Current theme of knobheads in cars

[PaulSB]

I've never been intimidated by a knobhead on a bike.

I frequently am by knobheads in cars.

Plus, I thought the particular behaviour here was really remarkable.

There are plenty of cycling knobheads. The only place I've been intimidated by cyclists is central London, I say this both as a cyclist and a pedestrian. As a cyclist on the one occasion I've ridden in London I was as intimidated by cyclists as drivers, and general traffic to the extent I pushed my loaded tourer for two miles until I reached somewhere I felt safe to get on the bike. As a pedestrian in London whenever we visit I know we must pay at least, if not more, attention to cyclists as cars. Sadly large numbers of London riders simply do not obey the rules of the road. They are a real danger to pedestrians. The same happens in Manchester but not to the same degree.

Then we have these knobheads:

• usually young, delivery drivers on ebikes in town and city centres riding at high, illegal, speeds. In Manchester often on towpaths
• MTBers expecting walkers to jump out of the way often with no attempt to slow or give warning
• riders on towpaths who approaching walkers from the front without slowing and expect us to move aside. Riders approaching from behind who silently arrive six feet away before announcing themselves. In both cases I hold my line, I don't deviate because as a gravel rider I know there is nothing worse than a dithering walker
• kids on BSOs
• riders on towpaths who approaching other oncoming riders don't follow the number one rule...........keep left!
• there are many more

I don't tar all car drivers as knobheads as my personal experience is good, polite and considerate driving towards cyclists is on the increase and has been for several years. Equally I don't class all cyclists as knobheads as I know the vast majority are pretty damn good.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Why would you even start this thread. Do you not think there enough knobheads on bikes as well? Its not the mode of transport. They are just knobheads.

Thing is that a knob-head in a car has more potential to cause serious damage and injury

if the same sort of person is on a bike then the potential is less
and sometimes mostly based on the effect they cause

but they still exist

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

There are plenty of cycling knobheads. The only place I've been intimidated by cyclists is central London, I say this both as a cyclist and a pedestrian. As a cyclist on the one occasion I've ridden in London I was as intimidated by cyclists and drivers, and general traffic to the extent I pushed my loaded tourer for two miles until I reached somewhere I felt safe to get on the bike. As a pedestrian in London whenever we visit I know we must pay at least, if not more, attention to cyclists as cars. Sadly large numbers of London riders simply do not obey the rules of the road. They are a real danger to pedestrians. The same happens in Manchester but not to the same degree.

Then we have these knobheads:

• usually young, delivery drivers on ebikes in town and city centres riding at high, illegal, speeds. In Manchester often on towpaths
• MTBers expecting walkers to jump out of the often with no attempt to slow or give warning
• riders on towpaths who approaching walkers from the front without slowing and expect us to move aside. Riders approaching from behind who silently arrive six feet away before announcing themselves. In both cases I hold my line, I don't deviate because as a gravel rider I know there is nothing worse than a dithering walker
• kids on BSOs
• riders on towpaths who approaching other oncoming riders don't follow the number one rule...........keep left!
• there are many more

I don't tar all car drivers as knobheads as my personal experience is good, polite and considerate driving towards cyclists is on the increase and has been for several years. Equally I don't class all cyclists as knobheads as I know the vast majority are pretty damn good.

My least favourite on paths is the cyclist who doesn;t stay left when possible

I mean - I have been in a situation where I spotted someone late due low sun or potholes
which may have been my fault in a couple of cases
and got caught stuck on my right so the other cyclist had to go to his right



I have come across riders that just seem to stay on their right in spite of clearly seeing me a long distance in advance
if the rider seem wobbly or uncertain - then that might be OK

but coming round a blind corner on your right at speed is just crazy!

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Have you never walked through the centre of a large town, in a pedestrianised area, with lots of food outlets?
I assume not or you would have been intimidated by knobheads on bikes in the form of food delivery riders.

Never happened to me. I've no doubt it does to others.

 

[Binky]

Where I live it's quiet rural/coastal area so food deliveries not a thing but on the times I venture out into the big wide world there's a cycle path I use to avoid a busy road which is used by cyclists, pedestrians etc as a shared path and I've had a few on ebikes flying down on a collision course with me as I've been heading up it and they've been on my side with zero intention of deviating from their path or slowing down etc.
These have been modded ones I suspect due to speed they were going and not weren't pedalling and I'm alert and watching where I'm going but there's dog walkers, mums with kids in pushchairs, wheelchairs etc on same path so these ebikes are a positive danger to one and all.

As has been mentioned, it's not though mode of transport. You get knobheads in cars, on bikes etc. I'd say more in cars purely because there are more cars and of course a car has potential to cause a lot more damage than a bike but knobheads on bikes are a bloody nuisance and i think give the responsible cyclist a bad name.

All this has been covered multiple times and I've been attacked on this very forum for daring to suggest some cyclists are a menace but the fact is they are.
I've not been intimidated by bikes or cars but I've been put in danger by both.
Anyway. Before yet another flame war starts I'll just say as I've mentioned before, if you can and can be bothered get a camera on your bike and record your rides. Then report any bad driving.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

We seem to get very few illegal ebikes around here - especially the food delivery type

well - there are quite a few - but not the knob-head version

they became quite common some time ago then just disappeared
no idea why
but food delivery is nearly all car based in spite of there being several dense housing estates around

 

[roubaixtuesday]

I don't tar all car drivers as knobheads

Did I do that?

 

[Profpointy]

Why would you even start this thread. Do you not think there enough knobheads on bikes as well? Its not the mode of transport. They are just knobheads.

Knobheads on bikes give Daily Mail readers yet another thing to get in a lather about. Knobheads in cars kill 3 a day and main or injure countless more

 

[roubaixtuesday]

I'll just say as I've mentioned before, if you can and can be bothered get a camera on your bike and record your rides. Then report any bad driving.

As we're now into repetition, I'll just say that having done about 9000km this year on three different bikes about evenly, the prospect of getting front and rear cameras, and/or swapping them around and getting them charged daily and going through footage to extract incidents is not an appealing proposition.

Fair play to people who do this, but I don't think that it's some kind of responsibility of cyclists to do this. Just yet another barrier to cycling

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Knobhead of the day today: I go through a crossroads every morning. Lights the other way go green first, stream of traffic turns right across me.

Lights go green for me, and stay green the other way.

I go, stream of motorists continue, 4x4 drives straight at me with no sign of stopping. i pull an emergency stop, so does motorist.

Stream of abuse from said motorist.

This sort of incident, for me, is absolutely routine, and barely worth mentioning. i get this sort of thing about weekly.

 

[Solocle]

There are plenty of cycling knobheads. The only place I've been intimidated by cyclists is central London, I say this both as a cyclist and a pedestrian. As a cyclist on the one occasion I've ridden in London I was as intimidated by cyclists as drivers, and general traffic to the extent I pushed my loaded tourer for two miles until I reached somewhere I felt safe to get on the bike. As a pedestrian in London whenever we visit I know we must pay at least, if not more, attention to cyclists as cars. Sadly large numbers of London riders simply do not obey the rules of the road. They are a real danger to pedestrians. The same happens in Manchester but not to the same degree.

Then we have these knobheads:

• usually young, delivery drivers on ebikes in town and city centres riding at high, illegal, speeds. In Manchester often on towpaths
• MTBers expecting walkers to jump out of the way often with no attempt to slow or give warning
• riders on towpaths who approaching walkers from the front without slowing and expect us to move aside. Riders approaching from behind who silently arrive six feet away before announcing themselves. In both cases I hold my line, I don't deviate because as a gravel rider I know there is nothing worse than a dithering walker
• kids on BSOs
• riders on towpaths who approaching other oncoming riders don't follow the number one rule...........keep left!
• there are many more

I don't tar all car drivers as knobheads as my personal experience is good, polite and considerate driving towards cyclists is on the increase and has been for several years. Equally I don't class all cyclists as knobheads as I know the vast majority are pretty damn good.

Cycling in Central London, I'm definitely not one to be intimidated. I've ridden on the North Circular before... Cars weren't moving anywhere quickly . I can't actually think of an issue with a car driver in the centre, due to separated infrastructure and the general absence of speed when mixing.

But you do see some knobheads. Both on bikes... and on foot. One time a couple of pedestrians almost stepped out into the cycle track right in front of me without looking. They were waiting at a signalised crossing point and then just randomly decided to start moving.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Knobheads on bikes give Daily Mail readers yet another thing to get in a lather about. Knobheads in cars kill 3 a day and main or injure countless more

The Daily Mail people would only find another group of vulnerable people to bully if it wasn't cyclists.

 

[Binky]

Knobhead of the day today: I go through a crossroads every morning. Lights the other way go green first, stream of traffic turns right across me.

Lights go green for me, and stay green the other way.

I go, stream of motorists continue, 4x4 drives straight at me with no sign of stopping. i pull an emergency stop, so does motorist.

Stream of abuse from said motorist.

This sort of incident, for me, is absolutely routine, and barely worth mentioning. i get this sort of thing about weekly.

So at the risk of being accused of repetition, there is something you could do about this other than complain to those who are sympathetic to your plight of which I am one.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

My least favourite on paths is the cyclist who doesn;t stay left when possible

I mean - I have been in a situation where I spotted someone late due low sun or potholes
which may have been my fault in a couple of cases
and got caught stuck on my right so the other cyclist had to go to his right



I have come across riders that just seem to stay on their right in spite of clearly seeing me a long distance in advance
if the rider seem wobbly or uncertain - then that might be OK

but coming round a blind corner on your right at speed is just crazy!

I don't think this is a thing, just more purely co-incidental, but I have had at least three examples over the last few weeks where a small oncoming group of cyclists riding 2-3 abreast down narrow country lanes have just carried on riding straight at me. On each occasion they clearly saw me and on at least one occasion there was clearly no room to pass as they took up the road and to my left was a ditch, I actually had to shout at them to move across the road, completely bizarre!

 

[roubaixtuesday]

So at the risk of being accused of repetition, there is something you could do about this other than complain to those who are sympathetic to your plight of which I am one.

Sure. For instance, our local cycling group which I'm a member of is trying to get the council to change the lights timing to improve the junction where the incident was this morning.

Again though, this is a societal issue. Motorists aren't expected to take responsibility individually for safe roads. Cyclists shouldn't either.