^
This photo was taken inside a Scania cab, I'd leaned across out of the seat and zoomed it a bit. The cab is 2.6m wide, so ita bout 2.2 m from your head to the window post and the the bottom of the window is about 8ft from the ground. The white cab is about 12ft away and as you can see I can't see the wheels and they are about 3ft tall. You can see all the mirrors we use and under the height indicator, where its says 1 under the 13 is the proximity sensor. That should give you a pretty good idea about what a truck driver can and cannot see. Cars disappear when they get in your front left corner.
When you watch the video, you can see the driver backs off to slot in behind the rider in the black, so he is aware of them and is driving to suit. This shot shows that he can see the one wearing the camera in his mirrors. He can't see the woman in the pink gloves in his mirrors, he may or may not be able to see the very top of her helmet, the fella in red is in and out of the blindspot. You can see from his position he is trying to race the truck to the lane
I agree there is a lack of respect between road users, but when you see people on bikes pulling this kind of shit, is it any surprise? I'm sick to death of seeing uninsured riders going through red lights, riding like twats and causing at times thousands of pounds of damage when they cause a crash.
And to really drive it home
Bloody hell man, honestly didn't realise just how impaired the lines of sight were.
I get what you mean about him "racing" the lorry - can't detect intent but I would have thought it would be to get out of its way? I certainly feel pressure sometimes to try and shoot off as other vehicles can get up close or get pissy if you are deemed not to have gotten out of their way quickly enough.
I get your frustrations but it goes both ways - could as easily say that I'm sick to death of cars almost forcing me into the kerb and pulling out without looking when I'm cycling. One particular thing is the way many cars treat those mini roundabouts and swing across them.
I say this as both a cyclist and someone who, until 6 months ago, was a driver also.
Drivers are barely taught anything about how to treat cyclists on the road and they should give more thought to, or respect to, people cycling. Respect meaning they shouldn't treat us like we don't belong on the road.
Cyclists though need to remember that they are beholden to the highway code and can't just fly through junctions and ignore traffic signals.
Whether introducing licence plates of some sort and a test to cycling would work, I'm not sure. Sadly it would make it more onerous for many and potentially make cycling less affordable. Would also be difficult with children and teens.
