RLJ makes me mad...

[RANDOM]

Sitting on the bus coming home tonight, I got a great view of all the cyclists who gave us all our bad reputation:


Cycling across pedestrian crossings when the traffic light's at red ?
Check.

Weaving about through traffic in the dark wearing black with no lights on the bike ?
Check.

Swerving around the bus and the cars in front waiting at lights, wee legs going like the clappers causing terribly unstable-looking wobbling and then streaking across through oncoming traffic at the junction we were sitting 'cos the lights were red ?
Check.

Undertake / overtake / pull in / pull out without even looking behind you at any point ?
Check.

I don't know - these people obviously have no fear, or do not know the pain of being hit by something much bigger and harder at speed. I could see people in their cars shaking fists / shaking heads / flashing lights and hear horns being sounded. No doubt they're noting what selfish / dangerous / RLJ'ing / non-light-using cyclists those twunts are, ready to tar the rest of us with the same etc etc etc etc.

Numpty cyclists. We need Magnatom to appear, a-la Green Cross Code Man, saying "STOP !!" and pointing out to them the error of their ways. "Always use the Cyclecraft Code, 'cos I won't be there when YOU hit the road !"

Still not alway's the drivers fault when you have some cyclist doing that.

 

[col]

I appear to be gaining something of a reputation! Honest I am just a mild mannered janitor......

Until you find a phone box,and rip your gear off,and appear in your keggs,hands on hips,looking to the sky

 

[summerdays]

I think at almost every red light that I stopped at yesterday, there was at least two cyclists who went through on red. Though I did have one red light at which I stopped at and the car that was behind me went through the red, which made me realise that perhaps I ought to look behind as I brake for an amber/red light. Luckily I was in secondary position so it could get by.

 

[gambatte]

The difference is that those people didn't harm anyone apart from raising the blood pressure of a few porky car drivers. In the mean time another ten people have been killed on the roads by motorists today throughout the UK as well as around 650 seriously injured.

Doesn't mean we should ignore the former. I'd guess there's a greater figure killed thro AIDs and associated illnesses in Africa in the same period, which we could all alleviate thro' charitable donations....

 

[Cab]

The difference is that those people didn't harm anyone apart from raising the blood pressure of a few porky car drivers. In the mean time another ten people have been killed on the roads by motorists today throughout the UK as well as around 650 seriously injured.

Indeed. Rather implies to me that the top target for action should be those motorists who cause tremendous damage like this. Doesn't excuse cyclists breaking the law at all, but it does put motorists whinging about it into some kind of context.

 

[goo_mason]

But say you were the bus driver or the innocent car driver who hit one of these cycling suicide-cases who went through a red when you were driving along through a green ?

I wouldn't fancy having to live with the memory of killing someone through no fault of my own...

Then there's the OAP on the bus walking to the door to get off who goes flying and breaks a hip when the driver has to brake suddenly to avoid turning numpty-boy into lumpy jam on the road.

There are other consequences to these cylists' illegal actions if you stop and think about it.

 

[Cab]

But say you were the bus driver or the innocent car driver who hit one of these cycling suicide-cases who went through a red when you were driving along through a green ?

Note that I didn't condone riding without lights, red light jumping, pavement riding, etc. I suggested putting it into context. Its a bad thing to do, but compared with, say, driving while talking on a mobile phone? Or compared with speeding in a built up area?

I'm just fed up to the back teeth of motorists I know complaining about cyclists breaking rules, when I know for a fact that they'll go out and break all manner of rules on the road themselves the next day, in so doing risking other peoples lives and welfare far more than an unlit cyclist or a cyclist jumping a red light.

I wouldn't fancy having to live with the memory of killing someone through no fault of my own...

Nor would I. Strangely, we don't see many people clamoring for harsher treatment of motorists who break the speed limit, when their actions are far more likely to lead to other people having accidents too. It isn't trying to get cyclists to obey the rules that bothers me, what I'm concerned with is that as cyclists we get far too cut up about this kind of thing and we allow those who have little understanding of cycling issues to trap us in the rather negative agenda. It is both disproportionate to the risk and against our own interests.

Then there's the OAP on the bus walking to the door to get off who goes flying and breaks a hip when the driver has to brake suddenly to avoid turning numpty-boy into lumpy jam on the road.

There are other consequences to these cylists' illegal actions if you stop and think about it.

Of course there are, but they are vanishingly rare in comparison with other road mishaps. We dwell on them too much, to our detriment.

 

[Elmer Fudd]

As far as I see it, the main person to be concerned about is yourself. Make sure you drive / cycle within the law, then dispersions can be passed on others ( and I'm no saint )