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Exchanging Places video stillVideo: Cyclist & lorry driver experience Met's Exchanging Places scheme
The Metropolitan Police has released a video showing a cyclist and a lorry driver taking part in one of its Exchanging Places events, aimed at fostering better understanding between the two types of road user.
The scheme, which last month won a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award, has been running since 2007 but the impetus for making the video is the deaths in the first half of November of six cyclists in London, all of them killed in collisions with lorries.
In the short film, cyclist Christopher and tipper truck driver Darren, accompanied by Sergeant Simon Castle from the Metropolitan Police’s Cycle Task Force, gain an appreciation of how things are from the other’s perspective.
Christopher, who cycles daily, says: “London traffic for me is the most intense traffic. I am extremely careful around trucks – it’s not a good mix, it’s not a good match.”
Darren, who’s been driving tipper lorries for about a decade, comments: “The limitations I have driving the lorry around London is that I’m very high up and the cyclists are very low down, and there’s lots of blind spots around the vehicle.”
Once Christopher is in the cab, and with Sergeant Castle moving around the vehicle with a bicycle, Derek explains when the cyclist can and can’t be seen.
With the camera also showing the driver’s point of view, it’s quite an eye-opener to learn just how easy it is for a bike rider to disappear from sight.
“In the moment it takes for him to look to his right to see if there’s any traffic, by the time he’s looked back, a cyclist could have come up along the side of the truck and be hidden,” says Christopher. “If you’re in that place, you’re in trouble.”
“My recommendation would be to a cyclist, number one, try to avoid at all costs going up the side of an HGV at lights, try and avoid coming up the inside of a lorry at these traffic lights especially if the lorry’s turning left,” adds Darren.
Later, Christopher says: “Having had this day, there’s certain things I could do which would be really easy. I definitely will be wearing a visible top – a truck driver’s going to pick you up, they know you’re there, you’re in a much better position.”
Darren reflects: “I’ve gained from this experience that you have to have a bit of teamwork, you have to have a bit of eye contact, you have to have a bit of hand manoeuvres between the cyclist and the lorry driver. You’ve both got to look out for each other.”
That sense of working together is something picked up on by Christopher, too, who says: ““It’s a team effort and that’s really clear to me now.”
Sergeant Castle explains the thinking behind the initiative: “The number one cause of serious crashes in London involving cyclists involves HGVs, heavy goods vehicles, and we know why – the lorry driver can’t see the cyclist, and the cyclist isn’t aware of what the lorry driver can and can’t see.
“What we do is we get the cyclists to sit in the cab of the lorry and explain how these crashes tend to happen and crucially, how to avoid them.”
While riding a bike along the road with Christopher and Derek, he points out: “The more space the lorry has left you, the more likely it is he’s going to turn left. The more tempting it looks, the more dangerous it is.”
A scheme that aims to enable lorry drivers and bike riders to get an insight into the other’s experience forms can only form part of trying to make conditions safer for cyclists when sharing the road with large vehicles.
Safety equipment such as mirrors, sensors and side guards, along with improvements to infrastructure such as early start traffic lights or proper provision for cyclists at junctions and enforcement of Advanced Stop Lines, are just some of the other measures that can reduce the danger.
But given that in some instances lorry drivers have been found guilty of causing deaths of cyclists in London, and that a recent Metropolitan Police road safety operation saw 15 out of 70 lorry drivers fined for a variety of offences, it’s perhaps wishful thinking when Sergeant Castle says: “My key message is that these crashes are avoidable.”
He adds: “We’re not talking about massive changes to the way we ride our bikes, we’re talking about a few sensible precautions.”
Forthcoming Exchanging Places events are scheduled for Wednesday 11 December from 0730-1000 at Factory Road E16 at the junction with North Woolwich Road, and on Friday 20 December from 0730-1000 at Kings Mews, Holborn, WC1.
Another London cyclist who has taken part in a similar scheme is road.cc’s own Sarah Barth, who attended one last year. Here’s what she had to say:
The opportunity to sit in the cab of an HGV is one of the most significant things I've done to improve my safety on the streets of London.
The cab is filled with mirrors, so it is possible to see the sides of the lorries from most angles, but it's not always easy.
A cyclist is just about visible coming up on the left -- but the improvement once you add a high-viz jacket is astonishing. If you've any sense though, you'd ride up the right, or go nowhere near.
There clearly are blind spots, and these are different on different vehicles, so you come away with the impression that the safest place to be is well out of the way.
And the safety features only work if the driver is using them - one can only imagine the dangers posed by a tired or distracted driver.
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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50 comments
The driver flags up a very interesting point that, even as an hgv driver myself, I haven't heard before. "The more room a driver leaves, the more likely he will be turning left".
Also interesting is the cyclist's announcement that he will wear hi viz from now on. Indeed, road.cc reporter Sarah Barth's previous comments, where she reports the improvement a hi viz makes (in visibility for cyclists coming up the inside of an hgv) as "astonishing", are repeated.
There's a lot of comments about the use of indicators but, as an hgv driver, I would ask one simple question. Why would anyone base a potentially life threatening decision on the twin assumptions that the indicator was working, and that the driver's decision not to use the indicator is a sure fire signal that the truck was going straight ahead? Bulbs can be faulty, drivers can forget. It's not rocket science.
Even though there may be a filter lane, enticing you into danger, the golden rule is "keep back". Once this message becomes sufficiently accepted, and anyone still failing to grasp the concept risks being labelled a tw*t, deaths at junctions will become very rare.
Why can't lorries have the same kind of indicators what very old cars used to have. The indicators where the light pops out on the end of a stick.
If big enough could be an indicator and a way of detering cycles coming up the side of truck.
The thing that struck me most is the invisibility in front of the truck. The cyclist has to be a good 6ft in front of the truck to make sure they're fully in the drivers view. Often I would roll up to a couple of feet in front on the LHS, now I know I'm still invisible!
If you can't make eye contact you can't be seen, same thing as if you can't see a lorries mirrors he can't see you.
It was meant to be tongue-in-cheek - but too often trucks (and vans and cars) don't signal, or start signalling once they've already started their manoeuvre.
You are right, though, that the problem is that most of our road-design has cyclists sharing the road in an entirely optional lane on the far inside, which only works OK (and never well) when drivers are observant (particularly when travelling slower than bikes, or stopped), considerate and indicate in good time before manoeuvring. These are traits I rarely see together on our roads.
There's a huge amount of hypocrisy in this issue. By continuing to design roads and junctions that visually suggest that cyclists go up the left-hand-side of traffic it really shouldn't be a surprise when people do. To then have to recommend that cyclists ignore the infrastructure for their own safety strongly suggests that the infrastructure in question is at best not fit for purpose, and at worst responsible for the deaths of people.
When the people in government say that there are laws to prevent cycle traffic lights for the often-proposed 'early start', yet don't do anything to change this we can see that the major issue is with political will.
Boom.
http://beyondthekerb.wordpress.com/2013/10/15/tipping-out-the-paint/
It's not a bad idea, certainly for those who might be interested in policy. It's very easy for debates to become "you suck/no you suck" bitchfights, when both parties are really open to solutions if treated like decent human beings.
At the same time, this is never going to happen to everyone, and the people most likely to be involved in a collision are those least likely to turn up to one of these experiences. It's a complement, not an alternative.
"Fairly obvious stuff..."
Perhaps but if it leads to some mutual understanding and helps avoid another KSI then it's a worthwhile exercise.
However the main problem still remains - poor driver behaviour and poor road design. I've been hugely frustrated this week by the ignorance of the Transport Select committee on cycling. None of the MP's involved are in any way informed and seem completely unwilling to acknowledge the careless and dangerous attitudes of sizeable minority of drivers.
This scheme from the Met is great and Darren seems like a responsible and caring guy, however it's the HGV drivers who aren't like him that I'm scared of. They should make this scheme mandatory for all truck drivers.
A really useful tool would be some sort of blinking light on the left-hand side that could be illuminated by the driver some time before they want to turn left. Perhaps we could name this innovation an 'indicator'? Then cyclists could simply avoid going down the left-hand side in that circumstance...
Cars and vans seem to have a matched pair of lights that are illuminated together to mean "I'll stop wherever the f**k I like", so perhaps if these could be controlled individually, they could be repurposed for this?
Not to be rude, but I have seen cyclists do some very stupid things, even if the truck is using indicators.
Mind you the most stupid is this. Truck in right lane approaching roundabout, indicating left. If you saw the junction the tractor trailer and thought, it makes sense, the truck needed the room to make the manoeuvre. Didn't stop a car go up the inside and end up half under the trailer.
I still have to say why are ASL and ASL feeder lanes in the blindspot of trucks, if you are designing roads, surely the first rule, if you follow the markings you are safe? What we are actually being told is that the feeder and ASL are in truck blindspots, that they may be safe, but they may actually get you killed!!!!
Saw something similar with larger tractor and trailer unit position itself in the middle of 2 lanes coming up to a roundabout and indicating to make a left turn, there's me and the family in the car and I'm thinking hang back give this guy some room, next minute I hear a horn being sounded and there's this idiot in a 4x4 trying to squeeze up the inside of this trailer as it's turning left !!!
Some people just don't have any common sense or ability to be on the roads, and that goes for drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, horse riders.
I want one of those matched light pairs to wear on my person. Because, apparently, if you turn them on you are allowed to do pretty much anything you want and its fine, as the rules no longer apply because you've got two rear lights on. Brilliant invention, surprised its not more widely used.
I would like them too, but not for that. I want them so that _after_ I have started to make a change in my road position I can turn them on and then act surprised when things don't work out. I think there may be a conspiracy to restrict these devices to the illuminati.
Those solutions really work in situations like this and this.
@Beztweets writes about "Exchanging Places" or exchanging responsibility?
Just avoid going down the left at all. And if the lorry draws alongside you then drop straight back.
Apart from being a #bloodycyclist I'm also an #bloodyadvanceddriver. So this goes if you are driving as well. Even in a car don't get alongside a lorry on either side if you can help it (sometimes you can't). Get past it or drop back one or the other. I see motorists on motorways sitting alongside lorries in heavy traffic for ages. These things will kill you sat in your car almost as quick as they will if you are riding your bike.
Fairly obvious stuff...
Red herring, next?
Recently I started taking up a blocking position at the RNS corner of large vehicles. Blocks off the temptation to for other cyclists to try to zoom up the inside. Might get on some people's nerves, but I'm used to that anyway from taking the primary at junctions and pinch points.
It's a good call - I'd take a bit of verbal for the knowledge that I may have helped avoid a KSI of a careless/inexperienced cyclist.
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