No wonder many dislike cyclists

[oxoman]

London is a city and fast paced, apart from traffic, cyclists tend to ride according to the pace of wherever they are. Cities are all fast and quite alot of comutting cyclists are not bothered about anything other than a to b as quick as possible or delivery bikers for that matter. Whereas the majority of people are what I class as leisure cyclists, probably the majority on here and we get tarred with the same brush as we're highly visible at wkends and in larger easily identifiable groups. AKA club rides. Personally I cannot stand city riding and will go out of my way to miss it. Give me town and country cycling any day. Having ridden briefly in Holland and Amsterdam, yes its alot better planned but the cities are still fast paced. Tends to be zero tolerance when cars come into contact with cyclists, on the flip side they do go after poor cyclists. I just wish the media would differentiate between comutting cyclists and leisure cyclists rather than lump all together, but i dont suppose the headlines would be as sensational.

 

[rogerzilla]

No, it doesn't say that at all. It is nothing to do with cars.

And in this case, apart from those zebras, the cycle lane is much better to use than the regular carriageway. Most of it is bollarded off from the motor traffic, it is only that short section where the bus stops are that have the bus lane and no bollards (though there is still a kerb)

I do think they are a very poor design. The *should* have the cycle path running round the back of the bus stop, so that people will only be crossing it in ones or twos most of the time, rather than a whole busload.

The Cardiff example means cyclists have to stop for bus passengers. Cars don't. Why would I use the cycle lane if there was a bus at the stop?

The nearest one to me in Shrewsbury is universally despised.

https://www.shropshirelive.com/news...oating-bus-stop-and-cycle-lane-in-shrewsbury/

Some bus operators refuse to stop there.

 

[Drago]

I cant think for one moment why cycling infrastructure in the UK has a higher per-journey-mile casualty rate than for cyclists using the road.

 

[numbnuts]

Like it or not we are our own worst enemy,
and in my area "the posher the bike" the more they ignore the law

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

Have you been to Amsterdam? It's quite a safe place! It's flippin' chaotic to the first-time visitor (and to be fair I found all other Dtuch towns to be much calmer), but it's still safe.
Why? Because people get used to it, and
- there are hardly any motor vehicles with which to properly squish people!

I agree. Some years back I was camping on northern outskirts of Amsterdam and had to cycle through the centre next day. Initially I'd thought I'd delay until after rush hour but decided I'd give it a try mid-rush hour, see what it was like and it was busy, fast but actually easy, safe and no problem probably because everybody was in control of their bikes, knew how cyclists operated, etc.

This year through centre of Utrecht at a very busy time and not being completely clear about my route and again, no problem.

 

[PaulSB]

Increasingly, I see astonishingly appalling riding in many parts of central London. And I’ve had close calls with cyclists nearly hitting me when I’ve been walking

Yep, that's my impression of London cycling as well. I'll add I also encounter very poor cycling behaviour in other areas, especially from MTBers, trail riders and blokes on hybrids speeding along towpaths.

 

[blackrat]

A floating bus stop says to cyclists "Hey! You're less important than cars, so you can stop for pedestrians".

I'd use the car lane. Cycle paths almost always suck.

I asked cycle.travel for road only routes and not use cycle paths and was roundly abused by the mini-mis who infest the Help forum.

 

[blackrat]

Like it or not we are our own worst enemy,
and in my area "the posher the bike" the more they ignore the law

I am me and unlikely to ever have another me, so I take enormous care of the me that I have and protect me from all harm. If a vehicle bigger than the me on a bike approaches, he gets to go first wherever or whenever he wants. I survive!

 

[rogerzilla]

Cyclepaths treat us as wheeled pedestrians.

 

[presta]

A floating bus stop says to cyclists "Hey! You're less important than cars, so you can stop for pedestrians".

I'd use the car lane. Cycle paths almost always suck.

It seems to me that if people get annoyed by having to wait for cyclists who won't stop in a way that they don't if they have to wait for cars, then putting all the cyclists together in one place rather than mixing them in among the cars is liable to make the cyclists more conspicuous and attract more resentment.

Floating bus stops were invented for the benefit of cyclists who don't want the bus on the cycle path when it stops.

I'm glad I didn't have to use a cycle path like that, because it's not my idea of fun at all. Cyclists get too close for the speed they're going, as you can see in the video I posted with cyclists who cant stop running into the back of ones who do.

in my area "the posher the bike" the more they ignore the law

It's the same with cars:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3iLnFZ7Bsc

 

[All uphill]

I agree. Some years back I was camping on northern outskirts of Amsterdam and had to cycle through the centre next day. Initially I'd thought I'd delay until after rush hour but decided I'd give it a try mid-rush hour, see what it was like and it was busy, fast but actually easy, safe and no problem probably because everybody was in control of their bikes, knew how cyclists operated, etc.

This year through centre of Utrecht at a very busy time and not being completely clear about my route and again, no problem.

That's my experience in Dutch cities, and in London and Cambridge.

 

[katiewlx]

Increasingly, I see astonishingly appalling riding in many parts of central London. And I’ve had close calls with cyclists nearly hitting me when I’ve been walking.


I (also) ride a motorbike, and I’ve often heard other motorcyclists use this phrase.

last time I was there about a month ago it was quite bad, and forget even zebra crossings like that, simply crossing the road on a pelican crossing, when the traffic light is red, meaning traffic should stop, you are still constantly avoiding people on bikes still riding through, usually of the lime variety, but its not restricted to them. people used to make the effort to stop for them, or at the very least only go when the road was clear but to just basically ride at pedestrians, and force them to stop or run out of the way.

so no Im not surprised a slightly odd crossing there causes no end of grief, but its the modern world isnt it, everyone for themselves.

though fwiw Im not a fan of floating bus stops, but then they only exist because drivers cant be trusted to overtake cyclists safely around bus stops.

but anything that basically returns to shared infra, will create alot of conflicts between modes of transport.

 

[KuroSan]

London bike lanes are like the wild west and I avoid them as often as possible as it's actually safer for me to ride in the road with the cars! On one short stretch of cycle lane I rode next to a few days ago, I watched a guy on a full on carbon race bike and head to toe lycra almost bin it because he was blasting along like he was doing a sprint stage and nearly ploughed into a group of an adult and 2 kids on bikes, because another idiot on a lime bike just swerved in front of him for no reason, causing TDF dude to swerve into the path of the oncoming family and only just managed to stop, while the lime bike rider just carried on riding without a care...

I also have a motorcycle license and I find if I ride defensively on a bicycle the same way I do on a motorbike, always doing shoulder checks, make eye contact with drivers and make my intentions clear, then I find a majority of motorists are actually a lot more tolerant. In comparison my experiences on busy cycle lanes is that it's a free for all, between lime bikes wobbling along, ubereats riders cutting everyone up and pedestrians wandering in front of riders while staring into their iThing of protection, I find the whole experience more stressful than just facing off with the buses and trucks lol

 

[Shut Up Legs]

• I agree the "floating" bus stops are a dumb idea, but what's the actual solution?
  • If you put the bus stop right next to the pavement, then the bus drivers can endanger cyclists when they pull in to the stop, or out from it.
  • If you use the "floating" bus stop, the buses aren't in the cyclists' way, but the pedestrians and cyclists can get in each others' way.
  • If you put the bicycle lane on the extreme left of the road, with the pedestrian path (and bus stop) to its right, then the pedestrians must cross the bicycle lane to reach the footpath and bus stop.
• The inflammatory article about the cyclists is a PERFECT example of outgroup homogeneity effect: basically it's saying that all cyclists are bad just because a few do dumb things. Meanwhile, every year, huge numbers of people are killed by motorists doing dumb things, but that doesn't attract anywhere near the same level of media outrage.

Australia has the same problems, by the way: we tend to follow the UK in our general approach to roads and transport.

 

[AndyRM]

The Times.

'Nuff said.