Dreaded cyclists

I must agree with Brydie76, Ninjacoco, Prizrak and the general anti-bycicle movement. I have all sorts of problems with bycicles every day. They ususally don't stop at traffic lights, they cross the roads at insane speed, cyvling even where they should dismount, they often ride on the wrong side of the road, they are almost never using lights or reflective vests, they do pretty much whatever they want, and if you try to say something, it almost always ends with the cyclist abusing the car driver.

In the last year I was almost run over by a cyclist running a red light (and I was crossing at green pedestrian lights with a still broken foot), I was technically run over by a cyclist while crossing at a pedestrian crossing (technically because the impact was minimal - and at least the girl had the decency to apologize), I almost run over two different cyclists (one was running a red light, the other had just decided that he needed to get down from the kerb right in front of my apporaching car), and I've lost count of how many violations I've seen from them.

Sure, cycling is complicated, roundabouts are a recurring nightmare, many car drivers are a***oles and bicycle lanes are few, scattered and dangerous. But the main reason is the simple fact that cyclist don't think of themselves as road users or vehicle drivers, they think of themselves as pedestrians. Which they clearly aren't. A pedestrian is much slower, has more control over his/her own legs, doesn't normally fall over if he/she stops, has far better braking capabilities for the average speed, handles better and can strafe sideways.

Bycicles ARE vechicles, and they should behave like that. Being registered, having insurance, have a driving licence, have lights (proper lights, not graveyard's ones), have mirrors, being inspected (I am tired of seeing people trying to slow down with their feet because their rattling bycicles have no working brakes), follow a speed limit and drive according to the road code. This doesn't mean paying a car's insurance or getting a full driving licence to drive a bycicle, just like driving a car doesn't require a full truck driving licence, but a licence should be needed.

Also, some bycicle lover might think most of my problems lie in the country I live in; well, no. While I live in a place where rules are often forgone, I experienced problems with cyclists in the whole of the civil Europe: Germany, Denmark, the Nederlands, Belgium, Sweden (Swedes being the least problematic cyclists on the road, though), Austria, and, if the bycicles would be as used there as much as they are used in those other countries, France.

Bycicle lanes designed to put a speeding cyclist eactly in your blind spot and giving you the blame, zooming, swerving, unnerving bycicles on pedestrian area, THEIR unsofferable pretense to have always right of way (even when I'm a pedestrian), bycicles carelessly passing in front and behind a car reversing in a small street (to avoid entering a pedestrian area) with every sort of hazard and reversing lights on; bycicles parked randomly on the side of the road, many of them abandoned wrecks or skeletons. Stolen bycicles.

It's a question of culture. Bycicles are not going to save the world, bycicles are not going to do all that cars do, bycicles are not for everyone, too. But, most of all, bycicles are vehicles and riding green doesn't put you out of the need for rules and limitations. I hope car traffic and bycicle traffic will be more and more separated (with speed-limited bycicle lanes provided with pedestrian crossings), I hope to see cyclists riding safely as much as I hope car drivers doing that, but most of all I hope cyclist to look at themselves and say: "yes, we are not the unfallible messiahs of transportation, there are many of us who are idiots and we should campaigning to teach them to behave safely".
 
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Cyclists per se are OK by me - er,

How much do they pay to be on the road? I think we all know the answer to that.

I think a nominal sum say 20GBP per annum would be fair for each bike intending to use the road. That should keep the incompetent off the road.

Cyclists should have to have a licence following a test and an equivalent of an MOT for their bike and a registration plate so that the Police can persue non compliers to the courts, oh and compulsory 3rd party insurance for when they cause accidents.

There you go, Cobol74 Health and Safety advice at your service.

"You're welcome."
 
Over here cycle lanes themselves are optional, as long as there is no blue circular sign with a white bicycle on it cyclists can choose to either go on the road as if there was no cycle lane or use said lane. If there is such a sign the cyclists have to use whatever the sign is posted at.

Oh, and no cycling on freeways or the Autobahn :lol:

This is another thing that pisses me off- cyclists who use the bypass in my area and ride in the car lanes (when there is a shoulder/pedestrian-y sort of lane they can use). It is a 90km/h zone, uphill and often very busy. They then have the balls to complain about people driving dangerously fast pass them in the next lane, which means about 3m (and perfectly legal) to the side of them....

I would like to point out that I never abuse/dangerously pass cyclists who are doing the wrong thing. If they are doing the right thing- i.e. sticking right one the side of the road and not swerving into traffic- I will be more likely to hold traffic up to make it safe for them to ride (i.e. slow down and wait until it is abdolutely safe for me and others to pass). Just because they tend to be dickwads and do stupid things doesn't mean I want to hit them if they are being said dickwads.
 
I don't have a problem with cyclists, and I find people here remarkably intolerant to be perfectly honest. For every cyclists that momentarily inconveniences me, 1000 people in cars/trucks/buses/tractors inconvenience me by either driving 10,20,30 km/h under the speed limit FOR KILOMETRE AFTER KILOMETRE, or because they think the green traffic light signifys the beginning of a camping expedition, which means I miss the green, or because they don't indicate etc, etc.

I think a nominal sum say 20GBP per annum would be fair for each bike intending to use the road. That should keep the incompetent off the road.

Cyclists should have to have a licence following a test and an equivalent of an MOT for their bike and a registration plate so that the Police can persue non compliers to the courts, oh and compulsory 3rd party insurance for when they cause accidents.

There you go, Cobol74 Health and Safety advice at your service.

"You're welcome."

I am only thankful you're not the one making decisions at number 10, because I shudder to think what your United Kingdom would be like judging from a lot of your posts.
 
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Cowboy likes this topic!
 
I don't have a problem with cyclists, and I find people here remarkably intolerant to be perfectly honest. For every cyclists that momentarily inconveniences me, 1000 people in cars/trucks/buses/tractors inconvenience me by either driving 10,20,30 km/h under the speed limit FOR KILOMETRE AFTER KILOMETRE, or because they think the green traffic light signifys the beginning of a camping expedition, which means I miss the green, or because they don't indicate etc, etc.

We don't get that so much here so we have to find something else to complain about. Although slightly over the top in Cobol74's post, I think that some kind of road tax would be beneficial and would make people think twice about riding if they're not capable of doing it properly. Also we need to stick tax discs to horses' arses.
 
Also we need to stick tax discs to horses' arses.

You wouldn't say that if you ever had to keep a horse. They are incredibly expensive already. They eat a lot and require a ton of space. It's nearly $500 per month in board alone to keep our one horse. Much more at a nicer stable. Then you have monumental vet bills (which are frequent, especially for older horses), and shoeing.

It's probably different in England with limited space, but our horses almost never go on roads. If they do it's just a crossing, or a parade.
 
You wouldn't say that if you ever had to keep a horse. They are incredibly expensive already. They eat a lot and require a ton of space. It's nearly $500 per month in board alone to keep our one horse. Much more at a nicer stable. Then you have monumental vet bills (which are frequent, especially for older horses), and shoeing.

It's probably different in England with limited space, but our horses almost never go on roads. If they do it's just a crossing, or a parade.

Was that not just an expression Matt2000 was using?
 
Cycling on the road infront of me = I will tailgate you.[...]
... you know you will kill that guy if anything goes wrong, right? Are you aware of this fact? And you are willing to take that risk?

Whatever rules he might be breaking (I don?t see a bicycle strip, in Germany that would mean he must drive on the road - Australian law might be different) there, that does not justify putting his life in danger. This is not a game. Your Car is not a weapon. Agression behind the steering wheel has no place on public roads.
 
... you know you will kill that guy if anything goes wrong, right? Are you aware of this fact? And you are willing to take that risk?

Whatever rules he might be breaking (I don?t see a bicycle strip, in Germany that would mean he must drive on the road - Australian law might be different) there, that does not justify putting his life in danger. This is not a game. Your Car is not a weapon. Agression behind the steering wheel has no place on public roads.

Agreed. I hate being behind an asshole like that, but I won't endanger his life.
 
On the topic itself, I remain (as I have written here on several occaisions) that where I live, the majority of cylists pose no problem or threat. It?s the 5% Idiots that you notice. In my subjective opinion, "cyclists" are not worse than car drivers or motorcycle drivers ... there are Idiots ... but aren?t they everywhere?

One thing I can?t really get my head around is racing cyclist practicing on publich roads. If I were to use the roads as a training ground with my car ... they?d take away my license. If I want to train with my car ... or with my basketball ... or skateboard ... I am not allowed to do this on the road. Why is there an exemption for racing cylists? It?s a sport. Why do we allow this form of sports on the road and not others?
 
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Your Car is not a weapon.

Denial of reality does not change facts. Your car, just like my motorcycle or the XD45 pistol sitting on the desk next to me here, is a weapon. Inherently, unquestionably and undeniably a weapon. You can kill far more people with a fully fuelled car than a fully loaded AK47, and more people are killed by cars than firearms every year.
 
Denial of reality does not change facts. Your car, just like my motorcycle or the XD45 pistol sitting on the desk next to me here, is a weapon. Inherently, unquestionably and undeniably a weapon. You can kill far more people with a fully fuelled car than a fully loaded AK47, and more people are killed by cars than firearms every year.
You are of course right, I didn?t write that well. I should have written "don?t use your car as a weapon". Of course it can be one, I wanted to say that he shouldn?t use it as one.

Maybe I can be excused because english isn?t my first language :)
 
You are of course right, I didn?t write that well. I should have written "don?t use your car as a weapon". Of course it can be one, I wanted to say that he shouldn?t use it as one.

Maybe I can be excused because english isn?t my first language :)

For shame, you bring dishonor on the German tradition of precision in all things! :p :mrgreen: Yeah, sure, no problem. Your English is still better than my German is in any case.

I'd agree with you up to a point. One shouldn't intentionally use a car as a weapon without adequate provocation.
Cyclist just being a dick in traffic: Eh, okay, whatever.
Cyclist acting like a rabid zoo monkey and (instead of flinging feces) throwing water bottles, air pumps, tool kits or other gear at your car without provocation or any apparent reason: Oh hell yeah, it's on now! Let me introduce you to my brush bar.
 
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An idiot will be an idiot no matter which vehicle/machine you put them in. It all comes down to having the common sense to educate and respect yourself and others.
 
On the topic itself, I remain (as I have written here on several occaisions) that where I live, the majority of cylists pose no problem or threat. It?s the 5% Idiots that you notice.

I agree, but I will raise the percentage. The fact itself that bycicles are not seen as vehicles but as some pedestrian enhancement brings people, even responsible people, to drive them like toys, like they were wearing a different hat or jacket; this generate many problems.

The other factor is that roads and bike lanes are not well designed to grant safety. This is mostly due to the fact that whoever designs roads doesn't take into much account cyclists and whoever designs bike lanes treats them as they were simple pedestrians (again, bycicles=toys). A whole lot of new dangers arise.

In my subjective opinion, "cyclists" are not worse than car drivers or motorcycle drivers.

Of course they aren't. People riding bycicles are the same people driving cars and motorcycles. The only difference is that as dangerous and annoying a motorcycle or car can become (waaaaay more than a bycicle in most cases), they never really become totally unsufferable (well, scooters tries hard, actually) because you know they can be punished, fined and society condemns them. They lack that halo of unpunishment that surrounds cyclists and that many of them exploit to avoid their responsibilities, if not to blame you when -they- are at fault.

One thing I can?t really get my head around is racing cyclist practicing on publich roads. If I were to use the roads as a training ground with my car ... they?d take away my license. If I want to train with my car ... or with my basketball ... or skateboard ... I am not allowed to do this on the road. Why is there an exemption for racing cylists? It?s a sport. Why do we allow this form of sports on the road and not others?

That's exactly what I was saying before. Cyclists get to be treated differently. They are privileged and too many of them are proud to be. This privilege is what makes them so irritating to me.

---

Also

Whatever rules he might be breaking that does not justify putting his life in danger.

I agree on this.
 
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Within good reason they should be extra protected, as even if the cyclist was largely/entirely at fault, a 2+ ton vehicle vs. a 20-25 pound piece of metal isn't going to end up pretty for the latter, no matter which way you look at it. If you are operating the vastly more potentially dangerous and destructive machinery on the road, you should be held more responsible and accountable for your actions. Even the most reckless and asshat-ish of a cyclist isn't going to as easily maim/kill someone in the lightest car. If I'm not mistaken, it's why truckers and other operators of heavy machinery need to be even more cautious and responsible on the road compared with regular drivers. I'm tired of states and people treating driving as a right, instead of the very serious privilege that it should be.

Sorry, the act of driving and possessing a driver's license is not a god-given right under the Constitution, contrary to the proclivity that most states hand them out like candy.

My mantra on the road, whether on a bike or car, is similar to narf, except it's: "Treat everybody like they're terrible drivers - equally."
Bullshit, they want the PRIVILEGE of being on the road they need to have the same RESPONSIBILITIES.
 
I don't get how everyone rants about cyclists not being regulated. There are tons of laws surrounding the bicycle (in Germany). Sure, not every cyclist follows these laws, so you may of course rant about those.
Additionally, cyclists never get fined for violations? Yeah, right. I've seen tons of cyclists get stopped for not having proper lights. Rant about the lack of enforcement in your area :lol:

Road tax? Fine, let cyclists pay for how much they (ab)use the roads. My sister's new car will be 38? a year in road tax once it arrives from Italy, how many times more damage does that do to the road? It certainly needs at least five times more parking space than a bicycle. Its weight is at least ten times that of a cyclist, so it will do significantly more damage/wear to the road. The cost to build a road is much much greater than the cost to build a cycle lane. So, how much road tax should be fair for a cyclist then? 5? a year? Collecting that is pointless, the beaurocracy surrounding the collection costs more.
Oh, and where's the pedestrian tax then? Constructing sidewalks costs money.
 
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