Safe Speed Forums

Disparaging nob remark aside, one thing I admit I got wrong, thinking it would never work in this country, was the smoking ban.

I've only ever seen one incidence since its introduction; a kindly old gent in an area of Newtown, Birmingham. (A pub I prob shouldn't mention).

He seemed like a local who had grown up around there when it was fields and horses. I got the impression others were being respectful and oddly, or not, enough I wasn't offended by it.

Anyone who knows me knows I have a love and respect for the elders who fought for this country for whom smoking was always part of their social lifestyle...

I guess you would have him strung up by the balls, if they weren't blown off in the war. Hey, what was that phrase you mentioned recently, about what what debates always descend to...

CIG inHALE, CIG in HALE..

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

I went for a pleasant drive in the New Forest this afternoon. What do you think I found in this very popular venue for tourists? EVERY cyclist I saw was clad in Lycra kit going fast on a special bike. Not a single one was a regularly clothed person enjoying the day out.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

There is nothing that I can find in either direction.
All that I can find is on the Highway Code DVLA reference here : http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/travelandtr ... /dg_069837
Which makes all the rules and regs very clear with rule 64 :
At this point I can only assume that it is has been suggested already, that it is not the habit of the Police to enforce rule upon a child and force them onto the road whether or not accompanied by any adult.

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

I think it is a mix of 'lack of enforcement' of rules so people are free to chose what they do, and selfish behaviour. We see this in the racer that does not want to stop to the shopper cyclist who wants 'more space'. All people are different and we have good rules for all but as they are not encouraged, nor being reinforced by anyone (so out of sight out of mind) people just have a free for all in what they do.

We are restricted in physical space int he UK in many areas so that too makes many fight for the same space 'often' and that causes conflicts of interest.

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

oh give it a break !

it was sunday, in the new forest.... not exactly a likely area or time to be cycle commuting or popping to the shops.

even the casual fair weather cyclists i know are happy to buy a "special" bike even if it is only a couple of hundred quid from halfords, and very quickly decide that cycling kit exists for a reason and get some.

and as for "going fast" i'd have thought being on this site you'd know better

Ok then. I was driving to work today and, once again, ALL the cyclists I saw were in Lycra cut-off shorts etc.

They must be going to work at that time in a town. Do you commute by bike? What do you wear?

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

occasionally but then it is 15miles each way which is a bit prohibitive when you have a 2 hour run to do when you get home.
and of course i wear cycling kit (even when on the 15yr old MTB/commuting bike), there's really no way of cycling that distance a) in comfort and b) without totally soiling the clothes you're wearing which is not popular when sitting in an office for the next 8+hours.

still not quite sure where you're going with this.

I'm not "going" anywhere. My original point relates to an apparrent difference in the attitudes of cyclists in the UK and in Italy based on my observations of a small sample of riders.

The Italians appear to regard using a bike as a simple extension of walking and wear normal clothes and use standard cycles. Even Italian taxi drivers seem to recognise these cyclists as vulnerable and act accordingly. The general view in the UK seems to be that cycling is a very serious sport and even going to work has to be part of a fitness regime. This latter view breeds a "holier than thou" attitude which leads to a sense of entitlement, aggressive behaviour and the confrontations so often seen.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

chicken and egg really..... poor infra-structure, driver attitudes (real or perceived) and possibly general commuting distances mean only the already committed cyclist might even consider it.

that said when i do cycle, in the urban areas i frequently see chaps on mtbs in work clothes, certainly more often than the occasional cycle kit wearing road bike riding cyclist. the cycle parking area at work is often busy with all manner of machines.

Massive ill informed partisan generalisations ongoing here!

Well quite. And so people start looking for who's to blame.

I was just talking with my work colleague, Big Al, who’s a bit of an anti cyclist type I think.

He’s 61 years old now and said that when he was taking his driving test, so long ago, there was a cast in stone rule that “you treat a cyclist as though it were a car”. In other words give them the same room and respect as you would when passing a car.

Sounds good in theory but I’m not sure it’s practical tbh, especially in cities, if the flow of traffic isn’t to be severely compromised. Anyway, he went on to say “so how come cyclists think it’s okay to ride up in between traffic and push past?” i.e. one rule for us, (drivers), and another for them, (cyclists).

Speaking as a cyclist, I tried to explain that you have to compare like-for-like. It’s like saying because I am a driver I can’t filter so neither should you, but he didn’t get that POV which is why I think he’s just anti cyclists. (My old argument that two wheels are like the ‘sand’ which fills the roads in between the rocks and boulders).

In an ever-increasing, polluted and congested world, keeping the traffic moving surely has to be a paramount consideration and priority. Besides which, if it’s doing no one any harm then what’s the harm it it? (Other than motorists being jealous or angry at an advantage they don’t have).

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

Very topical:



http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cy ... 451896.ece

Perhaps ,I'm wrong, but all I seeing from WEEPY is a torrent of hate against car drivers. Perhaps he ( or it) might just like to sit down and reflect on how we ( or most of us) gained road experience. I got it as a cyclist, not antagonising drivers, but learning to live with them . As a result, these days, I drive to make a cyclist's life a bit more bearable. I will not pass a cyclist ,unless I can do so with a lot of speed, and give the cyclist a gap of a car door. Til then I'll hold back ,and even obstruct other drivers from bothering the cyclist. But then ,along comes joycyclist- who ignores all safety, passing traffic on the outside/inside ,and when all that fails, moving on to the pavement and endangering pedestrians. Do we see the likes of WEEPY condemning this lout- NO. Perhaps WEEPY is one of this pavement brigade. Perhaps ,he might like to condemn this sort of cycling. I'll not hold my breath . Weepy , the choice of condemnation of this lout is yours ,and it might earn you a lot of SS brownie points.

Bt ,like a lot of questions asked of Weepy, with no answer, again ,I'll not hold my breath .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

I'll not dignify your rant full of baseless assertions, hatred, ad hominem and untruths with a reply other than this that's for certain!

If you are a regular Times reader, you will have seen that the summary of the responses to this suggestion was "it will never happen in the UK". This is because the British have a fundamental sense of what is fair and right and this isn't. Guilty until proven innocent does not cut it here.

As a PS to this thread, I have just had a weekend in London where I did see some cyclists wearing normal clothes riding normal bikes (and Boris Bikes) around. There seemed no problem just as I described in Florence. So why are the Lycra brigade so aggresive and self righteous? Oh, and why are bike races allowed on open public roads?

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

They're not, only time trials.. check the RTA.

Everybody in lycra on a cycle is overly aggressive and self righteous? All of them?

Well, I guess by the same token one might level that at someone going over the limit.

Does that make them equally self righteous and over aggressive weepej?

We should all be careful with generalisations... eh?

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

Actually, (mind working overtime), what are all laws if not generalisations?

Arbitory limits set, based on, by what and who exactly? Which define, categorise and 'taint' someone, or not, by fractions of a degree in many or most cases which may represent little or no semblance to what we ALL want to curb.

Again, a fraction over a limit = DRUNK! A fraction under = on your way sir...

Mr I Don't Speed, but goes over 'opps' = Speed kills and children dying as a result...

Now then, I've got some weed but I'm not sure if I'm just a user or supplier. Can someone jog my head here dudes, cuz I'm like far out and in the grove daddy..

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

Er, did you just completely make some thought up and then attribute it to me?

And why do you feel the need to defend malcolmw's crass generalisations?