Bike-buggy-smuggy-mummies: they think they're invincible!

[Vagabond]

You know those little carriages on the back/front of bikes with little children cocooned inside? What are these mums thinking of? It looks like they've got a litter of kittens inside sometimes!

The way they ride their kids around town in these bicycle people carriers seems so dangerous to me. I pass at least a dozen of them a day and I'm astounded by the sense of entitlement these mums feel above the overwhelming enormity of actual traffic. They seem invincible when, actually, they are putting themselves and their kids in enormous danger.

I drive so carefully around them but it irritates me to see the smug look on their faces. I'm equally sure that they hate my smug face driving my car. It's soooo Oxford and it irritates the hell out of me!

Yes, it's green. I get that. It still gets on my nerves.

Ooh, have you spotted my SIL then? She doesn't just have a trailer, and a baby-seat, but they're both attached to a tandem! They don't have a car so bike is the best way to get the 6 children around.

Cyclists who wear easy-to-see clothing, use lights when it's dark and cycle responsibly are great. But because they do everything right you tend not to notice them IYSWIM ( maybe remember is a better word given that they are highly visible!)

The ones who cloud everybody's judgment, and which are remembered, are the cyclists who dress in black and don't have lights at dusk/ when it's dark and suddenly jump off the pavement infront of your car and swear at you when you nearly hit them, or jump the lights or undertake a vehicle indicating to turn left, or the one I remember who didn't want to use the specific cycle lane on the very wide pavement and so started hitting my car when he couldn't fit between me and the curb. Why? We were approaching a roundabout in Bournemouth the other week when a cyclist jumped off the pavement (without looking), swerved to the wrong side of the road despite oncoming traffic (so that he could overtake a queue of four cars), swerved back to the far left before pullin into the roundabout without looking (very lucky the car already coming round didn't hit him) before turning right. All this with his headphones on.

Sadly, because half of the bad cyclists do things which do make people nearly hit them and scare drivers, that's what people remember. Same with drivers, you only really remember people who do fundamentally stupid or selfish things.

I get bellowed at by drivers all the time - black cab drivers and white van men. (I ride with two children on the road. No trailer, I have a cargo bike.)

I do not understand wtf they are on about. I am obeying the rules of the road, we wear helmets and high visibility gear. I just go and carry on, generally. It does stress out the kids, though.

Is this thread going for a record for the most uses of the word "smug" and its derivatives in a short space of time?

Seriously, cyclists don't sign up to some "I will now be a twunt" charter when they buy a bike. Some cyclists are a pain in the backside. Some are fine. I used to commute 8 miles through central London by bike. I would say about 50% of cyclists stuck to the rules of the road and about 10% were dangerous lunatics. The remainder were what I would call cautiously law-breaking, ie went through red lights slowly and carefully! I should make it clear that I disapprove of any bending of the rules by cyclists, precisely because it pisses off car drivers and sends them into hysterical ranting, which inevitably makes them less considerate of normal, law-abiding cyclists. I have said this to ramdom cyclists before when witnessing twuntish behaviour.

I have only once ever seen anyone cycling dangerously with a child - a guy went straight through a red light in front of cars with a child on the back.

Anyway, it seems to be the "smugness" that is upsetting the OP. Why shouldn't they be smug? I would probably be smug if I had the motivation to get off my backside and go cycling!

The ironic thing is, for those of us cycling in London, is this: more women cyclists die than men in London. Look around at your fellow cyclists ... mostly men, right? And look at the mad light-running types ... nearly all men, right?

The cautious, sensible, polite, law-abiding women don't run lights. They wait patiently, often to the left of left-turning lorries. And then they get crushed and killed.

The smugness is all in the OP's mind. What woman on earth can look smug when cycling with two kids at the back? My face looks red and flustered and sometimes pained if the wind blows from the wrong direction! I don't think I am invincible either, yet I choose to use the trailer when it suits me. YABU

not where i live,all chelsea tractors and nannies.mums doesnt take dc on bike shes at work darling.not fannying about like mary poppins.how gauche

"I get bellowed at by drivers all the time - black cab drivers and white van men. I do not understand wtf they are on about."

I would guess that it's because black cab drivers and white van men are on the road all day, every day, so see a hell of a lot of accidents and near misses. I used to drive 100s and 100s of miles each week, and lost count of the number of motorbikes I saw down (not a big cycling area).

Traffic accidents happen, sometimes they're the fault of one person's dangerous driving, sometimes they happen in response to a pedestrian or cyclist's actions, sometimes they just happen. The point is that if you're on a motorbike, or a push bike, or a child trailer, you have an ever-descending amount of protection compared to even the most basic car.

LOL scottishmummy, aren't you pleased to be nouveau - riche

I think these are great although ive only seen one in use and it had a dog in it .

What do you do with older kids though ? And what happens if you fall off your bike , would the carriage tip over ?

Did Mary Poppins ride a bike? Didn't she have a magic brolly?

Now that would be fun....

maybe op would find a brolly less smug.lulu guinness brolly with weans in it.nice

nouveau - riche thats funny wee food portions innit? aye love that fancy food drizzled with crisp and dry

I saw a dog in a buggy once

ROFL at crisp n' dry

I have no view on cycle trailers with kids in, other than that they look super-cute. There are two types of cyclist that really annoy me though:

1. Drug dealers in tracksuit trousers and hoodise, riding stolen mountain bikes without lights the wrong way up a narrow street

2. People who don Lycra just to do a three-mile commute. FFS, it's not the Tour de France you tosser! I'm wearing a skirt and high heels and I will still beat you off the lights on my grubby 2-speed folding bike

*hoodies, not hoodise. I think 'to hoodise' is the act of becoming a hoodie-wearer.

I once saw a couple with a child hanging out of one of those trailers right at the very bottom of Argentina really in the middle of nowhere. They had cycled all the way down from Alaska. All very lovely but imagine the hours that child must have put in inside that trailer. No wonder she was climbing all over it as her parents pedalled along. She had probably been inside it from birth.

You see about six a day? Pppffft! Chicken feed!

Think yourself very, very lucky that you've never lived in Cambridge.

notquitecockney that's because men typically position themselves further out from the pavement/gutter, so cars have to make an effort to get past them. I ride this way too, so cars can't squeeze past and risk getting too close. Riding to the left of a lorry is just plain stupid, be you male, female, with or without trailer.

I can't understand how anyone can claim not to see bike trailers. And why are you driving so close to the cyclist that you might hit it in the first place? If you drive into something/somebody, it is your fault, not theirs, end of.

Better never come here, those who hate them. I am one of the few that doesn't have one.

The trailer does not tip if you fall off your bike. I have, er, tested that.

I tend to find doing exercise makes me all jolly, something to do with the endorphins apparently, perhaps you are mistaking smug for happy? You should see me after I swim, I wander around in a happy little daze with a massive grin on my face.

2plus2more "talk to your child by name as if they know them even though you've never spoken before"

What???? I speak to loads of kids in my dd's class. What on earth is wrong with that?

2plus obviously doesn't cycle, that enormous chip on her shoulder would block visibility and unbalance her further.

Bikes are great. Cars should not rule the world. Everyone has the right to cycle safely.
But a trailer for kids on the back on busy main roads - WTF ARE YOU THINKING??!

All it takes is someone to brake slightly late and your children have had it. Unless your journey is mainly rural then any parent who thinks this is acceptable needs their head reading.

Used to take DD to nursery on a bike seat a while back. Just a few miles, but much quicker/better (as FlouryBap says) for getting there and me getting to work on time. Amazed at the number of people who told me such behaviour was dangerous.

Just who is bringing the danger to the situation? YABU.

OH I LOVE THIS!! I am dutch and i LOVE the bikes with trailers in FRONT. i have one on the back which is sometimes difficult on the bend. the trailer in front is much better to control i guess. the prob here is that cyclist have to share the road with cars. why dont we have cyclepaths like in holland. with own traffic lights, where we mums with our trailers have PRIORITY over cars. :o love it when am in holland. i can safely rife my bike with 2 kids. in holland i have even seen a mum of 4 on her bike. 2 in the trailer, one in front seat and one in back seat. no prob. very safe. need to be fit though!