Missed...just.

[Richard]

Today's near wipeout courtesy of another cyclist. There I was,
whizzing down the hill at 25mph or so. Ahead the road widens to two
lanes, the left hand one of which is a bus/taxi/bike lane, and empty;
the right hand has three cars queued up at an (empty) Pelican crossing
that was red and is just starting to flash amber. So I drift into the
left lane - and a cyclist breezes transversely across the road from
right to left at speed between cars 2 & 3, from a side road on the right
to a park entrance on the left, without bloody well looking for me
coming up the inner lane. He's decked out like a Christmas tree with
yellow jacket and, stone me, yellow helmet, but it's a pity all those
safety features didn't help him to look. I hit the brakes and blast the
Air Zound, which looked like it scared the **** out of a couple of poor
pedestrians but had no noticeable effect on Mr Christmas Tree, and pass
behind his rear wheel by inches. The consequences of a t-bone at
that speed are pretty scary - they all flashed through my mind in the
second or so between me realising he hadn't seen me and really wasn't
going to stop for me, and the near miss.

OK, heart rate back to something sensible now.

R.

 

[Pete Bentley]

Richard <[email protected]> wrote:
>Today's near wipeout courtesy of another cyclist.

Mine too today...

In my case myself and two lanes of traffic were pulling away from
the lights on Finsbury Square[1] onto Finsbury Pavement[2] when
some guy goes hacking across at right angles out of Chiswell Street
and into Finsbury Square - against the red and on the pavement.

Missed him by a foot or two but may have called his parentage into
question...

And they wonder why cyclists have a bad reputation in London...

Pete.
[1] Which lights have recently gained an overly long pedestrian phase
which is a little annoying at 7am when there's hardly any pedestrians
around.
[2] Which is a street, before anyone acuses me of cycling on the pavement.