Well this nails the SUV culture war colours to the mast

[QuertyGirl]

I can tell you now, they will have thought long and hard about who this will appeal to and why.

Like a cyclist needs to be 'warned' of the presence of a hulking great SUV.

One for the RageRovers among us.

www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2021/07/07/bully-klaxon-or-sweet-toot-suv-maker-ineos-grenadier-has-cycle-icon-on-steering-wheel/?sh=4ab3463445ae

As a driver of a fully electric car, getting stuck behind dawdling pedestrians walking down the middle of a car park is a regular occurrence.
It's rude (and frightening) to beep them but I've worked out the solution is to open the window and turn the radio up!

Thought this was actually a positive idea?

“When you’re approaching a cyclist if you want to make them aware that you’re there you often try to do a sort of a gentle kind of hoop,” says Ecuyer, but “it ends up as a full-blown klaxon which scares the living daylights out of everybody.”

The cycle-icon tooter is in addition to a standard horn which is situated in the center of the new car’s leather-wrapped steering wheel.

Or you could just wait for a minute, assuming you are not a surgeon on call of course.

Just buy a smaller car and then it's easier and safer to overtake.

Cyclists know when there's several tonnes of motorised steel coming up behind them.

I mean, what exactly are they warning the cyclist about?

If they've only planning to remain within the law and only overtake when it's safe to so (1.5m distance), why the warning?

If I were a surgeon on call, I'd just drive straight over them obviously! 🚑

hello

Er, people are allowed in car parks. Are you some sort of civilian emergency vehicle? Slow down, wait for people and learn the art of patience.

e-vehicles are very quiet and i too would appreciate a gentle more appropriate horn.
i'm equally the owner of a quiet e-bike and they too are quick and quiet and a problem on some pathways.

Bit ironic that Ines Grenadier who make this tank are also the main sponsor of a professional cycling team; every year we lose professional riders in training as the roads are not safe for riding.

Ineos

Going against the grain here, but bicycles and pedestrians really shouldn't be on the road. In the same way we don't let people cycle or walk down train tracks or wander around the fast inside lane on the M25.

I get that people think they should be allowed to cycle down a main road, and 100 years ago it really was a legitimate mode of getting from A to B, but that's no longer appropriate.

There's no reason why a bus couldn't be used for those journeys instead. Cycle lanes don't work because they just dump the riders back out into traffic at random points. They are dangerous.

Roads are not safe places to mess around on bikes.

The "cyclist horn" is a bit of a gimmic I think, a talking point to get something in the media for a bit of free, viral advertising.

@onefinemess thats a good argument for better cycle lanes - that will of course take space from moving and parked cars. No reason at all why we can’t have cycle lanes that work in many many more places.

me, I think horns should be banned from vehicles entirely, or - better - there should be a requirement to log every use and account for it at MOT. Good drivers very seldom hoot!

@onefinemess haha you’re kidding right?? Of course cyclists should be on the road 🙄. We need tougher laws for arsehole drivers - banning cyclists is not the answer 🤬.

It’s quite normal in London to see cyclists with headphones on in the mornings, going down busy A roads and 10 mph.

Er what about people who LIKE cycling?? Jeez 🙄

No, I'm not kidding.

And I didn't say anything about banning cycling, just that it's not safe or appropriate on a main road.

Why would you deliberately put yourself or your children in the position of being hit by a moving vehicle?

It's just negligence, brought on by ego, and not being able to risk assess. Where children are involved it's actually neglect. If you saw a parent actively encouraging their child to play on train tracks you would report them. But roads are actually much more dangerous.

People are being killed, children are being killed, all because of ego.

Roade are for motorised vehicles, not cyclists.

Roads are not safe places to mess around on bikes.

Yes, we all see what you did there: implied that drivers are all on important business while cyclists are "messing around". Cyclists are usually travelling somewhere they need to be, just like you. Where they need to be may well be more important that where you need to be. But they are not in control of a machine that's highly capable of killing people, while you are: so, obviously, they are "messing around" while you are in the important business of "driving".

Here's a thought: try driving safely instead of blaming cyclists for the fact that you are making the roads dangerous.

When i first cycled in France, in the early 80s, it was almost universal to toot the horn when a car was approaching from behind.

Cars would slow, toot and then overtake, of course, even in France, these days have long gone, now its zoom past at high speed and the only warning is the roar of tires and the rush of the air as the vehicle comes past... narrowly missing the on coming car from the other direction......

Just back from France, even in very rural areas we were in, i had the impression they were trying to kill me, worse than here in the UK, so little wonder i hardly saw any local cyclists about and France still has no TdF winners.

I think the its an excellent idea, it would (perhaps) make drivers consider what they are doing and not blindly speed past and which sport does INEOS sponsor?

On the 1.5m thingy, i'd rather vehicles slowed down, cars regularly come past me at 2m plus but at 60mph, it doesn't feel like 2m...

They can use a cycle track or a dedicated off road course.

It’s quite normal in London to see cyclists with headphones on in the mornings, going down busy A roads and 10 mph.

The Darwin Awards springs to mind.

People are being killed, children are being killed, all because of ego.

People are being killed, children are being killed, all because of dangerous drivers like you.

There, fixed that for you.

I really like what they've done outside Kew gardens with proper bollards to mark out the space between the cyclists and cars. It stops hobby cyclists just hogging the middle of the road cycling two abreast and having a long chat and it stops cars, buses, vans and lorries smooshing people off the road who just want to get from A to B. Win win. Every road should have a cycle path down one side that is physically separated from the road with a barrier.
But if we're selling cars with novelty horns I want one that sings La Curachaca (is that the spelling) or the Mexican Hat Dance every time someone pulls out on me on a notorious roundabout near where I live, where no one looks up the lane I'm entering from before pulling out.

I have never hit or killed anyone.

There, fixed it for you.

Cyclists don't belong on the road.

@onefinemess so all the cyclists need to buy a car and add to the traffic? Your point is moronic and cyclists are never going to be banned so it might help to think about better solutions - like cracking down on shit drivers.