For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
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By squawking 7700
#1862544
@eltonioni off at a tangent again? - I don't recall mentioning anything to do with crossing white lines.
But it as an offence, punishable by a fine (and therefore could be imposed on cyclists) where deliberate obstruction of the highway is caused e.g. where ridden two or more abreast when single file would be appropriate or otherwise impeding the flow of traffic.
Some cyclists seem to take a degree of pleasure in purposely holding up others without justification.

And as a lifelong cyclist and motorcyclist (6 pushbikes and 4 motorcycles in my garage) I'm not looking at this from just one perspective.

Happy to help....
JAFO liked this
By malcolmfrost
#1862548
Flyingfemme wrote: Quite a few also seem to veer out into the road suddenly, avoiding hazards that are not visible to car drivers. Car drivers are not mind readers but would, undoubtedly, be blamed for any collision thus occurring.

If you had provided enough space for a cyclist to be able to move out for a hazard then you shouldnt be held responsible
By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1862549
Flyingfemme wrote:What really hacks me off is the cyclists that refuse to use the (off the road) cycle lanes, produced at local taxpayers expense

Unfortunately, the cycle lanes are often in appalling condition, with copious amounts of glass and other detritus, that would be a virtual guarantee of continuous punctures.

Most cyclists would far prefer not to have to mix things up with the traffic if a cycle lane in good condition was available.
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By JAFO
#1862556
Mike Tango wrote:With so many unfounded and ignorant attacks on their own hobby, one might have been excused for thinking private pilots would be less inclined to inflict similar on others enjoying theirs.


If you chose to taxy your aeroplane in front of me on the public road and refused to make way then I would criticise your lack of courtesy if nothing else.
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By Flyingfemme
#1862558
malcolmfrost wrote:
Flyingfemme wrote: Quite a few also seem to veer out into the road suddenly, avoiding hazards that are not visible to car drivers. Car drivers are not mind readers but would, undoubtedly, be blamed for any collision thus occurring.

If you had provided enough space for a cyclist to be able to move out for a hazard then you shouldnt be held responsible

If they provided roads that were wide enough to do that I would, with pleasure. But roads seem to be getting narrower, with parking that already narrows them to slightly less than is comfortable for 2 way traffic. If cyclists are to "own" the leftmost 2m of every road (Highway code recommended minimum distance 1.5m plus the width of the cycle/rider) then we might as well ban cars right now.
I also read, with some alarm, about plans to allow new, longer, larger, heavier trucks on UK roads - which is going to cause more problems................it's all well and good on the motorways but going into many towns these days is fraught with dangers.
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By eltonioni
#1862559
squawking 7700 wrote:@eltonioni off at a tangent again? - I don't recall mentioning anything to do with crossing white lines.
But it as an offence, punishable by a fine (and therefore could be imposed on cyclists) where deliberate obstruction of the highway is caused e.g. where ridden two or more abreast when single file would be appropriate or otherwise impeding the flow of traffic.
Some cyclists seem to take a degree of pleasure in purposely holding up others without justification.

And as a lifelong cyclist and motorcyclist (6 pushbikes and 4 motorcycles in my garage) I'm not looking at this from just one perspective.

Happy to help....


Not a tangent, just outlining how difficult, if not impossible it would be to punish by law a cyclist(s) for causing an obstruction just because somebody couldn't do toot toot in their pap pap.

I'm sure you didn't intend to, but saying that cyclists take pleasure in deliberately holding up others without justification makes you sounds like a motorist with a massive sense of their own importance. I'm pretty certain you'd be mortified to be thought of like that and it doesn't represent your actual outlook.

Maybe, just maybe, the cyclist has far more situational awareness than the middle-aged chap on the way to the airfield in their Tesla. It often comes from an acute sense of learning how to stay alive around middle-aged chaps in Teslas who think that pressing a brake pedal and holding back for a few seconds is making their day more difficult.

We just need to check our own behaviour first and then remember that cyclists are just people doing their thing, going where they happen to be going. They aren't going out on the roads to deliberately annoy motorists. Why there are there is their business, not ours, and they have every bit as much right to be there doing their own thing at their own speed without being intimidated, maimed or killed, by a mild-mannered chap who usually wouldn't even raise his voice to anyone, but for some reason allows himself to get psychotically wound up by somebody who's just like him but who happens to ride a bike that day.

Just a thought, it's not personal but when the mere act of riding a pushbike has people actively doing things that put your actual life at serious risk, you can get a bit militant when the same old carp gets rolled out by otherwise intelligent and lovely people who sound like they might just kill you one day.
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By Flyingfemme
#1862561
eltonioni wrote:[
I'm sure you didn't intend to, but saying that cyclists take pleasure in deliberately holding up others without justification makes you sounds like a motorist with a massive sense of their own importance. I'm pretty certain you'd be mortified to be thought of like that and it doesn't represent your actual outlook.

Maybe, just maybe, the cyclist has far more situational awareness than the middle-aged chap on the way to the airfield in their Tesla.

Are you including the cyclists with earbuds plugged in? Or those that have no rearview mirror and never look behind them?
I'm not saying that cyclists take pleasure in these actions - that would imply a degree of thought that many just don't seem to be bothering with.
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By eltonioni
#1862564
So what if they are, we just need to take a bit more care around them while we're piloting two tons of metal with a powerplant surrounding our lardy arrises. No cyclist ever held up a motorist, heck the next set of traffic lights has taught us all that lesson a thousand times. As motorists, we just need to flip the brain switch from psychopath to empathy setting.
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By Flyingfemme
#1862565
eltonioni wrote:So what if they are, we just need to take a bit more care around them while we're piloting two tons of metal with a powerplant surrounding our lardy arrises. No cyclist ever held up a motorist, heck the next set of traffic lights has taught us all that lesson a thousand times. As motorists, we just need to flip the brain switch from psychopath to empathy setting.

You must be using different roads to me. And round here the traffic lights have "cycle blocks" at the front for cyclists to overtake all those nastly, static cars and get back in front of them.

When I was learning to ride a motorcycle it was repeated (ad nauseam) that all car drivers were out to kill me and it was my responsibility to make sure they didn't. For some reason it is everyone else's responsibility to make sure that cyclists don't die..........
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By Mike Tango
#1862566
JAFO wrote:
If you chose to taxy your aeroplane in front of me on the public road and refused to make way then I would criticise your lack of courtesy if nothing else.


Damn me by all means, but don't then go on to damn everyone else who ever had the effrontery to taxy an aeroplane.
Flyin'Dutch' liked this
By Mike Tango
#1862568
p.s. I get mildly irritated by some attitudes of some vehicle drivers because in a life, to date, that's included walking, cycling, motorcycling, sailing, driving, gliding and flying as hobbies and modes of recreational transport the only times I've genuinely been in fear for my life on sadly not infrequent occasions is cycling.

And it is really just so unnecessary.
johnm liked this
By Mike Tango
#1862571
p.p.s. and be content that a narrative that demonises all cyclists is being fed, a narrative that leads to cyclists being seen as unworthy of being given due care and consideration, a narrative that ultimately leads to injury or worse.
#1862572
These cycle / car threads are so predictable. They get repeated every now and again on lots of different fora. Including, if I recall correctly, this one in the past.

They generate a lot of heat. They generate no light. They recycle the same old arguments every time.

I've spent the whole day working with my chainsaw. Cutting down leylandii trees and sawing them up. Like this thread, they will generate a lot of heat, but at least there will also be accompanying wonderful flickers of light through the glass of my Woodburner. :wink:
JAFO, Cessna571 liked this
By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1862575
eltonioni wrote:Not a tangent, just outlining how difficult, if not impossible it would be to punish by law a cyclist(s) for causing an obstruction just because somebody couldn't do toot toot in their pap pap.

I'm sure you didn't intend to, but saying that cyclists take pleasure in deliberately holding up others without justification makes you sounds like a motorist with a massive sense of their own importance. I'm pretty certain you'd be mortified to be thought of like that and it doesn't represent your actual outlook.

Maybe, just maybe, the cyclist has far more situational awareness than the middle-aged chap on the way to the airfield in their Tesla. It often comes from an acute sense of learning how to stay alive around middle-aged chaps in Teslas who think that pressing a brake pedal and holding back for a few seconds is making their day more difficult.

We just need to check our own behaviour first and then remember that cyclists are just people doing their thing, going where they happen to be going. They aren't going out on the roads to deliberately annoy motorists. Why there are there is their business, not ours, and they have every bit as much right to be there doing their own thing at their own speed without being intimidated, maimed or killed, by a mild-mannered chap who usually wouldn't even raise his voice to anyone, but for some reason allows himself to get psychotically wound up by somebody who's just like him but who happens to ride a bike that day.

Just a thought, it's not personal but when the mere act of riding a pushbike has people actively doing things that put your actual life at serious risk, you can get a bit militant when the same old carp gets rolled out by otherwise intelligent and lovely people who sound like they might just kill you one day.


So good, I thought the whole thing deserved a quote. :thumleft:
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