Yet more commuter hell

[CoyoteBoy]

Well todays ride in was great fun. Just about every car skimmed past
so close they scuffed our elbows. We had people yelling "use the cycle
lane" despite there only being a pavement available. We've had someone
driving the wrong way up a one way street.

Being a driver, and also making mistakes in my time I admit, I used to
pass these things off as one-offs. But its really starting to get my
goat. Plan:

Helmet mounted video camera.
Bar mounted trigger.
Good sense of distance.

Record the buggers doing stupid things and forward the evidence to the
police on weekly video CDs? Or post them on the internet as a name and
shame?

 

[Martin Dann]

CoyoteBoy wrote:
> Well todays ride in was great fun. Just about every car skimmed past
> so close they scuffed our elbows. We had people yelling "use the cycle
> lane" despite there only being a pavement available. We've had someone
> driving the wrong way up a one way street.
>
> Being a driver, and also making mistakes in my time I admit, I used to
> pass these things off as one-offs. But its really starting to get my
> goat. Plan:
>
> Helmet mounted video camera.
> Bar mounted trigger.

What do you need a trigger for, just leave the camera running
continuously. Otherwise you will miss stuff that you want to capture, or
be turning it on and off when you need to concentrate on avoiding the
ejits around you.

The problem is often something that feels close when cycling does not
appear as close when the footage is viewed later.

> Good sense of distance.
>
> Record the buggers doing stupid things and forward the evidence to the
> police on weekly video CDs? Or post them on the internet as a name and
> shame?

Send the absolute worst to the police, e.g. when you are threatened etc.
Post the rest on the internet.
Naming and shaming is best for organisations

e.g.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8ZcyFo2B8A
Bristol city council WVM uses footpath to overtake.

Martin.

 

[Ekul Namsob]

CoyoteBoy <[email protected]> wrote:

> Well todays ride in was great fun. Just about every car skimmed past
> so close they scuffed our elbows.

How far out from the kerb were you riding? I find this only happens if I
slip into old habits and start riding in the secondary position.

Cheers,
Luke


--
Red Rose Ramblings, the diary of an Essex boy in
exile in Lancashire <http://www.shrimper.org.uk>

 

[Paul Rudin]

CoyoteBoy <[email protected]> writes:

> pass these things off as one-offs. But its really starting to get my
> goat. Plan:
>
> Helmet mounted video camera.
> Bar mounted trigger.
> Good sense of distance.
>
> Record the buggers doing stupid things and forward the evidence to the
> police on weekly video CDs? Or post them on the internet as a name and
> shame?

You may be interested in Ian Jackson's efforts in this direction:
<http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ijackson/bikecams/>

 

[naked_draughtsman]

"Paul Rudin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> CoyoteBoy <[email protected]> writes:
>
>> pass these things off as one-offs. But its really starting to get my
>> goat. Plan:
>>
>> Helmet mounted video camera.
>> Bar mounted trigger.
>> Good sense of distance.
>>
>> Record the buggers doing stupid things and forward the evidence to the
>> police on weekly video CDs? Or post them on the internet as a name and
>> shame?
>
> You may be interested in Ian Jackson's efforts in this direction:
> <http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ijackson/bikecams/>

I found a website http://www.betterdrivingplease.com/ where you can log
registrations and details of how you were wronged. I don't think you can
attach videos though and I don't think it forwards reports onto the police.

--
peter

Cheap train tickets database
http://www.petereverett.co.uk/tickets/

Email sent to this address is generally deleted upon arrival
Visit website if you want to contact me

 

[Coyoteboy]

"Ekul Namsob" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:1hz8rnd.1oeksf814xlwsqN%[email protected]...

> How far out from the kerb were you riding? I find this only happens if I
> slip into old habits and start riding in the secondary position.
>
> Cheers,
> Luke

I always used to ride at the edge of the grids in the gutter but noticed
that just invited people to assume you werent there. So I started riding
where the left hand wheel of a car goes, as does my friend. We tend to tail
each other pretty much nose to tail (6 inches between us) as it keeps the
disruption to other traffic down. I've noticed "wobbling" a lot seems to get
you more room but more abuse. And I've found that when you're cut up by
buses a good hard punch on the drivers sliding window scares the **** out of
him and he'll think twice about it next time, without any damage. So far
we've had countless elbow scuffs, buses overtaking then stopping dead in
front of us for people who had been waiting for ages at the stop, people
overtaking and pulling left across us, people just pulling out into the
traffic and stopping so they can get out. Car drivers are just lazy, they
move partially into the next lane (of a 3 lane road) and despite the fact
that they are, for all intents and purposes, in the next lane they refuse to
go fully into it and avoid us.

I dont know whether I'm just noticing it more or if its actually getting
worse with summer but it seems to be. I'm really starting to think that you
should have to ride a bike round a city for a few weeks before you get a
license.

 

[Ekul Namsob]

Coyoteboy <[email protected]> wrote:

> "Ekul Namsob" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:1hz8rnd.1oeksf814xlwsqN%[email protected]...
>
> > How far out from the kerb were you riding? I find this only happens if I
> > slip into old habits and start riding in the secondary position.

> I always used to ride at the edge of the grids in the gutter but noticed
> that just invited people to assume you werent there. So I started riding
> where the left hand wheel of a car goes, as does my friend.

That is, pretty much, the secondary riding position. Consider how little
a car /has/ to pull out in order to overtake you. If you used the middle
of the lane then they would be obliged to make a definite manoeuvre.
This would also signal to following vehicles that there is something up
ahead to avoid.

> We tend to tail each other pretty much nose to tail (6 inches between us)
> as it keeps the disruption to other traffic down.

<snip>

> So far we've had countless elbow scuffs, buses overtaking then stopping
> dead in front of us for people who had been waiting for ages at the stop,
> people overtaking and pulling left across us, people just pulling out into
> the traffic and stopping so they can get out. Car drivers are just lazy,
> they move partially into the next lane (of a 3 lane road) and despite the
> fact that they are, for all intents and purposes, in the next lane they
> refuse to go fully into it and avoid us.

/Some/ car drivers are just lazy. If you ride further out then you
signal your presence more clearly and oblige drivers to pull out fully.

> I dont know whether I'm just noticing it more or if its actually getting
> worse with summer but it seems to be. I'm really starting to think that you
> should have to ride a bike round a city for a few weeks before you get a
> license.

I would happily see something like the Cycling Proficiency Test made a
necessary prerequisite of a provisional driving licence. Your plan would
be more than a little inconvenient for a learner driver in, say,
Kinlochbervie.

Cheers,
Luke


--
Red Rose Ramblings, the diary of an Essex boy in
exile in Lancashire <http://www.shrimper.org.uk>

 

[Dylan Smith]

On 2007-06-05, CoyoteBoy <[email protected]> wrote:
> Helmet mounted video camera.
> Bar mounted trigger.
> Good sense of distance.

Just get one of those very small MPEG-4 video cameras. They are small
enough to mount to you or your bike, can record for quite a long time,
and record to compact flash or SD card.

--
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de

 

[CoyoteBoy]

On 6 Jun, 08:52, [email protected] (Ekul Namsob)
wrote:
> Coyoteboy <[email protected]> wrote:
> > "Ekul Namsob" <[email protected]> wrote in > That is, pretty much, the secondary riding position. Consider how little
> a car /has/ to pull out in order to overtake you. If you used the middle
> of the lane then they would be obliged to make a definite manoeuvre.
> This would also signal to following vehicles that there is something up
> ahead to avoid.

I've tried the middle of the lane. That gets torrents of abuse all day
long - not worth the fact that every 4th junction gives an adrenalin
rush and a potential fight situation.

> I would happily see something like the Cycling Proficiency Test made a
> necessary prerequisite of a provisional driving licence. Your plan would
> be more than a little inconvenient for a learner driver in, say,
> Kinlochbervie.

Might make them even more appreciative if they realise its important
enough to require travel to a city then. TBH even a small town is bad
enough, or single lane 60s.

 

[Ekul Namsob]

CoyoteBoy <[email protected]> wrote:

> On 6 Jun, 08:52, [email protected] (Ekul Namsob)
> wrote:
> > Coyoteboy <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > "Ekul Namsob" <[email protected]> wrote in
> > That is, pretty much, the secondary riding position. Consider how little
> > a car /has/ to pull out in order to overtake you. If you used the middle
> > of the lane then they would be obliged to make a definite manoeuvre.
> > This would also signal to following vehicles that there is something up
> > ahead to avoid.
>
> I've tried the middle of the lane. That gets torrents of abuse all day
> long - not worth the fact that every 4th junction gives an adrenalin
> rush and a potential fight situation.

Where on earth do you live?

Luke

--
Red Rose Ramblings, the diary of an Essex boy in
exile in Lancashire <http://www.shrimper.org.uk>

 

[Mike the unimaginative]

Martin Dann <[email protected]> wrote in news:7Ge9i.6382$E9.5325
@newsfe6-gui.ntli.net:

> CoyoteBoy wrote:
>> Well todays ride in was great fun. Just about every car skimmed past
>> so close they scuffed our elbows. We had people yelling "use the cycle
>> lane" despite there only being a pavement available. We've had someone
>> driving the wrong way up a one way street.
>>
>> Being a driver, and also making mistakes in my time I admit, I used to
>> pass these things off as one-offs. But its really starting to get my
>> goat. Plan:
>>
>> Helmet mounted video camera.
>> Bar mounted trigger.
>
> What do you need a trigger for,

The trigger is for the grenade launcher?

 

[Paul Rudin]

Martin Dann <[email protected]> writes:

> CoyoteBoy wrote:
>> Well todays ride in was great fun. Just about every car skimmed past
>> so close they scuffed our elbows. We had people yelling "use the cycle
>> lane" despite there only being a pavement available. We've had someone
>> driving the wrong way up a one way street.
>>
>> Being a driver, and also making mistakes in my time I admit, I used to
>> pass these things off as one-offs. But its really starting to get my
>> goat. Plan:
>>
>> Helmet mounted video camera.
>> Bar mounted trigger.
>
> What do you need a trigger for, just leave the camera running
> continuously. Otherwise you will miss stuff that you want to capture,
> or be turning it on and off when you need to concentrate on avoiding
> the ejits around you.
>
> The problem is often something that feels close when cycling does not
> appear as close when the footage is viewed later.

I dunno, but if you leave it running all the time you'll soon run out
of storage capacity, Shirely? I guess you could upload it to your
exabyte storage server in realtime, but that sounds like it's getting
to be an expensive setup.

I guess the best thing is a system that continuously records,
overwriting old stuff, and you can press a button to commit the last
few minutes to a local persistent store.

 

[Martin Dann]

Paul Rudin wrote:
> Martin Dann <[email protected]> writes:
>
>
>> What do you need a trigger for, just leave the camera running
>> continuously. Otherwise you will miss stuff that you want to capture,
>> or be turning it on and off when you need to concentrate on avoiding
>> the ejits around you.

> I dunno, but if you leave it running all the time you'll soon run out
> of storage capacity, Shirely? I guess you could upload it to your
> exabyte storage server in realtime, but that sounds like it's getting
> to be an expensive setup.

With a 2Gb card, mine stores 90min of 640*480 at 15fps which is enough
for a commute to and from work.
220 min at 320*240 15fps which is enough for a long ride (for me).
220 min will also use up most of the energy in the batteries. 220 min is
also long enough to get all my journeys TO work for a week.

Once I get home I dump it to my computer, cut out the bits I want to
keep, and dump the rest. If I want to keep a whole ride I could dump to DVD.

> I guess the best thing is a system that continuously records,
> overwriting old stuff, and you can press a button to commit the last
> few minutes to a local persistent store.

Tomorrow's World had a tape recorder about twenty years ago that that
did that, it recorded stuff to an 8s RAM, then if you pressed a button,
it would dump it to tape until you stopped it.

 

[Martin Dann]

naked_draughtsman wrote:
>
> I found a website http://www.betterdrivingplease.com/ where you can log
> registrations and details of how you were wronged. I don't think you can
> attach videos though and I don't think it forwards reports onto the police.

You cannot attach vid, but you can attach 2 stills. They claim the
police sometimes search it.
They also claim the police attach more credence to registered members. I
do not mind forking out 1ukp to register, but am unhappy about using my
bank card to do so.

Has anyone else registered?

Martin.

 

[Paul Rudin]

Martin Dann <[email protected]> writes:

> Paul Rudin wrote:
>> Martin Dann <[email protected]> writes:
>>
>>
>>> What do you need a trigger for, just leave the camera running
>>> continuously. Otherwise you will miss stuff that you want to capture,
>>> or be turning it on and off when you need to concentrate on avoiding
>>> the ejits around you.
>
>> I dunno, but if you leave it running all the time you'll soon run out
>> of storage capacity, Shirely? I guess you could upload it to your
>> exabyte storage server in realtime, but that sounds like it's getting
>> to be an expensive setup.
>
> With a 2Gb card, mine stores 90min of 640*480 at 15fps which is enough
> for a commute to and from work.
> 220 min at 320*240 15fps which is enough for a long ride (for me).
> 220 min will also use up most of the energy in the batteries. 220 min
> is also long enough to get all my journeys TO work for a week.

Hmm - I guess video doesn't take us much space as I'd imagined.

I wonder about the quality tho' if you're intending to use the videos
as evidence. I've watched some of Ian Jackson's ones and at 640x480,
30fps the quality is probably adequate, but it wouldn't hurt if it was
a little better - it's often pretty hard to make out registration
numbers for example. The audio is such poor quality as to be you
useless.

 

[Adam Lea]

"Ekul Namsob" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:1hza2kb.1qxnqs097txb7N%[email protected]...
> Coyoteboy <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> "Ekul Namsob" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> news:1hz8rnd.1oeksf814xlwsqN%[email protected]...
>>
>> > How far out from the kerb were you riding? I find this only happens if
>> > I
>> > slip into old habits and start riding in the secondary position.
>
>> I always used to ride at the edge of the grids in the gutter but noticed
>> that just invited people to assume you werent there. So I started riding
>> where the left hand wheel of a car goes, as does my friend.
>
> That is, pretty much, the secondary riding position. Consider how little
> a car /has/ to pull out in order to overtake you. If you used the middle
> of the lane then they would be obliged to make a definite manoeuvre.
> This would also signal to following vehicles that there is something up
> ahead to avoid.
>

I tend to use the secondary riding position on the short stretch of main
road on my commute. I find the problem with the A29 towards Ockley is that
it is dead straight for about a mile and as such some drivers think they
must do 50-60mph along it and so they still just squeeze between me and the
oncoming traffic (I must stress this is aminority and most motorists do
give a decent clearance). The resultant draught at being passed by inches at
that speed tends to make me drift to the left and if there is following
traffic then it is difficult to get back over. Thus I find the secondary
position works best for me on average.

Adam

 

[CoyoteBoy]

On 6 Jun, 18:25, [email protected] (Ekul Namsob)
wrote:
> CoyoteBoy <[email protected]> wrote:
> > I've tried the middle of the lane. That gets torrents of abuse all day
> > long - not worth the fact that every 4th junction gives an adrenalin
> > rush and a potential fight situation.
>
> Where on earth do you live?
>
> Luke
>
> --
> Red Rose Ramblings, the diary of an Essex boy in
> exile in Lancashire <http://www.shrimper.org.uk>

Wigan, cycling into Liverpool. The people in Liverpool are generally
really nice (not so sure about wigan!) but as soon as youre mounted on
a bike you become a target!

 

[CoyoteBoy]

On 6 Jun, 19:13, Mike the unimaginative <[email protected]> wrote:
> Martin Dann <[email protected]> wrote in news:7Ge9i.6382$E9.5325
> @newsfe6-gui.ntli.net:

>
> > What do you need a trigger for,
>
> The trigger is for the grenade launcher?

Sounds like a plan!

 

[CoyoteBoy]

On 6 Jun, 20:34, Martin Dann <[email protected]> wrote:
> Paul Rudin wrote:
> > Martin Dann <[email protected]> writes:
>
> >> What do you need a trigger for, just leave the camera running
> >> continuously. Otherwise you will miss stuff that you want to capture,
> >> or be turning it on and off when you need to concentrate on avoiding
> >> the ejits around you.
> > I dunno, but if you leave it running all the time you'll soon run out
> > of storage capacity, Shirely? I guess you could upload it to your
> > exabyte storage server in realtime, but that sounds like it's getting
> > to be an expensive setup.
>
> With a 2Gb card, mine stores 90min of 640*480 at 15fps which is enough
> for a commute to and from work.
> 220 min at 320*240 15fps which is enough for a long ride (for me).
> 220 min will also use up most of the energy in the batteries. 220 min is
> also long enough to get all my journeys TO work for a week.
>
> Once I get home I dump it to my computer, cut out the bits I want to
> keep, and dump the rest. If I want to keep a whole ride I could dump to DVD.
>
> > I guess the best thing is a system that continuously records,
> > overwriting old stuff, and you can press a button to commit the last
> > few minutes to a local persistent store.
>
> Tomorrow's World had a tape recorder about twenty years ago that that
> did that, it recorded stuff to an 8s RAM, then if you pressed a button,
> it would dump it to tape until you stopped it.

Theres a system available for cars for recording crashes etc triggered
by a dash button or impact that does this. Clever.