Motorists - What annoys you most about cyclists

Sgt_Pepper_2

Tilt wrote: »

Absolute rubbish. I only speed on motorways where there should be no cyclists. In any case, I only venture about 10 - 15 mph over the speed limit anyway. Accidents are mostly caused by poor driving skills. I have a PCV class one licence and hold a AIM certificate. I have been driving over 30 years covering thousands of miles during my career and have never been in or caused an accident while driving a car.

You wording suggests you've crashed a bus.

derrick

Tilt wrote: »

Derrik, I don't believe that Brat is old bill. Otherwise he wouldn't be condoning illegal cycling. If he is, maybe he is one of the type that turn a blind eye to illegal cycling which I do see a lot of. Police cars overtaking unlit cyclists at night without batting an eye lid for example.

Well I did say I was assuming .

Maybe they would like to confirm one way or another, and if they are, which station they are out of so we can complain that they will not uphold the law on cyclists committing illegal acts in front of them, even bragging about it on this site.

.

.

brat

derrick wrote: »

I fail to see how I am making your point?

The point is that cyclists are a step ahead of your game when they make the manoeuvre. They catch you a little by surprise, and you react to that, rather than the risk. you make up the risk in your own mind later. THAT is why, despite all the protestations of them causing danger to themselves, it's not borne out in reality.

derrick wrote: »

However for some obscure reason you, as I am assuming, a serving traffic cop, seem to think it OK for cyclists to break road traffic laws with impunity, you are employed to uphold the law, not to condone the breaking of it by a certain group of society, so either do your job or resign.

You have put your own spin on my comments, which is fair enough, I have been a little leftfield by exploring this matter from a point of view of risk rather than law.
For the record I do not condone illegal cycling. I have said many times that the actions of many cyclists annoy me, and many cyclists get my tickets. The reason they annoy me more than anything is not because their law breaking is directly adding risk to the road - it doesn't. What it does is engender a dislike of cyclists among other road users to the degree that other law abiding cyclists don't get the road etiquette they deserve because of the ingrained attitude against all cyclists in general.

Tilt

Sgt_Pepper wrote: »

You wording suggests you've crashed a bus.

Your'e correct although not a bus. While driving a coach along the A5 in Staffordshire about 20 years ago, I was in a head on collision with a car which had lost control, left the road to her left, bounced off a verge which caused the car to flip onto it's roof and then traveled into my path (on it's roof) resulting in the collision.

It all happened on a very straight section of single carriageway road while I was driving at the speed limit and the oncoming car began to 'loose it' when it was about 100 yards away. So it all happened very quickly. Non of my passengers were injured but the two people in the car were serverly injured, particularly the driver.

My tachograph showed that I was driving perfectly legally and had slowed down from 50mph to 38mph (the latter being the speed of impact).

derrick

brat wrote: »

The point is that cyclists are a step ahead of your game when they make the manoeuvre. They catch you a little by surprise, and you react to that, rather than the risk. you make up the risk in your own mind later. THAT is why, despite all the protestations of them causing danger to themselves, it's not borne out in reality.

This paragraph is a complete load of tosh, the maneuvers as well as in most/all cases being illegal are not thought about, hence why the motorist has to make a reactive move.


You have put your own spin on my comments, which is fair enough, I have been a little leftfield by exploring this matter from a point of view of risk rather than law.
For the record I do not condone illegal cycling. I have said many times that the actions of many cyclists annoy me, and many cyclists get my tickets. The reason they annoy me more than anything is not because their law breaking is directly adding risk to the road - it doesn't. What it does is engender a dislike of cyclists among other road users to the degree that other law abiding cyclists don't get the road etiquette they deserve because of the ingrained attitude against all cyclists in general.

So yes or no, are you a serving traffic cop?

.

brat

derrick wrote: »

Well I did say I was assuming .

Maybe they would like to confirm one way or another, and if they are, which station they are out of so we can complain that they will not uphold the law on cyclists committing illegal acts in front of them, even bragging about it on this site.

There are many offences that we see that we take no action with. Speeding, mobile phones no seatbelts, unnecessary obstruction, fog lights, careless driving etc etc. This is usually because the action to turn to get after and catch up with the offender is disproportionate to the offence.

So yes, I am a traffic police officer, have been for 16 years of 22 years service so far. Since you wish to complain about me, perhaps you might wish to highlight to me in what post I have bragged that I will not uphold the law on cyclists committing illegal acts in front of me. If you could list the quotes that would be helpful.

averagemummy

brat wrote: »

This cyclist inconvenienced nobody. Can you explain why you get annoyed enough to object to this?

Are you being serious? Can you really not see anything wrong with this cyclists actions?

As a mother this clip made me go cold. There could easily have been children crossing in front of the (large) vehicle that the cyclist would not have seen as they would have been out of his line of sight as he approached the junction.

I have nothing against cyclists, I go about my business and they go about theirs. However I am rapidly losing any respect I may have had for traffic police after seeing your warped views on. I wonder if your senior officers would be interested in hearing your views.

You are doing the police force no good service at all

brat

averagemummy wrote: »

Are you being serious? Can you really not see anything wrong with this cyclists actions?

I'm not condoning his actions, I'm simply saying he inconvenienced nobody. You show me who he inconvenienced, and I'll perhaps reconsider.

My quote is taken out of context, because I was asking NB to try to explain his annoyance in the context of the general motorists tolerance to the offence of speeding.

Norman_Castle

Most cyclists (yes MOST) I see regularly break more laws than motorists. I can look out of my lounge window overlooking a busy road at night and I will see around 7 out of 10 cyclist ride passed without so much as a milk bottle top for a reflector, never mind lights. I will see cyclists ride through red lights and ride dangerously on the nearside of indicating vehicles on every journey I make.

While working I can spend a lot of time looking out onto a busy main road. Despite the 30 mph limit almost every vehicle travels at between 40 and 50mph. Cars traveling at 40 mph are regularly overtaken despite no safe overtaking areas due to side roads or crossing. The rare driver traveling at 30 mph will be a learner driver taking a lesson and treated with similar contempt as a cyclist. Almost every driver speeds on urban roads at every opportunity and considers it entirely acceptable.

Jo_F

brat wrote: »

These are just anecdotes, I'm afraid, and they don't stack up against the stats which show that these misses are just that - misses. The stats suggest the cyclist to be much more on the ball than you give him credit for.

The 'miss' created a hell of a squeal of brakes from the car that just missed him, if the car driver hadn't have been on the ball, it would have been a very squashed cyclist, and to be honest, I would have felt very sorry for the driver, although I do congratulate him for his perfect emergency stop, the cyclist didn't even acknowledge him.