Near Miss of the Day 144: Cyclist forced onto pavement to avoid turning lorry

Quote:

.... If they want to deliver on a large vehicle they can do so very early or very late.

big lorries are not allowed in large parts of london 9pm-7am. Considering most of London is a permanent state of rebuilding, its impossible for lorries as it is;  hence why the video on this page is fairly normal in london.

i suppose all the building materials could be cut up into a4 size boxes and glued back together on sight so we didnt need big lorries on the roads 

arowland wrote:

Jeez. Some of these comments! The lorry driver clearly had a very difficult manoeuvre to accomplish and perhaps made a bad call. She or he has to judge how far the truck will swing out, including at the rear and guided only by mirrors, and whether there is enough room between parked cars. S/he will move slowly to enable checking all the time, and even if the road was clear when s/he started, it may well be that traffic has to wait while the manoeuvre is completed. We've all had to wait for a truck doing a difficult turn or reverse -- you just act patiently and give the driver a cheerful wave when it's over. Maybe this cyclist could show a bit of understanding of the needs of other road users, you know, like we cyclists always ask for ourselves.

@arowland - you are wrong on so many levels. 

Firstly, the driver of lorry rolled through a junction without stopping.

Secondly, the lorry comes into view of the cyclist at 10 seconds, and rolls through the junction without stopping (might is right?) at 11 seconds the cyclist sees the lorry carrying out the maneuver, and begins to brake, and by 14 seconds he is stopped.  So the cyclist had 3 seconds to spot react and stop their bike.  Using the Department for Transport reaction times of 2/3rds of a second to react this this means the cyclist has a just over 2.3 seconds to apply the brakes and stop.

Thirdly, even if the cyclist had stopped as soon as they saw the lorry approaching the junction, the route the lorry would have had to take to avoid catching the trailer on the lampost/fence at the junction would have meant that they would have been on the wrong side of the road/pavement for about another 5m or so.  As a result even if the cyclist was a psychic and began to react before the lorry came into view the lorry would most likely have been on the cyclists side of the road at the point where the cyclist stopped.

The whole incident was caused by the lorry driver only taking a cursory glance to the direction of the cyclist and because they were not in a big metal box they pulled out.  It could quite easily have been a motorcylist instead of a cyclist, and the actions of the lorry driver could have been catastrophic in such an incident, on the assumption that a motorcyclist may have been travelling faster and had less stopping distance

hawkinspeter wrote:

road.cc wrote:

as its driver turned right onto a street in central London

Is it me, or was that lorry turning left?

It is you. The lorry was turning left.

poshmoggy wrote:

Sorry, but I don't see this as a near miss. I'd have just given way to the truck. It's a big lump of metal that's hard to manoeuvre. If hit by it there's only going to be one winner. The cyclist had plenty time to see it. So, slow down, let it get out of the side street and then get on your way. No need for a great big song and dance.

 

sorry, totally disagree with you, if the cyclist stops the very second they see the lorry, the lorry will still be on their side of the flippin road trying to complete that manuevre and would be driving straight over them, the lorry has to drive on the pavement to get round, would you have advised pedestrians to just get out of the way too ? the only way the cyclist is going to "share the road there" is to stop turn around and ride 50 metres back the other way.

so why cant the lorry slow down and let the traffic using the "main road" just go on their way, theyd have lost what, ooh all of 5seconds pausing, but no youve just gone with the might is right get out of my way Im a motorist

Awavey wrote:

so why cant the lorry slow down and let the traffic using the "main road" just go on their way, theyd have lost what, ooh all of 5seconds pausing, but no youve just gone with the might is right get out of my way Im a motorist

But it wouldn't be 5 seconds, someone else would be along, so they would never get out.

giff77 wrote:

And further evidence that the modern vehicle is articulated trucks are unsuitable for the streets of the majority of our towns and cities. 

Is probably more fitting.

Other cities ban them, no reason why they can't be banned from city/town centres in the UK.

don simon wrote:

giff77 wrote:

And further evidence that the modern vehicle is articulated trucks are unsuitable for the streets of the majority of our towns and cities. 

Is probably more fitting.

Other cities ban them, no reason why they can't be banned from city/town centres in the UK.

I was going to see that but changed to what I said due to the fact that I see far to many vehicles on our roads that are unsuitable. Private vehicles as well as commercial vehicles have steadily got wider and longer over the years. My first car was a Mark 2 Escort which I could fit easily into my parents driveway. I now have a Corsa and take a bit more care using the driveway due to it being wider!  I sometimes wonder how folk would drive if they were not reliant on many of the ‘safety’ features that are now prevalent in cars today. Would love to see vehicles over a certain wheelbase banned from towns though. 

hirsute wrote:

The main solution is banning lorries from certain roads and banning lorries at certain times.

That's the real question - why are articulated lorries permitted on roads where they cannot negotiate junctions without mounting the pavement? Ok large things need to be moved about but when vehicles that are too big for their lane are on major roads they have blue/amber light escorts. Unrealistic perhaps, but maybe one day we'll see a similar thing in city centres.

pjm60 wrote:

Ok large things need to be moved about but when vehicles that are too big for their lane are on major roads they have blue/amber light escorts. Unrealistic perhaps, but maybe one day we'll see a similar thing in city centres.

and hopefully more bike cargo trailers to move stuff from a central point into inner london.

pjm60 wrote:

hirsute wrote:

The main solution is banning lorries from certain roads and banning lorries at certain times.

 

That's the real question - why are articulated lorries permitted on roads where they cannot negotiate junctions without mounting the pavement? Ok large things need to be moved about but when vehicles that are too big for their lane are on major roads they have blue/amber light escorts. Unrealistic perhaps, but maybe one day we'll see a similar thing in city centres.

Seems that way to me.  To me it didn't look the cyclist was in real danger - plenty of time to slow/stop/divert.   But the lorry driver was displaying a typical might-is-right mentality, because that junction isn't appropriate for that vehicle.

  There are places near me where I know never to stand on the corner of the pavement because larger vehicles routinely drive over it as they can't get round the corner otherwise.

Our city centres weren't built for these vehicles, they need to find an alternative route and an alternative delivery method.

FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:

Our city centres weren't built for these vehicles, they need to find an alternative route and an alternative delivery method.

This, definitely; with several million likes if I could.