Biggest Threats to Cyclists?

COOLTRIKERCHICK

brat wrote: »

If the government decide that cyclists should pay road tax, I'll pay it. If they decide we need to be registered and insured, I'll do that too. A test? No problem.

Do I want to do any of those thing? No.
But I ride bikes, so I'll do what I need to do.

The point I'm making is your rant is with the government, not cyclists.
It would also need a good deal more credibility before anyone started to listen to you.

I totally agree, my argument/statement does need to backed up and pushbike riders need to be monitored to show the extent of good and bad riding... as the amount of times I have seen them whizz through red lights etc..


My Rant is with the government AND push bike riders, as some of them haven't got a clue about road use.. they seem to think that the rules of the road do not apply to them...

AndyBSG

Altarf wrote: »

There is no problem with a car sat in an ASL provided that they were there when the lights changed (contrary to the belief of many cyclists). The only issue is a car entering an ASL when the lights are red, as they will have passed a stop line on a red light.

You should inform the police of that then because they will give you a penalty ticket for being in an ASL even if they didn't see when you entered it.

A car in an ASL on a red light is a ticketable traffic offence, when they entered it is completely irrelevant so I would like to know why you believe this is not the case?

AndyBSG

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

My Rant is with the government AND push bike riders, as some of them haven't got a clue about road use.. they seem to think that the rules of the road do not apply to them...

I think what you meant to say there was...

"My Rant is with the government AND push bike riders/Black Cab Drivers/Lorry Drivers/White Van Drivers/BMW drivers(delete as appropriate), as some of them haven't got a clue about road use.. they seem to think that the rules of the road do not apply to them..."

All this anti cyclist bile really is a joke and most of it seems to be coming from people on here who do not have a clue.
Yes, there are bad cyclists but there are also bad drivers. On my daily commute I see pretty much equal amounts of each.

The main difference is that stupid drivers are a lot harder to kill than stupid cyclists because they're protected by their metal box. Safe and legal drivers are also almost impossible to kill while safe and legal cyclists can still be killed quite easily by the complete inconsideration and lack of attention by drivers.

Reading through this thread and seeing some of the comments here it actually makes me wonder how more cyclists aren't killed because some of the statements here really do show a complete lack of any sort of knowledge, evidence, understanding or even common sense by some of the posters.

Some of the gems I've seen so far

They don't even pay road tax
No one on the road pays road tax and hasn't done since 1937

Legalising red light jumping for cyclists invites accidents
This is of course fact. So Belgium, Paris and Holland which all allow this must have much higher fatality rates than the UK... Oh no, they actually have much lower fatality rates and much safer roads for cyclists.

Lack of helmets and use of headphones will make cyclists safer
Despite the fact that none of the 14 people killed this year would have been saved by a helmet or died because they were using headphones.

AndyBSG

Here's an article by our good friends the Dutch on who's fault HGV related cyclist deaths are...

http://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2013/11/20/cycling-and-trucks-dutch-way/

sithmaster

I have seen so many cyclists on the roads and yes some are sensible, but most the ones I come across are not, riding on the wrong side of the road, go through red lights, ride at night with no lights. sadly a lot think the road laws don't apply to them and they can what every they please. so the biggest threat to a cyclist its themselves

AndyBSG

sithmaster wrote: »

I have seen so many cyclists on the roads and yes some are sensible, but most the ones I come across are not, riding on the wrong side of the road, go through red lights, ride at night with no lights. sadly a lot think the road laws don't apply to them and they can what every they please. so the biggest threat to a cyclist its themselves

I have seen so many drivers on the road and, yes some are sensible, but most of the ones I come across are not. Talking on their phone, speeding, going through red lights, driving at night with headlights that don't work, not having valid licences, insurance or MOT, not giving way at roundabouts, stopping in cyclist ASL's.

Sadly, a lot think the road laws don't apply to them and they can do what they please.

The biggest threat to other road users is another driver.

Norman_Castle

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

deluded no....There will come a time where there will be a tax on push biker riders, riding on the roads, an YES I think there should be a test for them too, And as for the car with 0 tax, yes I hate that too, as that was all a gimmick to please the EU to show that we are trying to do something about emissions, its not free, its just shifting payment to someone else.. push bike riders can still get arrested for riding a bike on the road while drunk, so if the same rules apply for road users, they should be licensed and taxed...

You don't sound very cool Cooltrikerchick. You sound uptight and miserable. If you feel this resentful when driving maybe you should give it up for a while. You could buy a bike.

Johno100

AndyBSG wrote: »

You should inform the police of that then because they will give you a penalty ticket for being in an ASL even if they didn't see when you entered it.

A car in an ASL on a red light is a ticketable traffic offence, when they entered it is completely irrelevant so I would like to know why you believe this is not the case?

Utter rubbish. it is only an offence to enter the ASL i.e. crossing the first stop line, if the light is red.

Don't take my word for it, here is what the Met police say.

Motorists
Do not enter the ASL box when the light is red – this space is reserved for the safety of cyclists.

Crossing the first or second ASL line when the light is red makes you liable for a £100 fixed penalty, three points on your licence, and endangers vulnerable road users.

If the traffic light changes from green to amber and you cannot safely stop before the first stop line, you may cross the line but must stop before the second stop line (Highway Code rule 178).

and

Myth Busting

Myth: There’s a car in the ASL box - the driver must have committed an offence.

Not true. The offence is committed when the vehicle enters the ASL box when the light is red. If the vehicle enters the box and the light changes to red, no offence is committed

Rule 178 of the Highway Code states: If your vehicle has proceeded over the first white line at the time that the signal goes red, you MUST stop at the second white line, even if your vehicle is in the marked area.

We don’t want motorists to wrongly believe that they shouldn’t stop in the ASL box under any circumstances – this might cause someone to panic, drive through a junction and cause an accident.

http://content.met.police.uk/Article/Advanced-Stop-Lines/1400018009433/1400018009433

AndyBSG

Johno100 wrote: »

Utter rubbish. it is only an offence to enter the ASL i.e. crossing the first stop line, if the light is red.

Don't take my word for it, here is what the Met police say.



and



http://content.met.police.uk/Article/Advanced-Stop-Lines/1400018009433/1400018009433

Well, it appears a lot of coppers are completely clueless on the laws then because last week on CS2 when they had police everywhere I saw one ticket a driver who was in the ASL and the police man did not see him enter it because he strolled out of the local Newsagent with a coffee while the lights were already red and the car was already there!

Johno100

AndyBSG wrote: »

Well, it appears a lot of coppers are completely clueless on the laws then because last week on CS2 when they had police everywhere I saw one ticket a driver who was in the ASL and t he police man did not see him enter it because he strolled out of the local Newsagent with a coffee while the lights were already red and the car was already there!

Well we can only hope he reads my post and not yours, appeals and gets the fine overturned.