Cape Town danger areas

[The Ouzo]

11 minutes ago, DJR said:

I am just totally sad but cannot say that I am shocked. I truly no longer feel like riding anywhere on the road, having had more than my fair share of close shaves. The behaviour of ZA road users is just getting more appalling by the day. 😟

what really makes me mad is seeing the comments when these incidents occur. People are chops.

I awlays tell myself not to look and engage, but am often sucked in.

The only comfort is that most of these chops are braver behind the keyboard than IRL. Would love to get everyone, that makes a comment blaming the cyclist , onto a bike and riding the streets under everyday conditions, they will soon change their minds.

[cadenceblur]

I have read that the individual has sadly passed away 

 

RIP

[Week-end_Warrior]

Just shared on Facebook. Condolences to the family and all affected

[Rowl]

How very sad. RIP.

[ChrisF]

32 minutes ago, Week-end_Warrior said:

Just shared on Facebook. Condolences to the family and all affected

 

Was hoping to NOT get this confirmation ..... the photo confirms what I dreaded.

 

I have known Landon for almost 20 years, did many projects together.  GENTLEMAN to the core !!

[mikkelz]

R.I.P. 😭

[Barry]

20 hours ago, Pure Savage said:

I see someone posted a picture of us IN A CYCLING lane with the "Bloody cyclists" comment, I mean we ride all over the place, but that picture we were single file in a BIKE LANE. 

So sorry about the poor cyclist and the life changing incident which was pointless from the taxi saving 45 seconds. 

We drove back from the lake on Monday, we had an Audi overtake 8 cars and a truck on a blind rise and corner, there was no way he could see what was coming - he was just driving on a prayer and hope that there was no oncoming car. I mean, you are willing to risk your whole family...

Edit: I apologize; I was just trying to get a rise out of you with the News 24 thing.

Edited April 8 by Barry

[capediver]

5 hours ago, Barry said:

Are the Savages provoking amateur cyclists again?🤣😂🤣

Edit: I apologize; I was just trying to get a rise out of you with the News 24 thing.

Very poor timing....some-one has lost their life pursuing their hobby and you are trying to "get a rise"? Instead of apologizing immediately in your post, you should have deleted it....

[Dri]

Every weekend I ride that road, and without fail there are guys in sports cars or motorbikes zipping up and down at crazy speeds in the early hours of the morning. Same thing even at chappies (although less frequent).

Almost never see a traffic cop on that stretch of road. Just 1 car sitting there monitoring till the afternoon would help so much. You head over to suikerbossie and suddenly you see 2-3 traffic officers sitting with speeding cameras.  It doesn't help they put someone there now for the next week and then forget about it, it needs to be a consistent thing.

Edited April 8 by Dri

[Paul Ruinaard]

Can anyone explain what happened here. It seems like it was a tight section of the road and there were cycling groups on both sides. One group was being overtaken by a car and the taxi then overtook the overtaking car and ploughed in to another oncomig group? Is this kind of correct. Just trying to work out how this all happened and if there was a clear mistake or negligent act by the taxi i.e. solid line or the like? It looks like there was an overtaking line on the road. 

I also dont see accurate descriptions or any claims around who was to blame - or not specifically. I know the cause of the death was the taxi hitting the cyclist but was the taxi clearly in the wrong and the cyclist in no doubt in the right?  Was the group spread out i.e. large group, or were they in the yellow line. Lots of conflicting stories floating about and just trying to piece the facts togethre to see what could have been done to avoid similar incidents in the future.

Lots of emotions but you need to know what happened and see what could be done for others to avoid similar. Personally i will not ride that road ever but i do ride in similar settings so would like to know.

Edited April 8 by Paul Ruinaard

[DJR]

1 hour ago, Paul Ruinaard said:

..................Personally i will not ride that road ever ..............

The question that comes to my muddled old mind is this: If someone does not feel safe to ride the road between Camps Bay and Hout Bay, where on earth is it going to be safe? It is a wide road, with an 80 km/h speed limit, a wide shoulder, with excellent road conditions, clear road signs, clear visibility, no sharp dangerous corners with no obstacles. Where can one be safe from the way South Africans drive?

Sadly, I cannot think of any road within reasonable distance of Cape Town. Perhaps others have a greater tolerance? 

Edited April 8 by DJR

[tubed]

1 hour ago, Paul Ruinaard said:

Can anyone explain what happened here. It seems like it was a tight section of the road and there were cycling groups on both sides. One group was being overtaken by a car and the taxi then overtook the overtaking car and ploughed in to another oncomig group? Is this kind of correct. Just trying to work out how this all happened and if there was a clear mistake or negligent act by the taxi i.e. solid line or the like? It looks like there was an overtaking line on the road. 

I also dont see accurate descriptions or any claims around who was to blame - or not specifically. I know the cause of the death was the taxi hitting the cyclist but was the taxi clearly in the wrong and the cyclist in no doubt in the right?  Was the group spread out i.e. large group, or were they in the yellow line. Lots of conflicting stories floating about and just trying to piece the facts togethre to see what could have been done to avoid similar incidents in the future.

Lots of emotions but you need to know what happened and see what could be done for others to avoid similar. Personally i will not ride that road ever but i do ride in similar settings so would like to know.

Hi Paul, I didnt see this happen, but there will be quite a few eye witnesses. As I said in my post above, I have been trying to get the City to at the least restore the yellow line to a full width for months. They did a half arse effort on the one side, just enough for a runner to pass. 

I'm no roads engineer, but what in essence has happened here is that there is a stream which passes beneath the road and over the years the stream has put soil next to the road and the bushes and soil has all but covered the width of the yellow line, this forces the runners and cyclists into the road. At the same time is at the end of a long straight for each lane and then goes into an S bend. The vegetation and slope make it nearly impossible to see the oncoming traffic.

The taxis overtake at speed, regardless of the fact that they have no line of sight onto what coming in the oncoming lane in front of them, they then try and force their way back into their lane at speed. If there is a runner or cyclist in the area or both, they are almost in the road and have nowhere to bail. Add a Miciti bus in the mix and its a real mess at high speed.

The solution was to restore the road (verge and bush) and to make it a solid line in both directions.

The City sat on their hands and did the absolute minimum despite my pleas that someone was likely to die. 

 

 

[Paul Ruinaard]

3 minutes ago, DJR said:

The question that comes to my muddled old mind is this: If someone does not feel safe to ride the road between Camps Bay and Hout Bay, where on earth is it going to be safe? It is a wind road, with a wide shoulder, with excellent road conditions, clear road signs, clear visibility, no sharp dangerous corners with no obstacles. Where can one be safe from the way South Africans drive?

Sadly, I cannot think of any road within reasonable distance of Cape Town. Perhaps others have a greater tolerance? 

Too many dead cyclists and too many crazy drivers along there. I dont for one moment disagree with your sentiments wrt the location and its safety potential, but it is really clear that the circumstances surrounding this area are showing it to be very dangeous. My bias says therefore never go near. I abide by an internal philosophy saying those that run away live to fight another day. 

Its worth trying to understand what happened and if it was a set of freak circumstances that transpired to create a dangerous situation or whether there are things that should be learned from it. 

My learning seems to indicate that pretty much anywhere taxis are driving early moring or evening with lots of passengers at high speeds and with urgency is a bad place for cyclists to be especially in bunches.

[tubed]

if they just sort out this bend, the landslides one before Morning Mojo and the one just before the road becomes a double lane it would make the road infinitely safer, of course they need to address the speeding taxis and motorbikes

[Paul Ruinaard]

1 minute ago, tubed said:

Hi Paul, I didnt see this happen, but there will be quite a few eye witnesses. As I said in my post above, I have been trying to get the City to at the least restore the yellow line to a full width for months. They did a half arse effort on the one side, just enough for a runner to pass. 

I'm no roads engineer, but what in essence has happened here is that there is a stream which passes beneath the road and over the years the stream has put soil next to the road and the bushes and soil has all but covered the width of the yellow line, this forces the runners and cyclists into the road. At the same time is at the end of a long straight for each lane and then goes into an S bend. The vegetation and slope make it nearly impossible to see the oncoming traffic.

The taxis overtake at speed, regardless of the fact that they have no line of sight onto what coming in the oncoming lane in front of them, they then try and force their way back into their lane at speed. If there is a runner or cyclist in the area or both, they are almost in the road and have nowhere to bail. Add a Miciti bus in the mix and its a real mess at high speed.

The solution was to restore the road (verge and bush) and to make it a solid line in both directions.

The City sat on their hands and did the absolute minimum despite my pleas that someone was likely to die. 

 

 

Thanks - thats a really good explanation of what happened and how the circumstances trnaspired to create a lethal cocktail which can happen really easily. 

Do you think there may have been potential for a better outcome if the cyclists had ridden differently at all? Anything they could have done.

FWIW I am just asking to see what the learnings are rather than trying to apportion blame. I ride in bunches and often see herd mentality in them and am very aware that this leads to some bad decisions. I also ride motorbikes a lot alone and am always aware that the potential for a situation to become lethal quickly always exists and therefore you need to always try and remove yourself from the risk.

Just curious to try and see if one person's demise can create learnings for others. We can be and are rightfully horrified by what happened but we need to learn from it to avoid repeating the same mistakes, if possible. Not saying there were mistakes as well.

[nonky]

5 minutes ago, tubed said:

Hi Paul, I didnt see this happen, but there will be quite a few eye witnesses. As I said in my post above, I have been trying to get the City to at the least restore the yellow line to a full width for months. They did a half arse effort on the one side, just enough for a runner to pass. 

I'm no roads engineer, but what in essence has happened here is that there is a stream which passes beneath the road and over the years the stream has put soil next to the road and the bushes and soil has all but covered the width of the yellow line, this forces the runners and cyclists into the road. At the same time is at the end of a long straight for each lane and then goes into an S bend. The vegetation and slope make it nearly impossible to see the oncoming traffic.

The taxis overtake at speed, regardless of the fact that they have no line of sight onto what coming in the oncoming lane in front of them, they then try and force their way back into their lane at speed. If there is a runner or cyclist in the area or both, they are almost in the road and have nowhere to bail. Add a Miciti bus in the mix and its a real mess at high speed.

The solution was to restore the road (verge and bush) and to make it a solid line in both directions.

The City sat on their hands and did the absolute minimum despite my pleas that someone was likely to die. 

 

 

This is 100% accurate summary of the situation, which reflects my experience.

I used to ride that route regularly but stopped after almost being hit head-on by a taxi coming from the opposite direction (doing an illegal overtake on a solid line).  

Once you add in parked cars; myciti buses; tourists; sightseers; and people on their phones while driving, the danger increases exponentially...