Safe Speed Forums

C+ page 12


Boo hoo No one likes us two wheeled lycra clad wheeled up ones!





C+ has a round up All lurkers ... look away now


1. Financial Times ...




OY steady on! I got 4 kids and the Mad Doc's got 5 plus his waifs and strays and whatever Not to mention rest of the riff raff.

I'll breed if I want to.. we all ride bikes. Nowt wrong with our tackle!

2. Nigel Havers (who rode a bike in a thriller starring Michael Caine as his father) - said in the Waily that it's OK to stick a spoke in the wheels

3. Followed by the piece in the Times by Matthew Parry urging for piano wire and a call for "orf with our 'eads"

As C+ Tamera Jones asks..


What is going on?

OK the charges//

1. Red light jumping. Now as she says it's illegal and we crack down on it here. Experts on BBC Road Rage agree it's dangerous to jump a red whilst the cyclists try to defend by making out it's safer.



Quote:

Cyclists - expecially women are like to be killed at traffic lights because they end up in a lorry driver's blind spot. Men avoid this by just riding through the lights



Well. those on green expect to be able to continue without some muppet either in a car or on a bike cutting in front of them and let's face it - plenty said if this done to YOU!

As for blind spot... if a big lorry is there .. filter to the front on its RIGHT side .. or get off and wheel across if in serrious danger of a squish. or just patiently wait behind and accept the big truck needs a bit of space to negotiate the left turn as we do when in our cars.


Nope .. there ain't any valid excuses which will wash past any police officer on red light jump whether cyclist or motorist or biker Sorry! but NO-OH!

2. Cycling on the pavement


C+ agree zero excuse for this - illegal and startles the even more vulnerable on two legs. (Apart from that - the Mad Lad will start off again about the gas works, his trousers and a gash )

C+ argue that teenagers (;roll: Stereotyping here ) on BMX bikes are the only culprits. Pah.. we nick quite a few folk and they ride respectable roadies and wear lycra around here .

But


Patrick Field of the London School of Cycling wrote:


By riding on the pavement - the cyclist is denying himself the speed and safety of riding on the road



Like running the reds = police are keen to nip all this in the bud by handing out penalties like the proverbial confetti

3. Cyclists are "freeloaders"


who don't pay road tax..


Well as C+ point out .. we all pay tax and apart from the spotty littlle oiks on the pavement BMXs above .. - most of us
do drive and pay VED and ludicrous amounts at the petrol pumps


Prof Walker of Bath wrote:

How can you tax a vehicle which does not degrade the road with wear and tear?



Well he has obviously not seen what 9 million bicycles in Beijing have done then (Krissi had one holiday there .. did cycle and vows never again )

Apart from this .. what about the number of airmiles from where some bikes and accessories are made .. in ..er ...China etc...



4. We can't ride in a straight line.

Well says C+ - why should we wait in the queue. Folk do have a choice after all.

Ah.. it's not about swerving into traffic as I first thought.. it';s about jamming and filtering through..

but that's the fun and it gives me such a warm feeling to do this on the bicycle and on the motorbike

Yep.. agree on this one :lol;


5. We wear lycra

OK - so it might not look on everyone.. we don't all have lunchpacks like me



But I agree that this is a daft reason for being "anti-cycling"

6. The real reason?


C+ accepts some of the criticism might be valid
C+ reckons the freedom of a bicycle on busy urban roads frustrates. (OK - well .. what about me motorbike )

Havers/Parry/Tomkins accuse the cyclists of being "smug and self righteous"

Well .. this is part of it

Sure we can all choose to ride if we want to to to claim


Quote:
we keep fitter, know we're getting fitter and not polluting the planet


is the smug comment as all that bottled water in plastic bottles which get chucked away in landfill.. lycra (by-product of the oil industry also)... tyres.. carbon frames.. manufacture abroad .. well it all adds to rather a large "carbon footprint"

No one can claim to be holier than thou or less polluting than the next person in our current global economy. That's the major criticism of the "eco-warrior types"

As for London being the slowest moving capital/./ 20 mph speed limits, humps might be to blame as surely congestion charging means less traffic in the centre.


Of course there is good press.. Will Self getting hooked on a bike after one ride

Richard Hammond beat James , the Stig and Clarkson on a bicycle in one memorable episode of Top Gear

London's successful hosting of the Grand Depart last year

Mega bucks given in grants to promote safe cycling.

The bad press?

Already mentioned the main culprits but the press did whoop and froth up the "letter bomber was a cyclist angle and then there was.. no... no-oooo no-ooooooooo!

the story of the cyclist placed on the sex offenders list for




Now // which poster has been quiet lately on t'other channel




You just have to love the tabloids .. if they are not bashin' the police or the teachers or the medics.. they have to bash the cyclists.

Now lurks.. not me .. Am only reportin' what it said in the mag

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