Cyclists and road rage..

[spindrift]

Wow...something has really touched a nerve with you! I have been delayed by slow moving traffic, bikes in the city and farming machinery on country lanes that should be quick to use.

 

I know this next comment is going to cause even more backlash from such a sensitive sole such as yourself but...I work in a hospital and have meetings with some very brave yet sick people starting between 8 and 9 most days. I don't think it is fair for large slow moving equipment to use the roads at peak times that delay people getting to work. If I had to allow for this delay every day I would be leving the house at 6 am or earlier each day.

 

Door to door, a bicycle beat a car in a commute across Cardiff, Edinburgh and London.

 

Two new studies out this month make the case that at rush hour, bikes can leave cars and public transportation in the dust, while other studies show the number of daily bikers is taking off.

 

First, compare cars to bikes.

 

A recent article in the MIT Technology Review draws on data from 11.6 million bicycle trips in the French city of Lyon between May 2005 and December 2007.

 

 

The data shows that, on average, bicyclists travel nearly as fast as cars and that, at rush hour, the average speed of cyclists actually outstrips that of the average car -- and this doesn’t include time for parking.

 

http://www.onearth.org/blog/bike-commuters-rolling-into-work-often-earlier

 

 

Same in New York:

 

The race started at 7:40 a.m. at Connecticut Muffin, 423 Myrtle Avenue, at Clinton Avenue, Brooklyn, and finished at the corner of 14th Street and Union Square East.

 

The results: bicyclist wins at 16.5 minutes; the driver gets in at 22 minutes; and the subway rider transit was last with 29 minutes. That’s an intriguing result. (We’d thought the subway would have come earlier than the car given morning traffic.)

 

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/29/some-reasons-the-bike-always-wins/

[Tony]

Now thats a bit daft, no way you can actually go faster than a car on a strech of dual carriage way.

 

As an estimate I reckon that Parkway should be good for between 12 uphill and 30+ mph downhill on a fully loaded commuting bike without much effort.

 

Obviously the 1 - 2 mile traffic queues at either end during rush hour don't mean much to a cyclist.

[Hots on]

Maybe I take the longest possible route to Rotherham but I still don't like bikes on the road. Will never change my mind but its just an oppinion and I have no power to change anything so can do nothing about it :-(

 

Cyclists have no less right to be on most roads than motor vehicles.

 

Bicycle's are quiet and they dont pollute or harm people like motorists do.

[Lockjaw]

Wow...something has really touched a nerve with you! I have been delayed by slow moving traffic, bikes in the city and farming machinery on country lanes that should be quick to use.

 

I know this next comment is going to cause even more backlash from such a sensitive sole such as yourself but...I work in a hospital and have meetings with some very brave yet sick people starting between 8 and 9 most days. I don't think it is fair for large slow moving equipment to use the roads at peak times that delay people getting to work. If I had to allow for this delay every day I would be leving the house at 6 am or earlier each day.

 

Ha ha!

 

Trigger, lad; nice one! Really. You fooled us all. I thought you were an, obviously, intelligent and thoughtful, if a little self-centred and immature, genuine poster (that's why I bothered to engage with you, by the way) but you're a troll aren't you?

 

I'm genuinely impressed at your work but, if it had been me, I'd have waited a bit longer before sticking in the revelatory complaint about farming machinery on country lanes; you could have kept us going for a couple more days if you'd kept that one up your sleeve.

 

Nice work, anyway.

[MrTrigger]

I think we should have a race tomorrow morning...do you still work in Rotherham?

[Cyclone]

Wow...something has really touched a nerve with you!

No, I'm just trying to fathom the enormous sense of self importance that you have. Why is you getting to your destination more important than the farmer getting to his?

I have been delayed by slow moving traffic, bikes in the city and farming machinery on country lanes that should be quick to use.

Yeah, so, happens to us all occasional, what gives you the right to a delay free journey?

 

I know this next comment is going to cause even more backlash from such a sensitive sole such as yourself but...I work in a hospital and have meetings with some very brave yet sick people starting between 8 and 9 most days. I don't think it is fair for large slow moving equipment to use the roads at peak times that delay people getting to work. If I had to allow for this delay every day I would be leving the house at 6 am or earlier each day.

Not only a massive sense of self importance, but a massive exaggeration as well.

I used to commute to the Corus site opposite the Rotherham General, and I used to arrive by 0800 every day, I know exactly how long it takes. You could walk there if you set off at 6am.

 

We'd all like it if the roads flowed better, but most of us don't think we're more important than other road users.

[Cyclone]

I still don't like bikes on the road. Will never change my mind but its just an oppinion

:-(

 

 

There we go. It's your opinion, yes, and it's not supported by any rational argument, and not open to rational debate.

 

If you can't support and aren't prepared to reconsider an opinion, why bother sharing it in the first place?

[strikerPaul]

I think most non cyclists are jealous too. I've experienced drivers being inappropriately nasty towards cyclists purely through jealously.

 

The drivers I've seen having a go are usually either smoking or fat, and they wish they were on a bike, keeping fit, saving money but ultimately they are too fat or lazy to do it.

 

I do both, drive and cycle so not really bias either way.

[plekhanov]

Think I managed to annoy some people which isn't what I was going for. It's just my oppinion and I know it isn't shared by many that cyclists should not be on the roads at peak times. Neither should farm equipment and heavy machinery I work in a different location most days of the week and the massive amount of time taken up waiting behind cyclists and the like makes a real difference. I don't see why myself and the people I work with should be held up by slow moving traffic on public highways!

 

In answer to your question I would say that there would be less room on the roads but that traffic would flow much quicker!

What a pathetic dodge. Why can't you answer my simply question?

 

If cyclists used their cars rather than bikes during the rush hour would there be:

 

a. More room on the roads.

b. Less room on the roads.

 

Please show your working.

[plekhanov]

Well sweetie pie, that sounds very nice, my average is about 1 1/2 unless going south and that is without the trauma that is parking at any NHS hospital in the UK!

Here's another question for you; If you had your way and NHS staff could no longer cycle to work but instead had to use their cars would "parking at any NHS hospital in the UK" be:

 

a. easier

b harder

 

Again please show your working.