| Topic: | Like Jeremy Vine, today I started filming my commute. | |
| Posted by: | Francis Sheehan | |
| Date/Time: | 05/05/23 09:00:00 |
| Today marks a (personally sad) day for me. Yesterday I got from Balfe's a back camera integrated in the rear light. I've also added a front camera, and from this morning I started recording my cycling commute. I've always thought that people like Cycling Gaz and JV were a bit over the top - recording? And then grassing out to the Met? come on! - but I must say, the last few months have been very hairy. And it's mostly due to Brentford and Chiswick. I commute every day to the Heathrow area from W4. I cycle along the London road in Brentford, then into Hounslow; for Chiswick, I bypass the Chiswick Roundabout through Wellesley road and then use C9. Going out, it's normally very light traffic and indeed I don't normally have a problem; going back, I hit traffic from the Brentford McDonald's onwards... and this is where I have problems. My list of close calls is long, but since Easter I had: 1) at least 5 occasions of big cars (SUVs, but also Volvo estates) pull in front of me at very close distance - less than a couple of metres - without checking, indicating, or giving me the right of way. 2) I've been clipped by a black cab who overtook me on Wellesley road (considering I was doing 16mph he was clearly going faster), which led to a fall, luckily no probs 3) NO ONE seems to be using indicators at the Rhythm n Brews roundabout 4) I had three occasions of cars turning left into side roads from CHR, thus crossing C9, without indicating, checking or giving right of way 5) I've been overtaken and boxed in right before a traffic island on a weekly basis 6) Cars overtake cyclists going the opposite direction and, since roads are narrow and have parking (legally or not) on both way, they basically force me out of the road unless I want to have a full-on collision I never wanted to have cameras on; I've always maintained that we're all grown-ups, and I shouldn't be going around ratting drivers to the police. This is the sort of behaviour my very annoying Swiss neighbours had, and I hated it. I've also thought that I'm a sinner too, and I shouldn't hold grudges. But... there's a difference between the odd pedestrian walking on the cycle lane, or the van that pops on the lane to drop off something, or when somebody doesn't quite give you 1.5mt when overtaking, and what I've listed above. 95% of the drivers I see around are considerate, broadly respect the rules and show they care about my safety, and I treat them in the same way back. The problem is that any interaction with the remaining 5% can lead to me dying. And since it seems that they're the ones driving the biggest cars - there's almost a 1-1 correlation between Volvo XC90s and not using the blinkers, or giving right of way - I don't think I have a lot of choice other than videoing and reporting. It's a sad state of affairs, but not too sure about what else to do. |