Suppose another cyclist...

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Cab

New Member
Location
Cambridge
...is in front of you, and you're approaching a green light. You slow down, as you're planning to turn left, and you don't want to overtake and cut him up. You know the lights well, and you know you've both got plenty of time to go through at green. He then slows down, to a really quite sedate pace, hands on the brakes as he goes doen a very slight slope towards the lights; you look round, can't see why he's slowing down, but you have to follow suit. The light goes amber, then red, and four or five seconds afterwards the cyclist in front goes straight through the red light, and you're left waiting at it, knowing that there was no rational reason why he slowed down, and no reason at all why he should have gone through the red light.

I'm not one of those impatient 'get past them all' cyclists, which is why I dindn't go past him. Would have just been rude to overtake and turn left. But I do resent someone slowing me down so that we miss a green light and then sailing straight on through the red.

Needless to say, he also turned left, and I caught up with him soon enough. Would I have been justified kicking him off? No, probably not, I know.
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
Bizarre! You think maybe he got the meanings of red and green mixed up?

Anyway, overtaking him later makes up for it. He won't have noticed it, but it proved your superiority...;)
 
You did the right thing Cab and that is what really matters. Brownie points for you :ohmy:

There is not much you can do about him slowing down though. He has the right to determine his own speed and anyone following has to deal with it, although it does sound like he was cycling unpredictably, and you would be justified to comment to him that his cycling behavior encourages left hooks.

Jumping red lights is unacceptable though (except under very very extreme circumstances i.e. lights don't register cyclists etc). I would have made a comment when I caught up about that. But then I just can't help myself:rolleyes:;).

It doesn't sound like your enjoying your cycling at the moment. Time to take some Zen pills? (I going through a good patch at the moment so I am off the pills currently.....:o)
 

domtyler

Über Member
It was me, I did it to give you something to think about today. It's okay you can thank me later.

If I had been in your situation I would almost certainly have followed him through the lights, especially for a lht. I don't advise others to do that though, what Cab did was the correct thing to do. As for fantasising about kicking people off their bikes, this is surely the first signs of a sickening of the mind. Take some advise my friend, try to work your frustrations out at your allotment instead of on the mean streets of rural Cambridgeshire. None of us like to see you like this.
 
OP
OP
Cab

Cab

New Member
Location
Cambridge
Heck, I didn't really think about kicking the guy! Nor did I get to work all flustered or anything, its really a very minor annoyance, more of a 'why the heck would you do that' than anything else!

I'd say that I see more bad behaviour by cyclists in Cambridge than motorists, but thats in proportion, as I see more cyclists than motorists. I'd also say that while cyclists doing stupid things does inconvenience me only as much as motorists doing stupid things, seeing a cyclist being an idiot saddens me more.
 

mosschops2

New Member
Location
Nottingham
domtyler said:
None of us like to see you like this.

Que??? A little OTT? Am I recalling a previous repetitive sequence of posts warning of Cab's aggressive nature??? Maybe it's just that deja vu feeling all over again....

Either way Cab - you did well, and certainly a puzzler for the morning!! ;):wacko:
 
Sorry Cab. It just came across that you were more annoyed. The kicking him off reference might have had something to do with it:eek:
 
OP
OP
Cab

Cab

New Member
Location
Cambridge
magnatom said:
Sorry Cab. It just came across that you were more annoyed. The kicking him off reference might have had something to do with it:eek:

The kicking him off thing was meant quite flippantly ;) It would be a bit over the top to go around kicking people for things like that.
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
Cab said:
It would be a bit over the top to go around kicking people for things like that.

On the other hand, wearing a panama hat in the presence of royalty between the months of September and May, or the incorrect use of the apostrophe, are both offences warranting a public flogging.

For doing what that chap did, I think a cactus down the shorts should suffice.

;)
 
Personally I'd have dropped a stinger in front of him to flatten both of his tyres and followed up with cutting his frame in half and bending his handlebars into a '&' shape. It's the least he deserved. ;)

Yes, I am joking!

Aside from that, I agree with you about seeing cyclists acting like idiots. It's depressing because it makes it that much harder to argue with idiot motorists. Bags and I were waiting at a red a few weeks ago. Busy junction, right in the middle of town. Chap sailed straight past us (middle aged punk type, complete with mohican) across the light. I bellowed 'OI, RED LIGHT' after him and got a mouthful of abuse and a 'Nescafe rich roast' hand gesture in return. Stuff like that does spoil my day because it starts me thinking about what I should have done or said and how utterly frustrating it is trying to be one of the 'good guys'.
 

HJ

Cycling in Scotland
Location
Auld Reekie
When people do things like that, I wait and then burn them off when the opportunity arises.

Last week I was waiting to turn right at a T-junction when a cyclist came up to the left of me said hello the dived across the road making suicidal right turn between two oncoming buses (one in each direction). I waited another 15 seconds until the road was clear turned right and zoomed past him 200m down the road.
 

Sh4rkyBloke

Jaffa Cake monster
Location
Manchester, UK
The reason he slowed down for lights when they were on green, and then went through on red is because his life is not very exciting... thus introducing some danger into it is his way of coping with the dullness of it. ;)

Either that or he's just a MOB*

*Very much like POB, but he's a Muppet, not simply a Person.
 
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