Monday, 9 May 2022
Bus and Cyclist
Police name cyclist who died in Lambeth bus collision as detectives appeal for witnesses
Detectives have named a cyclist who died after a collision with a bus in south London as they continue to appeal for witnesses and footage from the incident
A tragedy for the cyclist and his family but the following story has nothing whatever to do with that particular accident. It is a reminder of another story recently related to us by our friendly bus driver concerning the perils of driving a bus in Nottingham.
One day quite recently, our bus driver was waiting at traffic lights when he heard an unusual scraping or dragging sound from the pavement side of his bus. Glancing in his left hand mirror he saw a cyclist with one foot on the pavement trying to drag his cycle along a very narrow strip of road between bus and kerb. It was a kind of hop and drag approach.
If the lights changed and the bus had simply started off, it isn't easy to see what the cyclist's best course of action would be. Jump onto the pavement and leave his cycle to its fate probably. Obvious really, but this is just one reason why bus drivers always, always have to check both mirrors before moving off. Especially in cities where many road users just seem to trust to luck.
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4 comments:
The real danger is of course when buses and lorries turn left with a cyclist coming up on their nearside. I'm very cautious, due to all the publicity and the signs on the back of vehicles, but I wonder whether it would have occurred to me if all that had passed me by and I had to rely solely on my assessment of the situation. I guess a lot of people have had a sense of how obvious it all is, mixed with absolute terror, as their last thought.
My guess is that cyclists "risk it" in busy places like London, where buses often stop and cyclists are faced with a wobbly turn across the back of the bus into the next lane, having to deal with faster traffic and also the possibility of the bus moving off and leaving them stranded between two lanes of cars. Cold, irritated, late for work, nothing bad has happened on previous occasions...
Cyclists seem emboldened everywhere now, as they 'can do no wrong'. In the last two days, I've had idiots scraping along the nearside of the car (when in a queue stopped by lights), on the narrow edge of the road, when there's a marked cycle track right next to it! Met with abuse when I complained about the damage - f-off, not my problem mate!
Two or three abreast on narrow roads - they don't care: to them cars may be ignored or belittled, like white men to the 'woke'. There'll be trouble!
I'm sure there are as many idiotic cyclists as there are idiotic drivers but the plain truth is that we're going to have to learn to share the roads with cyclists, electric scooters and even updated Sinclair C5s as our transport needs evolve.
Sam -yes cyclists seem to "risk it" in busy cities generally. They seem very confident about their ability to take avoiding action to deal with the unexpected. They certainly cycle on roads I would have avoided in my cycling days.
Ed - there will be trouble because inevitably they cause frustration and eventually a driver will become too frustrated.
Vatsmith - our bus driver says the electric scooters in Nottingham are already a nightmare as they zoom around all over the place.
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