Do You Have A Sixth Sense When It Comes To Other Road Users?
Take a look at this film from Andyb0000 on YouTube - pause it and note down the time in the film at which you’d identified what was going to happen:
Thankfully, Andy is on the mend, but his footage raises some interesting questions about the degree of vigilance that’s needed to ride on the roads these days. I’d actually thought that the black Audi was going to turn across his path, as it seemed to be the faster of the two vehicles. The driver of the green Ford has the sun behind him, and is virtually pointing towards Andy, who is the only "vehicle" he has to give way to on this roundabout - is there any shred of an excuse for a SMIDSY here?
Then I wonder if Andy could have ridden the approach differently - a little further over to the right to be more assertively visible? Or just riding with the assumption that every driver with an opportunity to do something stupid & unexpected will grab that chance with both hands? I don’t mean this in a Daily Rag blame-the-victim sort of way, just that having seen this film, I’d probably ride these roads differently. Sort of hindsight being a wonderful teacher, especially when it’s someone else who experienced the pain you learn from.
When it comes down to it though, I firmly believe that to ride on the roads amongst traffic, you do need a sixth sense. It’s the ability to see . . .
- When someone is about to change lane - even though nothing’s changed in their road position, and they haven’t signaled yet
- When a door is about to open into your path
- That the boy racer coming up behind is going to apex the next bend, while he’s alongside you
The trouble is that learning this takes time and experience. While newly qualified kids with their BikeAbility badges are on the roads this summer, I just hope none of them has a wide-eyed friend standing on the pavement explaining how he sees dead people . . .
Something similar happened to me a few weeks ago, also at a roundabout. I’ve always though my riding style was assertive, but very defensive. I assume everyone else on the road is out to get get. Seems by far the safest approach. But this one time, a driver I thought had seen me actually hadn’t, and he came straight out onto the roundabout. I escaped quite lightly. The only blood was from my elbow, but my back still hurts now. It could have been much worse.
When I think about it, though, I don’t see what I could have done differently that would have avoided the incident. If they don’t look, they don’t see. Simple as that. I haven’t been on my bike since, and I’m wondering how I’m going to persuade myself it is OK, because right now it just doesn’t seem worth the risk.
This is one of the limitations of vehicular cycling - Andy was doing pretty much everything right, taking his right of way and keeping going fast as though he were a car, but because the other driver didn’t treat him like a car, they collided.
I think I would have slowed down on the roundabout, assuming that the car *might* pull out onto me, and I’d have been making full eye contact, as I’ve been almost got so many times that way before. This probably makes me a more nervous and hesitant cyclist - bad, bad, bad in the vehicular cycling world. But then, I find when I’m in a car now, I’m expecting none of the other cars to have seen me - I saw a car waiting to turn right across traffic as we were coming the other way and I was fully prepared for it just to turn as we approached, because that’s exactly the sort of thing that happens when you’re on a bike.
So I’ve become a bike-hicular driver…
Poor bloke, hope he is mending up well. The video made me feel quite ill just watching it - I knew it was going to happen, but only once it was too late.
And the shame of being hit by someone wearing socks and sandals… !
As townmouse says, this is one of the limitations of vehicular cycling; it relies on motorised road users having their wits about them. As this video clearly shows, not all of them do.
Perhaps if more drivers had ridden a bike recently (as oppose to when they were 5) things would be a bit better…
Blimey, that was a bad one.
Glad to hear he is on the mend.
After a few years of living and cycling in London I assume every driver is an arse who can’t see me. Drivers have a particular blind spot for anything on two wheels (as the number of motorbike crashes I have seen where a car has pulled out in their path).
In this case the speed the car was approaching the juntion I would have hot the brakes early and hit the airzound as well.
My last big off, I’d not have done anything different either.
Driver decided not to wait for me to leave the roundabout, and drove into my back wheel.
The answer isn’t always with us - sometimes it’s with getting drivers to take the risk they pose to other people seriously. Nothing happened to the driver who hit me, and I suspect the police won’t do anything about the one in the clip either. A careless driving conviction, or strict liability in such cases could begin to make people focus on what they’re doing.
Ssssh! John! Don’t say ’str*ct l*ab*lity’ out loud, didn’t you that journalists at the Daily Fail murder a kitten every time you do?!
Seriously though, he’s right - a bit of the old European SL system would work wonders over here. We need to get over the idea that European drivers are somehow more civilised; they’re not, its just the law (and it’s successful enforcement) that makes them drive like that. If we had the same, we’d be the same.
I’d go for strict liability, either that or removal of all safety features in cars (airbags, seatbelts, crumple zones) which would focus a drivers mind on not hitting stuff.
The footage will at least be useful for the claim against the driver.