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

michaelvintner

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers! wrote: »

I took a driving test and passed. And an IAM course, and passed. I have insurance.

I am not legally required to pay road tax, and neither are you, nobody pays road tax. Even if I was required to pay road tax, I would pay nothing, since VED is based on emissions.

Then hopefully you are one of the many cyclist on the road that has a clue what they are doing. Lets's not tar everyone with the same brush.

Just some cyclist (and lets face it) many road user regardless of what vechile they are using seem to be intent on killing themselves or someone else.

bigjl

This argument will go on and on, some car drivers are at fault, some cyclists are at fault.

Some cyclists put themselves in very dangerous road positions, and some cyclists have a very anticar, leftie agenda.

But they never complain when the Police car positioned in fend off is there to provide scene safety and they never refuse to go in the back of a very large yellow van called an Ambulance.

I have driven professionally for years in Central London, and see cyclists take the most unbelievable risks, then when a car doesn't see them, mainly due to them being in the cars blind spot they kick the car and explode in a verbal diatribe of abuse.

I have also seen many cars driven by drivers that have obviously never sat a driving test, a very large section of the London car driver populations is either uninsured or unlicenced and sometimes both.

My take is that every road user has the responsibility to behave in such a way as not to cause other road users to have to swerve or brake sharply.

In my experience a lot of cyclists fit into this catagory but seem to think that being on a bike absolves them or any possiblity of being wrong, which is untrue.

Cycle couriers used to be the only lycra clad road users to behave like this back in the early '90s, but there are now a larger number of such cyclists, especially working in the city and riding home to SW London, E14 an E1.

The point I am trying to make, probably not very well, is that getting hit by a lump of metal is both painful and expensive. And cyclists need to be more aware that they are sometimes putting themselves in danger, and they need to show less arrogance when riding around congested city streets, drivers can also be less than perfect, but cyclists should think about it like this, the road is dangerous and you need to have eyes in the back of your head, some car drivers sit in a cocoon of metal and music and struggle to see a 5 tonne Ambulance painted bright yellow going neenaw a few feet from their head, so what chance does a near silent city bod have when riding a speed through congested city streets.

In London we have had Response Cycles for a fair few years, at Heathrow, West End, The City and in E14.

They get a lot of extra training and by virtue of the job they do they cycle fairly quickly, I haven't heard of any serious incidents involving them, in fact the only falls that I have heard about where caused by potholes or similar.

This illustrates my point, if a cyclist rides using good observational skills and road positioning then accidents can be reduced, or even be made so rare as to be amost unrecordable.

When I was a motorcycle courier, almost 20 years ago, my tactic was to assume everybody was out to kill me and was blind and deaf, worked fine for me, and most of my mates, a few where killed, one cycle courier was hit and then crushed by a skip lorry on East Smithfield, near Tower Bridge whilst undertaking, another mate, though only to chat with in the market not a close mate, pulled a wheelie in Smithfield meat market one evening and a Blackcab pulled out and clipped him and he hit a vehicle coming the other way and was killed instantly.

You might blame the drivers in these cases, but when you take a step back and think about it, they where both partly or possibly fully responsible for their accidents, if you put yourself in a bad position on the road or ride a bit to exuberantly, then accident will happen. I personally feel sorry for the drivers involved, as the mental scars left by these accidents will last for years, if not for the rest of their life.

Gloomendoom

I always try to give cyclists at least six feet of clearance when passing them... enough space for them to fall off sideways without getting squashed by my car as I go by.

When it comes down to it, a bit of consideration of both sides is what is needed.

There will be little satisfaction in knowing you are in the right when you are knocking at the pearly gates or explaining your actions in a coroner's court.

rugbyleague

i witnessed a cyclist killed by a car not stopping for a red stop light.

Both car drivers and cyclist make mistakes and its wrong to condemn everybody with in a group for the minorities poor behaviour.

Interestingly in Europe all blame for a cyclists injury if in a road traffic accident is lumped on the car driver sooooo different to here!

ian

chuckley

my only problem with cyclists is their PURE REFUSAL to stop at red lights and think its fine to drive through people crossing!!

A few cycle police?! stopped some cyclists in holborn doing this. I hope they do it more across central london.

Geordie_bear

Generally I think cyclists have huge attitude problems & are very quick to point the finger at motorists. Some of them I dare say have never done a cycling proficiency test, they sometimes hog the road & when there's a pair cycling they often go side by side and have a chat completly oblivious of what's happening on the road and completely hogging it in the process! I think cyclists need to remove that chip they have on their shoulders & have a good look at the standard of their own road safety!:mad:

Billy-no-Money

When I was at primary school back in the seventies I did Cycling Proficiency.

Cycling Proficiency assumed that young cyclists would one day become drivers. We were therefore taught the same rules as drivers, and taught to ride as part of the traffic. I think it made us safer, and it helped with learning to drive too.

There were no (or very few) special facilities for cyclists, no grey areas in the rules, and our riding was predictable and understood by drivers. It all worked rather well.

Fast forward: cycling 'facilities' exist in all forms, some useful, some serving only to get us out of the way of cars, all marking cyclists out as some kind of 'different' group.

Officially-sanctioned advice for cyclists (esp. 'Cyclecraft') is good stuff but car drivers aren't aware of it - so for example when a cyclist rides in the middle of the lane through a narrow 'pinchpoint' to stop cars passing, he's doing it for a good reason, not just to be awkward - but how many drivers know that?


Instead of a simple single set of rules for all, cycling has become a mish-mash; I loathe cyclists who jump red lights, and I also loathe those who hop onto the pavement to go round the lights - yet at some junctions our council has obligingly installed drop kerbs to facilitate cyclists doing just that!
Why is it OK to share a footpath with pedestrians just because someone's painted a picture of a bicycle on it?


We didn't need 'facilities' thirty years ago, we just shared the roads. I don't believe 'facilities' have significantly increased the uptake of cycling - that's down to things like the congestion charge and awareness of health benefits IMHO. I don't even think they've made cycling significantly safer.

Treating cyclists as a special case has simply caused resentment and a 'them and us' culture.

If my local council removed all of its painted cycle lanes and advance stop zones I'd be a happy man!

(I'd also be very happy if red-light jumpers were caught and punished - whatever their mode of transport. It didn't happen twenty years ago so why is it OK now?)


<...and breathe!>

ventureuk

optimus_primera wrote: »

being over 6ft and around 21 stone

You should get some exercise to get that weight off, try cycling......

ventureuk

Geordie_bear wrote: »

Generally I think cyclists have huge attitude problems & are very quick to point the finger at motorists. Some of them I dare say have never done a cycling proficiency test, they sometimes hog the road & when there's a pair cycling they often go side by side and have a chat completly oblivious of what's happening on the road and completely hogging it in the process! I think cyclists need to remove that chip they have on their shoulders & have a good look at the standard of their own road safety!:mad:

Generally I think motorists have huge attitude problems & are very quick to point the finger at cyclists. Some of them I dare say have never done a driving test, they sometimes hog the road & when there's a pair driving they often race and have road rage oblivious of what's happening on the road and completely hogging it in the process! I think motorists need to remove that chip they have on their shoulders & have a good look at the standard of their own road safety!

Did you see what I did there.........again.........

Norman_Castle

I think cyclists need to remove that chip they have on their shoulders & have a good look at the standard of their own road safety!

I only cycle a very short distance on the road. When I do I develop a chip on my shoulder very quickly. I drive a car and spent many years riding a motorcycle. I understand the highway code and the resposibilities of road users. Despite the short distance cycled with other traffic I have encountered endless problems from car drivers. Most of them clearly think cyclists should use the pavement and not inconvenience car drivers by forcing them to occasionally travel at less than the speed limit.