Safe Speed Forums

Mods, feel free to move this where you see fit.

There is a large round about in sunny Southend-on-Sea, it is within walking distance of the high street and has a perfectly good (safe, light, airy, flowers) underpass. There are railings, and cobbles on the curbs to try to put people off taking the stupid route (ie walking around the roundabout instead of using the underpass). Nearly every time I use this roundabout in the car I encounter people ignoring the underpass that my council tax has paid for, and walking, facing the traffic, on the round about. Rightly or wrongly, I give them as little room as possible and sound my horn. On Saturday the bar was lowered by cretin on a bike. Not satisfied with even using the pavement illegally, he chose to cycle the wrong way around the roundabout facing the traffic. Are normally law abiding people obliged not to knock idiots like this off?

Before the more militant cyclists among us jump up and down, when I see people on bikes behaving them selves, they get more room than they need and I try to pass them as I would like to be passed. But I get sick and tired of being treated like an idiot, despite being all legal and above board, then when anything goes wrong on the road, it is automaticly assumed that the driver is wrong. When I am President, things will change

[web-cyclist mode] Of course it was your (and all the other motorists around you) fault, you're driving something heavier.[/web-cyclist mode]

I like your optimism

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

sounds like a tit on a bike to me.
same species as the tit on feet also using the roundabout in the same way.

as a pedestrian however.. underpasses and bridges are generally a bit of a pain in the arse, i'd always favour a crossing even if i have to wait 30secs for the green man.

True. - especially if the cyclist was the twazak in question. Gotta love Wildy's made-up words.

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Just to add, a few months ago I posted about a head on crash where a car was coming off the on slip and hit another car head on. This is the same round about and is even the same lane, of the same round about.

Is there something fundamentally wrong with the roundabout's geometry that makes this wrong way behaviour easier?

Cyclists are genuinely annoying. A road near me has a cycle path running all the way along it, yet most choose to use the road.

Personally, I think that's selfish. They are deliberatly using a road where they know they will hold up a majority of other people when they have a cycle track right opposite.

It's nothing to do with it being 'my road cos I pay tax' or 'Im in a hurry get out the way.'

It's a simple consideration. You have the means to not hold up a large amount of people and you choose not to take it.

Having asked the bikers, apart from the usual stupid comments, they say it's down to dog muck.

Having cycled this route a fair few times (used to take it to work), I know that as long as you look where you are going - bit of a requirement I thought - you can avoid it.

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If you think everyone else around you is driving badly, perhaps it's time to examine your own driving.

how long is the cycle lane section ?
how do you join and leave it ?
how many times do you have to give way along it ?

About 4-5 miles. It runs along what used to be a railway line.

I can't remember how you join it. Leaving, it puts you at a roundabout, not overly far from where the road would.

Times you have to give way...once or twice, but there is only very quiet roads with decent visibility.

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If you think everyone else around you is driving badly, perhaps it's time to examine your own driving.

A googlemap link could help

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 6&t=h&z=17

If my basic IT skills are right, this should be the map of the round about.

There is nothing wrong with it, it works just fine if you use it as it was intended. Unfortunately many people are idiots. For the record, I have used this in my car, in on of the works vans, on my scooter and have used the under pass on foot.

hmm, those junctions do look a bit like turns and not entrances to a roundabout.

Then stop acting like one?

This depends on the level of cyclist. Unfortunately cycle paths tend to be populated by people walking dogs, less confident (i.e. slower) cyclists, bemused old ladies with shopping trolleys, all of which means you have to cycle fairly slowly along them. You criticise the cyclist for slowing you down yet you would have them slow much more for a very small benefit to yourself.

Lets not forget that as a cyclist (or pedestrian) I have the right to use the road, as a motorist I merely have a licence to use it.

Some people need a little more tolerance to other road users, and to stop segregating us into niche groups, by doing so you play into the divide and conquer tactics of those who would have all traffic severely rationed.

No: As a motorist you HAVE to have a licence to use [legally] the road.
And with rights come responsibilities.
If you gave an employee of yours a cycle and told them to get-on-with-it you would be liable for any injuries caused to/by that cyclist. In industry it is a legal requirement to give adequate training in work equipment use. Too many cyclists have had no training in using the cycle in a safe and considerate manner and it shows, not only in their behaviour on the cycle but in the injury stats. Far too many accidents are blamed on the vehicle driver. The bland statistics show the accident rate among pedestrians/cyclist but fail to show where blame lies.



Divide and conquer has long been the main way of government control. It wil not change. There's always someone you can pick-on, to the delight of other [ignorant and stupid] people.

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56 years after it was decided it was needed, the Bedford Bypass is nearing completion. The last single carriageway length of it.We have the most photogenic mayor though, always being photographed doing nothing

The do look like turns and not entrances when you are going around the roundabout the wrong way

Me, an idiot? What for using the road correctly? The high street is (quite rightly) pedestrianised, the council drive their vans up and down to clean the bins out and do so very, very slowly, as you would expect.

Have you heard the phase "give then and inch and the take a mile"? If people give them room then even more people stop using the perfectly good underpass and start jay walking. This then creates even more congestion, because they are effectively reducing the number of lanes onto the roundabout. If it was a pedestrian right of way, they could have all the room they wanted and needed, but it isn't. The pavement is fenced off and they chooose to ignore it, which they do at their own risk. If they cause me to damage my car to avoid them, I will sue.

given the admissions you make on this thread it would be interesting to see who ends up paying who money should you actually hit one.

barriers & furniture aside is it actually illegal to walk on the road around this roundabout ?
certainly isnt illegal to cycle round it (the right way) which is more than likely the option i'd take if i encountered it.

i never knew that the C in coast was conditional

On an observed run a while back 3 denizens of the lower social orders ignored my green and their red light and stepped out into the traffic in front of me. Wanting to impress, I slowed to a halt. A couple of minutes later when it was safe, my instructor had me pull in and went through the pedestrian (incendent). He said to use my right of way, but sound the horn and cover the brake. Which is what I do when encountering reckless idiots cycling the wrong way around roundabouts and pedestrians on the wrong side of the railings. Whether or not it is actually illegal to walk around the round about or not I don't know, but the railings and pebbles set into the concrete certainly suggest it is being discouraged.

I do encounter bikes going the right way, they get the whole lane and plenty of time to make their move, but I'm not sure why those coming towards the traffic on the wrong side of the road should be given the same treatment. A few hundred yards up the road on the highstreet I often see cyclists details being taken down by the police for cycling on the pavement.