Bad drivers - a mini rant

[DCBassman]

As he's already put his hand up and apologised, time to ease off, methinks.

 

[bigjim]

Cycle lanes are not there for your safety. They are there to spend money that has been bid for and to fulfil gov targets on how many cycle lanes have been created, That is why you often come across ridiculous cycle lanes that only run for about 20 yards then spit you back out into the traffic. These all add up to the miles of cycle lanes that the authority can claim as having created so justifying the money requested from central government. Yes, I've worked for a local authority

 

[stuarttunstall]

You have no need to worry I have requested Shaun delete my account....

Thank you to all those that have answered my questions.. they have been vet helpful and I appreciate it..

Ps at 53 I am an not, and never have been a wind up merchant... thanks!

Stuart has now logged out....

 

[Tail End Charlie]

And so, another person who was interested enough to think about taking up cycling and joined a forum has been put off. So he may have used some poorly phrased terms, so what, he admitted his errors and seemed genuine enough. Some posters on this thread should be ashamed.

 

[User10119]

Education is the answer, not confrontation

I occasionally get a lift to work at one site from a colleague - and previously used to get a lift to the same place from a different colleague who has now moved on to a new job elsewhere. Both know that I cycle, and that I sometimes cycle to that site although the route is pretty meh, with rubbishy sightlines and narrow lanes and patches of truly shocking surface and far too much speeding traffic, including quite a lot of HGVs. With both I had conversations at various pointsabout why cyclists don't and shouldn't ride in the gutter* and why we will sometimes choose to take a strong primary** and so on.

Both commented a few weeks afterwards that they'd been looking a bit differently at the cyclists they'd encountered, and the roads they were cycling on, and now they understood. Last week I had a conversation with the very kind colleague who currently gives me an occasional lift about riding two abreast and she had a bit of a light bulb when I explained the 'half the length of overtake, half the time to complete the manoeuvre" thing...


*"Look at that massive pothole there, the one that you can feel when you hit it in the car - if I hit that on my bike it'd probably have me off and sprawled in the road and that would really delay your journey!"
**"See this series of blind corners? If someone overtook a bike here and there was an oncoming vehicle is there any way at all to avoid an accident? See, that's why I go right out because then nobody can try to 'squeeze' past."

 

[Soltydog]

I’d guesstimate I get *very nearly* hit by a car about once every 500 miles of road riding. Today was the latest occasion.

I spent the rest of my ride thinking about how close it was and what the implications would have been had I been injured. I’m still thinking about it, 8 hours later.

The point of the post - I’m getting increasingly angry about drivers. Not all of them, but the drivers who just can’t drive, the able-bodied drivers who insist on driving half a mile to the shops, the drivers on mobile phones, the drivers who routinely pull into ASL’s...I could go on.

As a result I’ve started to become an overly assertive cyclist. Doing things like getting in front of cars that pull into an ASL when there’s no advantage, taking the lane when I don’t really need to...that sort of thing.

I don't get 'near misses' that often, maybe 1 every 2-3k miles? but I still get pee'd off by car drivers who sit in ASL's or drive in cycle lanes & given the chance I'll get in front of them & make them move over, just to prove a point

It's important to note that there are bad cyclists and bad drivers, but from my experience 98% of road users are not out there to be pr#cks and will be mindful of other road users,

I reckon there's a small % of the population that don't give a $h1t about anyone but themselves, sometimes they are in a car, sometimes on foot & sometimes on a bike. Had 1 this morning on my commute, been sat at a red light for about 30 seconds when another 'cyclist' passed me crossed to other carriage way & jumped onto the footpath just as the lights on the road to the left were changing to green! (Ferking idiot!!!)

 

[DCBassman]

You have no need to worry I have requested Shaun delete my account....

Thank you to all those that have answered my questions.. they have been vet helpful and I appreciate it..

Ps at 53 I am an not, and never have been a wind up merchant... thanks!

Stuart has now logged out....

Well, I for one, Stuart, ask that you reconsider.

 

[pjd57]

If motorists expect cyclists to always be in cycle lanes, even if the cycle lane doesn't go to your destination, I think it's only fair to ask motorists to always use the motorway.

 

[Drago]

Or even to stay off the path.

 

[dantheman]

Or even to stay off the path.

Lol. I one time as I reached work, looked over my shoulder and then signalled right, moved into center of road and the guy behind decided to overtake at this point - he actually went not only into the lane oncoming, but actually mounted the kerb past it...

 

[Lonestar]

And so, another person who was interested enough to think about taking up cycling and joined a forum has been put off. So he may have used some poorly phrased terms, so what, he admitted his errors and seemed genuine enough. Some posters on this thread should be ashamed.

No not ashamed at all.I hate bullies on the road (and at work) and I've encountered quite a few of the recently...I doubt they are ashamesd at their 5h1t dangerous driving.His first comment just about sums up the general attitude out there and in my messroom at work.Why should I get blamed for other peoples cycling habits and not using crap cycle lanes?

 

[Heltor Chasca]

We don’t really know what happened here. I personally think Stuart was wearing his heavy typing hands on the day he started this thread. He probably didn’t have much experience of cycling forums and had no idea of the emotive and very real feelings regular cyclists have about our car centric culture and hideous infrastructure. He wouldn’t have realised the backlash his comments would have.

But he held his hands up and was thoughtful in his apology. He wanted to learn and move on. Although the initial post alluded to bullish behaviour, I don’t think Stuart is a bully. By nature, bullies do not apologise. But as it is with the nature of the internet, people only read his initial posts and piled on with the onslaught.

We probably won’t really ever get to know what experience, humour and ideas Stuart could have brought to the forum. I am also sad he went in this manner.

EDIT : Clarification of the subject forumite.

 

[Lozz360]

We don’t really know what happened here. I personally think the OP was wearing his heavy typing hands on the day he started this thread. He probably didn’t have much experience of cycling forums and had no idea of the emotive and very real feelings regular cyclists have about our car centric culture and hideous infrastructure. He wouldn’t have realised the backlash his comments would have.

But he held his hands up and was thoughtful in his apology. He wanted to learn and move on. Although the initial post alluded to bullish behaviour, I don’t think the OP is a bully. By nature, bullies do not apologise. But as it is with the nature of the internet, people only read his initial posts and piled on with the onslaught.

We probably won’t really ever get to know what experience, humour and ideas the OP could have brought to the forum. I am also sad he went in this manner.

Just for a bit of pedantic clarity. I assume you are referring to Stuart not the OP?

 

[Heltor Chasca]

Just for a bit of pedantic clarity. I assume you are referring to Stuart not the OP?

Yes. Sorry. My bad. I’ll go in and fix it. Thanks.

 

[Drago]

He'll be back. He struck me as a decent enough sort, open to new - to him - ideas. Once he's ridden his bike a few times and he's experienced the reality he will be hooked, and also he will know first hand the problems we face. He will then want to talk about this. Ergo, he will return here to do so.