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[Gaffers]

Last week saw me driving a lot in London at various times of the day, often at rush hour and always going across the city from home to East London, picking up passengers along the way and back again.

I asked my passengers to take note of various behaviours and record stats over the whole week.  So here we go:

Going through a red light
- Cyclists 2
- Cars 26
- 7.5T Trucks 5
- Articulated lorries 2
- Buses 4

Using a mobile phone on the move:
- Cyclists 0 (that i could tell)
- Cars 34
- 7.5T Trucks 10
- Articulated lorries 0 (that I could see)
- Buses 1

Changing lanes/joining carriageway without looking, signaling or regard for other users:
- Cyclists 1
- Car 3
- 7.5T Truck 0
- Articulated Lorries 0
- Buses 2

Breaching the ASL on a red light (amber is allowed):
- Cars 11
- 7.5T truck 4
-Articulated lorries 1
- Buses 8

Other:
- Cyclists riding up the inside of vehicles 3
- Cyclists riding on pavements that are not designated as shared use 2
- 'Punishment' passes on cyclists 12
- Cars parked in cycle lanes (lost count at 50, but somewhere in the region of 80)

Incidents of note:
-Cycling tour led by a complete numpty putting his guidees at risk (all the gear and no idea trying to pass as a MAMIL) turning right at a traffic light in single file as the gaps allowed where there was room to wait in a group and all pass safely at the end of the phase.
-Driver using mobile phone in outside lane of M25 and once finished with the call decided that every car in front must get out of their way (flashing lights and undertaking) Performed a lane 4 to lane 1 to lane 4 manoeuvre cutting up 3 cars and causing them to brake sharply.  Turns out this driver lives near me and despite their efforts made no more progress than I did driving more sedately.
-Pedestrian taking ombridge at me tooting the horn (politely) in order to make him aware of my presence (Electric Vehicle) while he was crossing the road.  Then coming closer to, I guess, 'have a word' before losing his bottle and walking away.
- a 7.5T lorry not fitted with the new mandatory side guards.  Police who were in the same traffic as me and the offending lorry either did not see it or decided not to take action.

So maybe this was an abnormal week where cyclists were mostly behaving themselves or, perhaps, the opinion towards them by some is merely a perception rather than a statistic reality.  I certainly never once felt threatened or had to take avoiding action due to a cyclist, but almost every other type of road user did cause this reaction at least once.

I shall be doing more studies

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Obviously for a statistic, a percentage produces the truest figure however that would require your passengers counting, not only the incidents of poor road use, but also the number of vehicles in total.. which I can appreciate is more than a little infeasible!

However, that does make interesting reading, and thanks for the info 

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

It sounds like a whole lot of fun, being a passenger in your car. 

[Gaffers]

It sounds like a whole lot of fun, being a passenger in your car. 

 

NLP.  It's great for getting people to do what you want them to do

[Gaffers]

Obviously for a statistic, a percentage produces the truest figure however that would require your passengers counting, not only the incidents of poor road use, but also the number of vehicles in total.. which I can appreciate is more than a little infeasible!

However, that does make interesting reading, and thanks for the info 

You are absolutely right, and without using video software recognition and automating the process I cannot see how i can feasibly do that.  Maybe compare it to known average traffic percentages?  (scratches chin)

[05omegav6]

Point of note regarding HGVs and red lights... as long as the light is not red when the front of the cab passes the light, then it doesn't count. Obviously in an ideal world everyone would be preparing to stop at amber, but allowances must be made for the fact that it takes time for the back of even a rigid hgv to reach the point that the cab passed 20-45+ feet earlier, and also that the stopping distances of a fully loaded truck can be alot closer to the Highway Code distances than your average car

[Gaffers]

Fully aware of that, and it applies to all vehicles.  The ones I counted went through sometimes over a whole second after the phase shift to red and by that I mean the front of the cab

[05omegav6]

Fully aware of that, and it applies to all vehicles.  The ones I counted went through sometimes over a whole second after the phase shift to red and by that I mean the front of the cab

Presumably 'Cars' includes Taxis and PHVs... collecting and correlating all the potential data could become a full time job... wonder if Barking Boris has any spare budget

[aaronjb]

Driving down some NSL country road this morning on the way to work I came across a cyclist getting very wet as he pedalled along like a goodun.

As he was going quite quickly (downhill) and I didn't have a clear line of sight around the slight bend I stayed behind and waited until I could see clearly to overtake allowing plenty of distance between me and him.


A little further on I came to a roundabout and was stopped at the back of a queue of ~10 vehicles or so.  Still country lane, still a slight left hand bend so you can't see more than 3-4 car lengths ahead.

Mr cyclist merrily continued at 20mph down the centre of the opposite carriageway - the oncoming carriageway.  There's no way he could have avoided something coming around the corner even close to the NSL (which is how fast I would be going if I were going in the opposite direction)..


Still, he's soft and squishy so shouldn't do too much damage when he finally comes unstuck.

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Obviously for a statistic, a percentage produces the truest figure however that would require your passengers counting, not only the incidents of poor road use, but also the number of vehicles in total.. which I can appreciate is more than a little infeasible!

However, that does make interesting reading, and thanks for the info 

You are absolutely right, and without using video software recognition and automating the process I cannot see how i can feasibly do that.  Maybe compare it to known average traffic percentages?  (scratches chin)

Yeah, I can't think of a reliable method, only perhaps find the percentage of vehicle types that occupy Britain's (ideally London's) roads, then compare the data your very patient passengers collected, ie: let's say 10% of all traffic in London is cyclist, but they account for 5% of accidents/traffic infringements.

But you'd need that accurate data regarding vehicle percentages, and also probably a study detailing thousands of traffic 'ooops'es. But for the purposes of a forum, and simple observations, I think what you've done is excellent 


I once counted up the number of terrible parking/driving incidents on the school run for a week. After determining that some 75% of the woeful driving was by - surprise surprise - women drivers I was happy to have served drivers everywhere with this red hot information .. Until I then decided to count the percentage of female-to-male drivers next week. To find 75% of the drivers were female. Which changes things somewhat!

[Gaffers]

I got curious after an article I wrote which looked in to the psychology of how other road users are treated and it suggested that cyclists are often seen as another tribe and thus our natural, and rather primitive, reaction was to act in a disproportionately agressive manner towards them.  It got me thinking.

I once counted up the number of terrible parking/driving incidents on the school run for a week. After determining that some 75% of the woeful driving was by - surprise surprise - women drivers I was happy to have served drivers everywhere with this red hot information .. Until I then decided to count the percentage of female-to-male drivers next week. To find 75% of the drivers were female. Which changes things somewhat!

 

I think it merits more work.  Let me see what my mate Boris has left in the coffers 

[Gaffers]

Just found this http://www.dft.gov.uk/traffic-counts/cp.php

Certainly makes my observations interesting.  Although just one day is hardly an acceptable data collection for correlation.

I wonder if I can make a counter for the car with a RPi?

[Sir Tigger KC]

Your one man crusade is admirable Guff! 

[Gaffers]

Your one man crusade is admirable Guff! 

Thanks.  There is a good reason why I am doing this though and it's not for me

[ronnyd]

Was biking home last week and there was a car parked right across the pavement, (i have seen it there before). Right across the road was a police traffic car waiting to catch unwary drivers. I suggested they might want to do something about the illegally parked car. No response so i beat a hasty retreat before i got done for harassment. . P.S. i was riding on the road.