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news
Near Miss of the Day 325: 'Bullshit' and prevarication from the Met
Do you know what a tiger crossing is? If so, congratulations, because that puts you ahead of certain staff of the Metropolitan Police Service, as evidenced by the latest video in our Near Miss of the Day series.
It was shot on Blackheath, which is mainly lovely if you’ve never visited, with some terrific views across the capital (late afternoon golden hour is recommended), but also has the A2 running across it like a scar.
And it was as road.cc reader Cycle London came off one of the shared-use passes crossing the heath to join the A2 heading towards Shooters Hill a couple of weeks ago that the incident in the clip below happened.
We’ll let him take up the story: “The Met refused to prosecute despite the … well, let me quote ... 'In this case the cyclist did not slow down to check both ways of traffic to see if it was safe to cross thus not allowing the driver enough response time to react at the crossing'.
“When I complained that I had looked both ways ten times (as can be seen from my camera moving left to right on the approach to the crossing), they tried to tell me that I shouldn't be cycling across a pedestrian crossing.
> What to do next if you’ve been involved in a road traffic collision
“My response to that was that it wasn't a pedestrian crossing, but one of the new 'tiger' crossings and cyclists were permitted on it, but they told me that I 'must' stop before crossing.
“In short, they spouted bullshit and prevaricated. Complaint going to the Commissioner.”
Oh, and here's an explainer from the London Cycling Campaign of what a tiger crossing is, in case you weren't sure.
> Near Miss of the Day turns 100 - Why do we do the feature and what have we learnt from it?
Over the years road.cc has reported on literally hundreds of close passes and near misses involving badly driven vehicles from every corner of the country – so many, in fact, that we’ve decided to turn the phenomenon into a regular feature on the site. One day hopefully we will run out of close passes and near misses to report on, but until that happy day arrives, Near Miss of the Day will keep rolling on.
If you’ve caught on camera a close encounter of the uncomfortable kind with another road user that you’d like to share with the wider cycling community please send it to us at info [at] road.cc or send us a message via the road.cc Facebook page.
If the video is on YouTube, please send us a link, if not we can add any footage you supply to our YouTube channel as an unlisted video (so it won't show up on searches).
Please also let us know whether you contacted the police and if so what their reaction was, as well as the reaction of the vehicle operator if it was a bus, lorry or van with company markings etc.
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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163 comments
cycle.london managed to stop in time. The driver was completely oblivious of the crossing and anyone on it and failed to even start to slow down.
It's pointless bleating about other drivers. Let's operate our own machines as safely as possible.
It's safer to expect the unexpected.
Surely the old advice of Stop, Look and Listen applies.
Sorry Cycle London you did none of those things.
100% with cycle.london here and also the infrastructure needs to change as driver behaviour clearly wont!
He approached the crossing with the ability to stop (he clearly did so) unlike the driver. If he'd waited at the side then the driver would have sailed through because might is right at least his appearing in their window may make them think twice next time. People are so indulgent, aggressive, self-obsessed within their bubble of security and the law backs them up as they can kill without remores or punishment.
As for the infrastructure, how do you allow a car to go through a crossing at 30-40mph, it should never happen. Put them on ramps, put those car park metal things on them or put a speed camera on every one. Traffic should always slow when there's a crossing like this, make them slow!
A whole lot of arguing about nothing.
cycle.london has dismissed all arguments based on "common sense" and the like, and stands on what is right according to the law. It is uncharacteristcally clear. Here it is:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/362/schedule/14/made
22.—(1) The give-way line marking provided for at item 54 of the Part 2 sign table (and shown in the diagram at item 53) conveys to vehicular traffic proceeding along the carriageway towards a Parallel crossing—
(a)the position at or before which a vehicle must be stopped (“the stop position”), and
(b)a requirement to stop at, or before, the stop position,
if a pedestrian or cyclist is on the carriageway, for the purposes of using the crossing, within the part of the crossing intended for (as the case may be) pedestrians or cyclists.
It's not a lot of arguing about nothing, and if it is then why are you still arguing.
You and I can apply whatever common sense we like but whilst the infrastructure is set up to not slow down drivers, and they travel without care or appropriate punishment ourselves and our families are forever at greater risk. This video demonstrates that perfectly regardless of whomever you think is right in the clip!
Crap cycling, looking for trouble.
Replace the car with another rider. They'd have been doing a similar speed to the car driver, likely just as surprised to see another rider approaching at speed from the park, and probably also resulting in a near miss that could have been easily avoided with a little less sense of entitlement.
so @brooksby and @alansmurphy - you both slow down for every crossing that you come to regardless of whether there is anyone is there?
Just out of question do you stop at the line at each one just so you can be doubly sure that Usain Bolt is going to fly across the crossing in front of you?
If I use your logic Brooksby -
"I try to approach any crossing, at any time, ready for the possibility of someone crossing........ I slow enough that I feel that I can stop safely if someone unexpected does happen."
If you are travelling at 10mph, as you are right at the stop line of the zebra crossing and a pedestrian sprints out of nowhere into the path of your car.... you wouldn't be able to safely stop at that point therefore you are going too fast.... No?
Can anyone tell me if there is signage on the road on the approach to the crossing to advise drivers? Google maps/streetview has old imagery so I can't tell.
I can't believe this thread is still going.
Here's my summary of the points:
Is it too late to change sides on this one?
As both car and bike were converging at similar speeds, it's possible the cyclist's approach to the crossing was obscured by the A pillar. Yes, a driver should be looking around it, but many don't.
https://singletrackworld.com/2018/01/collision-course-why-this-type-of-r...
There is an issue with the way that humans process things they see which has been proven to be the cause of a lot of accidents.
There is an article on the IAM about the SMIDSY and it explains how the human brain processes information..... main points below
1. Only the small central part of the eye’s retina (the fovea) can see detail well. The rest of the eye gives you peripheral vision which is good for detecting movement and size change, but not for detail.
2. Your eyes do not scan smoothly, but take images in a series of jumps (saccades) with short pauses (fixations) to obtain detail. Your brain fills the gaps during saccades with peripheral vision and assumption, to avoid image blurring & information overload.
3. Framed scenes (windscreen zoning) – you tend not to look at edges of a framed scene, so physical blindspots such as windscreen pillars, have a zone around them where you don’t take fixations, leading to larger saccades, thus enlarging blindspots.
4. Relative movement - if another vehicle is approaching you from the side, a constant speed and lack of size change may blind your peripheral vision to its approach, unless you move your eyes or head.
5. Assumption (expectation) – if you don’t expect to see something, you are less likely to notice it. If the junction is usually empty, your brain expects to see nothing.
So the combination of factors above may have had something to do with the drivers lack of noticing the cyclist....especially number 4 and 5
How to use a Tiger Crossing:
https://youtu.be/qWNPwUjWgWQ
Video by Essex County Council, so I'm not sure how "official" that advice is.
Capture.jpg
I think the OP has moved on with his life.Perhaps we should do the same.
Only slightly off topic but I remember taking out a truck test once.We were approaching the end of the terminating street of a Tee Intersection when a woman on the footpath pushed her shopping bike across our path. There was ample time to stop but the applicant made a point of driving right up to the line ,forcing her to turn back. "Thats not a crossing luv," he quipped,and looked at me for approval. I said something like "It is,you know" and it was all over. We'd gone less than 200 metres.
Do you take the same attitude to knife-weilders and gun users?
So I trust you never leave the house?
Exactly - riding along scanning for potholes and litter in the road - having to be aware of vehicles around you - you'd need Spider Sense to think someone's going to ride out without even pausing.
Great, theres legislation. Now count for me (on the fingers of one hand) the number of drivers who have read that, or seen any secondary materials educating them of this.
You can make laws saying anything, but if you keep them a secret, no one is going to know to obey them. If drivers have no idea what a tiger crossing is they're not going to know to expect a cyclists list.
The infrastructure is flawed. It encourages cyclists to approach at speed while giving drivers little if any clue what they might be about to encounter.
Come on, be honest, how many of us had even heard of a tiger crossing before reading this article?
Yes, 100%. Foot off the pedal and cover the brakes looking for anyone that may be using the crossing. That's what everyone does and should do isn't it?
As for using Usain Bolt as an example, you are aware he runs at 27mph, 4 to 5 times quicker than the cyclist was travelling in this video?
People can't sprint out of nowhere, 10mph would give you appropriate time to react if you were looking around you as you should.
Finally, you realise that the car in the clip didn't react at any point in this video, didn't see the bike when it was a couple of inches away. What does this tell you?
The cyclist was clearly not using the crossing correctly, by his own video evidence. He also was performing an action marked as 'Do not' by the HC - not itself an offense but hardly exemplary behaviour, which thankfully did not have consequences for the cyclist, or any bystanders.
Again, as pretty much everybody is saying, this in no way condones the driving and apparently utter lack of awareness - but it does go against the claims by the poster that they were somehow 100% in the right here, regardless of ones own view on common sense etc.
This ain't Mike Reid's Runaround!
runaround.jpeg
They weren't though.
Video said 15 for bike, OP claimed it was 8 (lag time??), car 20-30 mph
Mr drink driver himself presenting.
But where would be the fun it that?
(At least this is distracting people from going mad on a helmet thread
)
Good Point-It would have been better to bring it back to this particular case,and not generalize.
Not me, vonhelmet, I agree totally. But it is the OP who has chosen to stand on the legal position -read his posts. He bats away any appeal to common sense, reason, self-preservation, etc, and makes his stand on "doing absolutely nothing wrong" and being "100% in the right". So I thought we ought to know what the legislation actually says. Others can work out for themselves if the OP is "100% in the right", according to that legislation. The OP brooks no other argument.
Not at any point have I said the car is blameless here.... and might want to check the definition of hyperbole.... because the Usain Bolt statement was exactly that. Also last time I checked 27mph divided by 4 doesn't equal 15mph. Cycle.London only reduced his speed at the very last minute on the entry onto the tiger crossing, when he realised that the BMW wasn't slowing down. So maybe by that point they had dropped to about 10mph.
But I can see from your various responses that you are basically trying to absolve the cyclist of 100% of the blame here.
And on the subject of looking.... are you able to look and pay full attention to both pavements running parallel to all rorads at all times? Unless you happen to be part Chameleon I would say you choose one side in preference to the other, and most likely being the nearside , and the offside is secondary.
And even the best of drivers can have a lapse in concentration.
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