Re: Flooding!! : Mon Jul 09, 2012 1:46 pm  

Shifty Cat wrote:

Exactly, it amazes me when I'm out on my bike at the amount of drivers who haven't got a clue how to overtake you, they tend to hang on you're back wheel making you feel very nervous. Or the complete pricks who seem to find it funny by seeing how close they can get to you, or some bells ends even swerve into you to impress their mates, seriously you couldn't make it up. Everyone already knows how many bad drivers they are around but until you go out on a bike you ain't seen nothing.

I don't think it's always deliberate although I acknowledge that sometimes it is.

There is fault on both sides; cyclists are often promoted as second class road users who will hold up traffic and drivers are often depicted as road-raging monsters - the truth, as ever, is somewhere in between. For me though, the greater burden of care is on the driver, as they're the ones in charge of a deadly weapon.

Re: Flooding!! : Mon Jul 09, 2012 2:01 pm  

financialtimes wrote:

I drive about 3000 miles a month all over the north of the UK in many of it's towns an cities and in the main cyclist behavior and standrds of competence is poor, there is a distinct majority of cyclist who feel they have a right to enter and leave the main highway as and when they desire, missuse "Pedestrian" crossings and cycle lanes and seem to have very little grasp of the "Rules" of the road, namely the highway code, however, there is also a very high percentage of 4 wheel road users (and even more wheels in the case of wagons) that show a similar, if not worse grasp of the highwaycode and disrespect to other road users

It's not just in Britain, mate, if that's any consolation. I have a 20 mile round trip to work and back every day, and by far the majority of potentially serious incidents I've encountered have been caused by the actions of other cyclists, covering all the points you've made above. People seem to think that being on a bike gives them carte blanche to dick around on the roads as if they were some kind of private pathway. After a number of near misses, I tend to be über-cautious now, not because I'm particularly anal about road traffic regulations, but because the instinct for self-preservation overrides everything else. There are still plenty of bad/selfish car drivers too, mind.

What this has to do with flooding I don't know, so just to pay lip service to the thread topic... we've had a fair bit of rain over here recently too, but no floods to report yet.

Re: Flooding!! : Mon Jul 09, 2012 2:44 pm  

RebelRebel wrote:

It's not just in Britain, mate, if that's any consolation. I have a 20 mile round trip to work and back every day, and by far the majority of potentially serious incidents I've encountered have been caused by the actions of other cyclists, covering all the points you've made above. People seem to think that being on a bike gives them carte blanche to dick around on the roads as if they were some kind of private pathway. After a number of near misses, I tend to be über-cautious now, not because I'm particularly anal about road traffic regulations, but because the instinct for self-preservation overrides everything else. There are still plenty of bad/selfish car drivers too, mind.

I don't deny those cyclists exist, but they're the exception that prove the made-up rule - most of us are just going about our business, trying to get some miles in without ending up in casualty and stoically trying to ignore the multiple shouts of "pay some road tax" that seem to punctuate every ride. I've only twice had someone try to push me off from a passing car, once had a McDonalds milkshake (strawberry) chucked at me from a car window and countless times been verbally abused - all for the subversive and radical attention-seeking behaviour that is - riding a bike! It's a crazy world.

Just stopped raining here by the way - looks like more to come though.

Re: Flooding!! : Mon Jul 09, 2012 6:42 pm  

bren2k wrote:

once had a McDonalds milkshake (strawberry) chucked at me from a car window

Bren, you get that as a pedestrian in Wakey (after a night on the lash with "The King", TRB and Mutts... but how did they know it was me??? )

The problem with cycling over here is that so many people do it, so by default you're going to get a larger proportion of idiots. It's particularly bad in the Summer, when people who should require a licence for walking on the pavement seem to think it's OK to hop on a bike and add their own interpretation to the road traffic laws. By contrast, a lot of people who drive during the week cycle at weekends, and are therefore more aware of cycle traffic (but not necessarily more considerate).

I wouldn't cycle to work in the UK - way too risky for mine - but I admire those of you who do.



Floodwatch: Cloudy over here, with the chance of a shower later in the evening, but flooding unlikely.

Re: Flooding!! : Mon Jul 09, 2012 7:09 pm  

Long story short there are idiots who ride bikes, drive cars and walk on pavements.

Seriously though wouldn't dream of riding to work, I got knocked down years ago by a prick who came through a red light, so I wouldn't go there again. Personally I just go out on the mountain bike down the backs on the Trans Pennine Trail or go to Trail centres around the North.

Keeping on topic raining atm, probably won't lead to flooding.

Re: Flooding!! : Mon Jul 09, 2012 7:12 pm  

Having had chance to think about it a bit more I'd like to concede that I was wrong to mention the 'mow down' bit.....no-one deserves that and on reflection it was the wrong thing to say......wouldn't be fair on either a cyclist or the person driving the other vehicle......

I think any cyclist who has no regard for the rules of the road and blatantly goes through red lights in order to try and save a few seconds deserves to hit a curb further on their journey, fall off and bloody hurt themselves though....!

Likewise with car drivers, they deserve to hit a lampost and give themselves a bang to the head and do a lot of monies worth of damage to their car.....

Frustrating places are roads for great drivers like me

Don't think we've seen the last of these floods either with rain apparently around for quite a while yet...

Re: Flooding!! : Mon Jul 09, 2012 9:11 pm  

Shifty Cat wrote:

there are idiots

This is all.

Started raining again now and coming down pretty hard.