Undertaking HGV’s a cyclists perspective

I understood the fast
I understood the fast indicators to be a deliberate design feature, at least on more modern circuits. It’s easy to design a driver nowadays that will not vary speed.

If a bulb is out then less current will flow, unless you’ve got Christmas tree lights which you don’t in cars. Each bulb is in parallel and sees the full 12V. A failed bulb will mean half the current. A trailer will mean more current if wired into the existing circuits without relays. I think this was the case in my first car. You don’t want the indicators slowing down!

Some/many modern cars have different indications of bulb failure. Our current car is the first we have to have the trailer lights powered by a relay box operating off the car’s internal data network and power, so completely separate to the circuits that operate the normal bulbs. The car manual implies that the manufacturer’s own trailer kit can use the data network to pass information back to the dash board about bulb failure, though ours seems to be a cheap one that just beeps.

OldRidgeback wrote:
On every

OldRidgeback wrote:

On every car I’ve owned the indicators and hazards have flashed at double speed when a bulb has been out.

Have I just been lucky in the models I’ve had? I’ve always thought it to be a design feature on every vehicle.

It’s not so much a design feature as a side effect of how flasher systems work. I took a broken one apart on my old Ford – uses a folded bit of metal that heats up as current passes thru it and then clicks to make a contact. If an indicator bulb is out, more current flows through the unit and it heats up quicker so switches more quickly. Newer ones might be electronic but the extra current means they still switch more quickly if a bulb is out.[/quote]

Fine if you know about it, but I don’t think they tell you about that in the highway code, or anywhere meaningful – though I agree that it is ‘obvious’. The other part is that a driver may only find this out when he is stuck deep in city traffic and changing one becomes a problem….I am making excuses I know – but I’m sure we have all been in a rush, cut a corner – the point is that we should just look out for it and not expect everything to be alright.

I guess I have spidey sense because I’ve been in several situations where I’ve sensed a road user wants to turn-left and there has been no indication. Once at a junction a delivery food scooter had pulled into the ASL ahead of me. He was parked in the middle of the road waiting for the lights. I just had a feeling that he wanted to turn so I asked him, he said ‘yes’, so I told him to indicate, but let him pull away first – I think his indicator was broken anyway. Sometimes it is more obvious than others though.

I’ll make a positive comment
I’ll make a positive comment for a truck driver I spotted this week who really was keeping watch and doing everything he was supposed to. I was commuting along the South Circular in London earlier this week and the traffic was really heavy. I got stuck behind a bus and there was an articulated tanker truck coming the other way. Now I knew I could squeeze past, just about, but thought it was better to wait. Not so the roadie coming the other way. He squeezed through a very tight gap between the two vehicles. He didn’t have much space. The traffic flow started in front of the truck but the driver had spotted the cyclist and waited until he was past before moving off.

I shook my head at the roadie to show my disapproval, not sure if he noticed. I thought after I should’ve said to the roadie that it was a stupid overtake that made very little difference to his commute and that this trucker was obviously doing a good job.

Neil753 wrote:hexhome wrote:I

Neil753 wrote:

hexhome wrote:

I wonder if he had put his hazards on but a bulb was out?

A very, very good point. All cyclists should be aware of this possibility.

….at all times. The problem with lights is that you never know when they are broken/not working. Only if someone outside the vehicle sees you using them and then has the chance to tell you.

Once had a situation where visibility dropped due to wet conditions where my front lights went while on a motorway. That was awkward, but got the AA man to sort me out, but I only slowly became aware of it because it seemed a bit gloomy.

hexhome wrote:I wonder if he

hexhome wrote:

I wonder if he had put his hazards on but a bulb was out?

It would have been flashing at double speed if that was the case.

I am assuming you are in
I am assuming you are in London, but this is the problem on the roads for HGVs. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t, and a fair amount of the time the issue is that cyclists are pulling silly manoeuvres (undertaking HGVs etc).

I get exasperated with the people talking about ‘victim blaming’, but if cyclists behaved more as they should, according to some of the more basic rules cyclists would probably have a better time of it, and better awareness.

I read some post in the Huffington Post talking advocating RLJing to avoid being crushed at a junction. But it completely missed the point that you don’t need to be at the head of a set of lights, and quite often it is the mindless effort to do so which puts people in danger (i.e. heading into blind spots on HGVs in a desire to get to the ASL).

Ignoring issues of infrastructure, there seems far too much figure pointing and don’t blame the victim when it comes to HGVs. But the truth is probably somewhere in between.

Anyway vented my frustration for the day. I will reset the mechanism and go about my way (mindful of the fact that I will no doubt trigger some other to vent spleenic displeasure on what I have said).