The UK helmet camera thread
 

Local radio interview about cyclists and helmet cameras

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDG-r0YRN0w

Just a generic google search - I have no idea which ones are "the best" but if anyone can find a good, comprehensive, independent test site please link it.

http://www.google.com/search?tab=vw&...ullet%20cam%22

I realise it's a motorcycle but the driver of the car tried to first deny it was his fault, then deny he was driving and finally proved to be uninsured.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xZtetIzIW4

If you want the details check out the motorcyclists website and forum - http://www.smoothcurvesracing.com/

edit: doh! details

Bicyclist with a video camera somewhere in the UK - just a few close calls so far on their youtube

http://www.youtube.com/profile_video...therealjacomus

as far as I can remember this car diver tried to deny everything

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chfYMHIfBzk

edit: wrong video, now replaced with the correct video

a few more from youtube

http://www.youtube.com/user/magnatom

http://www.youtube.com/user/andyb0000

http://www.youtube.com/user/md451

http://www.youtube.com/user/mailpauljonescouk

here's another driver looking and not seeing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ38Dc5GCP4

and the youtube page

http://www.youtube.com/user/lsmike

Looks like it's not just fellow cyclists and the occasional troll paying attention. Although I'd hardly call Magnatom a vigilante :rolleyes:

http://www.stv.tv/content/news/headl...rivers_2008032

Vigilante cyclist shames Glasgow drivers

A vigilante cyclist who goes under the name of Magnatom is shaming bad drivers in Glasgow by filming their antics and then posting them on the web.
The mystery biker films the videos by way of a small camera strapped to his helmet and so far he has exposed a string of near misses, drivers on the phone and errant pedestrians.

Story last updated: Tuesday, 25 March, 2008, 13:46
(c) Scotland Today

Bollo's helmet camera spot on Five news

http://www.fivetvonline.tv/your-news-story.php?news=358

edit: relates to this footage and the resulting, succesful, insurance claim via CTC solicitors. Bollo reports that the police didn't want to know, even with the footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chfYMHIfBzk

http://www.oxfordmail.net/news/colum..._the_roads.php

DVD aims to cut conflict on the roads
By James Styring

Nothing scares a cyclist more than the whoosh of air when a bus passes too quickly and too close. Or a bus overtaking and pulling straight back in again, forcing the cyclist up the kerb.
Nothing annoys a bus driver more than a cyclist, at night and without lights, swerving into the bus's path without signalling or even looking.
In fact, most bus drivers and cyclists are courteous and careful. And although there are always a few who spoil it for the rest of us, instead of getting angry, Cyclox made - a DVD.
Bikes & Buses is a DVD featuring two films - Trading Places and In Their Own Words. Ask any cyclist in Oxfordshire what their biggest problem is and the answer comes straight back - buses. And in the city, cyclists can turn the hardest of drivers into a sobbing wreck. Cyclox commissioned the films in an attempt to defuse this conflict.
Trading Places follows a bus driver, Andy, as he cycles along Oxford's busy Cowley Road. He is shocked by the speed and proximity of passing vehicles, and at how often vehicles cut him up.
Helmet-camera work shows you how little attention some drivers pay. If he'd known how to position himself better (not too near the kerb), he might have had an easier ride. He is a prime candidate for cycle training, which Cyclox now offers (see www.cyclox.org).

Trading Places also features Clare Symonds, who produced the films. Armed with a provisional bus licence, she went out for the day in a Stagecoach bus. A car driver for years, she found driving a 30-tonne behemoth eye-opening. Visibility, width and stopping distances are different than in a car. Cyclists don't realise how hard it is to control a bus in narrow streets, filled with apparently suicide-mission cyclists.
In Their Own Words uses street interviews to allow Cowley Road cyclists and bus drivers to make their point.
The Bikes & Buses films aim to foster understanding and promote respect between cyclists and bus drivers - and there's something in there for us all: "Better to arrive 20 minutes late in this life than 20 years early in the next" is my favourite quote.
Bus companies will use the films as part of their training programmes. Cyclists are a harder bunch to reach, so the Oxford Mail has uploaded Bikes & Buses to its website, oxfordmail.co.uk/media/video. In Their Own Words can be shown on a loop in bike shops.
Cyclox, with the Oxford Mail, Stagecoach, Oxford Bus Company and Thames Travel, is launching Bikes & Buses tomorrow from 6-7.30pm at the Regal, 300 Cowley Road. Whether you're a cyclist or a bus driver (or both), you are invited.
We'll be showing clips from the films while you enjoy a drink and exchange experiences. The Regal is even offering a valet cycle parking service (£1).
The Oxford Mail's Jeremy Smith will host a debate between cyclist and bus company representatives, with questions from the floor. Come and have your say and hear the experts' views. Oh, and grab a copy of the DVD while you're there.
2:08pm Monday 2nd June 2008

Related LinksWatch the DVD

schmuck on a bicycle

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...60473435049004

http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=gadgetmind

http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=leedscyclist

Much as I enjoy watching the ever increasing number of videos from helmet camera users I do get a little frustrated when there're no relevant tags. That is, trying to find them on "teh intarwebz" can be a little frustrating especially with no tags and very brief descriptions.

Please, please, use at least some, preferably all if they're relevant, of the following when tagging the videos.

bicycle, bicycles, bicyclist, bicyclists, bicycling, cyclist, cyclocross, recumbent, recumbents, hpv, "human powered vehicle", mtb, bmx, velo, vélo, velomobile, vélomobile, fahrrad, fiets, "mountain bike", "helmet camera", "bullet camera", "lipstick camera", "helmet cam", "lipstick cam", "bullet cam", commute, commutes, commuting, commuter, commuters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM7WQc9E9Eg

Updated with a very scary left hook and, given the hullaballoo about pedestrians and cyclists recently, the "stupid girl" video is particularly indicitave of unaware pedestrians.

http://www.youtube.com/profile_video...ntheroaduk2008

Something useful is published in the Grauniad :eek:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...thandwellbeing

Two wheels

• <LI class=byline>Fiona Russell <LI class=publication>The Guardian,
• Thursday July 24, 2008
• Article history

I've been spat on, sworn at and forced off the road - and that's just by pedestrians. Cars, buses and taxis have driven at me, cut me up, swerved into my path and knocked me to the ground. During five years of daily cycling in Glasgow I have become accustomed to "almost dying" on a regular basis.
My efforts at retaliation are puny in comparison. I might roll my eyes and shake my head in the offender's direction. Once or twice I've mouthed an ineffectual "******". On another occasion, when a jeep driver took a fancy to driving into me three times within a 100m stretch of road, I made an official complaint at the police station across the road.
But no action, direct or otherwise, seemed to change the way some drivers (and walkers) in Glasgow treat cyclists. Until recently, that is.
For the past few weeks I have been wielding a shiny new weapon of defence: a helmet-mounted digital video camera. And I am not the only one. According to Action Cameras, one of the UK's leading sellers of such cameras, there has been a threefold increase in sales during the past year to cycling commuters. (During the summer, almost half of the average £10,000-a-week sales of video cameras - average price £200 - are to urban cyclists.)
Sab Jhooti, managing director, says: "When we launched the company in 2006, we mostly sold cameras to people taking part in extreme sports. They are great for filming clips of mountain biking and snowboarding, which people then post on the web. But in the past year, the biggest growth has come from cycle commuters. Rather than filming for pleasure, they tell us they want to film their routes to work as a form of evidence against dangerous driving."
It was "too many near-miss incidents" that led fellow Glasgow commuter David Brennan to attach one of the cameras to his cycling helmet. Brennan, a clinical scientist, regularly posts his commuter film clips on YouTube under the pseudonym Magnatom. Among his footage is evidence of a catalogue of dangers that face the ordinary city cyclist, including "brush-with-death" motoring incidents, inconsiderate and illegal driving, pedestrian misconduct, poor road surfacing - and even careless cycling.
Brennan, 35, says: "Although the camera has not changed my commute to any great extent, it does make me feel safer and calmer. Now, instead of screaming in annoyance at motorists, I simply point at my camera. It's amazing how quickly they back off when they clock it."
A video camera has also proved its worth for Winchester cyclist Paul McNeil after he was hit by a car. The 39-year-old, who posts on YouTube as "Tuneaftertune", suffered cuts, bruises and shoulder damage in an accident on the way to work. "Although there were witnesses, the footage made the claim much easier," he says. "I'm a member of CTC, so I contacted their solicitors after the accident and when they saw the film they were only to happy to pursue the claim."
But both cyclists make the point that footage is not meant to taunt motorists. In fact, Brennan believes that his YouTube films could "ignite a campaign to re-educate all road users".
I must confess to being a little disappointed not to have captured any major motoring incidents since I started using my camera, apart from a few car dodges and a couple of taxi swerves. Once, on a cycle/walk path, I came close to being knocked off my bike by something jumpy and yappy. But Lakeland terriers aren't much concerned by video gadgets.
Perhaps the most noticeable difference has been in what hasn't happened. A bus driver waved me past instead of doing the usual sudden pull-out manoeuvre, possibly because he noticed my filming potential. I'm also sure that a silver sports car gave me a wider berth after I tilted my helmet camera towards the driver.
Have I been witnessing a minor breakthrough in motoring/cycling etiquette? Or just experienced a few weeks of happy summer driving?

Interesting time difference between cycle farcilities (as non-cyclists would like to force us to use) and using the road (as is our legal right).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ufuxYw4RBQ

I think the roundabout at the end is this one but the user hasn't posted the route.

edit: the route is posted - Doh! Something like this

Not helmet cameras but an articulated lorry with multiple cameras fitted. Some very funny comments added regarding stupid car drivers assumptions and their antics :D

http://uk.youtube.com/profile?user=f...ig&view=videos

trouble is,headcams work both ways,you have to remember to turn it off before you kick the crap out of latest w****er thats just tried to MURDER you in their two ton bedsit,and what do the police say/do if you go and show them perfect video of some poor sod getting flattened by jerk in bedsit on phone,picking nose,or having sex at the wheel,yep,absolutely nothing,unless of course your dead,then they may possibly tell coroner that said video exists...

Excellent article on helmet cameras for cyclists by Magnatom in the Feb-Mar 2009 Cylists' Touring Club magazine "Cycle".

I'll post a link to the full article when and if one becomes available.

OT: US cyclist using helmet cameras.

Jeff Frings and Fox news piece on helmet cameras as evidence.
http://www.ecovelo.info/2009/03/11/close-encounters/

edit: his blog and videos
http://bikesafer.blogspot.com/