Left Hook

Tim Woodall said:

I got "Left Hooked" today. Fortunately, I screamed at the car and he
stopped. Unfortunately, he never actually got in front of me so I
didn't get his number plate.

http://www.woodall.me.uk/journey/20070928/avi_0002.mpg

I find a dead giveaway of a vehicle about to do this is the sound of the
engine. Also I would always try adjust my speed and position so that no
vehicles were just passing me approaching a left turn. Alot of it is
probably done subconsciously, survival instinct and all that...

"Tim Woodall" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I got "Left Hooked" today. Fortunately, I screamed at the car and he
stopped. Unfortunately, he never actually got in front of me so I didn't
get his number plate.

http://www.woodall.me.uk/journey/20070928/avi_0002.mpg

Tim.

I struggle to see how you were not visible to the driver at any point during
it's manouver. Cars have front number plates, you could have got that by
stopping within your stopping distance and pointing the camera at the car.

On Sat, 29 Sep 2007 23:35:58 +0100,

Niall Wallace said:

"Tim Woodall" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I got "Left Hooked" today. Fortunately, I screamed at the car and he
stopped. Unfortunately, he never actually got in front of me so I didn't
get his number plate.

http://www.woodall.me.uk/journey/20070928/avi_0002.mpg

Tim.

I struggle to see how you were not visible to the driver at any point during
it's manouver. Cars have front number plates, you could have got that by
stopping within your stopping distance and pointing the camera at the car.

Yes. I could have taken the camera off and pointed the camera at the
car or even just read the numberplate and written that down. But at the
time the only thing I could think of was getting off the bike and
turning that around.

The camera has a fairly narrow field of view so although it's not
obvious in the video, I was actually about level with the rear passenger
door when at my furthest back. But even so I think I must have been
visible if the driver had been looking towards the turning except for
right at the end because I brake a bit quicker than he does.

Tim.

--
God said, "div D = rho, div B = 0, curl E = - @B/@t, curl H = J + @D/@t,"
and there was light.

http://tjw.hn.org/ http://www.locofungus.btinternet.co.uk/

Tim Woodall said the following on 28/09/2007 21:13:

Quoted message said:

I got "Left Hooked" today. Fortunately, I screamed at the car and he
stopped. Unfortunately, he never actually got in front of me so I didn't
get his number plate.

http://www.woodall.me.uk/journey/20070928/avi_0002.mpg

It's quite incredible that a car has actually passed you without
apparently seeing you.

I suppose that even if you had got his numberplate, the police would
have shown their usual level of interest - zero.

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

Paul Boyd usenet.is.worse@plusnet said:

Tim Woodall said the following on 28/09/2007 21:13:

Quoted message said:

I got "Left Hooked" today. Fortunately, I screamed at the car and he
stopped. Unfortunately, he never actually got in front of me so I didn't
get his number plate.

http://www.woodall.me.uk/journey/20070928/avi_0002.mpg

It's quite incredible that a car has actually passed you without
apparently seeing you.

A car pulled out into the other lane to overtake me once without
seeing me. At least, that's the only reason I can see for having
pulled out and got alongside, it pulled back to go past the
approaching traffic island.

Others here have experienced the same thing - some motorists seem to
think that bicycles are point phenomena, with no dimensions, that
simply disappear from the universe once you've got half your front
wing past them.

Quoted message said:

I suppose that even if you had got his numberplate, the police would
have shown their usual level of interest - zero.

Well, that's how much interest I got, yes.

regards, Ian SMith
--
|\ /| no .sig
|o o|
|/ \|

Tim Woodall said:

I got "Left Hooked" today. Fortunately, I screamed at the car and he
stopped. Unfortunately, he never actually got in front of me so I didn't
get his number plate.

http://www.woodall.me.uk/journey/20070928/avi_0002.mpg

Nasty, glad you managed to alert the numpty before anything worse
happened. I had a similar incident this morning, though the left hook
was attempted at a junction where we were both turning left so
escaping wasn't too hard. Which is just as well, because my numpty had
definitely seen me and didn't stop when yelled at.

Caught up with him 100m down the road and bawled him out. This was of
absolutely of no use in hammering ideas into his thick cager-skull,
but rather satisfying. Apologies to anyone in Marchmont awoken by my
yelling.

Still, vanishingly few incidents on my commute, thankfully.

Regards,

-david

David Nutter said:

Nasty, glad you managed to alert the numpty before anything worse
happened. I had a similar incident this morning, though the left hook
was attempted at a junction where we were both turning left so
escaping wasn't too hard. Which is just as well, because my numpty had
definitely seen me and didn't stop when yelled at.

Were you in a left turn only lane, of indicating left.

I rarely indicate left now due to numpties doing things
like this. Many car drivers take a racing line around
corners, not realising that cyclists sometimes need extra
room here.

Martin.

Tim Woodall said:

I got "Left Hooked" today. Fortunately, I screamed at the car and he
stopped. Unfortunately, he never actually got in front of me so I didn't
get his number plate.

http://www.woodall.me.uk/journey/20070928/avi_0002.mpg

Tim.

Had that a couple of times now - i just don't understand it - these
people must be utterly dense and have no observation skills. What camera
is it that you are using for that trickery squire?

Martin Dann said:

David Nutter said:

Nasty, glad you managed to alert the numpty before anything worse
happened. I had a similar incident this morning, though the left hook
was attempted at a junction where we were both turning left so
escaping wasn't too hard. Which is just as well, because my numpty had
definitely seen me and didn't stop when yelled at.

Were you in a left turn only lane, of indicating left.

No, approaching an ordinary T-junction with limited visibility
(turning left at the corner of Greenhill Gardens and Strathearn
Place). Greenhill Gardens is one way (I was travelling "down" the
right hand leg on the map below) and is full of parked cars, speed
pillows and stuff emerging from driveways. This means primary position
all the way through, which probably caused a frustrated numpty.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=1203908015

I was indicating left but had to stop in order to perform the violent
change of direction necessary to avoid becoming a bonnet decoration on
numpty's crappy Mazda!

What I should've done is not start moving into the turn quite so early
as it's the road widening out slightly at the end (past the park cars
you can see on the sat image there) that allowed numpty to pull his
little trick. If I'd stayed on my original line, he'd have had to run
me over to get past there. As it was, he nearly did anyway, but I had
enough room on my inside to escape.

From the map you will also see that if he'd waited Whole Seconds he'd
have been able to overtake easily and safely on Strathearn Pl. Bah...

Quoted message said:

I rarely indicate left now due to numpties doing things
like this. Many car drivers take a racing line around
corners, not realising that cyclists sometimes need extra
room here.

I take your point, though I'm slightly wary about pissing off other
more sensible road users who would like to know what I'm about to do
next. In this situation though it would've likely helped.

Regards,

-david

--

David Nutter said:

On 2007-10-02, Martin Dann <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I rarely indicate left now due to numpties doing things
like this. Many car drivers take a racing line around
corners, not realising that cyclists sometimes need extra
room here.

I take your point, though I'm slightly wary about pissing off other
more sensible road users who would like to know what I'm about to do
next. In this situation though it would've likely helped.

I'm with Martin on the left signal. If there is any possibility that a
vehicle behind will attempt to overtake, or one coming the other way
turn in at the same time, I won't signal left. In practice, this
meants that the only time I signal left is if there is no traffic on
my roads, but there's someone waiting to come out of the road I'm
turning into. This is the only situation where a signal provides
useful information to the other road users that can't be used
'against' me.

I appreciate that not signalling left means that a driver behind me
doesn't know that I will probably slow down, but I've come to the
conclusion that this is less important than avoiding the left hook.

TL