Time: ~ 9:20 am Location: Junction between Park Street and Round Church Street. Okay, it's been quite a while since I have posted here - been too busy. But this morning I nearly had quite a serious bicycle accident. I was cycling South down Park Street, past the car park. On the right is a junction to Round Church Street, which is a one-way street heading towards Park Street. The junction has a main lane for vehicles turning right onto Park Street, and a cycle lane for cyclists turning left onto Park Street. Non-cyclists are not permitted to turn left. The junction has no less than four no-entry signs visible to anyone attempting to turn into Park Street in either of the lanes. Ahead of me was another cyclist. As we passed the car park, I started to overtake him. My front wheel was fully overlapping with his back wheel when he decided to turn sharply right, without indicating, into Round Church Street through the no-entry signs. Needless to say, I had to brake very hard to avoid a collision. Now, this doesn't actually sound like a particularly nasty/sinful/unusual mistake for people to make, so perhaps I ought to spell out what would have happened if I had not put my brakes on. My front wheel would have hit his back wheel at an angle. My bike would therefore be pushed over to the right. Any cyclist will respond to this by turning the handlebars to the left. The cyclist's bike would be pushed over to the left, which would leave the two cycles in just the right position for my front wheel to ride up the cyclist's back wheel, and over his mudguard, if not person. His bike would be pushed over to the left with the force of my weight slowing down. He would hit the ground on his side and possibly break his left arm, and he would be trapped under his bike, which my bike would be still riding over. My bicycle would undoubtedly find some way of stopping dead right above the cyclist, and I would be catapulted forwards, either landing on the tarmac in front of the cyclist, or on top of his bike, on top of him. I would have a reasonable chance of breaking something while landing. And then, my bike would fall on top of me. His bicycle's back wheel would be buckled, probably along with my front wheel. This only didn't happen, because I see lots of people turning right at that junction, so I was prepared and alert. Please people, THINK before doing anything like that.
And also, think really really hard before overtaking anyone. --Vitenka (Yes, I see your point, and yes, he should have indicated - but you chose to overtake and to only just leave a large enough gap to brake before collision)
Might I ask how one actually leaves a gap to brake in, if attempting to overtake someone on a straight road, if they decide to perform a sharp break-right? They are quite capable of covering any amount of sideways gap you leave in a very small amount of time. -- Admiral
Leave a larger sideways gap, and don't overtake someone who is travelling quickly. Yes, you can never guarantee avoidance - but you can make it more likely. Your description made it sound like you had about a foot and a half of clearance. --Vitenka
If I expected cyclists to indicate I would have killed about 5 of them by now --Gwyntar
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