Video: Driver left hooks cyclist on upgraded Cycle Superhighway

CS2 was meant to be ground breaking infrastructure. It's ended up poorly executed (for the parts that after 11 months of chaos during the constructions are actually finished and open), and for this cyclist worse than before. The segregation in many of the completed parts isn't wide enough for two bikes. It weaves in and out rather than just being straight. It goes up to pavement level, down to road level for no obvious reason. Bus stop islands are too small for the number of passengers waiting (Mile end an example). The new left hand filters mean cyclists get a small window to progress on green (its better to stay out in the traffic which gets 3 or 4 times the time on green). The segregation forces you into the left hook danger zone. Most of the time you can't move out to avoid the zone, whereas previously you could take up primary and avoid the left hook risk. Cars edge out into the cycle lane, again you have no where to go.

Frankly the risk to cyclists in the last 11 months during the works has been ridiculous and is a clear signal that the people carrying out the works and those that planned the works, are not the right people for the job of creating "world-class" cycling infrastructure. Oh did I mention they built sections and forgot that it rains in the UK, so had to dig them up again to install drains. Says it all.

Ouch! GWS and good luck with your insurance claim.

Hi every one, yes am the cyclist in the video clip that was injured and I would like to thank the gentalmen who calls himself the romanian cylist that caght the whole think in cam because without that I would not have the details of the driver. I would like to also thank all the people who stopped to check on me at the time.  Iam recovering well but not been able to ride my bike yet.  Here is a picture of the damage to my knees. 

Hi everyone I am the cyclist who was involved in the accident on the clipabove and I would like to thank the gentleman who caught the whole thing on video and released it because without that I wouldn`t have the drivers details.  Also like to thank the people who stopped to check on me. I am well andrecovering frommy injuries but not been on a my bike seens. Here is the picture of the damage.

I'd agree with Frogg's post above. I don't really have enough context from this video though. My main question is whether the motorist ever passed the cyclist, or did the cyclist (who appears to be maintaining a pretty agressive clip) simply catch up with the driver. If it's the former, the driver was negligent because she should have been aware that the cyclist was in her vincinity; if it's the latter, I can see how this could happen: not many drivers are going to check their side view mirrors to see if a cyclist is coming up on the bike lane.

It also may be that she turned on her turn signal belatedly about the same time the cyclist was catching up with her. 

An unfortunatly event and I'm glad the cyclist wasn't seriously hurt. I have seen far more egregious examples of bad driving than this however.

I don't think the comment "I'm pregnant and wearing glasses" should be taken as the driver offering an excuse. There's a lot of adrenaline pumping and she's in a confrontation with an understandably angry man. In that situation, "I'm pregnant and wearing glasses" means "Please don't hit me".

As I understand it, these "superhighways" are supposed to be attractive, safe, convenient and accessible.  The vast majority of collisions between cyclists and motor vehicles occur at junctions, and the superhighways don't make junctions safer and only protect against the much less likely rear shunt, so they aren't fit for purpose.

Yes ok she was in the wrong, but there are a lot of things wrong with that cycle highway to the point that it actually makes it more dangerous at each and every junction.

Being pregnant and having glasses is no excuse. Anyone who is not able to look to see if it is safe when making such a turn is not fit to drive.

I agree that segrated cycle lanes need kerbs right up to the junction to prevent cars from making fast turns. Forcing cars to make a much tighter turn with kerbs going right up to the junction will force the cars to go much slower and will have a better view due to the tighter turn.

Rule 183 notwithstanding, CS2 should continue across the junction with kerbs right up to almost level with the side road and on a raised surface. It looks like it becomes one of the much-derided old paint-only lanes a few metres before the junction, leaving cyclists in exactly the wrong place as motorists barrel round the corner without looking.

While we're doing the motorbike thing ...

Has anyone tried adapting or adopting Duncan MacKillop's philosophy "No surprise - no accident" from motorbiking to cycling ?

http://nosurprise.org.uk/background-and-aims/

http://www.totalcontroltraining.co.uk/

He seems so confident in his defensive riding that he blames all victims !
http://www.roadsafetygb.org.uk/news/3592.html

• "It takes two to tangle." No collision can ever be the fault of just one of the parties involved as both of them have to be in error for a collision to occur. A driver may make a precipitating error, but the cyclist/motorcyclist must also make the completing error that finishes the job. If a cyclist gets hit then they have either put themselves in a position where they can be hit or they have failed to predict an unfolding situation correctly.

Harsh, but I don't disagree. I'm sure there will always be surprises, but I'm also sure that everyone can think and act to reduce them close to zero.

Trouble is we feel 'Give them an inch and they'll take a mile' so we accept the odd crash as part of a learning/teaching process. She hopefully won't do it again. We don't want what remains of 'our rights' to be eroded any further.

If we started giving way to others that don't have priority over us, we are training them that 'It is OK to drive at them : they will get out of the way!' (Like that scene in Avatar.)

Cyclists are now fast enough to learn from moto techniques, but we are understandably averse to the stop+go that is mere expense if you're not self-propelled.
Paranoia could prevent progress.

I haven't read into MacKillop - his terminology is rather strange (to me). Overthinking ?
Not mainstream, but then the past record of motorbiking isn't great.

Certainly food for thought, and worth a glance.

Edit : PS :  He doesn't seem well-known, even in motorbiking circles - maybe the academic stuff is over their heads, too ?

http://www.visordown.com/forum/advanced-motorcycle-riding/anyone-know-du...

As I see it, the focus on road infrastructure is misleading if people do not know the rules and how to use it.

For me it's as much about education as it is painting lanes in lurid colours and siphoning off cycling traffic. I don't believe you really need all of it and I do perfectly well without it.

People who argue about road design have buried themselves down a cul-de-sac of ideology.

Another case of indicating and immediately turning without looking by the car driver.

If the driver had looked in their mirror first, then signalled, then maneuvered, she may have seen the cyclist properly and having indicated early the rider may have slowed down anticipating this maneuver. Instead the glasses wearing, pregnant woman driver decided that she had prioroty over the non road tax paying cyclist and used the excuse of her physical conditions to justify her ignorance.

I would be terrified to ride or drive in London or any big city. The problem I can spot immediately is that there is so much going on around everybody, streetlights, vehicle lights and reflections off ever surface. It is so easy to miss a cycle in all of that. Her speed was pretty slow, she just didn't see him. The cyclist was travelling at a reasonable speed but didn't assess the danger of a an open junction approaching.

An insurance change to presume liability might make drivers double check every manoeuvre. Cyclists should beware that they are vulnerable

How is "I'm wearing glasses" an excuse for not seeing something? "I'm NOT wearing my glasses" is a more understandable excuse (although also an admission of guilt).  I think the point of glasses is that they help you to see...

On a separate matter- I'm a cyclist and a driver and I'd missed rule 183 about priority is given to the people on a cycle lane, if you are crossing it. In all honesty I've always done that anyway as it seems logical, but a lot of people really don't in my experience (there's one cycle lane that I use where buses going in and out of a bus stop (and crossing a cycle lane to do so)  don't feel the need to check for other road users before making their move- they treat the cycle lane as a buffer to help them get into the "main " traffic lanes)

Contrary to Martin Porter, while the cam-cyclist is on the lane at the start of the video & do leave it, it is after they pass the first junction & a turning car (a Corsa?) waits for them to clear the junction.

Perhaps unnerved by this they move into the traffic lane where they observe a second car (also a Corsa?)  turning without making sure the interior lane is clear causing the cyclist to brake hard & go over his handlebars.

Without douubt the fault is the turning vehicle's & the road designers for not giving the turning a tighter radius & widening the strip between lane & traffic thereby moving the cycle lane more into the driver's field of vision as they manoevre rather than behind their heads.

I've watchedthis a couple of times and car makes no contact with the cyclist. It looks as though they put the brakes on too hard, lock up and go over the bars. if they had stayed off the brakes they would have sailed through and been away.

the "problem" as i see it is that the danger hasn't been eliminated by the cycle route. A main road is rarely dangerous, the junctions are the problem. Unless these are addressed you are wasting your time. Traffic lights, speed bumps, etc etc, there has to be something that forces an action.

This is why everyone who bangs on about cycling infrastructure being key to making cycling safer is wasting their time. If this kind of thing can happen on a "Cycle Superhighway " it just shows they are a waste of time and not where the problem really is. People don't drive properly, they don't take enough care of themselves or others around them.

As a motorcyclist, doing a 'lifesaver' over the shoulder check when turning either right or left was literally drummed into my head during training. I don't think that it is considered so important when learning to drive a car and therefore these kind of left hook incidents in this type of cycle infrastructure are going to be a regular event. Sure, car drivers should be aware that they just overtook a cyclist before they are about to turn left, be aware of the cycleway priority and basically observe properly, but in regular driving having something come from behind and on the nearside is unusual, dare I say, unexpected. 

As others have said, better to use the roadway if you are keeping pace with the traffic flow.