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i'm pretty sure i've read someone saying this in here (apologies if not and if i'm saying shit) but apparently being doored is a criminal offense and not just a traffic offense. i know nothing of law, but my understanding is that being doored would account as attempted murder in some way (which in my view is way much worse than getting away with paying to fix your bike back, especially if you had injuries). of course, i'd imagine you'd need to register this with the police at the time, so saying this is kinda totally pointless now anyway.

now, i've been semi-doored (due to ninja skills i managed to avoid a direct hit, only scratched my hand/arm/leg on the door) by a passenger who opened the door when the lights changed to green and the only 2 cars in front started moving. so my best advice is: pay way more attention to people inside the car or jumping from behind buses, always. paying for a new bike is cheap if compared with a bad crash even if it's some other idiot's fault -- your body will suffer the consequences anyway.

i thought i should update this with some 'recent' info.
the driver is now in jail waiting for court. has had denied a request to bail and the psycological tests showed he was not 'mentally ill' as the defensor tried to use.

looks like he'll go down good. hopefully gets max jail term and makes other such idiots aware to respect cyclists anywhere in the world.

What you mean? I'm no psycho, I only run down peds with my bike! :D

But seriously, that shit in brazil was fucked up. Pisses me off the fact that some think they can get away with whatever. What type of sentence would someone get for that in the uk (considering a proper guilty verdict)? In brazil there's a max ever sentence of 30 years, that can easily be reduced when it's a first time criminal plus money, corruption and said 'good behaviour'. I may be asking too much, but I would like to see more respect for riders -- cos I know I respect a ton metal cage on wheels.

that's not a bad idea, but i think the uk (generally speaking) wouldnt mess with that. it seems to be an internal affair mainly. what could be done tho, is to get this subject to a more broad (london townhall, road dept?) level and assure the uk community understands and respects cyclists. i'm sure that those videos would repulse the shit out of most people, and they would then think twice before trying to be smart-asses.

i normally get the eye from some drivers when i'm on the road, but drivers seem to be a lot more abusive/agressive towards smaller and more defenseless people (read: missus).

As far as he's concerned they were fair game, like ants he could jump stamp on.

i couldnt agree more. and if he felt threathened, he's guilty as charged, he ran over people on purpose. what impress me more is the fact that he had been approved in many psycological tests (had many banking jobs, had gun carrying license, etc) but dont show any regard for others. apparently his 15yo son was also in the car -- can someone tell me what kind of nutter this boy will become (since the incident or just by having that father)?

a guy like that deserves to dragged naked in the asphalt and left for worms to eat his flesh alive. but imho he will get what's in for him, brazil likes to set examples of some people, and he does deserve that.

I don't buy this theory anymore. Some cyclists are just determined to be ahead regardless.

And on the other hand a cycle lane will make drivers aware that cyclists are likely to be there and are more likely to check both sides before turning.

i very much agree with you. any sort of road marks make easier to drive. has anyone ever driven on a large road that has had new asphalt laid on and therefore no road marks? it's nearly impossible to drive in a decent line. a huge blue mark would make drivers more aware of where they should not go. it's the riders' responsibility not to try stupid undertakes as much as the driver has to respect them.

My favourite was the two stickrs that had went>>

"Suicide".............."Right Side"

On the back of the lorry, short and to the point

the other day i was holding back at 0.1mph behind a left slow turning bus and a random guy tried to squeeze on the side of the bus. i stopped and watched as the stupid got boxed in. hopefully lesson learned. can scrap the poster now.

i like the idea of making cyclists aware of the dangers regardless, but that aside, i still think some nutter drivers must be butt-dragged on broken glass so they learn to stay away from bikes. i do know the dangers of approaching vehicles on the inside -- and that should be more clear that buses, rented vans and minicabs represent quite the same danger. what concerns me most is those fucken assholes that think they're better because they're inside a metal cage.

i like the cycles uk in greenwich. always found them to be helpful and stuff.

every single evans i've been to was shitty. the one at london bridge makes me want to punch their noses.

kinda dumb question, but is that bike rideable?
assuming it is, where do i get such wheels? :)

dibs on the way if bits still available.
PMed.

hey
not sure if this post is too old or not (says 3 weeks, dunno how fast selling stuff goes on the forum) but i'll shoot anyway.
are those shimano sora levers for 8speed/double? if yes and still available, me dibs on them :)

cheers

Saw a cyclist getting a ticket, told cop that maybe she should have a word with the taxi driver and motorcyclist sitting in the ASL at the lights with me... and she did. (fair cop, haha) I wouldn't mind them doing this if I thought they were monitoring all road users there, rather than just targeting cyclists.

yup, that's probably what pisses me off the most. like, cyclists are always in the wrong: drivers are right to stop in the green box or drive agressively, peds are right to cross without looking or in red light. i dont mind following the rules, but everyone else has to play the game too.

totally agree with this, i got knocked off a couple weeks back flying downhill on seven sisters rd in a bus lane at about 20-25mph with slow/stationary traffic on my right. fuckwit delivery driver gets bored sitting in the line of traffic and pulls out left in front of me without indicating. suffice to say i ate shit, flew about 15 feet from my bike onto my boat race. Superficial roadrash only, but i've been a damn sight more cautious the last couple of weeks... in fact i wear a lid at all times now...

i'm growing seriously scared of someone opening the car's door while i'm passing thru lately. i read on here that it's a criminal offense, but i doubt i'd be able to discuss that if an accident just happened with me.

You're not going to throw yourself into risky situatons thinking "Well, I can always prosecute him for rape afterwards".

haha not sure if some girls really think like that!!!

Came past there at about 8.40, one ambulance, one ambulance car, a police car and a lady in what I think was a silver fiesta. No bike or rider, so wasnt sure what it was about.

fiesta? dunno, new model maybe (shit im old), the bigger one that looks more like the old astra. silver for sure.

yeah, that part of the road is really fun, you have to see it in one of those friday evenings when there is a school disco near by. you will easily need to refill your air horn 3 times just trying to get to woolwich road.

dude, i swear i looked at her arm and it looked fairly ok (i can say i'm experienced with broken bones as i have some 10 fractures in my body from skateboarding). then i notice the elbow a bit disjointed, and i could see the white of the bone showing up thru the ripped clothes. dont get me wrong, this was a 3 secs inspection :)
if i'm right, from there you can possibly count with one surgery and some 3 months of recovery. but as i said, it could've been much worse.

yeah, that's one i've been pulled as well, but the driver missed me by a few inches.[U][/U]

i dont know where Tea_bee lives, but apart from the crossing on the way to deptford, i also have to look out at this point as the road gets narrower (end of bus lane/bus stop) and there's the station right after to it, so you never know if drivers are simply coming to the outer lane or if they will drop into the station. i was nearly snapped there, luckly it was all jammed and the car didnt manage to pull out of the line in time to hit me.

btw, i now scream 'oi' at distracted crossing pedestrians. i do it so loud that i can feel my chest vibrating. most times it sounds like an angry pitbull bark, but it works just fine.

the other day, the same situation, ped crossing with a big red light in her face. i had to shout 3 times at this girl in central london..but when she 'heard' it, she was so scared she probably pissed her pants. she was jumping and screaming scared as i went by. made me even sad a bit after, she could have had a heart attack or something. but like, crossing a fucking avenue reading a mag isnt what i reckon as 'look both sides before crossing' as my mom told me.

it's alright, no worries tommy.

it's all odd cos i feel like it was me in the trouble. i mean, i'm very likely to have an accident like that as i'm always speeding more than necessary, but at least i'm trying to chill and i definitely have a more defensive behaviour since i last crashed.

If a car infront (the description in the first post differs from post #4) of you and slows if you proceed to over / undertake the car you need to make sure the car is not turning, especially if there appears to be nothing in front of it causing it to slow down, it's basic road sense.

well, sorry about that.. i was more paying attention to things around me :P
but i agree with you -- it's road sense. although i'm quite sure the car was slow and simply turned -- we were all going past them -- hence, driver's fault 75%, rider 25%.

Doesn't seem like a devil's advocate position, just kind of sensible. Cyclist undertaking at speed where there's a road entrance on the left and the potential for cars to take that last minute left turn.......... risky, obviously.

risky, but still doesnt justify a car turning suddenly without reason. especially when/if they go slowly, they surely have the time to look into rear mirrors.

what happens is a total careless from some drivers.

i'm not saying the rider isnt a bit guilty in that situation, but you definitely will suffer the most in an accident, regardless.

Fuck. I ride through there all the time and I've never noticed that tiny road. It's always the upcoming junction with Haddo road, with the cement works (=lots of cement trucks) that I'm looking out for.

I'll be dropping down the bike shop in Deptford later, so I'll be riding that bit of road in a couple of hours.

yeah, i'm always on the lookout for trucks there. i had to 'dispute who will go first' with a car when the lights turned green in a morning, so i've been extra careful specially there.

the point is, it sort of could have been avoided if the rider was more aware and a bit slower -- i've kept my eyes open as i've seen similar shit being pulled in front of me before, but i still have to slow down lots if i want to be safer on the road.

there's a little road on the left as you go from greenwich market to deptford, right opposite to subway. car was turning into there and rider got boxed in. i'm quite sure the car didnt 'overtake' the bike, but was rather slowly and turned. rider was too fast and possibly didnt acknowledged that a slow car might meant a turning car with a reckless driver that dont bother turning the indicator on (although that one had it, but i reckon people like hitting the stick as they turn the driving wheel).

bike flew from the entrance of the road and hit the brick wall on the other side. i reckon a broken arm was actually luck, and not flying over the car might have helped too. still, pretty fucked up.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=grenwich+market&ie=UTF8&sll=51.480882,-0.01074&sspn=0.002412,0.006802&split=1&rq=1&ev=zi&radius=0.15&hq=grenwich+market&hnear=&ll=51.481416,-0.010917&spn=0,0.006802&z=18&layer=c&cbll=51.481415,-0.010724&panoid=lu91WOO-Eio6nI2uR8sTQA&cbp=12,243.04,,0,7.77