Considering that this is a forum for supposedly professional drivers the paucity of legal knowledge and understanding of other road users’ needs is worrying. I’ll attempt to correct a few misconceptions although I have a feeling that some people will hold very tightly to their prejudices.
Endit:
[zb] cyclists (who pay no road tax and have no insurance) always seem to think that they should be allowed to take up the same size space as a Hummer.
Nobody in the UK pays road tax. What you pay is called Vehicle Excise Duty, for cars it is rated according to Co2 output - the more your exhaust emits, the more you pay. Conversely, the less you emit, the less you pay. The lowest banded cars are zero-rated - that is, they pay nothing for their tax disc. A bicycle emits no Co2, so it too would pay nothing.
Furthermore, “road tax” does not pay for the roads, just as national insurance doesn’t pay for hospitals. Both taxes go straight into the pot, with just about every other tax. Most UK roads are maintained by councils, who are funded by central government. It is a nonsense to suggest that because cyclists don’t pay “road tax” they don’t have a right to use the roads. In fact, cyclists have a common-law right to use the roads, a right that cannot be rescinded. Motorists (of which I am also one) have an entitlement granted by a licence, and that certainly can be rescinded.
selby newcomer:
For some reason cyclists like to live dangerously, most of them like to ride virtually in the middle of the road for some reason, and them tossers that ride around in a group all dressed in Lycra do my nut in, they ride 2 or 3 wide and make it as difficult as possible to over take on country roads 
MTB’rs aside, no road cyclist I have ever met likes to live “dangerously”. When we cycle in the middle of the lane we do so because we don’t want motorists to “squeeze past”, something that a minority will happily do without considering what might happen should oncoming traffic force them back across the road and into the side of the cyclist they’re overtaking. It’s called “primary position” and is a practice recommended by just about every road safety body and cycling organisation you can mention. We don’t do it to annoy you, we do it to bolster our safety by forcing motorists to consider more carefully the overtake they wish to carry out.
Put it this way - as a HGV driver you often have to take the right-hand lane to turn left. You don’t do that to annoy people, do you?
Also, we wear lycra because it’s comfortable. When you’re cycling 60 miles or so, you don’t want sweaty cotton shorts chafing away on your legs. And cycling two-abreast, for the same reason we take primary position, can often be much safer than single file. Most responsible cyclists will be considerate to other road users, but just like every group, there’s always a few idiots who won’t. Just like there’s always a few HGV drivers who drive with unsafe vehicles. They’re called a minority for a reason.
bubsy06:
Lorry driver was spot on, he gave him plenty of room, too many cyclists buying these cameras and going out looking for trouble, sad barstuards 
He gave him far less than rule 163 of the Highway Code suggests, around three feet by my reckoning. We buy and use these cameras to protect our arses in the event of a serious accident or assault, and also to raise general awareness of some of the appalling driving out there.
Kerbdog:
Watch the first vid from 8 seconds, then just pause it and move it on manually, look how far out the cyclist is from not just the kerb but from the vehicles that are parked. Idiot. Sad life when you look at it on youtube and see how many people are posting video’s with registrations, get a life !
He’s doing 25-30mph at that point, it’s exactly where I’d be too. There’s nothing wrong with his road positioning. Cycling at those speeds, in the gutter, would be stupidly dangerous.
selby newcomer:
It’s getting ridiculous, none of us want to run over a cyclist but looking at the actions of some of them it will happen through no fault of a driver. It’s almost like there is a competition going on in the cyclist world, who can cause an overtaking lorry the most hassle and post it on YouTube .
Thankfully the vast majority of my interactions with HGV drivers are superb. Most of you guys are expert drivers, however, some are not, and you know it as well as I do, probably better in fact. You won’t see the good overtakes that often because…well, that’s how you’re supposed to drive.
bubsy06:
from a coppers mouth and i agree, youtube is full of cyclists videos where they have been the victim, 9 times out of 10 it is because they have peed ff the vehicle behind them.
Cyclists riding in a law-abiding fashion are not to blame for motorists unable to deal properly with their presence.
DaiDap:
There was one helmet with a camera that pulled out on me whilst I was on a roundabout. It was one above the A666 in Kearsley, and I was the one who had to take evasive action to avoid flattening him.
No matter where I look I still can’t find this vid on youtube
There are idiots using all forms of transport, even cyclists.
mickyblue:
My gut feeling says that they edit some of the videos before they post them up. You never seem to see what happened before the over take do you?
Nothing excuses careless or dangerous driving.
Grayham:
Cyclists want us to be more considerate? Well it works both ways you know, when im running it fully freighted its alot harder to overtake safely than it is if im in a car, why not just pull over for a few seconds or better still use the designated cycle paths (that i see being ignored on regular occassions) and let me pass? Honestly why do they look for trouble
Good cyclists will pull over, I certainly do it if I know a HGV driver has been stuck behind me for 20 seconds or so. However, cycle paths are generally a load of crap, being full of litter, pedestrians, dog crap, glass, and regularly interrupted by junctions with side roads. So we don’t use them. Also, shared-use cycle paths have a speed restriction of 12mph, you’ll understand if I don’t want to ride at 23mph on one of those.
emmerson2:
Cyclists should be registered in the same way as the rest of us road users. Then if there is a problem they can be identified and reported for the hundreds of offences that they commit every day.
It’s completely impractical. How do you register a bicycle? What part of the frame is registered? I can separate my MTB frame into several pieces, so which bit gets registered?
Plus, how many of these “hundreds of offences” result in serious injury or death, compared to larger vehicles? There’s about one death annually caused by cyclists, vs about 2,500 annually caused by motorists. That doesn’t include the seriously injured, who number in the tens of thousands.
Dakota:
That bike above is SO dangerous IMO. I used to see a guy around my way on one. If you ever needed to put your feet down to steady yourself or got a wobble on you`d be laying in the middle of the road. They look like a deathtrap to me
Most recumbent bicycles are no shorter than your average open-top sports car. I’ve never seen or heard of any stats that suggest they’re less safe than an equivalent upright bicycle.
Fat Controller:
The thing that annoys me are the cyclists who ignore the compulsory cycle ways. On the A5 between Hinckley & Atherstone the footpath is designated a cycleway denoted by a circular blue sign with a white rim & a picture of pedestrians & cyclists on it.
You still get wally’s wobbling along the road trying to avoid the potholes.
Years ago, I lived in Brentwood & recall a cyclist going flat out running into the back of a broken down car on the A12. He not only killed himself but injured the woman waiting for the RAC.
The cycleway you describe is not compulsory. I would bet any money that the cyclists you mention aren’t using it because it doesn’t go where they want to go, and because it’s completely impractical for their needs.
As for the cyclist who hit the car while time trialling, I think I remember the case and there’s no excuse for what happened. Just as there’s no excuse for the HGV driver who hit and killed Karl Austin on the arrow-straight A50 last year:
thisisnottingham.co.uk/Langw … story.html
The difference is that the cyclist didn’t kill the car’s occupant.
fangelizabeth:
M&S driver with lots of spare time now. The young lad with the helmet camera has posted 75 videos on youtube since xmas day. I wonder if his parents now what he is doing with his present. I feel sorry for the taxi driver he managed to set up 3 times then report him to the licencing authorities. I was glad to see M&S did not give in to any financial reward after this blackmail. Any way with my spare time I am having a2week cycling holiday round Maidstone (Loose area). May be after37 years HGV Driving with out any hassle it will do me good. I look forward to the free pint. one of the members. AND THANKS FOR ALL THE SUPPORT IT CHEERED ME UP. The only reason I stopped to have a chat was because the cyclist had already made the 4 cars in front of me swerve to the other side of the road, this cyclist is going to kill himself or injure somebody else.
If you’re the HGV driver in the video in the first post on this thread then I hope you don’t lose your job. I’d rather you were given extra training so that the next cyclist you overtake doesn’t have cause to complain about the manner in which you do it. As I’ve said, most HGV drivers are excellent, so there’s no reason why you can’t be too.
spikeybike:
i live in chester the number of cyclists without any lights in the dark is nuts ive neariy had afew under the truck and car isnt it an offence or is it too much for tne cops to bother
Lots of new cyclists don’t know how to behave around HGVs. It’s a shame, they’re usually the ones getting flattened on left-hand turns. I never undertake a HGV unless I know for certain he can’t move as I’m passing. I know how poor visibility can be on some of your vehicles.
and he would be posting video of where it was… 
