Cyclists and road rage..

[decaff]

I’ve seen a few documentaries/news stories on cyclists being harassed/verbally abused/assaulted by angry drivers who seem to be offended at having to share their space on the road with someone else, especially a cyclist. Seeing the head cam footage of some of the stuff has been scary and quite rightly, the assailants have been up in court.

 

However my question is this:

 

Do some cyclists bring it on themselves?

 

This isn’t a question designed to stir up anger (but I fear it will anyway) but through discussions with friends and family and personal experience I have noticed some worrying behaviour from cyclists.

 

Take this morning for example, I was approaching a T-junction and had stopped at the “Stop” sign (not a giveway sign) and there was a line of 4 cars approaching when a cyclist appeared from behind me and carried straight on through the stop sign without appearing to slow down. Now the speed he was travelling caused him to ride into the middle of the road meaning the line of cars had to brake unnecessarily…

 

Last weekend I was out in the Peak District and the number of cyclists who ride two even 3 abreast is unbelievable. I know there are probably more bikes than cars on the roads up there at weekends but cyclists should not be riding like this anywhere!

 

Finally and perhaps worst was an example given to me by a friend is of a guy on a bike who ran a red light and was hit by a car coming through a set of lights at 90 degrees to him. Thankfully no one was injured but the cyclist had the cheek to blame the car driver despite running the red light. I have seen cyclists show a blatant disregard for red lights all to often, as I’m sure many of you have.

 

This isn’t to say that cyclists are demons and most of them do seem to take their safety into account at all times but when things do go wrong everyone is quick to blame the driver when in actual fact it isn’t always that simple.

 

 

Any thoughts?

[mj.scuba]

I think some (but by no means all) cyclists might see themselves as a special case and be immune from, lets say, a frank verbal exchange of views whilst on the roads.

 

Lets face it, must of us whilst on our daily drives, might get cut up from time to time by other road users, and when it happens, one might launch into a few expletives at the other road user. Without prejudging who is in the right or wrong in any particular instance, it happens between motorists, is there any reason it shouldn't occur between other road users such as a motorist and cyclist? Should nobody dare say anything to a cyclist? The only difference between two motorists having a bit of a ding-dong as opposed to a cyclist and a motorist, is the chance that in the latter case, one party is likely to have a helmet cam, edit the footage, and then post on Youtube.

 

 

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[Hots on]

I often get abuse from motorists when I'm out, even though Im doing nothing wrong.

 

I think many of the young, able bodied motorists are realising that their lazy 4-5 mile commute by car to work is getting more and more expensive, and also taking longer due to congestion, so it irritates them to see a cyclist wizz by them with ease

 

Many of them know they will end up giving cycling a go themselves, there's a certain inevitability about it with fuel prices only going up, but they're dreading it because they really don't want to.

[scoop]

You've given 3 examples of poor cycling.

 

Well I cycled about 9 miles yesterday and can give you many more than 3 examples of poor or dangerous driving in that journey alone.

 

Everyone makes mistakes,`and we should account for that, but sad to say that the majority of problems on our roads are caused by selfish, inconsiderate drivers.

[Resident]

TBH In most cases it's 6 of one and half a dozen of the other.

[alchresearch]

I don't think there is a solution to the problem. With cyclists there will always be the bad few who ride through red lights or make other indiscretions which tar all cyclists.

 

And then there's the ignorant few drivers - they're usually the ones who think cyclists should pay road tax (morons).

[Rupert_Baehr]

Perhaps you need more cycle paths - with cyclists required to use them?

Where the pavement is wide enough, it could be divided into two lanes. One lane (primarily) for cyclists, the other (primarily) for pedestrians. Cyclists and pedestrians can (and do) share the pavement around here and provided the cyclists are aware of pedestrians (particularly when they are coming up behind them) it seems to work pretty well.

 

If a cyclist hits a pedestrian, the cyclist's insurance will pay.

 

Perhaps cyclists should be reminded that they too are supposed to obey traffic signals?

[scoop]

Perhaps you need more cycle paths - with cyclists required to use them?

Where the pavement is wide enough, it could be divided into two lanes. One lane (primarily) for cyclists, the other (primarily) for pedestrians. Cyclists and pedestrians can (and do) share the pavement around here and provided the cyclists are aware of pedestrians (particularly when they are coming up behind them) it seems to work pretty well.

 

If a cyclist hits a pedestrian, the cyclist's insurance will pay.

 

Perhaps cyclists should be reminded that they too are supposed to obey traffic signals?

 

Its not cyclisys who need reminding, its drivers - who are flouting the rules of the roads in their THOUSANDS on a daily basis.

[decaff]

You've given 3 examples of poor cycling.

 

Well I cycled about 9 miles yesterday and can give you many more than 3 examples of poor or dangerous driving in that journey alone.

 

Everyone makes mistakes,`and we should account for that, but sad to say that the majority of problems on our roads are caused by selfish, inconsiderate drivers.

 

 

I wasn't advocating that cyclists are to blame 100% of the time and I too can give examples of poor and dangerous driving. What I was saying is that it seems cyclists are quick to point the finger and complain of harassment but sometimes their poor riding is to blame in the first place.

 

I don't think there is a solution to the problem. With cyclists there will always be the bad few who ride through red lights or make other indiscretions which tar all cyclists.

 

And then there's the ignorant few drivers - they're usually the ones who think cyclists should pay road tax (morons).

 

Cyclists shouldn't have to pay road tax (zero emissions apart from the ones from the rider ) but I believe they should pay some form of insurance. **Opens Flood Gates**

[L00b]

If a cyclist hits a pedestrian, the cyclist's insurance will pay.

You seem to be presuming that UK cyclists are legally required to be insured

 

Cyclists shouldn't have to pay road tax (zero emissions apart from the ones from the rider ) but I believe they should pay some form of insurance. **Opens Flood Gates**

Snap

 

The "road tax debate" is pretty much redundant, everybody knows the proceeds aren't used to fund roads at all. Road tax is a tax on the right to enjoy something fuel-powered, really. Motorists pay it, but many (most?) cyclists are also motorists, who have paid it and/or pay it just the same.

 

That said, if you're going to be on the road piloting whatever form of transport, then yes, these days insurance should be mandatory. Even if simply due to the ever-increasing congesting of roads: there's just more and more cars, bikes, lorries, etc. on any given stretch road at any given time - more collisions will happen, you can't beat base statistics.