Scooby Snacks 23

I was on the way home from work last night, and there was a fairly long queue of traffic on one of the main roads close to my office. I wondered whether it might have been an accident or something, but it eventually started to move. As I got further up the queue, I noticed it was a cyclist, who was cycling approximately 2 feet from the pavement, and cars were obviously waiting to overtake.

I then realised that there was in fact a cycle lane (not on the road, but the new fashion of cutting the pavement in half with a white line ) so why was the cyclist not using this? As I approached him, I put my window down and asked why he wasn't using the cycle lane provided and creating congestion and he told me to F off and that he didn't have to use it if he didn't want to!

My question is this, does he have to use the cycle lane or can he pick and choose (it's not as if we could use the pavement if we didn't want to use the road is it).

OllyK

<cynic>Cycle & Bus lanes are just there to reduce the amount of road available to other road users and increase congestion.</cynic>

Neither has to use their designated lane if they don't want to.

Drunken Bungle Whore

As someone who has cycled many, MANY miles on our roads I have to say I wholeheartedly agree with you! I ALWAYS use a cycle lane if it is available - it's much safer for me, even if they aren't always the most convenient route.

The other thing that really irritates me about cyclists is when you've spent a mile or so trying to get past them and then arrive at a set of red traffic lights and they whiz all the way to the front of the traffice queue and you have to do it all over again. It's not like they're going to roar away and beat you to the first bend is it?

Apparently the only reason that cycle lanes aren't built as standard on all our roads is because many moons ago when the idea was suggested, cyclists all over the country banded together and protested that they should be allowed to use the Kings highways as they always had done. I guess there were a lot less cars back then!

Ipkis' Wifey

don't get me going on cyclists...

why don't they have to pay insurance and some form of road tax...?

Tanuki

Since coming to the UK I've noticed it's very anti-bike. You got these narrow arsed roads and nowhere for cyclists to ride on them...unless you count those stupid painted cycle lanes that everyone ignores....I feel very unsafe here. Even Tokyo was safer to ride in.
I'm a use my car a lot, but I also like to ride...actually quite a few people in the UK need to get of their lard eating binge drinking bums and go do some excercise.
Also, as a mountain bike rider, if I am forced to go out on the roads (reluctantly, I'll add), I am taking my life in my hands with the lack of space, poor road planning, and the inconsiderate *******s who don't indicate when changing lanes, turning, especially at roundabouts. Actually as a driver non-indicator types annoy me to no end. How about LA style road rage shootings. I mean, how lazy can you be not to be able to indicate? Or is it just cool to be inconsiderate?

Anyway, the Nederlands, Germany, Sweden, jeez just about anywhere else in Europe is absolute paradise for riding. Here there is some kind of hate anti-cycling predjudice. Quite a number of my foreign friends have commented on it, after poor dental hygiene. Is it something to do with hating people who are fit? I kind of shows at althletics championships.....

Tanuki

Ah yes the mother of all sweeping generalisations. It's like saying all men are *******s.

I'd like to see the stats on how many accidents are caused by

1)Lazy/inconsiderate arrseholes who don't indicate
2)Cyclists
3)Drivers on constantly phones without handsfree kit
4)People who use a turning lane at the lights as some kind of passing lane.


Driving around London, I know which ones tally up the most, and it ain't cyclists. I could imagine why some cyclist turn into arrseholes themselves, after suffering medieval road layouts, lazy inconsiderate drivers, and in general a populace that hate bikes probably because of what they represent...less C02, less pollution, more fitness, maybe a litte bit of effort.

OllyK

Odly enough, 1 and 4 and to some extent 3 apply to cyclists as well!

DCI Gene Hunt

A biker calling cyclists a ******* liability...... .... that's the funniest thing I've heard all week......

And with a few changes it sort of looks more familiar......

Feckin motor biking power rangers... why are they allowed on the roads? In London they are a ******* liability riding through red traffic lights while pedestrians are crossing, riding through while traffic is crossing a junction. Yet if they cause an accident its always someone elses fault

What a COMPLETE t1t............

DCI Gene Hunt

and 2............

tonybooth

A cyclist collided with a female pedestrian up here recently and killed her. I doubt he will have the book thrown at him like a car driver would have though!!

Only thing that pisses me of with cyclists is their complete disregard (for the most part) of red traffic lights

T

DCI Gene Hunt

Why thank you...................... ......... I've a dream.... silver dream machine.........

DCI Gene Hunt

You're also forgetting their annoying need to cycle two abreast down busy roads........

sociopath

Someone should mow you down like a dog. You don't half whinge a lot for road kill don't you!

cw42

iTrader: (1)

I'm actually selling my road bike because of the amount of bad drivers on the road today. (well, one of the reasons anyway)
Roads today are just too congested, and we should as a nation be embracing biking as a way of getting about, instead it only seems to get negative press. I've done the pavement cycling, dodging round single mums on the way to school, been shouted at by vehicles as I flip back onto the road in my youth, not anymore though, I'm now Mr Sensible, and stick to canal towpath and off road routes on my mtb.

unclebuck

There's a lot of cycle envy on here - mainly posted by obese unhealthy lardarses I expect.

TelBoy

I don't envy people on bikes at all, in fact i think it's a mug's game on today's roads.

Rabid

What I find amazing as a cyclist is how some ******* in a car does something that could have killed you and then pussies out of confrontation when you kick the **** out of their car.
A guy in a 306 cut me up on a turn recently and then acted all surprised when I caught him up and kicked his drivers door. Did he get out and face me? Did he **** he just drove off like a ******* coward.
I cycle to work rather than take the car because it's quicker, easier to park and apart from ****** who can't drive is an absolute pleasure.
One seriously militant cyclist here quite willing to take out some rage on any tosser who doesn't give me the same respect I accord them.
I don't ride on pavements, cut others up and even use hand signals- unfortunately these are usually of the 2 finger variety because of people's **** driving.

davegtt

Why should they pay road tax? They dont give off any emmissions and they dont cause damage to roads that means it needs to be maintained every year.

Insurance, hmmm, maybe. Not convinced on that either.

Leslie

The reason why there is an anti cyclist feeling is because they act as though they are completely exempt from the laws about cycling on pavements and also with traffic lights and crossings etc. The first post on this thread is an example of the attitude of so many cyclists.

Rabid,

Your admitted act of kicking another driver's door is really beyond the pale. That is pure vandalism and is entirely wrong. You then say he was not prepared to confront you, you must have been only interested in having a serious confrontation. The driver was probably avoiding the chance of being knifed!

Les

richie001

iTrader: (3)

i do agree that riding a bike in this country is dangerous but come on some cyclist riding is just has dangerous ie no lights at night i've even seen a cyclist ride across red lights

pwhittle

3rd party insurance possibly, but it wouldn't be policable. Tax? Tax is based on emmisions now. Even if you based it on weight, it wouldn't be worth the paperwork. Anyway, I cycle to work, and still pay nearly £400 a year in car tax. I just choose not to sit in traffic in my car. I should get a tax refund for that!

I've constantly shocked at the cyclists in York, but I've also noticed that the biggest culprits for jumping red lights are middle aged women. But you can't criticise that group of society for anything.

and yes, if cycle lanes are available I use them, but most are just token white lines, which aren't known for their ability to stop cars hitting you.

Cycists can be annoying to drivers, but riding 12 miles a day I have close encounters with idiot drivers on a daily basis, who are just to lazy to look / use mirrors / signal. That's why, come autumn, I'll stopping riding in, and will clog up the roads instead.

RichWalk

Beacuse we could not afford beautiful light weight bikes otherwise

prodriva

In my line of work we assess cycle related accidents on a regular basis. We obtain the data from the London Accident Analysis Unit and from our point of view the most common accident type we have identified is when a parked car at the side of the road opens its door (drivers side) into the path of a cyclist. The sad part of this is that the vast majority of accidents of this type result in a fatality as the cyclist falls to the ground into the path of on-coming traffic. Not nice.

As for cyclist paying road tax and road insurance, I whole-heartedly agree. Most councils/boroughs are providing dedicated cycle facilites here there and everywhere and its increasing all the time. For this reason alone, the fact that cyclists are being provided with designated Public Highway space, justifies the reason for them being made to pay insurance and road tax IMHO. However, the problem lies in enforcing it. I would have thought the goverment would have seen this as another revenue generator to add to their coffers and then get squandered away on things other than improving the road network in this country

davegtt

You liar, your only getting back in the car cause the weather will turn in Autumn

davegtt

This is why I dont cycle to work anymore... I was cycling down a hill when someone parked up opened their car door into my path, last minute instincts were to avoid the car door and swung the bike round the parked cars door into the middle of the road. It was an instinctive manouvure and didnt once consider there could be a car right behind me or next to me.... Luckily there wasnt.... If there was I would have swerved right into the path of the car I stopped after than incident.... I was so shook up for ages. Scared me sh!tless just thinking afterwards what could have happened.

SJ_Skyline

You've got to ask yourself why cyclists don't use cycle lanes. One of the big reasons is because cars park in them!

My bike is roadworthy as I look after it and have it serviced once a year. In addition, I actually have insurance as I race my bike. How many of the people that put their cars on track can say the same?

Anybody jumping red lights deserves all they get IMHO.

MikT

Isn't this allowed in the Highway Code?

I'm not pro-cyclist but i think this is allowable by law.

DCI Gene Hunt

Its also law that you can shoot a Welsh person with a bow and arrow inside Chester city walls and after midnight........