What hope is there for cyclists?

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Barbelier

Senior Member
older drivers need re-educating (and by older I mean anyone over forty years of age)
....errrrr why? :tongue:

Based on my experience aggressive, selfish and thoughtless driving around cyclists has no correlation with age. If I was going to make gross generalisations, which I don't think are relevant here, I'd say the following categories of driver are more likely to cause danger to a cyclist:

1. Young (inexperienced) aggressive drivers in "fast" cars - the hot hatch or small BMW/Audi brigade
2. Van drivers (lorry drivers on the other hand seem to be far better)
3. Women drivers in larger cars, who seem to lack an awarness of the size of the vehicle or good road positioning
4. The 4X4 "I've got a big, noisy tank so you'd better get out of my way brigade"

My experience of older drivers is overall pretty good - they tend to be more cautious, considerate and experienced.

However, as I said, don't think we can generalise. It's got much more to do with selfishness, aggression and arrogance than age and that's driven by upbringing, life experience and what society allows. Sadly I can only see it becoming worse the more we continue to slid into a materialistic, "want it now", lawless society.

Education fine and will potentially change the behaviour of the small open-minded minority who are willing to learn. For the majority the stick seems to work better.............but then I don't see increased penalties for endangering cyclists anytime soon. Oh what a cynically sod I've become!:becool:
 

Amanda P

Legendary Member
NigC said:
...from the number of threads detailing close calls, accidents and sadly deaths, it's clear that the cyclist drivers puts theircyclists' life at risk every time they go out.

Fixed that for you...
 

jonny jeez

Legendary Member
4F said:
Bad news makes good news. If we all posted "Nothing happened on my ride in this morning" it would get very boring.

My personal experience of 5000 miles a year for what must be going on nearly 10 years now is that maybe I have had a dozen occasions of really poor driving where I have felt endangered.


Correct...by the way, I tried it once only got 605 views!!!...see this link

https://www.cyclechat.net/

Posts and videos are a bad representation of cycling, we pass literally millions of vehicles each day and all survive to tell the tale.

in around 3000 miles I've had ONE bad experience. and probably a maximum of 30 close passes etc, all nothing worth getting upset about.
 

Trevrev

Veteran
Location
Southampton
Browser said:
older drivers need re-educating (and by older I mean anyone over forty years of age)

Anyone over forty years of age.......!!!! Forty isn't old FFS!!!
You might have guessed, i'm in my 40's !!!..hahahahahaha!!!
I still think you're an ageist T**T !!!!:becool:
 

brokenbetty

Über Member
Location
London
I recently read this book : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Risk-Scienc...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272627946&sr=1-1

The main theme is that mass media's ability to broadcast individual experiences round the world cause modern humans to massively overestimate certain types of risks.

I thoroughly recommend it.

I have no doubt that the bad driver anecdotes that get posted on here cause many people, including experienced cyclists, to overestimate how dangerous cycling is.
 

snorri

Legendary Member
NigC said:
Actually, I think the most "at risk" cyclists are those that commute: They are on the roads at the busiest times of the day and almost always have to be somewhere at a given tme - no matter how mcuh time you have, this always adds a little pressure to a journey. A casual cyclist would never normally be on the roads at this time and would most likely pick a route that was much more peaceful anyway.
I can't agree. Commuting cyclists are on the same route every day at the same times, they know the locations of hazards and are aware of potential risks, they know how long their journey times will take so adjust their journey start times accordingly. Utility, touring and leisure cyclists are likely to have little or no local knowledge and be more at risk from poor infrastructure and lack of awareness of alternative routes.
 

Mark_Robson

Senior Member
Let me play devils advocate for a moment, what about the inexperienced cyclist that is a danger to him or herself and everyone around them? At least every car driver has had recognised training in the operation of the vehicle and using it on the public highways.
 

BentMikey

Rider of Seolferwulf
Location
South London
Mark_Robson said:
Let me play devils advocate for a moment, what about the inexperienced cyclist that is a danger to him or herself and everyone around them? At least every car driver has had recognised training in the operation of the vehicle and using it on the public highways.


A cyclist is a danger to everyone around them? Ahaahaahaahaahaahaha!!! Now that is massive overestimation of danger.
 

jonny jeez

Legendary Member
BentMikey said:
A cyclist is a danger to everyone around them? Ahaahaahaahaahaahaha!!! Now that is massive overestimation of danger.

Oh my god look at that cyclist..."HE'S GONNA BLOW!!!":biggrin:

Sorry Mark.

I think Mark meant those close by as apposed to just "everyone";)
 

adds21

Rider of bikes
Location
North Somerset
magnatom said:
So IMO, councils should stop putting down cycle lanes that encourage poor cycling and reinforce the idea that cyclists should cycle in the gutter, and put up road markings/signs that alert drivers of their responsibilities and that often for good reason cyclists may need to be in the centre of the lane.

Couldn't agree more. Cycle lanes are a real nuisance when they just consist of a white line down the edge of the road. All that happens is cars think they can pass without giving extra space. They're worse than useless, and in some cases, dangerous. I'd much rather be "on the road" and considered as "just another vehicle".

The only good cycle lanes (IMO), are ones which take you away from the traffic completely.

..And don't get me started on shared pavements!...
 

HJ

Cycling in Scotland
Location
Auld Reekie
NigC said:
I've not been visiting this forum for very long, but from the number of threads detailing close calls, accidents and sadly deaths, it's clear that the cyclist puts their life at risk every time they go out.

That is a total exaggeration, you have to remember that a lot of people post on here to let off steam, the reality is that cycling is actually a fairly safe form of transport. There is risk in everything but if you look at the road "accident" statistics you will find that on a mile for mile basis the cycling is actually safer than driving, but if you are really worried then take the bus, which is the safest form of road transport.

That is not to say that things could be safer, there are seven unnecessary deaths on the roads every day, here are a few things that could make it safer for all.
 
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