach rules don't affect your positioning.

Having never been to the British Isles, I could safely say that "default"-positioning rule will have very little effect on my position in London.

What you also need to remember is that when cycle lanes are *in situ, *for many, this perpetuates the view that the extremities of the road are the assumed default position for cyclists. If you choose to ride beyond the demaracated lane, (reclaiming road space) you are often treated as a transgressor. It is the issue of mariginalisation (both as a mode of transport and in terms of traffic engineering/land use) that is the problem and needs to be considered when discussing cycling/road positioning.

(apologies to anyone offended by the post title)

Transport for London have been debating what advice to give to cyclists around the default riding position and there is some discussion, even disagreement around this issue between cycle trainers, road engineers and other parties. A conference is planned later this month for London boroughs to hammer this out and to make recommendations for changes to the National Standard training syllabus.

**I hope to argue the case for a wider acceptance of cyclists in within the traffic stream including showing more cyclists in this position in TfL cycling promotion literature **. It would be good to have some pithy phrase to use and that cycle trainers can use (Like 'see, be seen, communicate') to express the pussy/dick balance without offending anyone.

Any ideas?

"Assertive not antagonistic; cooperative not cocksure".

As you can see, I'm not good with pith, but did manage to get the word "cock" in there.

Good luck with getting more images of cyclists in the primary position in TFL literature. Since the advent of Cycle Superhighways there are more images of cyclists riding to the left, occupying the CS lane and, a concomitant view that this is the rightful/correct place for cyclists on the road.

Bicycle Training in the Netherlands

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16AO0_08r3o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMdmtM7Kv4c&feature=watch_response

Hope she pulls through:

Female cyclist in critical condition after collision with a lorry at Old Street rooundabout

A female cyclist has been seriously injured after being involved in a collision with a lorry at the Old Street roundabout in Shoreditch during rush hour this morning (February 24).

Paramedics treated the woman after the crash, which happened shortly before 7.45am. She was taken to the Royal London Hospital suffering injuries to her head, chest and pelvis. Police officers have cordonned off surrounding roads.

Old Street is closed and traffic is queuing westbound between the Great Eastern Street junction and Old Street roundabout. Congestion is also affecting City Road.

Join the Gazette’s Hackney Cycle Safe campaign by going to the homepage and clicking on the campaign logo.

http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/female_cyclist_in_critical_condition_after_collision_with_lorry_at_old_street_roundabout_1_811375

Hurst's "The Art of Cycling" is very readable - informative without being drearily, didactic. It's not a best practice text, but it does make you think differently about how you ride. If anyone wants to borrow a copy, pm me.

I bought the Li-ion 18650 batteries from Deal Extreme and rotate them weekly. I've not had any probs with the batteries and carry spares in case they run out, mid-ride.

If you get the light from HK - it only costs about £65.