Not all bad..

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
ambodach
Posts: 1023
Joined: 15 Mar 2011, 6:45pm

Re: Not all bad..

Post by ambodach »

If a driver is considerate I give an acknowledging wave if possible and I have sometimes e-mailed a company to compliment a drivers behaviour even when driving a motorhome and a tour coach pulls over for me (which is most unusual).I think a compliment goes a long way to thank for considerate behaviour.
aprildavy
Posts: 247
Joined: 3 May 2010, 11:48am

Re: Not all bad..

Post by aprildavy »

I'm very happy in general with the attitude of the truck drivers, artics, tractors, and quarry trucks I meet. I do my best to help them past, move into alayby, jump onto the pavement whatever and wave them on. Usually I get an acknowledgement or a toot toot.

The killers are the 4x4 crowd, who passed their test in a 900cc car many years ago, and are now driving a mini-tank. 199 out of every 200 drivers are fine, but the two near serious incidents I have encountered were both 4x4's, both insisting on oevertaking in crazy situations.

One just past a camera, 30mph, doing about 40mph, then remembered he wanted to turn right, slammed on the brakes and I nearly went into him, but managed to go down the side. The other trying to overtake on a brow of a hill at night,on a single track road, with another car in the opposite side of the road in a passing place, accelerating to get past and nearly ramming me and the car waiting.

I'm okay with heavy vehicles, in general they are driven by professional drivers.
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hondated
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Location: Eastbourne

Re: Not all bad..

Post by hondated »

byegad wrote:I try to acknowledge all considerate driving with a wave/smile/nod whatever is appropriate. I like the idea of emailing firms too. :)

Ditti totally totally agree
niggle
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Joined: 11 Mar 2009, 10:29pm
Location: Cornwall, near England

Re: Not all bad..

Post by niggle »

I must give a mention for Westfield Transport. I have been overtaken by very big rigs from that local firm a few times, after the driver has patiently waited behind, then given a full lane's clearance every time: excellent :D
DavidT
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Joined: 13 Jan 2007, 2:05pm
Location: East Midlands (Originally from Devon)

Re: Not all bad..

Post by DavidT »

Mick F wrote: Ginster's lorry drivers, and Samworth Bros drivers too, are wonderful. These are the huge wagons you see up and down the motorways, and they leave and return to the factory in Callington nearby here.

They are skilful, polite, friendly, and considerate. They take a pride in their driving.

I salute them.


:D I'll pass your compliment on to a friend who has a Samworth's driver in the family. He has a very big truck :shock: Samworths are based in Melton Mowbray and have a lot of vehicles and distribution hub(s) in the Leicestershire and East Midlands area.
samsbike
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Re: Not all bad..

Post by samsbike »

Dynamite_funk wrote:If a car waits behind me for longer than say 20-30 seconds I always give a quick hand raised to say thank you (as long as it;s not on a >10% hill!). It only takes a second and I like to think it has an effect on how they will react to other cyclists on the road :D



Not to mention the next time I may meet them. It's costs nothing and I truly do appreciate good driving.
niggle
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Location: Cornwall, near England

Re: Not all bad..

Post by niggle »

niggle wrote:I must give a mention for Westfield Transport. I have been overtaken by very big rigs from that local firm a few times, after the driver has patiently waited behind, then given a full lane's clearance every time: excellent :D

Last summer, after numerous times of being passed acceptably or better by Westfield drivers with vehicles up to full maximum size articulated lorries, I had what I felt was a quite bad close pass by one of the big rigs so emailed the firm on their website about it, this was the response:

"Hi Nigel

I am sorry to hear about your recent experiences whilst cycling along the road from Chacewater to Threeemilestone. I have sent a message out to all drivers, saying we have had complaints from cyclists. Hopefully this sort of thing will not happen again. If there is any way through your forum you can assist us by moaning to the council as our pleas have been to no avail. On several occasions we have contacted the council about some of the overgrown hedges and trees on that road which in itself makes the road quite dangerous as there are several points on this road, where 2 large vehicles going opposite ways cannot do so because of the overgrown trees. I hope in the future you have no need to email me again about the drivers.

Regards

Robert

Robert Walker
Managing Director

Westfield Transport (Cornwall) Ltd
Kerley Paddock
Chacewater
Truro
Cornwall
TR4 8JY"

After that I had no further issues with Westfield drivers, despite numerous further passes by them, almost daily, as my commute goes very close to the Westfield depot near Chacewater. Therefore I decided to give the benefit of the doubt and not mention the interchange on this thread.

Then last Wednesday afternoon I was riding home and experienced, IMO, a very uncomfortable close pass by one of their largest vehicles at about 4.45pm (about 45 mins earlier than usual due to a family issue) and complained by phone to the company when I got home, speaking to Robert Walker's son (Coby I think?) who was in charge in Robert Walker's absence. I was polite in expressing my distress and Coby(?) was quite sympathetic on the phone and said how he understood, he did some cycling, words to that effect, he would look into the matter.

Today Robert Walker sent me this email:

Hi Nigel

Regarding your complaint dated 04/02/2015.

We have since downloaded the footage from our on board camera of the vehicle in question. We feel the driver was extremely considerate in the way he passed you after following you at 8mph until passing you at about 18 mph our vehicle moved to the opposite side of the road, giving you plenty of room as most of our drivers do.

We take complaints about our company and the drivers very seriously and pride ourselves in being considerate on the road across the Uk and in to Europe, and more so in the local community/surrounding areas.

We are very aware of cyclists and all our drivers are competent and professional.

As you have made us aware that you have posted to your cycling site/forum we will happily post this video to show how considerate the driver was when he passed you.

If anything we feel you were being inconsiderate by cycling in the centre of the road/lane.

Regards

Robert

Robert Walker
Managing Director

Westfield Transport (Cornwall) Ltd
Kerley Paddock
Chacewater
Truro
Cornwall
TR4 8JY

Phone: 01872 560860 Fax: 01872 561056

Email: Rob@westfieldtransport.com
Website: http://www.westfieldtransport.com

I am going to send Robert Walker the link to this thread and hopefully he will post a link the footage. I will be interested to see it from the driver's point of view and also have feedback from the forum about my riding, positive or negative, as well as the HGV driver's driving. At this point I am of the opinion that the pass was too close, as the vehicle did not fully cross into the opposite lane, even though I was riding in primary position at the time, and this was compounded by the vehicle pulling in towards me before it had fully passed me in what I experienced as a very intimidating manner: these vehicles are truly huge and tall, I would guess the maximum size allowed on UK roads. BTW it is perfectly possible for the HVG to pass entirely on the opposite side of the road at that point, despite Mr Walker's previous comments about tree overhang, as I watched an identical vehicle going in the opposite direction a couple of days later, and that was fully to the left of the white line.

I am also of the opinon that I acted correctly in taking the lane through the pinch point past the traffic islands and to the brow of the hill a short distance away, as that is my interpretation of the guidance from Cyclecraft and Bikeability in such circumstances to try to disuade close/aggressive overtakes through the pinch point or at the brow of the hill. I feel Mr Walker does need to be re-educated re the right of cyclists to take the lane and stay there if they feel it is in their interest to do so, and that a following vehicle has no right to expect them to move over until the cyclist thinks it is safe to do so, the cyclist's safety taking priority over the convenience of the following driver. Obviously you should think about the driver's convenience as well so for a long hill climb you might pull over and let a following vehicle pass, but that was not the case in this instance IMO- opinions welcome. After the brow of the hill it would have been perfectly possible for the HGV to pass, assuming no oncoming traffic. OTOH if there was oncoming traffic then being in primary or secondary position would have made no difference and a safe overtake by a large vehicle would not have been possible either way...

The pinch point is here, follow street view forward to the brow of the hill: https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Threem ... 8,,0,-9.75

As usual with Westfield vehicles, it turned left off the main road at this point, about 700m further down the road: https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Threem ... 3,,0,17.57

EDIT, my reply today:

Hi Robert,

Yes please do post a link to the video, here is the Cyclists Touring Club thread I referred to previously:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=70689&start=15 To post on the forum it will be necessary to join but there are no restrictions that should stop you doing so if you wish. The site does not allow uploading of video clips as far as I am aware so you will need to upload it to a hosting site e.g. Youtube. I look forward to a sensible discourse about this matter and I hope that you agree that my comments on the forum are not abusive or defamatory, indeed they were entirely positive about Westfield before today.

Best Regards,

Nigel Andrews
LollyKat
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Location: Scotland

Re: Not all bad..

Post by LollyKat »

It will be interesting to see. I wonder if it is the same cyclist (i.e. not you) that the footage is of.
niggle
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Joined: 11 Mar 2009, 10:29pm
Location: Cornwall, near England

Re: Not all bad..

Post by niggle »

LollyKat wrote:It will be interesting to see. I wonder if it is the same cyclist (i.e. not you) that the footage is of.

I suspect that it is me, and Robert Walker's comment "If anything we feel you were being inconsiderate by cycling in the centre of the road/lane." is an accurate but uninformed observation of me taking the lane through the pinch point and over the brow of the hill.

We shall see, if I am obviously in the wrong I shall have some egg wiping to do :lol: and I am also dreading how slow and awkward I may look as well :oops:

In my defence it is a horrible bit of road that is particularly energy sapping as it climbs gradually with a rough chip and seal surface, plus I think I was riding into a strong headwind at the time ( at least that is the excuse I am sticking to)
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: Not all bad..

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
Are we still waiting on the video :?:
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
niggle
Posts: 3435
Joined: 11 Mar 2009, 10:29pm
Location: Cornwall, near England

Re: Not all bad..

Post by niggle »

Yes no response. I half expected this as either there is no video and it was all a bluff, or Robert Walker has realised that the video does not actually show the driver and company in a good light after all...

Meanwhile I have bought an amazing camera which I will be using from Monday on my commutes. I plan to post one video of the full commute on Youtube which I expect will be a very boring half hour recording, but will indicate the time point where the Westfield vehicle passed me.
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bigjim
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Re: Not all bad..

Post by bigjim »

I wrote to this company about this and got no response.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtF4CtuZLoM
Green Parcel machine nearly took my elbow off.
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deliquium
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Re: Not all bad..

Post by deliquium »

Dynamite_funk wrote:If a car waits behind me for longer than say 20-30 seconds I always give a quick hand raised to say thank you (as long as it;s not on a >10% hill!). It only takes a second and I like to think it has an effect on how they will react to other cyclists on the road :D


^ +1 = Me too :D ✔✔✔ and often one gets a friendly toot back or a quick flash of hazards :)
Current pedalable joys

"you would be surprised at the number of people in these parts who nearly are half people and half bicycles"
reohn2
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Re: Not all bad..

Post by reohn2 »

deliquium wrote:
Dynamite_funk wrote:If a car waits behind me for longer than say 20-30 seconds I always give a quick hand raised to say thank you (as long as it;s not on a >10% hill!). It only takes a second and I like to think it has an effect on how they will react to other cyclists on the road :D


^ +1 = Me too :D ✔✔✔ and often one gets a friendly toot back or a quick flash of hazards :)


+1 :)
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"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
niggle
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Joined: 11 Mar 2009, 10:29pm
Location: Cornwall, near England

Re: Not all bad..

Post by niggle »

reohn2 wrote:
deliquium wrote:
Dynamite_funk wrote:If a car waits behind me for longer than say 20-30 seconds I always give a quick hand raised to say thank you (as long as it;s not on a >10% hill!). It only takes a second and I like to think it has an effect on how they will react to other cyclists on the road :D


^ +1 = Me too :D ✔✔✔ and often one gets a friendly toot back or a quick flash of hazards :)


+1 :)

I do this sometimes, but sometimes you are not given the chance to be polite.

Meanwhile on the camera front I am on a learning curve: I now find that uploading a 3GB recording of a half hour one way commute to Youtube will take 600 minutes so will try some free editing software so I can just upload the section in question from the traffic islands to the brow of the hill- around 20-30 seconds so should only take 10 minutes to upload by my reckoning
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