Highway Code changes effective from January 29th

[ChrisHGTV]

I've been a victim of frozen rain on my bike, you go down like a sack of spuds. Retrospectively it probably looked amusing but it bloody well hurt. What was also funny were the people who stopped to help looking like Bambi trying to stay on their feet; I was shouting at them to stay back and save themselves!

Yes i hate that feeling when you suddenly realise you're on ice and there's only going to be one outcome but you just have to wait for it! One time i thought it a good idea to take my mountain bike to work when it was deep snow. That was ok but where cars had driven it was ludicrous. I came off and landed on my back, and destroyed my laptop in the process. Oh how we laughed!

 

[GrahamT]

 

[colinallcars]

Apologies if it’s already been mentioned. As I understand it, guide dogs are trained to sit and wait until traffic has cleared. I wonder to what extent their training has been taken into account.

 

[st13phil]

This should cheer a few of us up on a Friday…

A few years ago I was driving along following a Ford Fiesta along a rural road. I'd noticed a few slippery patches and was driving gingerly and at some distance behind the Fiesta when it entered a moderate right-hand bend at probably no more than 15mph and promptly slid to the left, off the road, and ended up on its side in a ditch. Fortunately, I had enough road left to bring my car to a halt and I got out to help. As I walked towards the stricken car it became obvious why it had slid off the road: I was barely able to stay upright on the ice. By then another motorist had stopped behind my car and also walked down to help. I yelled to him to take extreme care because of the ice and as he gingerly walked towards me he had a couple of Bambi moments, but managed to stay upright.

We went over to the car and the driver, a woman in her thirties, was sat rigid in the driver's seat, with a death-grip on the steering wheel. If you've ever tried to open a car door upwards while the car is on its side, you'll understand why tailgates have gas struts on them, but we managed to get it open enough to determine that there was no sign of physical injury, or blood, and she was breathing OK so we concluded she was in shock and called for both the Police and an ambulance.

The ambulance arrived first and after a bit of skating by the paramedics, they were dealing with the woman. Then a Police car arrived, approaching from the opposite direction and stopped. The officer got out of the patrol car, put on his hat, and ignoring my warning to take care, started striding purposefully towards us. Just as he uttered the words "How on earth has that happened", he too had a massive Bambi moment and ended up on his ar$e. How we laughed!

 

[Fastcar155]

Hi , my wife went out for a walk this afternoon that entailed her crossing a T junction.

Wife told me it took her so long to cross the road she could have been charged with soliciting.

 

[Fastcar155]

Hi , well not many pedestrians ( two I stopped at for a T Junction ) cannot be aware of new HC regulations.

Young chap just walked out without looking - Listening to headphones.

Middle aged walker in middle of wide T Junction swore at me and waved his arms about.

 

[Deleted member 159894]

Hi , well not many pedestrians ( two I stopped at for a T Junction ) cannot be aware of new HC regulations.

Young chap just walked out without looking - Listening to headphones.

Middle aged walker in middle of wide T Junction swore at me and waved his arms about.

Were you waving the Daily Mail about at the time?

 

[TommyTroot]

Walking the dogs this morning, I was very tempted to cross the road in front of a group of cyclists
Glad I didn't as we got a cheery wave and a ‘thank you!’ from them.
They’re not all bad.

I am a very seasoned motorist but pretty new to cycling and I am not a fan of the new rules as I think they may cause more cyclists to get injured when drivers are either ignorant of the new rules or just choose to ignore them, some drivers seem to think its Ok to pass a cyclist very closely and at speed, on the other hand some of the so called pelatons are just taking the p... as they know that they are causing drivers to get frustrated, they could easily go into single file on busy roads. I so wish that the cycle path network in my area was fit for purpose as the safest position would be to completely separate cyclists, motorists and pedestrians and while I am ranting some pedestrians are the worst as they ignore you when you ring your bell when using shared paths and quiet back roads. (or are they deaf?)

 

[Fastcar155]

Hi , I know a can be a pain in the a""e but I cannot find who has priority at a T junction with a walker waiting to cross the road when the car drives across the traffic

Any ideas please

 

[m80]

I wonder if Jeremy Whine will let us see his 'helmet' cam footage of his latest cycling incident.
Fell off his penny farthing by all accounts. Poor chap.

 

[zipdip]

We have now got the Highway code being used as a tool to bash motorists,just who are the people who can change it,without first floating what they want to do,we all remember when the code said you cannot park on a bridge,that was changed because the speed cameras lost convictions because they parked in a unlawful place,so it was changed,I suppose that opened the door to all the latest changes,people are using it to change things that should not have been touched

 

[Fastcar155]

Hi , in my town the Police are having a great time catching motorist cutting up cyclist.

One picture shows an officer on a bike and the car missed him by 1'0"

Driver charged with driving without due care and attention.

 

[Fununcle]

Good

 

[Fastcar155]

Good

Hi , I feel he was lucky not to be charged with dangerous driving !

 

[190]

These new laws rely on common sense application which is sadly lacking in our society. Here's an example that I don't agree with. Yes the Landrover was traveling too fast but £1000 fine seems a bit steep when the cyclist only fell of because she turned around to give the V sign to the driver.

Land Rover driver fined £1,000 after cyclist fell off her bike as he passed by

 

[GrahamT]

These new laws rely on common sense application which is sadly lacking in our society. Here's an example that I don't agree with. Yes the Landrover was traveling too fast but £1000 fine seems a bit steep when the cyclist only fell of because she turned around to give the V sign to the driver.

Land Rover driver fined £1,000 after cyclist fell off her bike as he passed by

'Cleats' as used by keen cyclists are clearly a hazard and their use should be banned on public roads! And instead of screaming at the driver she would have done better to concentrate on controling her bike ! The clip certainly doesn't appear to give enough evidence for a conviction !
On that road no way was a passing distamce of 1.5m possible ! Perhaps we should ban other road users from such lanes when the Lycra mob require to use them ?

 

[AntMB]

These new laws rely on common sense application which is sadly lacking in our society. Here's an example that I don't agree with. Yes the Landrover was traveling too fast but £1000 fine seems a bit steep when the cyclist only fell of because she turned around to give the V sign to the driver.

Land Rover driver fined £1,000 after cyclist fell off her bike as he passed by

I thought he was nowhere near the cyclists. There isn't the room on that road for giving more room than painted and marked out cycle lanes on regular roads give.

Was the rear cyclist fined for outraging public decency with her hand gesture?

Cyclist Karens, give them a Go Pro, they go looking for trouble, like a pro.

 

[Martyn_n]

'Cleats' as used by keen cyclists are clearly a hazard and their use should be banned on public roads! And instead of screaming at the driver she would have done better to concentrate on controling her bike ! The clip certainly doesn't appear to give enough evidence for a conviction !
On that road no way was a passing distamce of 1.5m possible ! Perhaps we should ban other road users from such lanes when the Lycra mob require to use them ?

Have you ridden with clipless pedals? I do all the time and they are not a hazard at all, far from it as they give much better bike control. The caveat is that you should get used to them before mixing with traffic, not sure she had!
I do agree however that the clip does not give enough evidence for the level of fine imposed. I agree that there was no room for 1.5m but at the speed he maintained (over 30) the actual space should now be 2m+. He could easily have slowed down though, one person in a van slowing to the same speed as three travelling in the other direction isn't too much to ask surely? (Even if he does pay his road taxes!!)

 

[optimusprime]

I understood that push bikes riders that want to go the same way as you do ,,, they do so.. and come up on the left hand side of the vehicles ..

 

[GrahamT]

I'm not actually sure about that (Landrover's speed). I certainly don't think it was "far" too fast, but the crappy frame rate from the headcam makes that hard to evaluate objectively. Things always look like they're moving very fast on videos of this quality.

And yes,that looks like a classic "failure to unclip" incident because she was cleated-in and panicked. If 'clips ' are to be used theyu sould be used with caution and competence, both of which appeared deficient in this case.