Motorists - What annoys you most about cyclists

still_savin

steve-L wrote: »

Partly the references to things like the Highway Code.....
Regardless of if its legal to ride 2 abreast etc. doing so and knowing you are causing inconvenience to others is obviously going to annoy them.

However the best example was illustrated by Boris Johnson.....
TOTAL: disregard for road rules, traffic lights, one way, no cycling.....
RESULT: I'm on a bike so it's OK......

For the rest of us that try and ride responsibly (and also drive a car) I think he should have had the book thrown at him.
When I was learning to drive (a long time ago) my instructor told me that everything else aside my presence on the road shouldn't cause someone else to have to brake, swerve or react.... (roundabouts aside)...... this good practice seems to have been completely lost on many cyclists (ad quite few drivers)....

The idea that because you can you should......
This includes passing in slow traffic, going to the front in traffic lights etc. (Whoever thought that was a good idea as opposed to making a space at the side)

My car can go VERY VERY FAST...(well actually could but its speed limited to 155mph).. it can also out accelerate a bicycle with an olympic cyclist on it 0-20...... does that mean that because I can get to 50 on the 50 limit I can weaves through other cars to get there? My car can go round a bend much faster than a 2 wheel machine (or 90% of four wheel ones) but that doesn't mean its good practice to do it!


Its like cyclists who ride on the pavement or across areas closed to traffic.... if I had a 4x4 why can't I do the same? I could drive over the central reservation (as cyclists often do).... make right turns where there is no right turn and drive over the bollard as the cyclists do every day 50m from my house. I trial bike I can go over the footbridge (where I am forever being intimidated by cyclists who refuse to dismount).....


As a driver I am acutely aware I'm driving a lethal machine....
I'm constantly on the watch for pedestrians .... but when around cyclists I have to divert attention just to the cyclists behaving erratically.

The whole "I'm on a bike attitude" of a minority of cyclists is the problem.....

Regardless of the legal ins and outs..(or even because of) ... its no different to for instance being a member of the <insert whatever here> club and someone issuing a pass to bypass lights or similar.... it will obviously ***-off the other road users.

When cyclists don't follow the rules they set a bad example for every other cyclist...... when they want special rules this will of course leave a bad taste....

I was on a 'road run' in my classic a couple of months ago, somewhere between Driffield and Bridlington on winding and hilly back roads, and came up behind two lycra-clad cyclists on a single track lane. Most of the time they were alongside one another talking, but one was obviously stronger than the other because on uphill stretches they spread out a little. The lane was only 1 1/2 cars wide - when vehicles came the other way we both had to edge onto the grass verges - so there was no way to pass the cyclists safely without their co-operation.

They were definitely aware of my presence behind them (my car isn't what you'd call quiet) and they continued along their journey at their own pace for some time, perhaps six to eight minutes. On each of the hills their pace would drop off, and their bikes became 'wider' due to their off-the-seat pedalling moving the bikes from side to side. As they crested a hill they would coast down the other side, and at the bottom of one there was a crossroads that they shot across into the continuing lane the other side. Who knows, they may have had better visibility over the hedges than me by being slightly higher, but I had to stop at the give way line before coming up behind them again.

I waited behind them patiently, but eventually it became obvious they were not intending to allow me to pass. To do so, they would have had to either coast into one of the passing places and possibly come to a stop, or we may have got away with them riding singly and acknowledging my presence, ride close to the verge and I could 'edge' past them carefully. They decided not to. I was frustrated, but not prepared to put two wheels onto the far side grass and force past them as I thought it would put them at risk (not that by now I cared much about them, but my paintwork is precious to me).

Only after several miles did we come to a small cut-in where a number of similarly clad cyclists were waiting - obviously a cycling group out together. THAT is bad cycling - it is selfish in the extreme to leave motorists behind them in the full knowledge that you are impeding their progress, and its also irresponsible in that by their actions they are perpetuating the 'them-v-us' mentality that makes drivers feel entitled to barge past them.

Yes, it would undoubtedly 'inconvenience' them to make way for me, but they have a duty to do that as responsible road users. With my car recently celebrating its 45th birthday I am a slow road user too, and regularly sacrifice precious momentum to allow modern faster vehicles to pass me.