Almost hit a cyclist

You can tell the way that cyclist pulled on the brakes and the back stepped out on the bike they were planning on just straight cutting across the wrong side of the road at that junction and being completely unsighted because of that van are lucky they weren't hit!
 
Surely you would be at fault - you're exiting a minor road (so it looks), the cyclists are on the major road, so you give way to them.

From the angles, there's no sign they just jumped off the pavement. Unless I've missed something?

You have missed one glaring thing. They are riding their bikes on the wrong side of the bloody road! and because of this you have missed the issue to hand. If they had been on the correct side of the road, the driver turning left, with due care and attention would have made no difference to them. THAT is the issue here.
 
Regardless of the fault element, it's very poor form on the cyclists part. Riding around London (I'm not suggesting this is London by the way) makes you cautious, there's simply no way I'd do what they were doing there. I may be able to harangue the driver about fault, but I'd probably have to do it from hospital - which would suck.
 
Don't really get this.

Make a thread about something that almost happened, but didn't, and get everyone to speculate on who's fault it would be, but nothing actually happened.

I reckon it would have been the cat up the road that caused them to swerve round the sinkhole in the road and they would have bunny hopped over the bonnet of your car and continued.

It's a discussion about what could have happened, you did make me laugh though.

They weren't kids either, both adults.
 
You have missed one glaring thing. They are riding their bikes on the wrong side of the bloody road! and because of this you have missed the issue to hand. If they had been on the correct side of the road, the driver turning left, with due care and attention would have made no difference to them. THAT is the issue here.

While I totally get what you're saying - and agree with you - it's a challenging choice though. If that had been a pedestrian and you'd have been looking right, and drove into the ped - it would totally have been the driver's fault wouldn't it?

Still, nothing happened, so no drama :D
 
Cyclists should have been positioned better.

Bit of a non event though. They spotted you, you spotted them, everyone went about their business just fine.
 
They cut the corner massively, presumably because of the oncoming van. What they should've done is stayed on the correct side of the road and waited for the oncoming vehicle to pass. I don't believe that they just rode on the wrong side of the road the whole way.

As you couldn't see you should certainly have been taking care pulling out (which you were as far as I could tell) and the cyclists were especially stupid for cutting the corner when they also couldn't see.

I'd say the cyclists are mostly at fault here and I say that as a cyclist.
 
You have missed one glaring thing. They are riding their bikes on the wrong side of the bloody road! and because of this you have missed the issue to hand. If they had been on the correct side of the road, the driver turning left, with due care and attention would have made no difference to them. THAT is the issue here.

Even ignoring that you should give way to traffic on a major road when exiting from a minor road (regardless of which side of the road they are on), someone driving with due care and attention should surely look at the bit of road they're about to pull out onto from behind an obstacle? (by which I mean, how could the OP not see the bike in front of him if he was actually looking at where he was going?)

E:

OP did see the cyclist, of course, but talking hypothetically in the even that an accident had happened :D
 
Overhead picture, red line is me reversing, green line is me going forward. White mark is the van, you can figure out where the cyclist came from.

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Vans fault. Parked on a corner obstructing vision.
Followed by cyclist if they were on the path. Followed by you if they were on the main road
 
You wouldn't expect someone to be riding up the wrong side of the road and there's no way you can see them, so not your fault.

I've had a cyclist run in to the side of me at a junction before. When I got out to ask wtf they were doing, they were already up and away without even saying anything. But at least they learned a valuable lesson as they face planted pretty hard on my side window. Cost £80 to get the dent out though :/
 
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You wouldn't expect someone to be riding up the wrong side of the road and there's no way you can see them, so not your fault.

I've had a cyclist run in to the side of me at a junction before. When I got out to ask wtf they were doing, they were already up and away without even saying anything. But at least they learned a hard lesson as they face planted on my side window. Cost £80 to get the dent out though :/

Have to wonder what some of them are thinking - on my way to work there is one cyclist I often encounter that always whizzes around the same narrowing corner way too quickly (also cutting the corner) and despite numerous near misses (mostly not me) continues to do it - no idea how he is still alive as a couple of times its only because I anticipated that he might potentially do it before I can see him that I've not almost certainly killed him.

Another one has lots of flashing lights - the rear 2 red ones I can understand as they do increase visibility but the front one is not only badly angled but when you come around a corner and encounter a sudden bright flashing light right in your eyes it just delays your reaction - totally crazy.
 
if an accident had happen, Vans fault for parking where he is over main road and side road ? blocking views, hed be at fault for causing a collision ;)


other than that, deffo cyclist !
 
regardless of where the van was parked the cyclist shouldn't have been coming up the wrong side of the road.

Van also at in the wrong for parking on a junction
 
Had their been a car parked on the opposite side of the road you was entering and a car coming the same way as the cyclists, that car could too have been on the wrong side of the road in order to overtake the stationary vehicle.

Cyclists were in the wrong for both cycling on the pavement and riding on the wrong side for no good reason, but you could also have approached the blind junction with more care at a slightly slower speed.
 
While I totally get what you're saying - and agree with you - it's a challenging choice though. If that had been a pedestrian and you'd have been looking right, and drove into the ped - it would totally have been the driver's fault wouldn't it?

Still, nothing happened, so no drama :D

The cyclists also have an obligation to drive defensively, we all do. They were happy to cycle on the wrong side of the road and assume everyone would deal with that fact, they made no allowance for the fact that a car, lorry or other bike may be trying to get around the obstacle of the van where they may be blind spotted, or likely to be observing to his right, as that is where cars/lorries and bikes come from in the UK. Now of course there is a total obligation to ensure no one is overtaking and you must look both ways but we are trying to justify crap cycling where they are expecting everyone else to account for them whilst taking no account of anyone else.

In such situations they have themselves to blame and also they are at significantly more risk than anyone in a car or lorry, so need to be even more defensive than cars and lorries.

Now look at the video, the driver stopped and was giving way, he did not hit the bikes and how do we know he wasn't looking as it seems to me he stopped when his blind spot (the van) became clear, at which point the bikes arrived. I ride a bike, I drive a car, but in this situation I see 2 idiots cutting corners and driving on the wrong side of the road and a driver who avoided the idiots. I believe it was also a give way, so that means give way to traffic from your right if turning left, not from your left unless it's a 1 way road.

Even ignoring that you should give way to traffic on a major road when exiting from a minor road (regardless of which side of the road they are on), someone driving with due care and attention should surely look at the bit of road they're about to pull out onto from behind an obstacle? (by which I mean, how could the OP not see the bike in front of him if he was actually looking at where he was going?)

E:

OP did see the cyclist, of course, but talking hypothetically in the even that an accident had happened :D

See above
 
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