jasonwrxowner

Don't get me wrong. If I had cut you up then I would be in the wrong and you would be justified in having something to say about it.

However possibly damaging a car only lowers you to the level of the car driver.

It would be more effective to try to get a witness to the event and then report the driver for dangerous driving.

I drive with due car and attention to cyclist as I have been one in the past and probably will be in the future.

TomM

Imlach - I can see your point there, if someone has done wrong then they should apologise, theres nothing worse than someone driving badly and not even aknowledging it - it makes the entire situation worse!

On the rare occasion that I have driven badly ( ) I always try to apologise............most of the time!

But if someone bangs on my roof in Scotland Iam not stopping for anyone

H7

Just shout "OI, IMLACH, NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

imlach

Hehe - I must add - I don't bang the roof to cause a dent - purely to make a noise - and it doesn't mark it!!! I always make sure I have the softest leather cycling gloves :-)

Big Bear

I wouldn't have given a sh1te , she was lucky it wasn't me as she would have looked like a BBQ offering now . Oh the joys of anti-lag , scares em good and proper

Luke

I ride and drive . I make mistakes sometimes. But I am a better rider than a driver. I ride thinking about the whole picture. I get more worried about women just stepping off the pavement....
But if a driver plays games I get very annoyed. They are playing with my life. I find throwing the bike into the front of the car works.

fast bloke

Having spoken up in their defence earlier, I must admit - the cutting up the inside thing at the lights does annoy me. I respect cyclists need for a bit of space when I am passing them, so they should do the same back. If they are happy to share a single lane with me then I won't have any issues sharing it back 100 yards down the road. There are 15 sets of lights on a 3 mile piece 4 lane road I use to travel into Belfast. If I get held up behind a cyclist once or twice - fine. It really gets on my **** if the cut up the inside then hold up the traffic to the next set of lights, by which stage the traffic has just cleared the cyclist before the lights change - car stops - cyclist up the inside AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaarrrggg!!

(A local traffic cop told me that the lights are synchronised so that if you are at the first set at green and drive at a constant 30 MPH you should hit every set on green - one filtering cyclist ***** the whole system )

JamieMacdonald

I can't really say I'm a fan of cyclists but have no valid argument against them so wont even go there.

One thing that does **** me off is when I'm approaching a cyclist who as usual is about 2 metres out from the kerb, but in theory still enough room for me to pass safely. Except some **** coming the other way also decides to drive about two metres out from his side of the road, preventing me from passing the cyclist. It's as if they do it on purpose [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]. If I am ever approaching a cyclist in the opposite direction I make sure I move right over to the left to give cars coming the other way room to overtake without having to wait for the oncoming lane to be clear.

[/rant off]

Getting back to the original point, roads are noisy/fast/dangerous places, if you can't handle these facts you shouldn't be on there in the first place. Now that I know that cyclists are scared of dump valves I think I might add a few more, along with some air horns!

J

imlach

It is a big tough world out there on the road, and you do have do have the guts & toughness to cycle in urban traffic these days.

As a cyclist, you have to assert yourself and make your actions clear and certain to those in the cars - nothing worse than a dithering cyclist who can't make a good decision.

In exactly the same way as for driving, it is defensive techniques that have to be exercised at all times. Much like when I drive, I can predict in 90% of cases that a car driver is going to turn out in front of me before they do so......it's just experience and a sixth sense. I can do this in the car when a passenger too - freaks people out that I can read the road better than them. As you all know, just down to experience and defensive driving.

As I said, 20 years of urban riding, plus 1 year as a cycle courier soon toughens you up. Being a driver of much experience as well, *I* know what to look out for and what to avoid, and also what annoys motorists.

I would say 90% of the cyclists out there don't have enough respect for the road, the other users of it, and their own safety.

At the end of the day though, while we can talk about insurance etc, the cyclist is the one in the most vulnerable position when it comes to any incidents, and they will always come off worse - being hit by a car could cause severe injury or death. A car driver hitting a bike is unlikely to even hurt themselves.

gareth

Don't know if it's already been mentioned, but the majority of cyclists are also drivers so are paying road tax like the rest of us...

G

nom

Not sure about that - they can't be drivers or they wouldn't cycle as stupidly!
A bloke in the office (Mayfair, so manic streets) stopped riding his bike in because he was punched twice - by other cyclists - for not jumping the lights. Eh? Lots of sense out there, then These people can't drive or else they would know how stupid that is.

imlach

If there's things that fellow cyclists do that get my goat, it's :

1) Running red lights
2) Riding without lights on bike
3) Riding on pavements
4) Riding wrong way down one-way streets

As a cyclist, I never do any of them. I have MANY a time caught up with cyclists (benefits of being a fast rider!) and told them what I thought.

Responses have included "But I'm only on a bike - so what?"
ARGH!

As with driving, there's a minority who create a bad name for us. I would have to say though that the %-age of abusers is probably higher in the cycling world due to lack of penalties for wrongdoing.

However, am I not correct in thinking that a cyclist CAN be done for drunk in charge of a bike and get points on their driving licence?????

suffolkscoob

Simple thing here - treat all road users as you would be treated - i.e. give everythng the same space as you would another car. Then if cyclists, bikers, jockeys, or whatever take the **** by using two lanes then that's their problem, but for Christ's sake don't say I said that

gareth

"As with driving, there's a minority who create a bad name for us. I would have to say though that the %-age of abusers is probably higher in the cycling world due to lack of penalties for wrongdoing."

(sorry - don't know how to format quotes!)

Dead right about the minority. I think it must be much worse in cities because where I live you never see the sort of cyclist behaviour being described on here. That's why I find the sort of sweeping generalisations being made particularly frustrating.

Should the level of penalties be linked to the harm caused or potentially caused? The impact of bad cyclist behaviour is typically minimal (usually injury to self or minor property damage). Conversely, the impact of bad driver behaviour is often lethal. And the sort of behaviour I'm thinking of is often shrugged off as acceptable, e.g. minor speeding, mobile phone use etc.

It's quite common for a motorist to get off with a small fine for their inattentive or inconsiderate driving, even when someone's life was lost as a consequence, which isn't taken into consideration. In such a climate it's not that surprising that cyclists can be perceived as overly defensive or even militant...

Diablo

Speaking (metaphorically) as a motorist and a cyclist, I would have to say that unless the road is effectively three lanes wide you shouldn't pass even a single cyclist unless the opposing lane is clear.

Its a sad fact that the majority of drivers simply don't give cyclists enough room.

Its all very well saying if they filter past me, I don't see why I should give them room, but a cycle doesnt displace quite the same amount of air as a car or bigger vehicle.

The irony is that it may **** you (and me) off when cyclist are two abreast, but its a lot safer for them.

So stop complaining and chill

D

WRX Baker

Mark-o there was no way on this earth i was going to apoligise to some big mouth b!tch that was shouting at me, and if had been a pedestrian i would have just told them to **** off. Thanks for all your comments though.

fast bloke

Diablo - that appears to be response to my post. I will always give a cyclist enough room in the first instance, but if he/she decides that even though I may have waited for some time to get past (for their safety and nothing else) that they can now scrape past and hold me up again, unfortunately I will not be able to hold their safety in the same esteem after I have waited behind them 15 times

(p.s. - I cycle for leisure and pleasure, so avoid heavy traffic and holding up cars. It isn't that hard really)