All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours?

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Sun 9 Sep 2018 09:49
All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours? - barney100

Watched a cyclist riding down a main road at a liesurely pace the other day, both hands off the handlebars clutching his mobile 'phone and eyes down on the screen. Another bloke whips down the pavement to the pelican crossing, presses the button, crosses the road and proceeds up the other pavement. I idly wondered what regulations applied to cycles, three young lads line abreast doing wheelies up a busy road the other day, of course if you hit one of those bikers it will be your fault probably.

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Sun 9 Sep 2018 10:59
All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours? - oldroverboy.

We have a nice new £750.000 cycle path here near us, shared with pedestrians, and crossed by multiple driveway entrances, and Totally unused...

Edited by oldroverboy. on 09/09/2018 at 11:04

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Sun 9 Sep 2018 11:11
All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours? - Bromptonaut

We have a nice new £750.000 cycle path here near us, shared with pedestrians, and crossed by multiple driveway entrances, and Totally unused...

Shared use is enough of a pain, driveway entrances every few metres are a nightmare.

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Sun 9 Sep 2018 11:16
All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours? - nellyjak

I'm a cyclist and a motorist...there is idiocy in both camps...and the two seldom mix well.

When I'm on my bike, many motor vehicles scare the smelly stuff outa me...they don't seem to grasp that you should give a cyclist as much room when overtaking them as you would another car...but IF there is a cycle path...it SHOULD be used, no excuse...though the lycra clad "club" crowd dressed in their "team" colours don't seem to follow that rule.

Poor lights...or even NO lights on bikes, are not uncommon..and it seems that to have any kind of audible warning system is a mystery to many...FFS...get a bell.!..and why on earth do some wear head phones.??...are they mad.?....don't they realise they really ought to be able to HEAR things.!!!

Times I've been startled by some approaching (unseen and unheard from behind) cyclist (even when walking)..until some muppet signals his (far too late) approach by yelling or similar.

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Sun 9 Sep 2018 11:32
All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours? - Bromptonaut

IF there is a cycle path...it SHOULD be used, no excuse...though the lycra clad "club" crowd dressed in their "team" colours don't seem to follow that rule.

There is no rule - The Highway Code says Use cycle routes, advanced stop lines, cycle boxes and toucan crossings unless at the time it is unsafe to do so. Use of these facilities is not compulsory and will depend on your experience and skills, but they can make your journey safer.

All too often they're unsafe due to poor design, poor surfacing and or lack of maintenance.

Poor lights...or even NO lights on bikes, are not uncommon..and it seems that to have any kind of audible warning system is a mystery to many...FFS...get a bell.!..and why on earth do some wear head phones.??...are they mad.?....don't they realise they really ought to be able to HEAR things.!!!

With you 100% on lights and two of my three bikes have a bell. I have though a perfectly good audible warning system; a voice. Used properly it's as audible as a bell and can give a much more tailored message than 'ding'.

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Sun 9 Sep 2018 12:40
All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours? - nellyjak

With you 100% on lights and two of my three bikes have a bell. I have though a perfectly good audible warning system; a voice. Used properly it's as audible as a bell and can give a much more tailored message than 'ding'.

Actually I don't mind that...providing the voice is used early enough and politely enough..ie "excuse me".

I know the bell isn't a legal requirement..but "creeping" up on someone who is unaware of your presence is not so clever....and many do.

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Sun 9 Sep 2018 12:56
All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours? - badbusdriver

With you 100% on lights and two of my three bikes have a bell. I have though a perfectly good audible warning system; a voice. Used properly it's as audible as a bell and can give a much more tailored message than 'ding'.

Actually I don't mind that...providing the voice is used early enough and politely enough..ie "excuse me".

I know the bell isn't a legal requirement..but "creeping" up on someone who is unaware of your presence is not so clever....and many do.

Are you sure about thebell,?, I was under the impression that it is a legal requirement to have one.

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Sun 9 Sep 2018 13:59
All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours? - Engineer Andy

We have a nice new £750.000 cycle path here near us, shared with pedestrians, and crossed by multiple driveway entrances, and Totally unused...

Ditto near me - Cambridgeshire CC spent ££££ on a larger footpath to be shared with cyclists up the A10. Months and months of temporary traffic lights (especially round the level crossing at Foxton - what a nightmare that was) and little progress.

Not once have I seen a bike using it, probably because a) it doesn't go the whole way from Royston (where I live) to Cambridge, and b) commuters just use the train. Most serious cyclists avoid the rest of the A10 as its a veritable death trap. Further down in town we have 100m sections, then nothing, despite there being room for a shared or dedicated path. Typical council spending loads of money on worthless and/or part finished schemes.

It wouldn't be so bad if they and Herts CC next door had bothered to save up and co-ordinate their efforts in conjunction with cyclist user groups to build cycle paths where people wanted them, or in this case got network Rail to fix/upgrade the level crossing so it is safe/works proparly for the pedestrian/cyclist crossing part, which is often not working.

The same goes for the huge waste of money spent doing the same over a year or two on Hills Road in Cambridge itself (the City Council this time) - way over the top and badly done. And they wonder why councils have no money and everyone complains about poor services and facilities....

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Sun 9 Sep 2018 11:09
All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours? - Bromptonaut

There are rules though not always same as 'ours'.

Assuming that the pavements were not shared use and the crossing not of the Toucan variety all were committing offences albeit fairly minor. In an ideal world a copper would book them but tbh he's be better employed going after drivers focussed on their phones.

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Sun 9 Sep 2018 12:55
All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours? - sandy56

The local council in their wisdom turned a dual lane road inside single carriage way with a cycle lane each side. Fair enough you may say, but I rarely see a cyclist use it. SO now the traffic backs up more on the single carriage road, for no real beneift to anyone.

Well done the road planners!

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Sun 9 Sep 2018 13:08
All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours? - gordonbennet

If there's no registration plate, no licence to endorse, no responsibilty to have insurance, no method of identifying let alone the laughable idea that a copper might pop out for 5 minutes from behind his PC monitor to perform what used to be his job.

Then there's no reason for an entitled (and increasingly angry, too tight lycra round the wedding tackle?) class of user of public spaces to follow any sort of common sense or self survival rules.

Even if they do cause themselves to be injured or killed by their own stupidity, there's every chance the finger of claim can be sucessfully pointed at some person in a motor vehicle, who is indentifiable and traceable and will in the vast majority of cases have insurance and seems to be automatically at fault in this increasingly surreal country, so everyone's happy...though what use an insurance payout is when an artic's done its worse is a moot point.

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Sun 9 Sep 2018 13:33
All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours? - barney100

Same here, cycle lanes narrowing the roads and never a lycra clad warrior in sight.

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Sun 9 Sep 2018 16:18
All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours? - TheGentlemanThug

I firmly believe that cyclists should undergo everything drivers do; lessons, tests, registration, insurance and safety inspections. After all, cyclists use the road (right?!) just like drivers, so they need to be able to read the road ahead, understand road signs, markings, junctions, traffic lights and everything else. They also need to be accountable for their actions if they injure someone or damage property and their bike needs to be suitable for use on the road.

And yes, there are plenty of bad drivers, but in my experience, cyclists are worse and more common. Perhaps it's inexperience or perhaps it's a belief that the law will look favourably on them.

At any rate, it's a pipe dream.

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Sun 9 Sep 2018 16:54
All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours? - Bolt

and their bike needs to be suitable for use on the road.

Tell a lot, or, most young riders that run around town performing tricks with the bikes that have parts missing, in some cases no brakes or a tyre missing that dodge between pedestrians and shoot between motors

seems to have become more common the amount of young riders after dark with no lights and shooting across roads from alleys and paths, it was bad enough last winter, I doubt it will be any better this winter

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Sun 9 Sep 2018 18:07
All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours? - Boroman
I’ve just been in Berlin for a weekend away with SWMBO. There are cycle lanes in the roads and some cycle lanes on the pavements, it all works very well and everyone’s sticks to their allotted space. No one is Lycra clad, I saw no wheelie merchants, or hands-free idiots. It is all very civilised, family orientated and stress free.
Interestingly; no one jay walks either, you risk a fine and certainly will earn the disapproval of the locals if you try. You cross when Ampel Mann tells you, regardless of whether anything is coming. It sure beats Manchester where you run the gauntlet at every city centre Pelican crossing these days.
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Sun 9 Sep 2018 18:20
All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours? - focussed

I find it a little odd that anybody from anywhere can jump on a bicycle in the UK and ride on the public road without having proved that they know that there are rules about using the roads. But what does it matter - they're "saving the planet" so it's all right.

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Sun 9 Sep 2018 18:40
All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours? - Bolt

I find it a little odd that anybody from anywhere can jump on a bicycle in the UK and ride on the public road without having proved that they know that there are rules about using the roads. But what does it matter - they're "saving the planet" so it's all right.

It`s worse in central London, even though they have the Cycle super highway which takes up a fair bit of road room, cyclists are not obliged to use it, much the same as outside London so they do as they please, but no one likes it if anyone complains about their actions

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Sun 9 Sep 2018 22:48
All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours? - Avant

My sympathies are with the lorry drivers - typically about to turn left at a junction, and who can't see a cyclist coming up beside them. Despite indicating left, as 99% of professional drivers will do in good time, the cyclist thinks they can go straight on.

All it needs is a delay, caused, say, by a car turning right across their path at the last minute, for the lorry to start turning left and mow down the unseen cyclist.

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Sun 9 Sep 2018 23:12
All - Road rules for cyclists...same as ours? - gordonbennet

Half the trouble Avant is that a whole industry has been created to make lorries 'safer' in some way for cyclists and pedestrians who have no concept of what they are doing, make them nice and quiet and soft looking with super low cabs and port holes and mirrors stuck in all sorts of places.

All instigated by well meaning suits who haven't a clue of the realities of trying to get a big lorry around in a city like London.

The driver does not have multiple eyes like an insect, and with the best will in the world he cannot be looking in every single mirror and through every single window for every millisecond of a maneuver, with all the people in cities intent on saving a fraction of a second from their more important than anyone else's lives and putting themselves in danger every opportunity they can take and taking little repsonsibility for their own safety.

If anything the old lorries were better, they didn't look soft and cuddly, they looked and sounded exactly what they were, dangerous machines and as anyone who's crossed swords with a big lorry will tell you, in the event of a collision with one there is, and it will always be the case, only one winner.

Case in point, very seldom do car transporters have such problems, and i firmly believe that the noise they make from all that steelwork over our third world roads, and appearance in that everything is solid steel which is going to hurt and with no nice plastic covers for a soft landing, help keep cyclists and pedestrians away from them...though i have had drunks and half witted if mischievious children actually cross between the two halves of my previous transporters at junctions before now (luckily always spotted them, usually as they trip over the steelwork and go sprawling but one could get caught in the mechanism which doesn't warrant imagining), so there will always be someone stupid enough to try and do themselves harm.

Edited by gordonbennet on 09/09/2018 at 23:14

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