Love my AirZound

[mackar]

I agree with you but this is the UK Highway Code you are referring to, they probably have different Highway Codes in Stockholm and Maryland. I love to read them, just for entertainment.

The Swedish law says for example that you should drive on the right side of the road ;-)

I'm not keen on getting hurt in the traffic but as psmiffy wrote the traffic doesn't work as in UK.

 

[Alun]

The Swedish law says for example that you should drive on the right side of the road ;-)

I'm not keen on getting hurt in the traffic but as psmiffy wrote the traffic doesn't work as in UK.

The right side of the road is the left hand side, the right hand side is the wrong side. Just saying !

 

[mackar]

The right side of the road is the left hand side, the right hand side is the wrong side. Just saying !

haha, you've got a point there ;-)

 

[fossyant]

 

[mackar]

Cheers and have a nice weekend everyone

 

[I like Skol]

I see this ridiculous argument almost every day during my forays onto the internet. The whole point of exercising one's right of way is to PREVENT accidents. When we start giving up our right of way on the road, it turns the road into a place where there are no rules. When there are no rules on the road - when people don't follow the rules, people get killed. It is never the fault of the person who follows the rules of the road if he gets injured or killed. To suggest otherwise is contemptible.

UTTER B*LL*CKS! The rules of the road are there as a guide to increase safety and aid trouble free progress. You sound as stubborn and foolish as Mackar and god forbid you two should ever meet on the road because the resulting tangle of body parts is likely to take some sorting if you both insist on asserting your rights. Are you suggesting that if you came to a junction where you had a green light but could clearly see an 18 wheel juggernaut approaching to cross your path at speed and giving with no indication that they were likely to stop, that you would assert your right to cross and cycle in front of the behemoth? The rules are a good starting point but any road user, be it on foot, cycle or motorised should take any situation they are faced with and react appropriately. Other road users will fail to follow the rules of the road or infringe your rights for many reasons be that they are complete arses, have made a mistake or just through innocent ignorance of the rules. For you to suggest that everyone should assert there right regardless makes you just as dangerous, if not more so, than the red light jumping taxi driver!

.....those who find Airzounds useful need to change their cycling habits, because if they're getting into so many near scrapes that they need to be using their horn that often, they're doing something wrong

Something we can agree on.

Since then, by riding assertively, by knowing the correct lane position, and by knowing when I should move and when I shouldn't - according to the rules of right of way - I haven't even had a close call.

Then you have been exceedingly lucky, because when I recently negotiated one of the large roundabouts by a motorway junction on my commute I was in the correct lane, had good positioning, it was broad daylight and visibility was good, but F*CK ME if I didn't grab two enormous handfuls of brake when a car came whizzing along the approach road and entered the roundabout at speed without even registering my presence just a couple of feet in front of me! Now, I know my rights but to hell with them if I didn't suddenly come over all submissive and waive them for the time it took the car to pass before me at around 40mph.

 

[fossyant]

You don't mince your words Skol !

 

[psmiffy]

I think a lot of responses here do not really "get" the difference between cycling in the UK and in some of the Scandinavian countries - not only do you have the right of way in a lot of circumstances but you are expected to take it - the number of times Ive paused momentarily on my way into a junction or roundabout there to glance at the map on my handlebars and looked up and found all the traffic has stopped waiting me make my move - or going into a big roundabout ala elephant and castle and the traffic just backs off -it is quite surreal - the real danger is as an outsider that you or another cyclist are going to get hurt due to other cyclists - of which there are more than most UK cyclists can imagine - running into you because you are not doing what is expected.

 

[fossyant]

I think we get it's different but it's still Russian Roulette !

Back to topic, bloody airzounds. How much crap does one need to strap to a bike ! They should be as minimal as possible/practical. Someone will tell me they have a bell next ! And mirrors

 

[I like Skol]

I think a lot of responses here do not really "get" the difference between cycling in the UK and in some of the Scandinavian countries - not only do you have the right of way in a lot of circumstances but you are expected to take it - the number of times Ive paused momentarily on my way into a junction or roundabout there to glance at the map on my handlebars and looked up and found all the traffic has stopped waiting me make my move - or going into a big roundabout ala elephant and castle and the traffic just backs off -it is quite surreal - the real danger is as an outsider that you or another cyclist are going to get hurt due to other cyclists - of which there are more than most UK cyclists can imagine - running into you because you are not doing what is expected.

Yes, I get that but, the taxi clearly wasn't stopping and the rider wasn't going to make him stop by riding into him. The taxi had passed the point of conceeding the right-of-way to the cyclist and only stopped through sheer shock of the airzound at which point the cyclist had to ride onto the pedestrian crossing and around the stopped taxi. NOBODY won any moral ground here.

 

[psmiffy]

I think we get it's different but it's still Russian Roulette !

if you still think that then you don't get it

Back to topic, bloody airzounds.

this I do agree with.

How much crap does one need to strap to a bike !

For me - about 40kg

 

[psmiffy]

Yes, I get that but, the taxi clearly wasn't stopping and the rider wasn't going to make him stop by riding into him. The taxi had passed the point of conceeding the right-of-way to the cyclist and only stopped through sheer shock of the airzound at which point the cyclist had to ride onto the pedestrian crossing and around the stopped taxi. NOBODY won any moral ground here.

I agree - the particular illustration is what makes me a bit ambivalent about the UKs roads being filled with cyclists - generally the standard of cycling behaviour is pretty good (ratio of decent cyclists/twats very high) in the scandinavian countries, Holland et.al. as opposed to the UK where from my recent observations standards can be pretty poor (ratio of decent cyclists/twats low) - not that I am passing judgement on the OP but.

 

[BSRU]

And mirrors

How am I supposed to check my make-up while riding the Queens highways?

 

[Peteaud]

I think we get it's different but it's still Russian Roulette !

Back to topic, bloody airzounds. How much crap does one need to strap to a bike ! They should be as minimal as possible/practical. Someone will tell me they have a bell next ! And mirrors

On the helmet surely

 

[Pat "5mph"]

One thing that is quite common here for example is people passing a trafic light in an intersection because they have green even though the traffic in front of them is standing still so when the lights turn red they are in the middle of the intersection and blocking the traffic from the other side.

This is all too long winded to follow to the bitter end: I see Sweden does not differ from the uk in driving matters