Close thing with white van man on the way home

[Chris Eilbeck]

On my way home today I was almost hit by a muppet in a white van. I
was riding along a non-arterial (but not quite domestic) road with car
parked on the other side of the road from me. I was a couple of feet
from the kerb, keeping out of the gutters but not really in the middle
of my lane. Two cars had stopped in a gap in the parked cars on the
other side waiting for me to to pass (nice of them but there was
definitely sufficient room for them to not have stopped). Just as I'm
about to reach the first car, white van man drives up behind them at
some speed, decides to overtake them even though they're stopped and
indicating to pull out and pass the parked cars. I slam the anchors
on and do my best to leave as little of me and the bike as possible in
harms way. Me and the two drivers look on with incredulity as white
van man makes for the horizon, only to have to brake heavily to avoid
driving through a crossroads showing red on the traffic lights.

What is it with some people, huh?

Still, that's a 3 mile each way commute every day so far this week and
I've got tomorrow off. Guess I'll just have to try for the full week
next week

Chris
--
Chris Eilbeck
MARS Flight Crew http://www.mars.org.uk/
UKRA #1108 Level 2 UYB
Tripoli UK Member #9527 LSMR

 

[Mark Tranchant]

Chris Eilbeck wrote:
> On my way home today I was almost hit by a muppet in a white van. I
> was riding along a non-arterial (but not quite domestic) road with car
> parked on the other side of the road from me. I was a couple of feet
> from the kerb, keeping out of the gutters but not really in the middle
> of my lane. Two cars had stopped in a gap in the parked cars on the
> other side waiting for me to to pass (nice of them but there was
> definitely sufficient room for them to not have stopped). Just as I'm
> about to reach the first car, white van man drives up behind them at
> some speed, decides to overtake them even though they're stopped and
> indicating to pull out and pass the parked cars.

Not to blame you, because hindsight is a wonderful thing, but as soon as
the oncoming cars had stopped I would have been inclined to move to the
middle of my lane.

Can't have been a real WVM, anyway: "and indicating to pull out". Must
be learning the ropes...

--
Mark.
http://tranchant.plus.com/

 

[stupot]

Chris Eilbeck wrote:
> I slam the anchors
> on and do my best to leave as little of me and the bike as possible in
> harms way. Me and the two drivers look on with incredulity as white
> van man makes for the horizon, only to have to brake heavily to avoid
> driving through a crossroads showing red on the traffic lights.
As always, report to the police. The law is on your side and the police
can be pressured, not to ignore these things. I compained to the police
about vehicles regularly going through a red light in Edinburgh. The
police first response was that it was not their responsibility and that
I should talk to the council. When cc'ed their reply to council they
quickly admitted fault and said that they would take a look at the junction.

 

[[email protected]]

I had an interesting incident with a taxi (see ed.general for details;
thread: Cyclists and Taxis (or similar)) last friday. I reported it to
both Police and Taxi licensing.

This morning (exactly a week later to within about 5 minutes); there
was a video-equipped police van parked at the junction in question.
I've never seen one there before.

maybe co-incidence? - but made me feel like I was taken seriously.

If you have the registration, report it.

M.

 

[stupot]

[email protected] wrote:
> I had an interesting incident with a taxi (see ed.general for details;
> thread: Cyclists and Taxis (or similar)) last friday. I reported it to
> both Police and Taxi licensing.
>
> This morning (exactly a week later to within about 5 minutes); there
> was a video-equipped police van parked at the junction in question.
> I've never seen one there before.
>
> maybe co-incidence? - but made me feel like I was taken seriously.
Good stuff.

 

[[email protected]]

out of curiosity; which lights was your complaint above about?

M.