A cyclist's rant to incompetent road users...

Strider590

birkee wrote: »

So why do car owners pay more than none car owners?
What ARE they taxing?

They tax us for the pleasure of owning a motor vehicle....

It's very similar to Window tax of the late 17th century, which was designed to tax the wealthy more than the poor, by judging wealth based on the size of your property.
The easiest and least intrusive way to do this was to count how man windows it had.
It's the reason you see old buildings in city centre's with the windows bricked over.... Especially prominent in cities like Bath.

Vehicle excise duty is very similar, but with one problem.... It taxes our desire to look wealthy rather than our actual wealth.

Does this answer your question?

custardy

you are all wrong
I run 2 cars
one a 1.8 and the other a 2.6 V6
Plus i run a bike
ergo i have far more right to use the road than any of you
so pull over and get out of the way

Strider590

^^ Does that mean I can ram those Diesel VW Polo's off the road? After all they don't pay ANY "road tax"

We should have a "road tax" hierarchy, the more you pay, the more right you have to use the road, all these eco car's can do one...

custardy

Strider590 wrote: »

^^ Does that mean I can ram those Diesel VW Polo's off the road? After all they don't pay ANY "road tax"

We should have a "road tax" hierarchy, the more you pay, the more right you have to use the road, all these eco car's can do one...

ahh but i have a trump card
I have an older car
so all these people in their namby pamby eco cars will be too scared of getting their little treasures damaged

birkee

Doesn't it p*ss you off though, when they charge you tax on something, and then they charge you VAT on the tax!

birkee

Actually...returning to the OP, shouldn't cyclists be made to have a licence?
How else are we gonna stop em coming at us from all angles, from pavements, alleyways, etc. Down the road one minute, and then turning right on a pedestrian crossing and pretending to be a pedestrian next. Red lights? What red lights? That's for those lunatic car drivers!
How are we going to stop the lunatics if we can't take their licence off them?

Also OP, I've 33 years NCB on my car insurance....I've never come close to an involvement with a cyclist, except when it's been the cyclists fault.
i.e. One lady near us.....cycles across Sainsbury's car park, the pavement, a pelican crossing in two stages, a pavement, along a one way service road the wrong way, another pavement, across a busy side road, and on the pavements again to who knows where.
Of course this lunatic motorist has nearly collected her twice now, when she comes off the pavement onto the one way service road the wrong way. Why? Because it's right on a bend in the service road, which gets my full attention because of parked cars nearby.
Yeh.....and I was a cyclist and motorcyclist years ago, so I do understand.

discplayer

birkee wrote: »

Actually...returning to the OP, shouldn't cyclists be made to have a licence?

Because then there will be more people in cars taking parking spaces and causing even more mayhem at school time. Where I live the worst ones on bicycles are the same young blokes who are a menace on mopeds and in hatchbacks.

However, if I could work work out who'd pay for it, it would be great if there was a free/cheap (charge and you deter people or cause the above) cycle course that provided some reward upon completion to encourage people to take it. Too few will read Cyclecraft.

The last time I was hit by a motor vehicle when cycling was the same set up, but luckily at lower speed, as when my car was written off a few years ago. I rolled to a stop at a red light and a few seconds later a van crashed into me.

As I said in a similar thread a while ago, there are some people who shouldn't be allowed out whether they travel on foot or drive the biggest lorry or something in between. The rest of us will be more relaxed and safer without this minority!

custardy

birkee wrote: »

Actually...returning to the OP, shouldn't cyclists be made to have a licence?
How else are we gonna stop em coming at us from all angles, from pavements, alleyways, etc. Down the road one minute, and then turning right on a pedestrian crossing and pretending to be a pedestrian next. Red lights? What red lights? That's for those lunatic car drivers!
How are we going to stop the lunatics if we can't take their licence off them?
.

right so you need a test with the licence i assume?
at what age do you need that?
so all bikes will need to be registered?
display a registration plate?

and to balance your blah blah about cyclists
I was driving my boys nursery today
I was going ot turn left
i saw a cyclist and calculated i couldnt safely pass him,get in abd turn left
so i tucked in behind.
the car behind me overtook us both,cut the cyclist up and then turned blindly into a single lane left turn (where the cars coming out)

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=off&client=opera&q=blacket+place+edinburgh&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Blacket+Pl,+Edinburgh+EH9,+United+Kingdom&ll=55.937111,-3.171186&spn=0.016826,0.04343&z=15&layer=c&cbll=55.937,-3.17098&panoid=XSqZ7Dvu92HtMoZfMzA8yA&cbp=12,328.67,,0,27.5

you will see cones on the left. theres a stone pillar there
however cars/vans keep hitting it.
see, happens both ways

birkee

As discplayer said:-
There are lunatics using all forms of transport, but you can't let the OP launch an attack on motorists without a challenge.
The point is, we have NO control over the lunatics on bicycles. They can do anything they damn well like, and they can still be back on the road tomorrow.

MsHoarder

birkee wrote: »

As discplayer said:-
There are lunatics using all forms of transport, but you can't let the OP launch an attack on motorists without a challenge.
The point is, we have NO control over the lunatics on bicycles. They can do anything they damn well like, and they can still be back on the road tomorrow.

Not true, cyclists do get pulled over by police for breaches of the highway code. But much like cars getting pulled over for this it doesn't happen often enough. I'd be quite happy to see more traffic police picking people up for overtaking too close, having vehicles on pavements (including pavement parking), not following rules at junctions. Might not have the disproportionate effect on cyclists you're hoping for though.