Saturday 28 November 2009

Communication on Richmond Road

Some footage of one of our cyclists shouting at car drivers. Do we car drivers do this? Rarely. A quick beep of the horn, a friendly little note, that's all. Yet here, this tax dodger can be heard repeatedly shouting "Wait" at the vehicle pulling out, despite the fact that that vehicle has paid real money to use the road.

Yes, the vehicle pulled out without indicating or looking, but the fact is that indicators are for indicating intent to other cars. There are none in the area. Therefore they are not needed. We also note that if there had not been a group of tax-dodging pedestrians walking down the middle of the road, the van would not have been held up so long, and this near-miss would never have occurred. Yet again, if there had been a collision, who gets the blame? The bicycle, merely because of its right of way? Or the van that just pulled out without looking. That's right, the van, despite the fact that's the kind of thing that everyone does every day and nobody else on the road has any right to be there.

6 comments:

Joby said...

How did that car driver not get out and punch the cyclist - I can't comprehend it.

SteveL said...

Probably because they were only driving three car lengths up the street and could not be bothered to get out and beat up a cyclist.

ibikelondon said...

What a rude cyclist, really, if I was that van driver I'd have knocked the soap dodger off the road. When these two wheeled freaks start paying taxes to use my roads maybe I'll start to think about them but till then they'd best keep out of my bloody way. Richmond Road is a steep hill and I need to really press my foot down hard on the accelorator to get to the top. I don't need some lentil powered head case getting in my way and delaying my progress 'cos Im a very busy man.

(Tongue very firmly in cheek here - loving the style of Bristol Traffic, made I laugh, as always)

Downfader said...

Bah, you call that abusive! I can do so much better! Hahaha!!

Ben said...

Uh hello Cyclist! Didn't you see the van driver indicating way before you got anywhere near? There were four people in the road blocking the van's ability to pull out, but he was obviously waiting patiently for them to move on. Those same people were arguably preventing the driver from seeing out his rear view mirror properly. In the end, if I had been cycling, I would have slowed up (common courtesy). The van driver pulled out as the cyclist sped on through the people - what a pile of pants! I like some of the other stuff on this blog, but this is a load of crap. Cyclist could have shown way more consideration.

SteveL said...

Did the pedestrians get in the way of the van's indicators too? Because the brake lights appear visible, meaning "van is stopped", but no flashing yellow bit to say "I'm planning to pull out"