You have to be careful all the time. About 3 and a half years ago i got knocked off my vespa after offsiding past some stand still traffic, i waited for ages and nothing was moving or coming the other way so i carefully went around the bollard/island. Unfortunatley for me a lorry driver got impatient and without looking, indicating or thinking turned right and smashed into the back of me.
Even though the accident was not my fault i found myself done for dangerous driving, the cops were not impressed, and totally disregarded the fact that the lorry did not signal or look. I got 3 points and a £260 fine, Luckily my insurance company took a harder stance and it got called as a “neutral” but it was a big mistake i will not make again. Doesn’t matter how safe or slow your trying to be, danger can appear from nowhere, esp when drivers are frustrated.
As for breaking the law, well it is a judgement, i think people do it from time ot time and “bend” certain rules like speeding but lets be honest we would all be riding 125’s if we did not enjoy a burst of speed now and again. Its the time and place you do it, if you choose to break traffic rules in busy areas your asking for trouble, and may get killed.
And remeber this, if you hit someone on foot no matter whos fault it is you will get nailed, not matter if its your fault or not, if you hit somone like it did on charing cross road near totenham court road station the police will investigate everything and if they find you are in the wrong you will get nailed hard, plus you will get sued by the person you hit.
Lucky for me this stupid girl ran out across the road where it was two lanes and i was in the second lane, she ran out infront of a bus which i was passing at about 20 mph i hit her square on in the wet and managed to keep the bike up. Luckily i was doing nothing wrong, and yet it cost me £350 to fix my own fairing!!!
Basically there is enough danger in london without you creating more when its not needed!!
Blimey, just read this load of old …erm, informative posting…
I offside the occasional island when I deem it safe to do so, I also totally ignore road work traffic signs if they’re less than 30 foot apart and there’s no traffic waiting or coming, I have even ignored traffic lights at 5 am in the morning if I’m in the mood.
However I am no hard riding,lawbreaking, patch wearing irresponsible person, ( possibly ), and please don’t give me that ‘don’t do that, it’s illegal’ whine, every time 90% of us get on a bike we’ll be breaking the law sooner or later and speeding is no less or more serious than offsiding an island, yet most of us ( one should imagine ) have managed to do 31 in a 30, and as the law is absolute…
I won’t whinge when I’m caught doing something wrong - but equally I wouldn’t sit in judgement from a hypocritical moral highpoint constructed from a pack of cards!
Not everyone who offsides takes the care that some of the supporters on this page claim. I couple of weeks ago I was nearly hit by a moped who offsided a bollard. I had gone round the inside and returned to my path to overtake the cars - he had offsided and swung back in almost hitting me from behind.
Crossing the road on a bicycle I was hit square on by some chav-scum driving something modified, off siding an island.
If a bicycle (there were 3 of us), that is bigger than a pedestrian. And a car, which is bigger than a bike cannot see each other the potential for danger is higher between smaller things even less likely to see each other.
But then I’m just bitter as this chav-scum did not stop at the scene of an accident and i had to buy a new wheel!
All i will add to this is this, maybe Yoseph is an absolute twat, however there may also be an element of innocent idiocy.
Either way as Bruce Lee once said to ask is to be embarrassed for a moment, not to ask is to be ignorant for a lifetime.
Yoseph may well be a complete and utter NOOB, should we not be educating him on do’s and donts in a positive fashion instead of heaping abuse at him and putting him off ever asking another question which in turn will just help create another dumb biker heading straight for the morgue!
Yoseph, get a moto and learn to bunny hop, problem solved
i have not read all of this but did the first page, i saw a guy do it on finchley road as the national express bus could not get past a lorry and block the bus/bike lane, we all moved to go outside the traffic and as we approached the traffic island 1 bike and a moped when flying past it.
they had a really clear view of the oncoming traffic and i was thinking about following however just as i was about to move a girl just ran to the island looking left, as there was no traffic coming from her left she stepped out and bang the moped hit her, she was knocked flying and the ped crashed, some how the gixxer got past but he just kept going (think he **** himself)
I would imagine that moped rider got himself in a **** load of trouble, not to mention he was a total twat for doing it the first place as the island was about 10 meters long.
I did not stop as there was about 20 witneses, the ped rider looked pretty banged up, after all a brief case and suit trousers are not very good protective gear.
Sometimes the dangers are not where we think they are!!
Thanks Rixxy, that’s a good illustration of exactly why offsiding is illegal and we should never do it. It may seem clear but people can run quick and they won’t be expecting traffic to be coming from there, the situation can change in an instant.
It looks like we frightened the OP away - he hasn’t been back since November 2008 :laugh:
Bear in mind too that National Express coach drivers, bendy bus drivers, minicab drivers, post office drivers and white/silver van men take pleasure in positioning their vehicles to prevent bikes making progress. This includes hugging central reservations and blocking filtering bikes.
Actually happened to me last night near The Oval- a Post Office van driver was straddling two lanes of stationary traffic and at the same time was jammed up close to the cab in front. I was filtering merrily along until I got to him and pulled up alongside in half of one of the lanes he was taking. The lights changed ahead, the jam moved about a metre forwards before the lights went red again, cabbie inched forward and stopped, then PO van lurched forward to close the gap again leaving no time for me to progress through the gap. His window was open so I asked him with irony ‘are you in a big rush?’ to which he looked shocked and he said ‘yes actually’ but did then give way to let me through.
Anyway this is a long-winded way of trying to say don’t let other drivers lurte you into doing dangerous things like off-siding etc.
the post aabout the girl running to cross the road and not looking left, then being smacked by a scoot is a perfect example of why not to do this. anywhere in the road that has bollards or is an island will provide (or is meant to provide) some measure of saftey to peds and is an obvious spot for people to try and cross the road.
Offsiding is basically choosing to do something that is not expected at a place in the road designed to lure pedestrians.
now fair enough 95% of offsiding is probably safe if done in the right way but would you ever forgive yourself if you cracked some kids hip or bounced a jogger off a lamp post and henceforth they had to hang up their running shoes?
I get overtaken by people offsiding on my way to work while I wait for gap to open (which does usually very quickly) and most of the time I catch them up at the next lights anyway.
I’ve said it before, bikers who ride agressively (and to me offsiding is aggressive) don’t normally make up all that much time… They think they do but they don’t…
and if you really worried about passing cars and want to make them aware of your presence so they dont do a u-turn in front of you, use your horn or rev your engine. bikes have those features for a reason!
