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Soltydog

Soltydog

Legendary Member
Location
near Hornsea
Virtually all drivers have cycled before they are old enough to drive a car. And as a former ADI with two decades experience and many cyclists as pupils through club connections I can tell you that cyclists are no better or worse when it comes to learning to drive than non cyclists.

The one group who do learn very quickly and to a high standard are motorcyclists..

I'd agree with that, cycling as a kid you don't worry too much about others, or I certainly didn't. However when i got a motorbike at 17 I quickly had to become more aware of things on the roads & still try to be more observant whilst driving or cycling
 

Enjoyedincubus

Regular
Location
Birmingham
there was a young lady stood at the roundabout flagging me down. It was the driver who had just cut me up, but she had taken the time to stop & apologise for her actions. She looked quite distressed by the incident & genuinely sorry. I was pretty gobsmacked to say the least.
After advising her about her driving around cyclists in future, I thanked her for taking the time to stop & apologise, don't think many drivers would have the balls to do that.

Wow!!

I'd like to say something like "faith in humanity = restored" but many more things like this need to happen before I can actually say it. However, this certainly goes some way towards it.

Fair play to all parties involved.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
Virtually all drivers have cycled before they are old enough to drive a car. And as a former ADI with two decades experience and many cyclists as pupils through club connections I can tell you that cyclists are no better or worse when it comes to learning to drive than non cyclists.

The one group who do learn very quickly and to a high standard are motorcyclists..

Hell yeah. Just look at the tragic level of roadcraft the typical cyclist displays. The Dwoid is a prime example - he has the riding and road skills of Mr Magoo with a quadruple limb amputation, yet spends his days hassling motorists who are driving usually no worse than he is cycling.

The lady the OP describes sounds a genuine person who made an error, realised as much, admitted it, and apologised, and because of the OPs gracious acceptance of the apology she will probably take something positive away from the experience. That's how it should be done.
 
OP
OP
Soltydog

Soltydog

Legendary Member
Location
near Hornsea
H
The lady the OP describes sounds a genuine person who made an error, realised as much, admitted it, and apologised, and because of the OPs gracious acceptance of the apology she will probably take something positive away from the experience. That's how it should be done.

Cheers. i thought twice about posting the story, but maybe if cyclists are 'less aggressive' after a near miss the outcome could be like this more often, rather than the them & us attitude which we often see. More often than not near misses or collisions are an 'accident' & not a deliberate act, so if we can learn from these & prevent them happening again or reduce the risk of them happening again, we all win.
 
... but maybe if cyclists are 'less aggressive' after a near miss the outcome could be like this more often, rather than the them & us attitude which we often see. ...
Sorry. But that is .............................................................. so off-the-wall!

The (sadly) remarkable thing in the story is the young lady. The driver.

Give me a Leeds-full of drivers with that kind of attitude? Hell, I'd be tugging my forelock, and licking the tarmac their arses pass over! Bottom line - I don't consider it "aggressive" to react in anger and fear to some ****, who endangers me, and then blames ME for his incompetence.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
Does demonstrate why it'd be so much better if drivers had to put in a few hundred miles on a bike before they were allowed to apply for a provisional licence though. For too many learner drivers the first time they've ever propelled a vehicle on a road is their first driving lesson; when I were a lad most of us had already notched up hundreds of miles on bikes long before that 17th birthday came along, any many of us had done cycling proficiency, which certainly had its faults, but did teach you about priority and the basic rules of the road.

Had I my way, this'd be law - 500 miles covered on a pedal cycle in a period of a maximum of a year within the two years preceding application to qualify for application for a provisional licence. Disabled applicants could put in 1000 miles by moped in lieu. If too disabled for a moped, then and only then they'd be exempt from the requirement.

I reckon learners would actually save money because they'd need fewer lessons; they'd have developed some roadcraft (you can rest assured that Bikeability takeout would rocket as people too afraid to cycle on the roads but wanting a driving licence would seek out cycle training) and the driving instructors' jobs would be adapting the driver to driving a motor vehicle.

Holy crap, what a ridiculous idea. We'd be knee deep on car drivers in the gutter, no lights, on the footpath, jumping red lights, filtering inappropriately, never looking anywherenother dead ahead, wobbling unpredictably 3 feet either side of their line of travel... life's bad enough out there as it is without adding a cyclists bad practice to those of the average driver.
 
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