Last night I pulled out on to the one way street that I live on and started up the hill at about 15mph to be met by a "man in black" on an unlit bike with his baby in a snuggly on his chest going down hill the wrong way on a one way street at about 30mph... it was a near thing and I am still shaken by it he snaped back my offside reaview mirror as he went by I Ride a push bike myself and alwas obeythe one way streets and other rules of the road and have a well lit bike and wear reflective clothes at night why can not all the other cyclists do the same! When I was kid it was an offence to drive an unlit bike and it was enforced... when way the last time you say a cyclist give a ticket?
In London Last Fall, cyclists are widely regarded as
on a par with pigeons, given that they routinely run red lights as if they didn't exist, go up one way streets in the wrong direction, swerve out in front of cars with no attempt to check if anyone is there first and ride around after dark with no lights.I'm not talking of the odd one; I'm talking of the vast majority !
Outside London may be a bit different, but London cyclists are a peculiarly perverse bunch of organ donors. How else do you explain the idiot I
saw cycling the wrong way up the Earls Court Road with 40t trucks bearing down on him, or the one I saw cycling around Hyde Park Corner with a cocker spaniel tied to his bike on a 20 foot length of clothes line vectoring wildly? The parent of the child sitting on the back of his bike while cycling around Marble Arch as traffic veered around
him as he cycled in an unpredictable manner through the maelstrom of fast moving vehicles should have been banned from having children.
If cyclists are to be permitted on the public roads, mixing with licensed, faster moving and identifiable vehicles, they should at least have to be similarly identifiable and insured.
As to stopping distances, cyclists can stop a damned sight faster than much heavier motor vehicles.
The sooner we have bike free zones, fully enforced, the better for everyone.
(Rant mode off !)
~randolph
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I ride a push bike for leisure. It has dynamo and battery lights, and a mirror. I don't want to be flattened, but it's apparent that the way some folk drive, I might just as well not bother. Like the guy who turned left into a pub car park with me next to him in broad daylight. No signal; evidently I was wearing my invisibility cloak. Another soiled underwear moment.
If cyclists (and caravans) were taxed and MoTd like other vehicles, they might have some credibility, and you might see a few more bikes lit up.
BTW as in a previous thread, it's always the other driver ...
Runs for cover ...
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Look!
They go up and down here along the Perth Road and places, dressed all in black with no lights like the Special Boat Service. Guess who the local Ges... correction nice local pro-motoring police are after, though!
One has to approve of those other cuclists with their distracting, but at least visible, intermittent multi-coloured lights, even if they are mainly hoping to carry out a war against motorist! (Goodness, don't they get aggressive?)
I just hope they do not find out about the unlikely and dangerous tracks where real motorists have to go, nowadays.
The sheep are a big enough risk!
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For cuclists read cyclists. Did I really have cuckolds in mind?
Well, if you're away from home so long.........?
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With the present anti-car government in power, we are unlikely to see any action against errant cyclists or pedestrians. everything is the motorists fault and we are to be punished at every opportunity.
This is unlikely to change without a change in government. The lib Dems are even more anti-car.
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I too am both a motorist and a cyclist. I consider myself a responsible cyclist and obey traffic lights, give way signs etc, and never ride on the pavement unless it is a designated cycle-track.
I wear a high visibility fluorescent green jacket, have lights fitted to the bike, and wear flashing lights on my helmet. I think I am as visible to other road users as I can be but that doesn't stop some car drivers pulling out in front of me.
I was cycling home from work just before Christmas when a taxi pulled out in front of me on a roundabout. Needless to say several expletives left my mouth in the direction of the taxi.
I too get really annoyed with the few cyclists that disregard the rules of the road and persist in cycling without any lights. There are both good and bad cyclists, same as there are good and bad motorists!
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As a teenager (in the 50's!) I was fined thirty shiilings (£1.50) for "riding a bicycle without an efficient braking system" (ie it was my speedway bike so had NO brakes whatsoever !) I was going to the track, down a quiet back street at < 10mph, & was just too lazy to walk!.
What amazes me today is just how many offenders one sees - no lights, on pavements, etc., but I have NEVER, EVER, seen one 'pulled over'. Presumably the boys in blue are too busy, re-fuelling their GATSO's & TRUVELO's ?
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Pleased to report that here in Oxford (which has about 20,000 students in what is a tiny city) the Police do have regular clampdowns on unlit cyclists with on the spot fines.
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There are cycle free roads, there called motorways and as for insuring cyclists if only 7/8 out of 10 cars are insured what hope is there for bicycles?
Anyway cycling chould be encouraged, it's better for the user and the environment and anyone cycling rather than driving frees up road space, of which we are sadly lacking at the present.
Think about it if you had to complete a set cross town journry would you rather have 10 cars or 10 bicycles in front of you?
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>>Think about it if you had to complete a set cross town journry would you rather have 10 cars or 10 bicycles in front of you?
10 cars, because they wouldn't be riding side by side, chatting with each other and wobbling all over the place.
Also, even if they were slowing me down, they wouldn't slow me down to 10mph, or whatever.
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Depends if it were raining or not, and whether I had a boot full of shopping. :)
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When driving round town and you have to slow for a bicycle (In London average car speed is less than 10 m.p.h. anayway) before safely overtaking you invariably end up behind another car anyway. The fact the bike was there is irrelevant to your journey time. A row of cars at traffic lights however is a big consideration since if there is a queue not all the cars get through before they change and you have to wait for the next sequence, hence my original question. Maybe I should have said fifty cars or something.
I just don't think bicyles on the road greatly effect car journey times. If you drive with this thought in mind and give bicycles a wide berth it's fine. Then they can wobble a bit or do something stupid and it's no problem.
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Tonight 10 pm I passed a very well lit cyclist. Rear light highly visible - and front light almost as good as a small motorcycle!
Mind you, s/he was on the main carriageway of the A4, NOT the cycle path, so needed to be well lit.
There are a few out there, apart from those who post here.
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