Biggest Threats to Cyclists?

Cycrow

The main problem i have is with Long vehicles. When they attempt to overtake you, as soon as the front of the vehicle is past you, they start moving back in, ignoring the fact that you are also moving so the back of their vehicle squeezes you out.

One time i had to jump up on the pavement to avoid being crushed, if i had just stopped, or carried on going on the road i would have been under wheel as it moved back in so quickly

jaqui59

NOBODY on the road wants to slow down or stop ... This is the main reason why accidents happen. It seems that everyone is in the most terrible rush to get wherever they are going!

armyknife

jaqui59 wrote: »

NOBODY on the road wants to slow down or stop ... This is the main reason why accidents happen. It seems that everyone is in the most terrible rush to get wherever they are going!

Isn't that the truth;the problem is they're in a highly safe 1,250-2,500 kg box of steel and plastic and were sitting on just 8-12 kg of steel/aluminium.

hugheskevi

Agree about impatience.

This junction is a very good example. Heading north, you are likely to be stopped by lights, and there will be a queue of traffic. The road is then narrow for quite a long period as soon as you are across the lights.

Frustrating that there is a wide and largely unused pavement alongside. a small amount of which could be changed to bike use and still leave plenty of room. There is enough room for smart cars and small cars to pass, if you are riding to the left. But if you do that, you get idiots in 4x4s and vans trying to go past, not realising that (a) there is no room and (b) the road keeps on narrowing slightly, so there progressively gets to be less room. If you ride in primary you are going to have vehicles driving a foot or two off your back wheel.

These lights are also a great example of where it may well be safer to go through them on red. The phase before north-bound traffic goes green is an all-pedestrian green phase. If you go through that carefully (which is entirely possible to do at slow speed and without getting in the way of pedestrians) then traffic won't reach you until you are through the pinch point a few hundred metres up the road and there is plenty of room to overtake. Although I don't go through the light at red, I've no problem with those cyclists that do.

WTFH

jaqui59 wrote: »

NOBODY on the road wants to slow down or stop ... This is the main reason why accidents happen. It seems that everyone is in the most terrible rush to get wherever they are going!

Totally agree. Driving up the road I live on, I frequently meet people going too fast, coming round corners in the middle of the road. That would be fine, except there's not enough room for two vehicles on the road if one is in the middle of it.
And when the one in the middle is a cyclist, well I end up having to drive onto the grass because he is out of control.

I got hit on the arm the other day while walking my dog (on a very short lead) by a cyclist who decided I was in their way.

He was doing 30-40mph on his bike. I was walking. He didn't even stop to apologise because he didn't care.

If you want rights, you'd better show responsibility. If you're not prepared to be responsible, then don't demand rights.

Marco_Panettone

WTFH wrote: »

Totally agree. Driving up the road I live on, I frequently meet people going too fast, coming round corners in the middle of the road. That would be fine, except there's not enough room for two vehicles on the road if one is in the middle of it.
And when the one in the middle is a cyclist, well I end up having to drive onto the grass because he is out of control.

I got hit on the arm the other day while walking my dog (on a very short lead) by a cyclist who decided I was in their way.

He was doing 30-40mph on his bike. I was walking. He didn't even stop to apologise because he didn't care.

If you want rights, you'd better show responsibility. If you're not prepared to be responsible, then don't demand rights.

How does that work then? If I want (or actually have) rights but someone else is irresponsible with the same rights, should I lose mine?

I doubt the speed you claim too, unless it was downhill on a straight road.

WTFH

Marco_Panettone wrote: »

I doubt the speed you claim too, unless it was downhill on a straight road.

You can doubt it, but it's downhill and not a straight road. (was recently used as one of the hill climbs for the Tour of Britain).
I know the speeds because when a cyclist is going down the hill and is in the middle of the road, all everyone else can do is wait behind them, since they don't feel they need to pull over to let others through.
While you're behind them, you can look at the speedo in your car. That's how you know the speed.
Fastest I've been behind one (at a safe distance, I might add) was about 55mph.

Fishingtime

Yes i have seen them going down that hill too.

Mind you they always get beaten by the flying pigs in that area

AndyBSG

Marco_Panettone wrote: »

I doubt the speed you claim too, unless it was downhill on a straight road.

Not sure why you doubt it because i'm an amateur cyclist and can comfortably reach 20MPH on a flat so I have no doubt more serious guys could beat that and i've hit over 35 MPH quite regularly on downhills.

It also takes about 5 minutes of searching on youtube to see people with cycling computers showing those sort of speeds

EDIT: Here's a nice little link with some Tour De France pro's discussing 70MPH descents

http://texastailwind.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/top-speed-on-a-bicycle-how-fast-can-you-go-downhill/

jaqui59

armyknife wrote: »

Isn't that the truth;the problem is they're in a highly safe 1,250-2,500 kg box of steel and plastic and were sitting on just 8-12 kg of steel/aluminium.

But nobody cares these days ... Its all about "me me me"

I often wonder why and when it all began to go wrong.