Vigilante Cyclist. Is he the most hated man?

[Guest sibon]

It's a shame this vigilante cyclist wasn't recording on Crookes at around lunchtime today. An idiot on a BMX pedal bike shot past me on the pavement (he must've been doing around 20MPH) narrowly missing me, couldn't brake in time to avoid a woman pushing a pram, so swerved around her and collided with a pizza delivery moped parked outside the pizza shop, knocking the bike over. He came off his bike, saw the damage he'd caused to the delivery bike, and just got back on and rode off (still on the pavement). Moron.

 

You've got that wrong AB. Cyclists riding on pavements is fine, because they never cause any damage. Perfectly safe thing to do.

 

I know that because I read it on this very forum:)

Edited March 5, 2015 by sibon

[TimmyR]

Just listened to the guy on jeremy vine yesterday. I'm sure some will be pleased to hear that he is completely impartial and will also video and report cyclists breaking the rules of the road.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b053zk4p Starts at 1:09:50.

 

---------- Post added 06-03-2015 at 08:10 ----------

 

I've certainly been held up for more than a few seconds at a time by cyclists. To us motorists they are an obstacle; an occupational hazard and we'd prefer that there were sufficient cycle lanes for them to make their journeys.

 

Look what is it that makes driving slow? If you drove a typical journey you make with no other vehicles on the road it would take very little time. What is it that makes it take 2 or 3 times longer than that? Cyclists? NO! Its all the other cars that you sit behind. Queues of motorised vehicles are what slow you down primarily.

 

Every so often you may have to wait for a few seconds to overtake a cyclist but that time will almost always be rapidly caught back up when you catch up with the cars in front. Cyclists are pretty rare. If anything they reduce the lengths of those queues. They certainly do not deserve the level of hatred they receive: the aggressive overtaking, the bashing they receive on public fora, in the worst the deliberate attacks (I've been knocked off deliberately), people blocking them on the inside etc.

 

And please don't suggest that all motorists think like you. I am a cyclist, I am a motorist - I wish that people who cannot share the road with all types of road user, like you, could be banned from using the roads. You have no more rights than anyone else to be there.

 

---------- Post added 06-03-2015 at 08:17 ----------

 

Motorists pay a hefty tax to use the road. Cyclists are unregistered, unimsured and pay nothing. In a perfect world cyclists wouldn't be sharing road space with motor vehicles; they would be in cycle lanes.

 

You really are the typical idiotic cycle hater. Do you know how much vehicle excise duty the lowest class of car pays?

 

 

£0

 

see here

 

 

So how much should a cyclist pay? Its based on CO2 emmissions - the tax is to cover the pollution produced by your vehicle not your use of the road.

 

Shims please give me answer to this question: Based on the table in the link above, how much VED should be paid for a bicycle?

Edited March 6, 2015 by TimmyR

[gordius]

Yes there are some morons who ride bikes. Relatively, there are thousands more morons who drive cars.

The vast majority of the serious cycling community wouldn't condone riding on the pavement. I can move more freely and much faster on the road, so why on Earth would I want to ride on the pavement?

When I do see cyclists riding dangerously on the pavement, they are usually teenage males. I would argue that their behaviour is a symptom of them being teenage males, not of them being cyclists.

[TimmyR]

Yes there are some morons who ride bikes. Relatively, there are thousands more morons who drive cars.

The vast majority of the serious cycling community wouldn't condone riding on the pavement. I can move more freely and much faster on the road, so why on Earth would I want to ride on the pavement?

When I do see cyclists riding dangerously on the pavement, they are usually teenage males. I would argue that their behaviour is a symptom of them being teenage males, not of them being cyclists.

 

There is a percentage of people who are morons. Be it they are people riding bikes or people driving cars. They are all just people. There is no difference between people in cars and people on bikes. There is no "them" and "us" that so many people who hate people who ride bikes like to think.

 

I wonder how a person driving a car who hates people who ride bikes behaves when he sees a person driving a car with a bike on the roof? Does he deliberately overtake the person driving the car so that he can stop in front and not let him passed?

Edited March 6, 2015 by TimmyR

[onewheeldave]

You've got that wrong AB. Cyclists riding on pavements is fine, because they never cause any damage. Perfectly safe thing to do.

 

I know that because I read it on this very forum:)

 

Cyclists riding on pavements are fine- just like cars driving on roads are fine.

 

Cyclists bombing around like maniacs and crashing into things on pavements are not fine, just as cars bombing around like maniacs and crashing into things on roads are not fine.

 

---------- Post added 06-03-2015 at 08:30 ----------

 

Look what is it that makes driving slow? If you drove a typical journey you make with no other vehicles on the road it would take very little time. What is it that makes it take 2 or 3 times longer than that? Cyclists? NO! Its all the other cars that you sit behind. Queues of motorised vehicles are what slow you down primarily.

 

Every so often you may have to wait for a few seconds to overtake a cyclist but that time will almost always be rapidly caught back up when you catch up with the cars in front. Cyclists are pretty rare. If anything they reduce the lengths of those queues. They certainly do not deserve the level of hatred they receive: the aggressive overtaking, the bashing they receive on public fora, in the worst the deliberate attacks (I've been knocked off deliberately), people blocking them on the inside etc.

 

 

At last- someone else who understands that the cause of our conjested, clogged up road system is excessive numbers of motor vehicles!

 

Next time a car driver is feeling 'held up' by a cyclist, just ask why you can't overtake- is it really the cyclist in front, or are you conveniently missing the fact that the opposite lane is chock full of oncoming cars, and/or both sides of both lines are blocked by lines of bumper-to-bumper parked cars?

[Cyclone]

It's a shame this vigilante cyclist wasn't recording on Crookes at around lunchtime today. An idiot on a BMX pedal bike shot past me on the pavement (he must've been doing around 20MPH) narrowly missing me, couldn't brake in time to avoid a woman pushing a pram, so swerved around her and collided with a pizza delivery moped parked outside the pizza shop, knocking the bike over. He came off his bike, saw the damage he'd caused to the delivery bike, and just got back on and rode off (still on the pavement). Moron.

 

You get idiots on and in all forms of transport.

[RootsBooster]

You've got that wrong AB. Cyclists riding on pavements is fine, because they never cause any damage. Perfectly safe thing to do.

 

I know that because I read it on this very forum:)

 

Can you quote the post in which you read that?

[adamf]

Motorists pay a hefty tax to use the road.

 

Bzzzt, wrong. You're not new here, so I'm pretty sure VED has been explained to clearly to you before.

 

---------- Post added 06-03-2015 at 11:17 ----------

 

At last- someone else who understands that the cause of our conjested, clogged up road system is excessive numbers of motor vehicles!

 

Next time a car driver is feeling 'held up' by a cyclist, just ask why you can't overtake- is it really the cyclist in front, or are you conveniently missing the fact that the opposite lane is chock full of oncoming cars, and/or both sides of both lines are blocked by lines of bumper-to-bumper parked cars?

 

Here's a diagram to help clear that up:

 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_Mc6R0W4AEPiay.jpg

[truman]

Bzzzt, wrong. You're not new here, so I'm pretty sure VED has been explained to clearly to you before.

 

To be honest you can't be on the road without it... (unless you have a really old car or one with very very low emissions).. so you do have to pay to use the road.. If I can legally use my car on the road without paying VED could you show me how please? I'm sure other drivers would be interested too..

Edited March 6, 2015 by truman

[TimmyR]

To be honest you can't be on the road without it... (unless you have a really old car or one with very very low emissions).. so you do have to pay to use the road..

 

Yes you can, on a bike. The VED is to pay for your right to use a polluting vehicle not to use the road. This has been repeated a million times on this forum. Everyone who pays income tax pays for the roads as the roads are paid for from general taxation..

Edited March 6, 2015 by TimmyR