To be scared of cycling on the road in this day and age?

[poshsinglemum]

I'd love to take up cycling but I would just be terrified of taking a bike out on the roads as they are so busy nowadays. I always think that parents with their kids on the seat on the back of the bike are really cool but I'm too chicken to do it myself.
I know there are cycle paths. No doubt if dd takes up cycling I won't sleep at night.

I cycle in London and have done for years. I don't agree with this approach of riding way out into the road as a blanket rule.

I agree that by riding too close to the kerb you can make yourself vulnerable to drivers trying to squeeze past, potholes etc, and mostly I do ride a few feet out from the kerb, especially approaching junctions, as you'll be seen more clearly. However, there are other times when it seem to me more sensible to pull in a bit so that cars can pass more easily, particularly if you don't cycle fast (ie almost at the speed of the other traffic).

I have seen plenty of examples locally of people riding slowly along a metre out into the road, and tailback of cars piling up behind them because there isn't room to pass safely, and a sensible driver is at the head of queue. The traffic behind gets more and more frustrated and it usually ends up in some truly dangerous South London overtaking manoeuvre further down the queue. And it could all have been avoided if the cyclist had just been a bit more aware of his/her surroundings and the traffic and shoved over towards the kerb a bit for a few minutes.

Anyway, in answer to the OP, the roads aren't too dangerous if you cycle sensibly and avoid known blackspots. Trillian's right - the more people cycle, the safer it becomes!

I second NewbeeMummy, definitely don't cycle in the gutter. Cars and lorries especially need to actually take action to overtake you that way as opposed to skimming past you. And avoid all BMWs if you can since they seem to believe that cycle lanes are for undertaking and that indicators are losers (sweeping generalisation on all BMW drivers there. Sorry!)

I was a commuting cyclist in London for years. I think I probably hate the crap cyclists more than non-cyclists do since I resented being tarred with the same brush reserved for those idiots that whizz through red lights and weave through traffic. And now that the "Boris Bikes" have arrived there seem to be a whole new bunch of muppets on bicycles who clearly think it looks like fun but are too scared/inept to actually cycle properly so think that they'll stick to the pavements instead. Nothing winds me up more than cyclists on pavements. I do tend to yell at them in a fishwife type way which is probably childish of me.

poshsinglemum, I'm not sure where you live but in London they do free and subsidised cycling confidence courses which might be worth a go. www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/11689.aspx

Re the red lights - as I cyclist I do obey them, but sympathise with cyclists who don't. Apparently it is generally safer for cyclists to jump red lights as they are then in clear view of the traffic, than for them to wait for the green light and get mown down by the car drivers whose main focus is on the lights not the cyclist.

Another previous regular cycler... ten kms a day until I went on maternity leave at 7 months.... urging you please not to hug the gutter. You have every right to be on the road, not clinging to the side which is the most dangerous spot to be in.
I also get so depressed by the red eyed blanket hatred of car drivers towards people who are helping to keep the roads clearer for them to sit in their metal boxes and pick their noses, and who are doing their bit for the planet, ever heard of Peak Oil?, and every tax payer having to contribute to the NHS obesity crisis. Its worth noting that every cyclist you pass in your car, must have set off before you did because they are taking the route under their own steam, so if they too decided to drive all those two mile and under trips too, they'd be in front of you, making all those lovely fume filled queues even longer.
I think a lot of the anger directed at cyclists is slight misdirected frustration at the driver's personal lack of fitness, commitment and courage to get their own lardy arses on a bike :)
I too hate red light jumpers and pavement cyclists are idiots.... but it would be nice if pedestrians noticed the big white bike logos on parallel pavement cycle lanes and maybe walked in the pavement part, or noticed the shared use signs when bikes and walkers are allowed to share one pavement instead of automatically shouting at perfectly law abiding cyclists!
As for the cutting across three lanes of traffic on roundabouts I kid you not that is the highway code's official instruction for cyclists utter madness.
And last but not least the red light thing. It would be great if cars could not stop in the big red boxes painted at the front of junctions for cyclists because it is safest for all road users if bikes are at the front of the queue because they are initially the fastest off the starting blocks and being stuck behind car drivers struggling to find the biting point makes bikes go too slow and wobbly. Not safe at all. At the end of the day all you have to do to go faster and overtake us just a couple of seconds later is move your ankle just a fraction, for us it's rather more effort (especially when seven months gone), often in crappy weather and putting ourselves in a vulnerable position because we know that what we're doing is the right thing to do. For what it's worth towards the end of my pregnancy I cycled almost totally on cyclepaths for safety. But I couldn't have been without my bike for my own sanity, it's the nearest thing to flying without wings, it's just bliss... that and the fact that I could have an extra 30 minutes in bed if I cycled than if I sat in traffic in a car or bus. And with growing congestion it's only going to make more sense.

i have only ever pavement cycled..though there is now a good cycle path along the
seafront which makes this legal!

i am a very slow cautious cyclist i might add.

YANBU

my dad has had two rounds of concussion and a broken collar bone whlst road cycling.

Some cycle lanes are more dangerous than the road. The ones where they paint a line down a regular path are usually the worst. Pedestrians, people pulling out of their drives, cars parked on them, having to cross roads leading on to the road you're cycling next to.

Use safe cycle lanes, stay out of the kerb on roads, obey the law as you would as if you were in a car, pull in if you're holding people up, and dismount at tricky junctions and cross on foot.

I do occasionally cycle on paths. If I want to go a certain direction from my house I should cross the busy main road, cycle 100 metres, then cross back over the road again. I take the path instead. I always take care not to worry walkers when I do it. I slow down, put my feet on the floor and 'walk' on my bike past them.

'Its worth noting that every cyclist you pass in your car, must have set off before you did because they are taking the route under their own steam, so if they too decided to drive all those two mile and under trips too, they'd be in front of you, making all those lovely fume filled queues even longer.'

While I agree with this poppet there are many cyclists who should take note that those of us who walk probably leave earlier than them and not mow us down on the pavement.

I walk to work by choice and leave my car at home. When I am in my car I admit that while I am always considerate to cyclists I do mutter about those of them don't do the same for me when I walk.

Riven they pull into the kerb because having been sat behind the cyclist-in-the-middle-of-the-road because our roads are not wide enough to overtake, and then had to stop for the lights it is frustrating to have the same cyclist come squeezing up your inside to hold you up yet again.

On my way to work I have a 15 minute queue at the lights, when cyclists come up your inside and outside to wait at the front. Then when we pull away they are going up the same narrow winding hill. Nobody can get past them, and they can only go really slowly. So only the first 5 cars get out and the other poor sods have to wait even longer. Yet there is a perfectly good, safe and direct cycle path following the canal.

Yellowdaffodill I totally agree with your stance on pedestrians too - above all they should get the most respect. But of course they don't.
And I too hate that dog in the manger I'm going to park right up to the kerb stance. So childish and petty. The cyclists are doing the right thing by cycling in that position in the road and by trying to get to the front at the lights, by right I mean the safest for all road users. Drivers like Elvislives are merely trying to be first - putting their own right of convenience above that of others not to be mown down. Nice. Little old ladies are slow when they cross the road and that too can be terribly frustrating... do you wheel spin and rev your engine at them for putting you out? No, so why is it okay to do it to another type of legitimate road user? And I also think that your explanation for doing so, revenge, has no place on a road. Especially as you have the least right of way on the road after the slower more vulnerable users, like bikes horses, invalid carriages. Try to remember that if your 'lesson' to teach them not to hold you up goes wrong you'll be wrapping a tonne of metal around the body of another human being. All for the sake of you not having to move your ankle joint any further than you possibly have to. Must be exhausting.

i have just done 80 miles on the roads in uk in the last three days - fab..

I very rarely use A roads and stick to unmarked and B roads.

never ride in close to the kerb

it is fatal and the main reason woman re killed on the roads is due to this kerb riding

Sit out aorund 2 foot to be safe and wear a brighly coloured jacket or bib

Purchase an OS map of your loal rea and study the map for quite roads to use UK is good for lots of alternative roads other than A or B roads

Cars can be used as dangerous weapon - most motorists are kind and respectful of other road users

Fortunatley there are only a few idiots who don't respect cyclists or other road users

Here's a cycling story: I cycle to work every day. I wear hi-vis and a helmet. I ride 1/3 of the road out from the kerb, unless the road is clear and then I move over to let cars past easily. I cycle as though I were a motorbike (no light jumping, no idiotic undertaking etc).
One day, I was riding up to a red light about 100m ahead, 1/3 out in my lane. Car coming up behind. Revving. I ignore and stay put. He (it was a he) pulls into the neighbouring lane, comes alongside accelerating. Then, without indicating, starts to pull into my lane from alongside me. I knock on the side light window (he is so close I can do this whilst riding), quite hard, to tell him to stop. Brakes go on. The window comes down. "F you" "F-ing B*tch" etc etc. Starts trying to nudge me out of the way. Using his car. We reach the stationary traffic at the lights and I enter the filter lane (it starts just before the lights and go into the red box at the front. Behind me is beeping and continued swearing.
Motorcyclist and fellow cyclist in the box ask if I am OK and whether I will be reporting him. They have noted his registration. I say no. No actual harm done.
I turn left after the lights. I am 50 metres along that road when, behind me, comes revving and beeping. Idiot car has followed me!
He pulls alongside as a cycle along (he's in the oncoming lane at this point). Window down. F words. Starts trying to nudge me towards the kerb. So close I can see his wheel arch inside the reach of my arm towards the handlebar. I pull in to the kerb. Get off bike. Note registration and call the Police.
Police response - have you got a witness? No? Then it's your word against his. No action.
Where did all this happen?

Bristol - the country's first Cycling City.

Forgive the language, but what a LOAD OF BOLLOCKS that is. Bristol has far too many murderously aggressive drivers and far too little Police compassion for it ever to be a cycling city.

OP - if you have this problem in your home town/city. Then just don't risk it with your kids. Seek out alternative routes, but remember that drivers on quiet roads tend to be even less observant than on the main ones.

Whilst I don't condone red light jumping, there are studies that suggest that being law abiding isn't best for your health

Women cyclists ?risk death? by obeying traffic lights

Unfortunately, sometimes it's best being a bit aggressive (talking road positioning here not snapping wing mirrors off ] but it's not something that comes naturally to a lot of women. I've heard the www.bikeability.org.uk/bikeability courses are very good.

On my old commute, pedestrians were always far more of a danger to me than cars. A lot of the roads I cycled down were restricted to trams/access/bikes and although people are taught to Stop, Look, Listen a lot of them just did the Listen part.

Cycling's a safety in numbers thing, not that you should cycle in huge crowds, but the more people cycle the more experience drivers have around cyclists and the safer it is. There are studies to prove this. But even so, cycling in the UK is not an inherently dangerous activity. Like a lot of things, perception of risk has changed rather than the absolute level of that risk.

Sorry working link here

Bikeability

I always used to be baffled by why there was so much vitriol directed at cyclists on Mumsnet - until I went to London.

In my town, the overwhelming majority of cyclists are like myself, my DH and our friends - sensible, responsible people, cycling in cycle lanes, cycle paths, shared pavements, and so on. We are as sensible and responsible when cycling as when driving.

In London, I saw people on bikes behaving so stupidly that I was literally open mouthed. Swerving all over the road, paying no attention to traffic lights or signals, just generally behaving as though they were pedalling round a deserted car park.

I could immediately see that, if that's what you meant when you said 'cyclist', you would find them incredibly worrying, dangerous and annoying.

BUT, I wouldn't call these cyclists - for me, those are 'people on bikes' who don't know how to ride, and frankly, they would probably be behaving equally stupidly whatever they were doing.

A lot of good points made on this thread by people who know what they are talking about. Back to the OP - I'd say find out if local council runs any schemes or if there's a group affiliated to local CTC. Eg. in my area there's a women's cycling group which caters for novices. Main thing is to get your confidence up and get on the road. It's all very well people saying stick to specific cycling paths or the park but if you need to get somewhere and bike is only means, then you need to have road sense and confidence and understand you have EVERY entitlement to cycle on said road.

YANBU, as sad as it is. Thank goodness where I live is very well served by cycle lanes both on and off the road and that cycling proficiency is available at schools as it was at mine.

There are wankers on bikes and there are wankers in cars - both can be as bad as each other. Not many cycling wankers ever crushed a driving wanker though.

Yesterday morning I was cycling down the A38 in Bristol and a driver coming up to a sharp left turn, going too fast, and came within a few inches of knocking the cyclist in front of me off her bike. A bit of patience, common sense and simple bloody keeping his eyes open would have prevented it.

I've been cycling to work and back in Bristol for almost three years now and had a couple of near misses with parked car door-openers and vans/cars pulling out of side roads at me, however I've suffered no actual injuries myself. (touches wood)

I wouldn't cycle next to a canal

niether do i in September as they trim all the hedgerow and leave the thorns all over the ground 9nothing rworng with doing this) but I have had two puncturures on the same trip and it just isn't worth the hassle

wow there's so much cyclist bashing!! Who ever said the bikers aren't dangerous, I beg to differ, the rule the can use the bus lanes now means they weave in and out of traffic and speed up behind cyclists - bus lanes are a godsend for commuting cyclists, it feels much more dangerous now bikers can use them too.

Also, lovely pedestrians....I can say hand on heart I have SO many more incidents of pedestrians nearly getting mowed down because they don't look when they cross the road and they don't wait for traffic lights - central London especially awful with all the tourists, but good god the number of times I've had to shout at pedestrians NOT to cross, knowing I can stop but if I do I have the car behind me ramming into me.

Being a cyclist has made me a more aware pedestrian, DH says it has made him a better driver.

You know, this whole anti-cyclists thing is the same as any aspect if life. All Muslims are terrorists. All Christians are right-wing fundamentalist Bible-bashers. All drivers are eco-hating cyclist-killers. All cyclists are aggressive road-hogs. We only remember the extremists, the nutters, because they stand out more and are more memorable. Why don't we take a more balanced view instead?

I cycled to work this week (2x18 miles)
Hardly saw another car. Infact didn't see a single car for the first hour.

Have had to buy a new saddle though. ouch!

Some really good posts here.
Amazed at the vitriol directed towards cyclists, mainly for the reasons that Poppet45 mentioned.
However, as someone else said, I can imagine that cyclists in London are a whole different story. I was also shocked at the aggression from cyclists when I visited Cambridge a couple of years back.
WhatTheWhat: so sorry about what you went through there. Looks like the bully driver was just out to pick on someone? What a nightmare!

Agree that it is really dangerous to hug the kerb.
And I'd say avoid the temptation to undertake unless traffic completely stationary (like in queue for traffic lights). I must admit I do undertake a stationary queue sometimes, but I 'dribble' along rather than cycle. Or I get off and walk along the pavement (you're not going to lose any time, anyway! the traffic has stopped!!)

DH cycles everywhere. Almost. And when I first met him, I thought he was a bit of an aggressive cyclist. Almost fool-hardy. He does skip the odd red light, and it really annoys me. However, I do understand his reasoning for doing so. And as others have said, I think that in general, it probably keeps him safer at times.
And despite haveing cycled all my adult life, in various different towns and cities, I have learnt a lot since meeting him and cycling with him.

I'd say you have to be assertive, rather than aggressive. And you are safer this way.

Do make sure you're at the front of a queue at traffic lights, as this means you won't get squeezed over into the kerb by cars racing off when the lights change.
Don't hug the kerb.
Don't be afraid to pull out into the road at bit more at times (as long as it's safe behind), especially going round blind corners.
Remember that you have every right to be on the road, too.
As Poppet45 said, if someone bleats on about not paying road tax, ask them if they'd mind paying a bit more towards the NHS for their increased risk of heart disease/obesity related diseases etc