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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
But it is then back to what vonhelmet said. Drivers are not expecting people to come barreling up to a crossing point at 15mph.
Would you, as a driver, on the approach to a crossing where there are no pedestrians within say 5m of a crossing, be looking for runners 10 or 15m away from the crossing, slowing down for them expecting that they are going to run out into the crossing at full tilt? Or would you simply not factor them into the equation?
In the run up to the incident there is no one anywhere near the crossing, apart from the cyclist approaching at speed and approaching at right angles to the road. So I would say that the vast majority of drivers (even those who are cyclists themselves) would not have assumed that the cyclist would just plow out onto the middle of the road.
My point is not to excuse the driver for not slowing down, but to point out that the cyclist is in the wrong too.
The cyclist isn't in the _right_, their outrage at that particular driver is misplaced, but I'd still say it's the stupid paint-based infrastructure that misled the cyclist in the first place.
Really the 'common sense' people are being asked to show is the common sense acceptance that most ped and cyclist infrastructure is a pointless token gesture put in to pretend to be doing something.
I think they said the speed was more like 8 mph and that the video was incorrect.
However
19
Zebra crossings. Give traffic plenty of time to see you and to stop before you start to cross. Vehicles will need more time when the road is slippery. Wait until traffic has stopped from both directions or the road is clear before crossing. Remember that traffic does not have to stop until someone has moved onto the crossing. Keep looking both ways, and listening, in case a driver or rider has not seen you and attempts to overtake a vehicle that has stopped.
I think it is unclear if the driver could have stopped in time even if they were paying attention and had any notion that a 'tiger crossing' exists and that a cyclist may appear at random.
My straw poll at work showed no one had heard of such a crossing.
Craigstitt, much as I gree with the principle "I'd rather be alive than in the right" we cannot just continue to adjust our behaviours to accommodate the bullies, that is why the roads are such a dangerous place and people accept deaths so easily.
Yes, as a driver I would slow for every single crossing, I do so when on my bike especially (strangely enough) in busy areas, around schools etc.
How very cavalier of me!
Actually, I try to approach any crossing, at any time, ready for the possibility of someone crossing. Even if I can't see someone about to step out, I slow enough that I feel that I can stop safely if someone unexpected does happen.
But that's clearly just me. YMMV
Completely moronic cycling. Barrelling across crossing assuming all other traffic will get out of their way as they have the moral high ground- "but its my right of way". How is the traffic supposed to know what your intentions are? Crossing the road or turning to cycle along it? We are very quick to lambast a driver desperate to shave a few seconds off their journey by performing a close pass. Apply the same to cyclists- slow down, lose a few seconds but save your life
Adapting pedestrian (2-3mph) infrastructure to accommodate cyclists (15-20mph) is not great asdistances being closed much more quickly. Pedestrian at the side- the few seconds it takes them to reach the crossing and start to go cross gives car drivers time to react. Cyclist approaching crossng at that speed? Not so much
I can't side with the cyclist in this instance. They approached the crossing at 15 mph, when they enetered the crossing at 9 seconds in the video, and were "cut up" by the BMW at 10 seconds. Even if the driver had spotted them on the crossing, and had excellent reactions they would have had less that 0.5 seconds to reduce their speed.
At the point the cyclist entered the crossing (still doing 15mph) the BMW was about 2 car lengths away, and would have struggled to stop even if they had slammed the brakes on. And not withstanding that, in wet conditions with cars following closely behind an emergency stop could cause a multiple vehicle crash.... but lets not worry about that.....as your right of way is more important than exercising common sense
It is the equivalent to a pedestrian running across a zebra crossing purely because their side of the crossing was clear, and expecting the drivers in the other lane to be able to stop on a dime, in the rain. But feel free to continue cycling like that and commenting "But I had right of way" from your hospital bed.
You dont just ride onto a crossing before checking the vehicles have seen you. Just common sense.
A walker would pause to see vehicle's coming to a stop before crossing.
Yes priority changes once user is on crossing, but its little consolation when laying in a hospital bed or worse.
The sentient car again, presumably.
But not the law.
End of conversation.
I believe that the Tiger crossing is classed as a parallel crossing, defined on the official government documentation (Traffic Signs and General direction Guidance, TSRGD, page 27)
https://tsrgd.co.uk/pdf/tsrgd/tsrgd2016.pdf
RantyHighwayman discusses them here
https://therantyhighwayman.blogspot.com/2017/04/drawing-parallels.html
Essex Highways has this
Q- Why are they not yet in the Highway Code?
A- The Highway Code is revised periodically by the Department for Transport, but Parallel Crossings are fully legal and recognised in the Department’s documents, such as the official guidance on appropriate signs and layout at TSRGD Schedule 14, including Part 1, Section 18, 21, 25, and Part 2 sections 31 and 53. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/362/schedule/14/made
And with thanks to Plod on https://police.community/topic/115963-parallel-crossings/
The relevant section on the tsrgd2016 is in page 436 (22)
"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."
Oh and I would like to say that I would stop for a cyclist on a Zebra crossing.
Crossings are sacred.
Can I just point out something, and that's that the 'approach speed' might look high, but the speedometer gets its figures from the helmet-mounted Garmin camera, which occasionally shows me at over 200 mph when I'm stopped at traffic lights.
If I look at Strava for that day (which I populate with a much more accurate, bar-mounted Garmin Edge 800), and squint at my screen, it shows my speed as I enter the crossing, as 7.6 mph.
If you're at all interested, this is the full-length video submitted to the police, with the two minutes (or a bit more) either side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jrs8m9tviQQ&feature=youtu.be
Trivia include: I have 1,600 lumens of Cateye goodness flashing at the front, and was wearing hi-viz. Also, at the moment I enter the crossing, there are no lines of cars behind me, into which I could potentially 'vanish'. The driver quite simply wasn't looking, or else didn't give a flying flamingo about me.
"cycle.london wrote:
... I did it that way, and I was completely entitled to do so. And I was still almost killed.
That. Is. All."
You'll not be surprised when exactly the same incident happens again then?
Next time, I won't stop.
@cycle.london The problem with this incident is the unusual road layout. These types of crossings are not in the highway code yet and not many drivers will be aware of them. Whilst the motorist was in the wrong, I think you will have a hard time getting the police to do something with this particular incident as there are quite a few mitigating circumstances that the motorist could use in their defence.
Rather than put your efforts into educating a single driver, I think you would do more good pushing the council to improve the signage and lighting. Also, you may risk alienating a police officer that has previously been helpful by pressing the complaint angle too much.
Anyways, good to see your cycling mojo is back!
I agree. Are there signs up of 'new road layout ahead' ? If not, then much better to harangue the council
I have to use a Tiger crossing on my commute. Most drivers haven't a clue what it is. After several cose shaves caused by drivers sailing through the crossing while I'm still on it, I now wait about 1 metre back and wait for the road to clear - no traffic in either direction - before venturing out. Yes, I know that's not how these things are supposed to work but I'm not prepared to put my life in the hands of a distracted/inattentive/don't care driver. And as they say, there's no right of way in a coffin.
Do you doff your cycle helmet at the same time?
Was that meant to be sarcastic? I said nothing to criticise you, I simply pointed out my experiences of using Tiger crossings and my own efforts to keep me alive. I don't give a shit about you tbh. For your information, I don't wear a plastic hat or dress like a banana.
I think that's just called "Crossing the Road".
Regardless of whether there's any paint been put there.
And if you do feel you have to do that, then that particular infrastructure is an Utter Waste of Money (or, as certain folks would call it, "Money spaffed up the wall!").
That's right, because the Tiger crossing doesn't work. As I said, I'd rather put my fate in my own hands.
Well, yes, but what would you do if the Tiger crossing wasn't there? Exactly the same, I presume. Which surely means it's a waste of paint.
I'd ay the cyclist may have been approaching the crossing a bit fast given the conditions, but that in any event the motorist ought to have been watching for anyone wanting to or actually crossing. The cyclist was halfway across the crossing when the motorist just sailed across in front of them.
So is a Tiger Crossing what you can see on this Streetview of Baldwin Street/Queen Charlotte Street in Bristol? It has a segregated cycle path next to a footway, and then they widened the zebra crossing so it includes the width of the cycle path.
http://goo.gl/maps/6DS53EG2oFkw38tF7
Sorry, but posting your video on road.cc doesn't make you automatically right or a victim of bad motorists who hate cyclists. A basic level of road awareness avoids incidents like this. If anything, this should go in the "please don't do this when cycling".
By the same token, starting a response with' sorry', doesn't lend any more weight to your belief that I was somehow in the wrong.
There seems to be a worryingly recurrent trend on road.cc of late, to 'second guess' cyclists, and to detract from the responsibility or culpability of the driver. It was the same the last time one of my videos made it onto road.cc.....
https://road.cc/content/news/246559-near-miss-day-168-van-driver-crosses...
And it looks like that's happening again. Is this some sort of automative 'Stockholm Syndrome' where cyclists want to ingratiate themselves with the people killing us?
Bottom line: who was legally in the right, and who was legally in the wrong?
I was legally in the right, and the driver was legally in the wrong.
That's all that need to be said.
Now, you could - if you were so inclined - trot out the old chestnut about how I might have been in the 'right but still dead', and that's fine. But let me trot out another old chestnut to counter that one, by saying that the girl in the short skirt might still be raped, even if she had the 'right' to wear the short skirt. Neither argument holds water, and in neither case can the victim be said to be in the wrong.
You can say 'I'd have done it differently'. Again, that's fine.
I did it that way, and I was completely entitled to do so. And I was still almost killed.
That. Is. All.
Indeed, that is all.
So, is this one going to have as much heated debate as the last one?
I was surprised to find out that not giving way at a zebra can land a "hefty" fine of £100 and possibly 3 points. Still, I expect the motoring offences review will be delivered soon - Tories are always big on law and order.
Sorry for screwing up the order of the comments. I only just realised that I'd written 'Stockholm Signal' instead of 'Syndrome'.
No doubt due to using Signal to chat with my wife at the same time.
Oh dear.
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