Safe Speed Forums

If cyclist had a license plate on their bike that would show who they are would they continue to break the law and ride dangerously?
I have read the post ref the cyclist who got killed, my codolenses to his family, but how many get killed jumping red lights? how many get killed going the wrong way up one way roads ? Why do cyclistys insist on riding the way they do and then blaming everyone else.
A273, Burgess Hill To Hassocks, 60mph Limit, very busy road, cycle lane 3 mtrs from road.so why do cyclist ride in the F*****g road, do they have a death wish? or do they think its fun to slow down and cause a jam?

Doesn't stop motorists and motor cyclists from breaking the law and driving dangerously.



Very few

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

Is it illegal to ride on the road now?

Aren't you better off castigating the car driver who drives in such a way that they strike cyclists who use the road? After all if they drive like this then they could just as well hit a car, or a pedestrian or a motorcyclist.




Knowing most "by the road" cycle lanes are badly maintained, full of potholes, broken glass of bottles thrown from passing cars, often require that you look behind you to cross a side road just when there are loads of bollards (there to stop car drivers using it when stuck in a jam) then it's no wonder why some cyclists choose to not use them.

BTW, I cycle, and I don't flagrantly break the law or ride dangerously (same when I drive my car), many don't; you need to check your predjudices.

There is a school of thought that suggests cyclists SHOULD ride on the other side of the road.

Works for pedestrians on country lanes with no pavements where the advice IS to walk toward the oncoming traffic rather than away from it.

But we do have a profile of such.

As you know I focus on two newspapers in particular. I could report what happens here in Cumbria .. but we are more or less rural and our idiots are not so "typical" as we have the "fall asleep" from over - doing the walking/climbing and even cycling

I base such comment on what I regularly read in our own local press.

But I made a decision to focus on two papers .. which represent a city akin to London .. and one which represents a small but very busy olde worlde English market town .. but situated within an urban sprawl which makes this whole area "similar to London" in terms of extremities.

As all of my News pastes testify ... most serious incidents are the result of the unlicenced chav .. the thug.. the fool with zero regard for others.

In a car they prove to be lethal to others . On a bicycle .. they are likewise.. but do end up dead more often than not. I speak of the chav who ignores all the rules .. and even injures pedestrians by his sheer arrogant indifference.

But this type may also drive .. maybe illegally. (I am under orders from she who must be obeyed to use "may" because of some discussion on the other PH channel ) )

It's not a fact.. but a possibility as some may well behave to their mind-set which not one person can reach.. even though the rest of us try to.. want to.





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Sadly .. our hospital stats and insurance stats which are independent of the official ones .. dispute that "few cyclists" die that way

Or if the official stats are correct by collective slant .. we can spin this very positively to suggest drivers compensate for their stupidity here.

You thus have to be careful as we can all spin stats to make whatever we want them to mean most of the time

The late Paul Smith had a unique gift in that he could ram a sledge hammer through spin .. It''s why his passing is mourned and why his legacy as regards his take on the absurdity of life has to continue.

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Weepy .. you know or should know by now that IG and me and all of the Swiss "rebels" AND our Claire ride bicycles.. enjoy .. ride with enthusiasm.

We are like you mate.. as in careful and considerate to the best of our capability and experience.

We are likewise really when we drive. We do as we preach.. think C O A S T as the systematic, safety-led, smoothness of the drive/ride.

BUT,.. I foresee an era .. if we all cycle.. in which we will all be subject to tests/legal obligations under the dictat of "health/safety" and "law" just as the horse/ horse carriage of yesteryear were subject to various laws concerining horsemanship ##
#
I think we would have to be very naive if we did not foresee such .. assuming that 80% of motorists take up a bicycle as costs of running a car spiral out of control or firms like Ford/GM/Jaguar and even the prestigious German models fall victim to this recession.

Volume makes those who know cash can be made, by fining the decent law abiders. concoct ways to assault their wallets here

_________________
If you want to get to heaven - you have to raise a little hell!

Smilies are contagious
They are just like the flu
We use our smilies on YOU today
Now Good Causes are smiling too!

KEEP SMILING
It makes folk wonder just what you REALLY got up to last night!

Smily to penny.. penny to pound
safespeed prospers-smiles all round! !
But the real message? SMILE.. GO ON ! DO IT! and the world will smile with you!
Enjoy life! You only have the one bite at it.

That's also so true..


Weepy .. you are one cool common sensed dude in reality

I can see the anger of the OP. I can only suggest he realise that numpties drive.. and numpties ride bicycles. This type are numpties so how they travel and I can suggest "education".. in vague hopes of redemption .. but that's because education has to deliver.. and those educating fail badly

_________________
If you want to get to heaven - you have to raise a little hell!

Smilies are contagious
They are just like the flu
We use our smilies on YOU today
Now Good Causes are smiling too!

KEEP SMILING
It makes folk wonder just what you REALLY got up to last night!

Smily to penny.. penny to pound
safespeed prospers-smiles all round! !
But the real message? SMILE.. GO ON ! DO IT! and the world will smile with you!
Enjoy life! You only have the one bite at it.

or we can infer that the majority of lazy cyclists who do go through red lights do so cautiously enough to avoid any direct conflict.

certainly the majority i've observed dont fly through with no regard for their own safety but slow.... cross the line having a good look for traffic and then continue through an appropriate gap.

And often have cars or road mending equipment parked on them

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

And many motorists would do that if the penalties were not so severe. And I often see motorists disobeying temporay traffic lights on the all red phase when they can see that the traffic in the other direction is halted. Though I am not sure if that is a specific offence

Making a vehicle wait at a red light when there is no traffic on the other roads and no pedestrians is a most pointless and irritating piece of traffic managment. PCs and red traffic lights are the only inanimate objects at which I routinely curse

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

Where does the demand for cycle lanes come from if (according to internet cyclists) cyclists don't like thm?

council quotas ?

personally i love well maintained cycle lanes that get me where i want to/need to go, sadly it seems such things rarely exist!

I can't see that cyclists riding against the flow of traffic working, especially in rural areas...for four reasons.
a) the reason that pedestrians face the flow of traffic is in order to see vehicles coming and be able to get in the hedge/verge on a country lane if need be...would cyclists benefit from that?
b) pedestrians would have cyclists coming up behind them without being able to see or more importantly HEAR the cyclist .
c) for a car driver it is easier to manouvere around a cyclist going in the same direction as them, than it is to manouvere round a cyclist coming towards them at say 20 MPH this would increase the approach speed by 25mph-30MPH at least and reduce reaction times for the driver of the car.
D) most cycles have a red reflector, not many have a forward reflector so the visibility that the driver would see of the cyclist would be reduced.

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

So 'weepej' has proper lights on his (or is it her) bike then ? Well he/she is definitely in the minority then, at least where I live, because out of all bikes I see ridden in and around here in Crewe at night, I would say only about 1 in 20 has proper lights fitted front and rear. This is probably because most roads are well lit so the cyclist think the risk is maybe not so great, but I have seen unlit bikes on local country roads outside Crewe, and this is surely taking a big risk.

Is it really such a big cost to have lights on one's bike ? Modern LED lights are pretty bright, and don't need so much battery power, or dynamo effort.

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Good manners maketh a good motorist

nope....

is it such a big cost to check your tail/headlights on a car and replace the bulbs that are blown ?... same answer.. doesnt seem to help tho!

Because it's not cyclists that ask for them in the main.

Council asks people why they don't cycle;l what would get people out of their cars. People say "because it's too dangerous with all those cars", council thinks people will cycle if seperated from cars, council put cycle lanes in and neglects them, people still don't cycle.

Also, have a flick through these:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pete.meg/w ... er2007.htm

I'm in London and I'd say only about 1 in 20 DON'T have proper lights; the vast majority are well lit and most wear hi viz.

Not that it's a proper excuse to hit an unlit cyclist in your car, if you do you were driving too fast.

Well a reasonable set of LED lights costs about £30 which is a substrantial proportion of the cost of a £100 bike.

£30 quid is about the cost of having a car bulb replaced professionally and my observation suggests that many motorists are unwilling to spend that.

I think that the only answer is to make the manufacturers fit lights on all new bikes. With the volume that would generate the price would fall substantially

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

That would be very funny if it wasn't f**king tragic. These and other examples from my personal experience show that the provision of cycle lanes is often mere tokenism. Even when the paths aren't so blatantly stupid they still reduce the cyclist to a second class road user.
From having equal priority with motorists and been able to make good progress we are reduced to a nuisance who has to give way to both cars and pedestrians at every minor intersection. And at most major intersections the lanes just vanish in order to fit in an extra motor lane.

_________________
When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown