hicksy3 Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 The cyclist shouldn't have thumped your car. There are much worse things happen in the world than that. Why did you feel the need to beep your horn as they went through a red light? If you feel so strongly about minor misdemeanours and want to go round telling people what to do, join the police! Did it make your journey any longer as someone else went through a red light? Beeping your horn and getting a fist thumped on your car roof by a troglodyte is a predictable outcome. The majority of cyclists don't act like that so no-one notices them. Posted from Sheffieldforum.co.uk App for Android Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattleonard Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Going back to the cyclist thing, what's wrong with them keeping to the left as taught by the cycling profiency schools? My point is that many cyclists stop with the front end of their bike in front of the queued traffic. If you're wanting to cycle without creating the aggrevation of car drivers then just come to a stop at the left. Why should I get so much anger in responses to me over that? I'm not angry, but it is safer for the cyclist to occupy the lane, rather than choose to be marginalised at the left of the road. As I said, the motorist next to them might turn left. Similarly if there are parked cars beyond the traffic lights, then it might be that the cyclist has the poor luck to have Bassman62 behind them, who wouldn't anticipate that the cyclist would want to cut in rather than just plough into a parked car. Or they might just leave less room than they should do. The advice which was given in the cycling proficiency test is now rather outdated - it's been replaced by Bikeability which specifically encourages cyclists not to keep to the left. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allysum Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 While we're at it I think the council should be taking some responsibility in all of this too. Cycle lanes are not clearly marked and they cross over awkwardly when meeting up with a pedestrian pavement. All city centre roads should have a dedicated cycle lane where the cyclist is also clear they have to abide by the normal road rules, including pedestrian crossings. Cycling should be promoted in a better light.... in Quito (sorry, one of only two places I've experienced like this) the central route roads are closed for 6 hours on a Sunday purely for cyclists to have a day without risking their lives. Cycling is promoted well, courses offered and all the bike shops come out at various points along the route to run servicing and repairs..... all that in a developing country, the worlds most impatient drivers and a city population of 3.5million. Then there are the potholes..... the number of cars avoiding potholes and having near misses in Sheffield is astonishing. Cross that with a cyclist and it's not going to end pretty. The roads from Burncross were never that bad but I can't imagine it's fun riding potholes on a bicycle here either. ---------- Post added 21-07-2015 at 14:19 ---------- Did it make your journey any longer as someone else went through a red light? Beeping your horn and getting a fist thumped on your car roof by a troglodyte is a predictable outcome. It might have made a pedestrians journey a lot longer, especially from the Northern General. Why should it be a predictable outcome? If a police car did it (as you suggested I join them) would they have had their car hit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattleonard Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Cycling should be promoted in a better light.... in Quito (sorry, one of only two places I've experienced like this) the central route roads are closed for 6 hours on a Sunday purely for cyclists to have a day without risking their lives. This happened a couple of weeks ago with the Skyride, and given the reaction on the associated thread on SF, the world had ended - it was a good event (although I didn't take part myself), but it definitely didn't seem to improve cyclist-motorist relations; one SF-er got very upset because her two-year old cried, before then demonstrating the one of the most literal expressions of Ian Walker's research conclusions that I've ever encountered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allysum Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 I'm not angry, but .... Wasn't really implicating you in that one Matt, sorry. Trying to defend myself against too many others on here who seem to think I've dissed every cyclist and asked for them to be banned. I'm obviously not seeing eye-to-eye with everyone on here but really just trying to show everybody where they are getting worked up and how it translates to either the drivers or the cyclists on the road. ---------- Post added 21-07-2015 at 14:30 ---------- This happened a couple of weeks ago with the Skyride, and given the reaction on the associated thread on SF, the world had ended - it was a good event (although I didn't take part myself) It really needs operating every two weeks so it becomes an expected standard event. Maybe not during the winter months though ..... I do understand the weather is quite different here. For those gritting your teeth at the suggestion just made maybe think about calming down too. There are quite a few routes to get around Sheffield and eventually it would just click in your mind that a road is closed every fortnight for a few hours on a Sunday. It's an excellent opportunity for businesses as well... catering, cycle servicing, kids activities along the route.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattleonard Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 If you're wanting to cycle without creating the aggrevation of car drivers then just come to a stop at the left. I think this does raise a significant point, actually. This post does a good job of explaining the dilemma which cyclists face - tactics like primary position work to mitigate some of the dangers in many of the cases where anything from good-natured ignorance to moderate aggression from motorists could lead to some quite nasty situations. But, it does mean that when you encounter a downright evil driver, then you are potentially even more exposed than you'd otherwise be - I've described in an earlier post a situation very similar to the pinch-point video in that blog post, and things like can be really nasty. So in that sense, we have to weigh up whether we are happy to encounter that real nastiness say, once a month or so, or if we'd prefer a lot of general low/mid-level danger day-in, day-out. In the long-run I hope that by assertive cycling becoming the norm - and cycling and driving instruction reflecting that - that the underlying attitudes of "cyclists not belonging on the roads etc." might become outdated and hopefully everyone getting on a little better. ---------- Post added 21-07-2015 at 14:38 ---------- For those gritting your teeth at the suggestion just made maybe think about calming down too. There are quite a few routes to get around Sheffield and eventually it would just click in your mind that a road is closed every fortnight for a few hours on a Sunday. It's an excellent opportunity for businesses as well... catering, cycle servicing, kids activities along the route.... I actually spent much of the day driving around that area, and despite all the horror stories posted around here, my experience was that the traffic was much calmer than normal, and that the business opportunities you described were very well exploited. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 The cyclist shouldn't have thumped your car. There are much worse things happen in the world than that. Why did you feel the need to beep your horn as they went through a red light? If you feel so strongly about minor misdemeanours and want to go round telling people what to do, join the police! Did it make your journey any longer as someone else went through a red light? Beeping your horn and getting a fist thumped on your car roof by a troglodyte is a predictable outcome. The majority of cyclists don't act like that so no-one notices them. Posted from Sheffieldforum.co.uk App for Android To be fair blowing the horn was a breach of the highway code. It's sole purpose is to make another road user aware of your presence for safety reasons. Not to make them aware of mistakes you've observed. 112 The horn. Use only while your vehicle is moving and you need to warn other road users of your presence. Never sound your horn aggressively. You MUST NOT use your horn while stationary on the road when driving in a built-up area between the hours of 11.30 pm and 7.00 am That breach of the highway code will be on adams own video (assuming it has audio). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squiggs Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 A good example of poor / conflicting / misleading signage https://goo.gl/maps/rzKtp The blue sign indicates a cycle route left down the lane What isn't clear until getting right on top of it is a conflicting "No Vehicles" sign Not a "No Motor Vehicles" - a "No Vehicles" Why is it seen as acceptable road layout to have a cycle route down a prohibited road? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allysum Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 To be fair blowing the horn was a breach of the highway code. It's sole purpose is to make another road user aware of your presence for safety reasons. Not to make them aware of mistakes you've observed. That breach of the highway code will be on adams own video (assuming it has audio). Observing rather than observed. I did indeed beep at the cyclist as he cycled passed me over the crossing as I had stopped. But you're right, I was stationary and I was alerting both the cyclist of his error and the crossing public that some idiot was ignoring their right of way so in fact it wasn't my own presence I was alerting them too. After being such I complete plonker on the road myself with such disdainful disregard of highway rules I will stick to the highway code and let the pedestrians get run over by an arrogant cyclist instead. 100% marks on covering the back of the cyclist and redirecting the attention of the thread to something completely petty. ---------- Post added 21-07-2015 at 15:01 ---------- @Cyclone, nice how you want to pick on me with the camera when one of the main reasons I'm driving round with them is to support an organisation that is trying to make road safety better for everybody, including the cyclists. Makes me not want to bother at all with an attitude like that, but the pdestrians need some support in this too and not many of them are going to walk round with GoPros stuck to their heads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 I'm totally in agreement with you that cyclists shouldn't run red lights. I argue against the few posters on here that try to justify it. Your transgression was pretty minor, but personally I find the irony amusing. I don't know about you, but I spend a lot of my life as a pedestrian, so things that improve safety are to be welcomed. Pedestrians and cyclists are pretty vulnerable when compared to motor vehicles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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