Cycle messengers - manna from heaven for cycling detractors?

[totallyfixed]

Surely this gives anyone in London who sees behaviour anything like this plenty of ammunition to shoot the rest of us down.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLzGj10fg2g&feature=player_detailpage"><param


Thanks to I think it was BentMikey who originally posted it. The majority of media top cats live and/or work in London, is it any wonder we get bad press?
Some of the forum are from the capital, what are your views? Personally if one of those eejuts on that video had come within striking distance of me they would have gone down
Maybe the worst thing is if older kids see it and think it's cool. We are all always getting on our soap box about motos, but if you had to drive around London for a job and see these kind of antics, wouldn't you think cyclists were to88ers?

 

[GrasB]

Yeah, messengers are one half of the worst lot of cyclists about, those who blatantly should know better but just ignore all traffic rules (the other half a roadies who must do a PB no matter what who end up riding in a similar style around town). I regularly get into arguments with an ex-london messenger about appropriate cycling behaviour, he believes that cyclists should be able to cycle like that because he can without hurting anyone. Yeah, I can drive down motorways at 120mph without hurting people, but I know that it takes 1 mistake & there's a world of hurt for me & anyone who gets caught in the fall out so I don't do it.

 

[rich p]

Bleedin' idiots.

They cut up a police car at one point.

 

[Will1985]

Yeah, messengers are one half of the worst lot of cyclists about, those who blatantly should know better but just ignore all traffic rules (the other half a roadies who must do a PB no matter what who end up riding in a similar style around town).

Gonna correct you there - RLJers and pavement 'cyclists' are the worst kind.

 

[John the Monkey]

If it wasn't that it would be something else.

If motons are so angry about cyclists who break the law, why do I still get "punishment" passes and a total lack of consideration from people who've seen me stop at red, let peds across zebras, not ride on the pavement, display lighting, etc etc?

 

[Madmidwife]

I can't beleive stuff like that goes on- gosh I have a lot to learn!

 

[totallyfixed]

If it wasn't that it would be something else.

If motons are so angry about cyclists who break the law, why do I still get "punishment" passes and a total lack of consideration from people who've seen me stop at red, let peds across zebras, not ride on the pavement, display lighting, etc etc?

Cos you are on a bike, simple as that.
Know what you mean GrasB, we used to live just outside Cambridge and me and the better half used to chase down transgressers and gently explain the error of their ways. Always worked too, probably the combination of me at 6' 4", unshaven and looking a bit like a terrorist and her small and feminine, the hard and soft approach.

 

[Dan B]

Surely this gives anyone in London who sees behaviour anything like this plenty of ammunition to shoot the rest of us down.

Yes, of course, just like the antics of some Subaru drivers give us plenty of ammunition to shoot the entire motoring population down

(For the avoidance of doubt: my answer is "no", or at least "only among the hard of thinking")

 

[darkstar]

This goes on all around the world, i for one am extremely impressed by their skills! They have to cycle like this, otherwise they won't get paid, simple as that.

 

[GrasB]

Gonna correct you there - RLJers and pavement 'cyclists' are the worst kind.

To correct you: messengers & only a PB will do roadies are RLJers & oft use the pavement... the thing is they tend to ride on the pavement at over 20mph....

 

[BigSteev]

Looked like a fairly normal ride in London to me. Bit puzzled by the about of riders that appeared to be able to freewheel though.

 

[Baggy]

To correct you: messengers & only a PB will do roadies are RLJers & oft use the pavement... the thing is they tend to ride on the pavement at over 20mph....

My brother was a top-earning messenger at his company for over 10 years - I think he and his friends would contest that fairly strongly.

Some messengers might set a bad example, some might not. There are plenty of messengers who don't run all lights, don't shout at pedestrians and don't pull off risky manoeuvres - but people don't notice them, they just notice the dodgier ones.

Too many risks/daft riding=accidents=no earnings.

 

[Will1985]

GrasB - you need to get out of Cambridge and see the real world. I've seen some shocking riding there, moreso than London, Birmingham or Bristol. I still maintain that any RLJer and pavement rider is the worst kind of bike rider (I refrain from applying the word cyclist to many of these people).

Baggy speaks sense. Most messengers I've seen wait at lights, trackstanding, presumably to look good?

 

[jig-sore]

As for the antics, well come on, we've all done it

no we bloody haven't

OK, their ability to handle a bike is something to admire but their ability to ride the same bike in the correct and lawful way on the road is pathetically embarrassing.

as the saying goes... it's not big and it's not clever

 

[GrasB]

Will1985, I'll will say I did miss out the opening 'Some' from my statement, as I am aware that there are probably a lot of messengers that slip under the radar because they are acting in a sane & sensible manner. However the badly behaved messengers & the roadies on a mission are seen doing over 20mph on pavements & they're also the group who often cause people to brake hard by RLJing. This contrasts with almost all pavement cyclists I've seen who are usually doing around 5 to 10mph & those who RLJ tend to actually be treating the junction as though it doesn't have traffic lights or cross with the peds (slowly). I'm not saying that RLJing & pavement cyclists are good as they're not, I'm saying that those two groups from this category of rider are by far the worst. As darkstar said "This goes on all around the world"

PS. You're opening statement was one of the funniest things I've read in ages. You know very little about me & where I travel, or indeed what % of my time out of work is spent in Cambridge.