JB:
The big problem i have with cyclists (some i hasten to add, not all), is when i have waited for a safe place to pass, given them plenty of room, then had to stop at traffic lights and they ride back up the inside!
No other road user would do that so why do cyclists think its acceptable?
because they have no sense 
I think what winds me up is how a noticable minority, and we all know itās usually the bad ones that make themselves noticed, take no care for their safety and that of other road users. Getting in the blind spots of lorries, running red lights and pedestrian crossings, using the pavement, riding in the middle of the road for no good reason. But as soon as one of these āvulnerable road usersā gets clobbered by a motor vehicle the finger of blame is pointed at the driver. Yes by using defensive driving you can avoid most incidents but if the cyclist used the same techniques he wouldnāt be putting himself in danger. Iām sure for every pratt on a bike Iāve noticed there are five perfectly safe cyclists that Iāve paid virtually no heed to because theyāve not given me cause for any concern further than passing them safely.
Is this the right thread to say Iām doing the C2C in June in aid of Children wth leukemia? 
Seriously though Iām with Hammer on this one, itās the cars that are the biggest problem often passing on blind bends and summits 
Iām also not a fan of the big cycling groups/hordes who ride 2 or 3 abreast and seem to take great pleasure in having you sat behind for miles.
Can I just say thank you to Bardon Aggregates, they pass me on my cycle to work every day,(10 miles each way) about 8.15 am, A39 Cornwall (nr Wadebidge) they always slow down to pass, giving me a nice wide berth. Unlike some other āmotoristsā who pass at 60mph plus, 6inches away, the wind nearly puts you in the hedge!
The plus side of cycling is iāve lost weight, saved on fuel, got super fit, donāt pay tax on company vehicle. Also 90% of cyclists drive a car so do pay road tax. Yes a percentage of cyclists are [zb] but so are lot of other groups including āmotoristsā
Iāve had an Hgv class one since 1975 and have been a driving instructor and see it from both sides. Dont give us all a hard time, weāre only trying to get by.
berewic:
hammer:
berewic:
My animosity towards cyclists comes from personal experience of two & half years driving a black cab in Oxford, a university town with tens of thousands of cyclists. An entire weeks experience with cyclists in Doncaster or Leicester would be condensed into 10 mins of any weekday in Oxford. Oxford may be renowned for itās academic excellence but when it comes down to common sense, these academics have between none and very little. When you have to share the road with tens of thousands of cyclists with, at best, very little in the way of common sense and only 1% of those abiding by the rules of the highway code, respect for cyclists diminishes very quickly to be replaced with contempt and indifference.LOL, a cabbie lecturing on dangerous driving. Iāve heard it all now!
Your fondness for exaggeration is so amusing. Do you really expect us to believe you āstuck a stick in the spokesā of a cyclist who rode too close you you? How? Do you carry a stick specifically for such āemergenciesā? You must have reacted pretty quickly- have you considered a career as fighter pilot?
1% of cyclists are law abiding eh? Iāve heard that 66% of all truck drivers are prostitute murdering weirdos that drive watching ā ā ā ā ā on their laptop!
Your limited life experiences do you no credit and what you chose to believe is your own affair. The idea of being upset about anyone getting anywhere before me never even entered my head but it did yours. 66% of lorry drivers make up a hell of a lot of lorry drivers and if that were anywhere near the truth, there wouldnāt be any prostitutes left for you to pay.
I donāt make stuff up just to entertain idiots like you.
Your refusal to accept things at face value suggests to me you lie so often you think everyone else does and if Iām such a bad driver how come Iāve never been involved in a serious accident and only picked up six points on my license in the last 26yrs driving something or other full time. The six points were picked up due to twice being nicked in speed traps. Both in the last 10yrs. 1998 & 2008.
Still not going to tell us how you āstuck a stick into the wheel of a bike that passed too closeā then? Iāll leave it up to the reader of this thread to decide how you actually did this. One thing is for sure, NOBODY will think youāre making it up or just saying it for effect. Definatly not.
I never mentioned lieing, I said exaggeration, there is a difference. What do you know about my ālimited life experiencesā? It doesnāt take a genius to form an opinion about your original post.
If 66% of lorrydrivers is a high percentage then surely 1% of all cyclists is a ridiculously low percentage? Come on, weāre all dying to know - how did you manage to get that stick in the wheel of the bike so quickly.
Hammer,
Living in a tiny town like Caernarfon, Itās easy to understand why your experiences are limited and I expect the number of cyclists you encounter is equally small.
My comments are based on my own experiences in Oxford, a university town with literally thousands of cyclists on the road at any given time. The 1% is obviously an estimate but could be confirmed should you ever venture that far. Sit on any major junction and you will see for yourself the number of cyclists riding past and the amount of those that ignore all traffic laws and regās. 1% complying would still be a generous estimate. Every other blue moon the local feds focus their attention on cyclists and itās just as often reported in the local newspaper the number they catch, literally hundreds in a 2hr sting operation. Even when the police are in obvious attendance these people still ignore the rules of the road. On an earlier post I mentioned a student shooting a red light and getting crushed under the wheels of a bin lorry. The police, a week later, caught eighty in the first thirty minuets riding through this very same set of lights while they were on red. Even the death of one of their own didnāt teach them anything. Seeing is believing.
Just a small example of the news reports involving cyclists in my local paper.
oxfordmail.co.uk/search/1502 ā¦ ng_lights/
oxfordmail.co.uk/search/1421 ā¦ ghts_risk/
oxfordmail.co.uk/search/7003 ā¦ crackdown/
oxfordmail.co.uk/search/4095 ā¦ _to_rules/
oxfordmail.co.uk/search/1795 ā¦ _cyclists/
oxfordmail.co.uk/search/1741 ā¦ crackdown/
oxfordmail.co.uk/search/3796 ā¦ _cyclists/
oxfordmail.co.uk/search/3670 ā¦ d_testing/
oxfordmail.co.uk/search/3938 ā¦ _road_tax/
oxfordmail.co.uk/search/1463 ā¦ use_grief/
oxfordmail.co.uk/search/1397 ā¦ ever_ok/
oxfordmail.co.uk/search/1692 ā¦ _comments/
As for the stick, no I donāt always carry one. I just happened to pick one up I found in the street and thought myself quite fortunate when turning the corner to be able to shove it in the wheels of one of our arrogant cyclists who assume itās perfectly acceptable to ride on the pavement and is the first time Iāve done so since I was about 8yrs old.
berewic:
When you have to share the road with tens of thousands of cyclists with, at best, very little in the way of common sense and only 1% of those abiding by the rules of the highway code, respect for cyclists diminishes very quickly to be replaced with contempt and indifference.
That figure just about fits with what I was saying on page 1 about cyclists being pedestrians on wheels and the very tiny amount, such as club cyclists, that do things properly.
pecjam23:
JB:
The big problem i have with cyclists (some i hasten to add, not all), is when i have waited for a safe place to pass, given them plenty of room, then had to stop at traffic lights and they ride back up the inside!
No other road user would do that so why do cyclists think its acceptable?that does my head in
and why dont they just wait for you to go as your only going to have to overtake them again
This is probably my biggest hatred regarding cyclists
Also, WHO decided that traffic lights would be a good idea to put a red area denoting a cyclist starting block
Rick B:
pecjam23:
Also, WHO decided that traffic lights would be a good idea to put a red area denoting a cyclist starting block
If they use the red area ( big if) at least they arenāt in your blind spot 
Denis F:
Rick B:
pecjam23:
Also, WHO decided that traffic lights would be a good idea to put a red area denoting a cyclist starting blockIf they use the red area ( big if) at least they arenāt in your blind spot
Pleased you emphasized on the IF thereā¦ā¦. Iāve see far too many a cyclist not actually stop at a red light 
, they just tend to gingerly peddle out into the junction or ride past the red light without even stopping probably shouting āIām invincibleā and probably shouting or screaming at the same time āLook out, suicidal cyclist coming throughā
Why do the not stop at red lights , i thought they had to, i think that red area is just for them to have a gossip and catch there breath before they continue all gung-ho āGet out the plucking way, (Mr/Mrs/Miss) Invincible coming through Iām on a mission not stopping for no oneā 
pecjam23:
Why do the not stop at red lights
Do pedestrians stop for red traffic lights - pedestrians on wheels againā¦
ROG:
pecjam23:
Why do the not stop at red lightsDo pedestrians stop for red traffic lights
They dont even stop for the āred manā, infact they just tend to (try and) cross the road before the purpose built crossing itself
I hate it when some start to walk across the road as your driving past them, especially when your in a truck, you think your going to hit them - if that makes sense
Anybody else experienced this or thought this
pecjam23:
āā¦Why do they not stop at red lightsā¦ā
It tickles me too as both a Class 1 & a keen cyclist.
Iāve long concluded that they do it because they can due to road policing priorities seemingly having a technical bias with prioritisation given to stand-off surveillance methodology & being otherwise diluted/civilianised/needed elsewhere.
Other contributory factors surely include the likes of chattering campaigns (chief protagonist surely being consistent Daily Mail editorials) encouraging the loathing of any disciplinary or penal intrusion into the shabby road habits of its target audience. How many media folk rant about āspeedā cameras, fines going straight to plod funds, etc, etc, simply because cheap applause can be gained because they know that we donāt like the risk being exposed as hypocrites whilst any fund - which doesnāt meet a poor, blameless miscreantās approval - benefits from the fines?
This thereby puts plod into a lose/lose situation leading to an erosion of road safety, fat & unhealthy people, societies generic lowering of its quality of life, etc, & ironically, the future of cycling - since what parent could possibly encourage his kids to ride a bike with fellow grey-faced parents evidently endorsing poor road practise ā¦?
All successful democratic societies need disciplinary boundaries to abide by ā¦but it seems that weāre prioritising ours away with the nationās bottom-feeders leading our path.
Zero points on a 32 year licence
I have just edited my previous post to include several links from my local paper for the benefit of disbelievers and those disgusted with the attitude of my first few posts. Only a handful and taken completely at random. If you tap ācyclistsā into the search facility, you will find enough reading to keep you busy for several days and may help in understanding my contempt for cyclists in my town and the indifference to their fate.
I ride to work now and again. 11 mile round trip.
I use a mixture of road, pavement and cycle lanes on pavements.
For the most part it is downhill and I can do 25-30 mph nearly all the way.
One steep hill to climb on the way in on a fast road, so considering my speed up the hill is about 6 mph I opt to use the pavement for my safety.Cars,vans,trucks will struggle to pass me if there is oncoming traffic.So no thanks not getting tangled up in that, itās pavement for me on the uphill.
The traffic lights over the bridge I have to get off the road , use the crossings and then get on the pavement again and use the cycle marked lane.No cycles allowed on the road over the bridge.
Into town I now use the crossing opposite the cop shop to get on the right side of the road for work.The road and junction is too dangerous and I would be knocked off for sure.Most people jump the lights and at speed and bits of cars end up everywhere , regardless of the cop shop being there.From that crossing it is a 300 yard potter along the wide pavement to work.
Back home it is all uphill and hard work, same again . Mixture of road,cycle lane and pavement for my own safety.At 4-5am any car that appears is at least twice the legal limit for the roads and I like to keep out of the way of them.
Iām also guilty of hopping onto the pavement in the early hours on the way home to go around pointless red lights, we all know the ones.No traffic for miles and the lights insist on stopping you !!Iām also guilty of hopping onto the pavement on the way home to stop for a drink as the hills are a killer 
So I use pavements now and again , for my own safety and not to hinder the road traffic when Iāam barely moving uphill, so shoot me !!
Plenty of plods have seen me hop off the road on the steep uphill sections and never bothered me.They must think hang on , that bloke is using common sense and getting out of the way of much faster traffic.
paul@midway:
I ride to work now and again. 11 mile round trip.
I use a mixture of road, pavement and cycle lanes on pavements.
For the most part it is downhill and I can do 25-30 mph nearly all the way.
One steep hill to climb on the way in on a fast road, so considering my speed up the hill is about 6 mph I opt to use the pavement for my safety.Cars,vans,trucks will struggle to pass me if there is oncoming traffic.So no thanks not getting tangled up in that, itās pavement for me on the uphill.
The traffic lights over the bridge I have to get off the road , use the crossings and then get on the pavement again and use the cycle marked lane.No cycles allowed on the road over the bridge.
Into town I now use the crossing opposite the cop shop to get on the right side of the road for work.The road and junction is too dangerous and I would be knocked off for sure.Most people jump the lights and at speed and bits of cars end up everywhere , regardless of the cop shop being there.From that crossing it is a 300 yard potter along the wide pavement to work.Back home it is all uphill and hard work, same again . Mixture of road,cycle lane and pavement for my own safety.At 4-5am any car that appears is at least twice the legal limit for the roads and I like to keep out of the way of them.
Iām also guilty of hopping onto the pavement in the early hours on the way home to go around pointless red lights, we all know the ones.No traffic for miles and the lights insist on stopping you !!Iām also guilty of hopping onto the pavement on the way home to stop for a drink as the hills are a killerSo I use pavements now and again , for my own safety and not to hinder the road traffic when Iāam barely moving uphill, so shoot me !!
Plenty of plods have seen me hop off the road on the steep uphill sections and never bothered me.They must think hang on , that bloke is using common sense and getting out of the way of much faster traffic.
Itās all about you, you, you and not the safety of others, typical attitude of the arrogant, selfish cyclist. If itās not save to ride on the road, get off and push.
Youāre a spaz mate ā¦
Typical dumb driver if you ask me
Youāre views donāt bother me , the stick incident is laughable , if you did that to me I would set about you with my bicycle pump
But then you wouldnāt do that to me in the first place.
paul@midway:
Youāre a spaz mate ā¦
Typical dumb driver if you ask me
Youāre views donāt bother me , the stick incident is laughable , if you did that to me I would set about you with my bicycle pump
But then you wouldnāt do that to me in the first place.
And your nothing more than a common criminal. One day you will get whatās coming to you and hopfully very soon.
I have no issues with cyclists riding on the pavements PROVIDING they GIVE WAY to pedestrians.
Another interesting way to look at this -
How many cyclists are killed or seriously injured by colliding with motor vehicles
How many pedestrians are killed or seriously injured by colliding with cyclists
ROG:
I have no issues with cyclists riding on the pavements PROVIDING they GIVE WAY to pedestrians.Another interesting way to look at this -
How many cyclists are killed or seriously injured by colliding with motor vehicles
How many pedestrians are killed or seriously injured by colliding with cyclists
Too many.