How about really small mini roundabouts, that you can’t actually go all the way round , for instance you want to go back the way you gave just come , you swing round on full lock and come up against the Kirb halfway round , the person behind assumes your turning right and nearly hits you up the ar*se as you back up to swing right round …if you get my drift
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My original posting this morning appears to cause some controversy. I fully accept that cyclists have a right to the road, but like motorists, they need to show some common sense and courtesy. The original point of my topic was to question the wisdom of encouraging more cycling as a means of reducing carbon emissions. It cannot be argued that cyclists do cause motor vehicles to slow down and burn more fuel, often for extended periods.
Reverting to my original posting, I was held up in a queue behind a group of 2/3 families on bikes, and this included small children. It was on a 4 mile stretch of busy, but twisting main road, with practically no opportunity to overtake safely. There also happened to be a network of charming, quiet lanes across open moorland which would have also eventually got them to where they were heading. Common sense would have suggested they should have done that, rather than risking their’s and their children’s lives. Whilst I agree that there are a lot of idiot motorists out there, it also has to be noted there is high proportion of cyclists who appear to have little common sense, or awareness of the necessity to share our roads responsibly, and they seem to celebrate a hatred of anybody in a car.
Bob
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I’ve never had a confrontation with a cyclist, I’ve always found that if I treat them with respect and am aware of their vulnerabilities I quite often get a smile, wave, thumbs-up in appreciation, same with other road users including horse riders as well as good mannered motorists.
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Unfortunately my experiences with cyclists hasn’t always been very rosey , many a time I’ve passed a group of cyclists riding along doing their thing and keeping over, I slow down give them space and pass, no problems , but i’ve lost count of the times I’ve come up behind a bunch of cyclists, all over the whole side of the road , knowing you are there and can’t get past, it’s at this point things start to go south, and it’s these experiences that can cloud your way of thinking.
And their not passed dishing out a load of verbal which just inflames the situation.
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It’s like everything else in life isn’t it, some of it’s good, some of it’s awful!!! C’est la vie, c’est la guerre!
That Simpsons picture reminds me of a Gary Larson one where “The Chickens are Restless” and on the back cover trapped in the extended flock with more torches and the odd pitchfork is a lone duck disguised with a red rubber glove on its head anxiously trying not to be noticed as the odd one out.
We used to have that collection here, but it left home with one of the children.
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Well done. You did the right thing. What did it cost you? About 5 or 10 minutes of your time? Frustrating, no doubt, but insignificant compared to the safety of ‘2/3 families’.
I’m sure that when members of your family go cycling you would hope that other motorists will treat them with the same courtesy that you did.
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The school for the mechanically challenged was always my favourite.
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And if all cyclists were themselves as courteous, and kept over to let the traffic pass, this thread wouldn’t exist in the first place.
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There is a very good film called Crash, showing that people’s actions are both good and bad and every station in between.
Maybe I’m right, maybe I’m wrong, but I do get the impression that most who have more sympathetic feeling towards cyclists are those who are or who have been cyclists themselves, most of those who are more antagonistic, never. The bottom line is that in the event of an “incident” involving a car and a bike it is 99.99% probable that the bike will come off worse, whoever is at fault, and it’s just not sensible to risk injuring or killing someone just because you believe that they were in the wrong and you were right.
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The councils make roads narrower to make cycle lanes, then inconsiderate motorists park in the cycle lanes thus making the roads even narrower for the cyclist to use!
Motorists who bust a gut to pass a cyclist then find that the cyclist is actually travelling faster than the car can, this happens lots on roads with double parked cars or lots of traffic lights.
there’s problems with both cyclists and motorists and always be.
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A couple of years ago late one Sunday afternoon we were travelling back from Crystal Palace towards Shepherds Bush, via South Circular, Clapham Common, Battersea Bridge, the usual route.
The satnav suggested our average speed was 12mph, and we thought this was quite good as we were just pootling along with the notoriously slow traffic!
There was a young lady on a big tall Dutch style bike who caught up with us about a mile from the Common.
She must have overtaken us maybe ten times or more by simply ignoring all the lights and crossings stopping the very few cars. Eventually she left us standing just about the time we reached our first queue leading onto Battersea bridge.
These are my main bugbears as a cyclist. The amount of time I can’t use bike lanes because there are cars parked in them is ridiculous, especially in central Manchester.
Following that, and relating to some of the discussion on New Speed Limits, I find it funny when drivers insist on overtaking in low speed limit zones where they usually have to break the speed limit to pass me (especially in a 20mph zone) and almost always come to a halt shortly after at a set of lights. I then go past them to the front of the queue for the lights and the process repeats up to the next set of lights.
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Cyclists aren’t a problem per se, but attitudes to them , and to horses , pedestrians and other drivers is symptomatic of the fact that many people are in a permanent state of hair- trigger rage . A misbehaving cyclist - or driver , from a cyclist’s perception - is just an excuse to give vent to vein popping anger , fueled by an addictive hit of righteous indignation .
And it’s pathetic - and I speak as someone who , many years ago , fell victim to it myself before realising I was behaving like a complete a*** , almost looking for opportunities to lose my temper .
I’ve driven extensively in Europe and several thousand miles in SE USA ( Tennessee ,Carolinas Georgia and Mississippi) and nowhere have I encountered the insane level of aggression we get here . In Italy , everyone may drive like it’s the start of a Grand Prix, and blow the horn frequently , but even when I’ve been in the wrong , it’s all been good natured stuff compared to the M1 on a Monday morning.
In Holland bikes, cars and people seem to rub along fine too. But there’s something in the English psyche which is deeply unpleasant - and it is English, as I’ve found drivers in Wales , Scotland and Northern Ireland far more laid back . It is the same phenomenon which compels so many of us to buy absurdly aggressive looking cars - what is a BMW M4’s body language saying , or an Audi S4 ? And look at the bike differences - in Den Haag a common sight is mum on a rusty old bike , pedalling slowly with kid on the back while chatting on her phone. No helmet , but no rage either . And here? Cyclists dressed for interplanetary warfare , designer shades , lycra everywhere , a two grand bike and a stupid bloody Go Pro deployed in order to grass up other road users .
It is pathetic ,and we should be ashamed of ourselves . .
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England never used to be like this, years ago it was always a pleasant place, cricket on the village green and all that , maybe this angst has all come about because we are now one of the most crowded countries in Europe with an overpriced public transport system to boot, which equals crowded roads ,more congestion and frustration etc, I know that’s no excuse , but it might be part of the reason.
Hi Bosley you are absolutely spot on there I think,there seems to be rage and frustration nearly everywhere you go these days all very sad really.We seem to have gone from an easy going tolerant country to a nasty and sometimes very hateful one. Regards Bob.
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