road.cc live blog: abominable bus driving and more
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Thu, Dec 07, 2017 12:40
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Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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Latest Comments
mdavidford 3 seconds ago
'Leasting'? That's a whole 4 letters less.
mdavidford 4 minutes ago
Although usually the easiest thing of all would be for them just to stop for a few moments while you cycle past them (which requires a lot less space to do safely than them passing you), but most people seem allergic to stopping, even for the briefest time.
mark1a 39 minutes ago
@Backladder Oh I think I can guess - the nearest indoor velodrome to road.cc HQ looks to be some distance away in Wales, whereas Odd Down Cycle Track (where this test was conducted) is just 2 miles away.
Cugel 42 minutes ago
There are a number of causes of "the divide between motorists and cyclists". Only one is to do with the technology (of bicycles and cars) and that's the nature of the car, which is designed to induce the sort of dangerous and careless behaviours that providing humans with a lot of power and glamour fetches out of us. Other causes are much more insidious - A culture of hyper-individualism bordering on solipsism, with violently ultra-selfish and aggressive anti-heroes being promoted in every mass media channel as the ideal. A "news" media that overwhelmingly seeks, creates and offers pariahs and scapegoats to the rabid individualists, which pariahs and scapegoats includes all kinds of those perceived as less powerful and therefore easy victims, including cyclists. The near complete lack of any curb upon the dangerous antics of vast numbers of media-maddened motorists by the forces of law and order, many of whom are actually members themselves of the mass media maddened motorist ilk. ******** No amount of a more rational discourse about active travel or the means of making it safer will change these root causes of the vast numbers of deaths and maiming due to inept, incompetent and deliberately violent antics of vast numbers of motorists allowed their dangerous "weapons of choice". Yet many other highly damaging aspects of modern societies would be solved by a much more effective curbing of mass media mob-building and goading along with a serious attempt to prevent motorists and a whole range of other damagers from behaving as badly as so many do. It'll not happen, of course. Large and powerful elements of the modern world obtain far too much ultra-riches and power from current conditions for them to allow any significant change. And vast numbers of the population have long had their minds, attitudes and behaviours captured and directed by various oligarchical monsters and their mass media propaganda horns. About the only chance of safe active travel becoming extant is for the population at large to become mostly too poor to afford a car, ironically one other likely outcome of the machinations of those same power and money-mad monsters that have created the car-issue in the first place. Their need for zero-sum socio-economic arrangements degrades everything, including the wallet-contents of the masses.
Rendel Harris 60 minutes ago
@Astralstroll The hierarchy of road users does not mean priority of road users except in certain circumstances, e.g. stopping to let pedestrians cross junctions before turning. It doesn't mean that cyclists have priority over motor vehicles at all times any more than the pedestrians have priority over cyclists at all times. It certainly doesn't mean that you have priority in the circumstances you describe; personally, unless the driver is being a complete dick, on a narrow country lane I accept that it is easier for me to turn around and go back to the nearest passing place, which is never that far if you're on a bike, than for a tractor or other large vehicle to reverse back down the road for my benefit.
Backladder 1 hour ago
If you were spending that much money on the device the obvious thing to do is to book a couple of hours in a velodrome for testing in a stable environment, I can't understand why Road.cc tried to do it outdoors.
wtjs 1 hour ago
@Astralstroll The Hierarchy of Road Users, announced with great fanfares in 2022, has been rendered into complete fiction by the attitude of the police: there is this hierarchy/ priority list but we don't take it seriously and if drivers ignore it we don't care! The same applies to the ludicrous notice of close-passing - No KSI'd cyclist = No Offence ttps://upride.cc/incident/lwa190_minicooper_hierarchy/
chrisonabike 2 hours ago
Hope Barcelona keep the transport improvements (they've been making for a while) coming! Better streets, more infra to help active travel where necessary. And while it's a major investment (though can be lower operating cost than busses) maybe more trams where they can. That may be more effective in making places active travel friendly and replacing taxis than mass public bike hire. They've a good start with 6 lines already.
chrisonabike 2 hours ago
I think this is a positive story. They're not getting rid of public hire bikes - they're expanding their in-house one. They're merely kicking out cowboys who've shown they've a lack of interest in the game they claim to be playing. It seems logical that companies whose business model is to extract (venture capital) money by invading public space are even less likely to make the efforts to keep things in order than a local "in house" scheme. (After all the "bikes and riding" part of these schemes always *costs* money, they don't generate it.) So not surprising their experience shows those firms are not particularly motivated to follow the rules - especially when scrapping for "market share". It's nice the European Cyclists’ Federation is thinking about tourists also (i hesitate to say "follow the money...") - as they note, where it's safe to cycle locals will largely get their own bikes. Tourists aren't going to stop coming because lack of public bike share - I think this is mostly a "nice to have" ("hey - why don't we go on one of those bikes there? ").
19 thoughts on “road.cc live blog: abominable bus driving and more”
I’d love to know what (if
I’d love to know what (if anything!) was going through that bus driver’s mind as they approached a red light with a bike stopped in front of them… Glad the rider wasn’t injured
brooksby wrote:
I would imagine it was complete surprise – to find one of these damned cyclists not jumping a red light – after all don’t they all jump red lights all of the time!
That Fuji bike isnt ‘totalled
That Fuji bike isnt ‘totalled’.
totalled means completely written off. In the picture, the frame is completely fine as are the forks, the front wheel, BB, Cranks/crank set and shifters.
All she would need is a new rear wheel, cassette, rear derailleur, new chain and the bikes ready to go again as soon as you’ve tubed and tyre’d up.
I estimate the damage is going to cost at least £200-300 to repair but the bike is in no way a complete write off. It just needs nursing back to health.
However… If TFL want to pay for a new bike then thats also very a very welcome outcome.
RoubaixCube wrote:
Bloody hell! You’ve got good eyesight.
don simon wrote:
Just zoom in, the frame doesnt look bent up or mangled at all.
Another thing to consider is the angle of the impact. The bus almost hit it dead on and not from an angle. The bike looks at an angle in the picture is because the bus pushed it there when it came to a stop. There wouldnt of been barely ANY stress to the frame or rear triangle as the pressure was on the back wheel and the backwheel obviously collapsed from it. The frame didnt hit the ground or get dragged under the busses wheels either so its not crushed.
Bike is still fully salvagable and serviceable once its been repaired. Unless the bike has been in several other potentially serious accidents/collisions before that we dont know about. Im saying is the frame still looks pretty much good to go from the picture.
—
You all dont need to agree, but this is just my own opinion based on my observation.
RoubaixCube wrote:
The main issue in all your observations is that you aren’t liable when it all goes wrong. Presume a shop (which will have to fill out a warranty form for TFL’s insurance) says the frame is fine and then something does go wrong, the shop is fully liable.
Also, given most shops don’t have a scanner to confirm the frames integrity it is a write off
RoubaixCube]
And yet you seemed so sure in your first post. I’m just glad that you’re not a bike mechanic.
don simon wrote:
I still am pretty sure actually. I think the bike is OK apart from the mangled wheel
RoubaixCube wrote:
My arse.
I would say that the cassette, rear derailleur & chain will have a better chance of being ok than the frame.
Biggest surprise for me is that the seat looks ok, if that had been my bike I think I’d have made a mess of it…
RoubaixCube wrote:
If the cost of repair is greater than the value of the item then it’s a write off.
*I don’t know the value of this bike though
Oh yes, no stresses will have
Oh yes, no stresses will have been passed through to the rear triangle (at minimum) at all.
1961BikiE wrote:
I was rear ended by a car which turned into a hit and run, the rear wheel, a 36 spoke Open pro/Dura Ace was completely pringled so the forces were pretty significant. Bike frame has being going strong with no alignment issues, or any other physical signs or out of place feelings in the 6 years since. Massive carbon seatstays IMO were the saving grace, that and the effect the tyre and wheel itself has at taking out some of the forces. People in the twatter thread were saying it would be on the axle/dropouts but actually it’d be a lot on the spokes/tyre/rim as they deform. You’d be surprised how much can be put on a well built wheel, I croggied a friend whilst fully loaded on a 32 hole OP/Ultegra, total all up weight on the bike was 190kg, not even a murmour.
It certainly wouldn’t surprise me if the frame was useable but for most they simply wouldn’t trust it even if it was and rightly so.
Why the polic were not called is anyone’s guess as a criminal offence has being committed.
Rear hub could have easily
Rear hub could have easily knocked rear triangles out of true.
Is it relevant that the
Is it relevant that the Twitterer’s freind (the cyclist) is a doctor?
simonmb wrote:
Absolutely. It means that if DM picks up the story, it can lead on heroic member of our beloved Nhs surviving terror attacks by (insert derogatory label based on bus driver’s origins here). Or bloody cyclist holding up traffic gets just desserts. Either works at Fail Towers.
Looks like the wheel’s been
Looks like the wheel’s been twisted enough for it to be touching the seat stays and the rear mech looks like it’s touching the ground.
I’d want a new frame, rear wheel, rear mech, chain, brake disk and reflector at the very least.
And a P45 for the driver!
LastBoyScout wrote:
It’ll buff out.
Exactly the same happened to
Exactly the same happened to me at London Bridge, with less damage. Bus driver just looked at me and shrugged. Amazing.
drosco wrote:
Did TFL or the bus company pay for the damages?