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On my commuter, I have a somewhat unwieldy Fenix TK35 mounted on my stem (aimed down at the road ahead):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16114972@N00/5421279317/

Specs:
http://www.fenixlight.com/viewnproduct.asp?id=86

The cateye does not look anything special.

If I was buying a new cam, I'd be looking at the V.I.O. POV. HD
http://www.vio-pov.com/products-all/pov-hd.html

I have a GoPro HD and it's stem-mounted. I got mine from the US and paid £200 with a handlebar mount and SDHC card. They have recently brought our a lower spec HD model and a LCD viewing screen. The waterproof housing is good, and the handlebar mount seems durable.

Film of my commute, shot on the GoPro at 760/60 with very little vibration:

Peleton CS7 - YouTube

The Contour 1080 is v similar image quality wise, but due to the exposure option it can perform better in low-light than the GoPro. It's also more discreet on a helmet. The GPS option is nice, but not a deal clincher for me.

The Drift 170, looks v nice and I see they have just brought out a Stealth model. The screen is a nice bonus too.

I suspect any of the above would be fine, but for a lot of people it seems to come down to aesthetics. I suspect if I wanted to use a helmet mount, I'd have gone for the Contour or Drift.

faaaaaaaaaaarrrk.

That was decent. Approaching Elephant from Kennington, no?

Yep, Newington Butts, northbound. The busy Dante Road junction is one to be wary of.

HGV obscures another HGV:

YouTube - HGV Obscuration - Defensive Cycling 13

Be careful out there.

This may not be what you mean by 'maintain your speed' (you may mean maintaining the your own speed rather than that of other traffic), but I wouldn't say that you have to maintain the speed of other traffic. You should make your risk assessment based on the speed differential between faster traffic and you (just as you should make it if you are the faster traffic). Speed differentials are fine as long as they're not too extreme, e.g. if everyone around you is doing 70mph, you'd better adjust your risk assessment. :)

Indeed - you don't have to maintain the speed of other traffic (it's often wise to back off), but you do have to operate within the contraints of your cardio-vascular system!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPIzshadSeU"]YouTube
- Keep your distance - Defensive Cycling 7![/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TQ7aID1jHs"]YouTube
- Avoiding the Door Zone[/ame]

I posted a few months ago (way back in the pages of this thread) about a run in I had had with a National Express coach. I had one of those eBay Muvi MD80 cameras on my handlebars so uploaded the footage to youtube, and sent a link to both National Express and roadsafelondon with a complaint about the driving. A nice, young, female civilian police person then came around and took down my particulars ...

This was back in the early summer and I never heard anything more - I assumed it had just fizzled out ... until yesterday. I get a call from a DCI in the traffic department of the Met who explained that, on the basis of the footage I provided (higher quality on DVD not just the youtube footage) the coach driver had pleaded guilty to driving without due care (I think it was), had got 3 points, a £150 fine plus lots of costs. As a "professional" driver, this is pretty serious and could lead to him losing his job. Good stuff, I thought, he'll take a bit more care around cyclists in the future.

Next bit is that the DCI asks if I would be prepared to be interviewed by someone from the BBC who is planning on doing a feature about this - i.e. cyclists using helmet/handlebar cams and successfully prosecuting dangerous drivers based on the footage. From speaking to the BBC chap (anything for my 15 mins), it seems that there are quite a few complaints from cyclists using helmet cam footage, but surprisingly few successful prosecutions. If any of you out there have successfully used cam footage to to secure a conviction against some dangerous/inconsiderate driving, would you send me a PM? (Assuming, of course, that you're happy for me to pass the story to this guy at the Beeb.)

PS. Also posted on bikeradar as I know quite a few on there use helmet cams.

THI - both "Benborp" and "Number 14" have had successful prosecutions using helmetcam film. They are contactable via Cyclechat and have dealt with the media before (Sunday Times).

The cyclist in this vid roughly matching the speed of other traffic should be in the primary position in the normal traffic lane. Traveling in tandem is always safest and side-by-side traveling should be justified by meaninigful increase in convenience to car driver/cyclist by overtaking/filtering.

A bus/cycle lane and traffic lane merge into a wider traffic lane and cycle lane on the approach to the lights. However, you will note the cycle lane has no mandatory or advisory markings (effectively meaning there are two de facto traffic lanes in most road users' eyes). This should have alerted me to a potential problem.

The point about being part of the traffic stream where possible is well made if you can maintain that speed (as you will see I was hanging back behind the 4x4) **until **I tried to proceed as the de facto lane was clear. If I had been 6 feet further over I would be behind cars wanting to turn right after the lights and I would then have to merge back to the left as the bus lane recommences after the traffic lights. It might have helped in this particular instance. HHowever, the major disadvantage of trying to maintain the position you are advocating in the moving traffic lane is that you get cars undertaking at speed wanting to turn left like the 4x4 or trying to overtake. This doubles the threat and leaves you exposed in what is, to all intents and purposes, a wide traffic lane that two motorised vehicles use all the time.

In the same situation, I would simply have slowed until I had passed the junction (less convenient, but potentially, lower risk as the threat is now from a rear ending).

Swept path of HGV at traffic lights:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsMml2wqBos"]YouTube
- HGV Turning Circle: Left Turn - Defensive Cycling 11![/ame]

Lol that is funny. I think anyone thinking this is serious probably needs a humour readjustment. This is obviously written as a parody of four-wheel chauvinism.

I'd like to think that if it was a parody, it was a little too subtle for me, but it seems more in keeping with US anti-cycling rhetoric, bumper stickers and t-shirts such as: "One less cyclist and the day ain’t over yet..." or "If you can’t see my mirrors, it means I’ve hit another cyclist" or "I don't share the road" (accompanied by a pic of a cyclist flying over a bonnet).

Here's a sharp bit of satire: "Why I hate Pedestrians":

http://bamboobadger.blogspot.com/search?q=pedestrian

That sticker reworks the chicago fixed gear anti-dooring campaign from a couple of years ago when a cyclist was killed in Chicago. It's in poor taste.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Om7pveY9p-w/SGo7HHC1xtI/AAAAAAAAAhc/FP1B6behocM/s1600-h/doored-1.jpg

Not cautious enough...?

YouTube - Bus Lane, Cycle Lane and a Junction 3 - Defensive Cycling 10!

I think you should ask why the cars move as though to proceed? Having seen a cyclist has stopped, as you did, then that's a clear signal to them to go.

It could be argued that you were overlycautious in that situation, thus actually creating some of the risks via your actions, which you then use to justify your initial stopping. Key to me is the video is called 'defensive' rather than 'assertive'.

I agree it's all a huge risk assessment exercise on the fly, we're all doing this daily.

Keep safe, keep having fun :)

Watch closely, I was talking about the car to my right that tries to proceed forward after it has stopped, but the van turns into the junction.

Overly cautious - quite possibly. In this scenario the risk of more serious injury is presented by the car, IMO, not a cyclist colliding with me from behind. To me, that's playing the odds in favour of avoiding a more dangerous outcome. Does it increase the likelihood of a rear-ending - yes, but that I can live with.

Take it easy.

There's no guarantees that you won't ever be hit in any circumstance, but stopping and giving way to drivers in this scenario sends them (and those cycling around you) mixed messages - what if it's not you they meet next time and they turn across a rider who was understandably expecting the right of way?

I don't think your video is showing best practice in this case.

Happy to be corrected by those with better knowledge of the National Cycling Standard. Slowing to confirm safety (eye contact) and then proceeding with right of way is what i'd teach.

Thanks for the comments.

What we're talking about here is trying to mitigate different and competing risks. In dynamic traffic situations you have to consider (amongst other things) risk exposure. I certainly think eye-contact is a useful aid, but the driver did not look directly at me even though I was focussed on them.

Waiting does send mixed messages (the positve message is that it primes other cyclists to the danger of gaps in queuing traffic at junctions), but to be honest, I'm more concerned about a) enjoying myself and b) avoiding injury when I'm riding. If I can set an example, I try, but it's more likely that others can learn from my mistakes.

Was I cautious, or overly cautious in the vid? I'm not sure. Watch the car on my right, it moves to proceed (as you have suggested), but then the van turns across his path into the junction.

In addition, drivers often flash other drivers through in this scenario and a driver turning across the bus lane ocassionally abnegates his/her responsibility to look and continue only if it is clear.

The vid is certainly not supposed to be an example of "best practice" - it's a messy, real world scenario where you're trying to weigh up what is essentially a risk matrix on the fly.

Looks like the cyclist has got right of way, and the driver considering turning across then stops. Cyclist doing the filming was correct to slow anticipating the possible turn, but should then have rolled through once it was clear the car wasn't actually going to turn across (eye contact with driver, then acknowledgement etc etc). Looks like filming cyclist almost gets rear-ended by another rider as a result of stopping?

Maybe I'm being thick and missing something, so off to bed to listen to cricket and will catch up tomorrow.

The cyclists proceeding along the bus lane do have priority over turning traffic, but you learn quickly to cede priority in bus lanes. Rolling through after eye-contact is no guarantee that a vehicle will not swipe you. In the same situation, I'd wait again.

Yes, the rider behind (who makes the hand gesture) was not watching how the situation was developing ahead of him and nearly rear-ended me. I sometimes shout "slowing" in these circumstances (or use club hand gestures if there's a somebody drafting) but the guy was not even close when I looked back before the junction.

Bus lanes and junctions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGPIPygh1qk

The camera is pretty good, what was it? enjoyed watching your videos (especially on my regular route).

GoPro HD - stem mounted.

why not post them in order, a variety of common situations encountered on London roads, wtf the guy off bike was doing at E& C Ive no idea.

The guy had to jump off onto the pavement otherwise the rear end of the bus would have swiped him. If you look carefully at the state of the pavement next to the railings you can see that the rear axles of HGVs and PSVs often mount the pavement there making an escape more difficult than people imagine.

I only linked to the bus vid as it seemed apposite, given the reference to bus driver training upthread.

If you want to link to other vids, feel free *m.f.

Bloody hell, is he on a time trial bike or something? it look like lighting speed!

It's the low camera angle - it gives a greater impression of speed, Ed.

It's fixed, with bull horns.

Good work with the bus driver training, skydancer.

You might want to use this video in one of your future presentations:

YouTube - Bus Lanes - Defensive Cycling 5!

PS apologies for the corrupted file...

This is hearsay:

I was told by someone at the scene that it was collision between a pedestrian and a bus and that the victim was taken away by ambulance.

Yet another cyclist has been knocked down in Hackney. The woman who is thought to be in her 30′s, collided with a black cab along Graham road near Navarino Road just after 12 noon yesterday, Thursday 5 August and was taken to the London Royal Hospital. According to uncorroborated report, she had a cardiac arrest.

Police have confirmed this morning (8.30 Friday 7 August) that the woman is still in critical condition, contrary to her death being announced on a London cyclist website.

In March, a female cyclist was killed after she collided with a skip truck, at the roundabout on Lauriston Road and Victoria Park Road.

More to follow.

http://www.hackneyhive.co.uk/index/2010/08/another-cyclist-hit-in-hackney/

The anecdotal evidence is clear, but do you know of good data to support it?

Moth, p.31 of "Analysis of police collision files for pedal cyclists in London, 2001 - 2006" contains a work sector table for goods vehicles involved in fatal collisions. It's not comprehensive, but better than nothing.

You can download the report for free at the TRL website, or if you have problems pm as I have a pdf.

http://www.trl.co.uk/online_store/reports_publications/trl_reports/cat_road_user_safety/report_analysis_of_police_collision_files_for_pedal_cyclists_in_london_2001___2006.htm

Hope this helps.

Email received from DS Tony Tobin (tony. tobin @ met. police. uk):

*I am investigating a fatal cycle collision involving a HGV Tipper lorry at the Oval, Kennington at just after 08:30 on Monday 29th June 2009.

I can see there are some blogs on this site. If anyone actually witnessed the collision or events leading up to the collision can they please contact Met. Police, Hampton Collision Investigation Unit on 0208 941 9011.

Thank you.*