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AIBU?

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Original poster

Cyclists killed and seriously injured on roads.....spmeone is being unreasonable

349 replies

GabbyLoggon · 15/04/2011 14:27

Big news in todays independent.(and elsewhere)

They say 230 cyclists are killed or seriously injured on our
roads every month.

Really? I would like to see those figures broken down to serious injury/death
The report says HGV drivers are often involved.

Cycling is becomming more popular here

OP posts:
LadyOfTheManor · 15/04/2011 19:59

My error. Road tax was the wrong wording. Motor tax. They don't pay tax to enable their vehicle on the road...car drivers do.

ivykaty44 · 15/04/2011 19:59

Road tax was abolished in 1937 darth, no one pays road tax darth - please do go and google when was road tax abolished

DarthNiqabi · 15/04/2011 20:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DarthNiqabi · 15/04/2011 20:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

onagar · 15/04/2011 20:01

This thing with overtaking seems to be a mystery to many drivers. Why not question all drivers on it. Those who don't know the rules can lose their licence until they pass the test again.

This will ease congestion considerably and make the roads safer for everyone.

onagar · 15/04/2011 20:03

LadyOfTheManor as citizens we own the roads.

ivykaty44 · 15/04/2011 20:04

You pay vehicle tax on your emissions, so the more emissions you make the more tax you pay. Cycles don't make any emissions and therefore don't have to pay any tax.

It is expensive only if you make lots of emissions - some vehicles pay a very small tax of around £20 per year

DrNortherner · 15/04/2011 20:04

All this cycling bashing really bothers me Sad

My dh is a cyclist. He cycles to work and back every day on a hybrid and he cycles in a club on one of his many road bikes.....

He encounters irresponsible drivers every single day. He has been in a few near misses, landed on the bonnet of a taxi and a passenger in a car has even tried to push him off his bike as they drove past Shock

Alot of drivers do not slow down enough behind cyclists, esp when going up hill and on roundabouts and alot of drivers stop on the cyclist area at traffic lights. Where are cyclists then supposed to go?

Cyclists are so much more vulnerable than people in cars. We should all remember that.

EldonAve · 15/04/2011 20:11

As a cyclist you undertake stationary or moving traffic at your peril
Doing it in London alongside an HGV or bus is asking for injury

Wearing a helmet may protect you but studies have shown drivers take less care near cyclists wearing helmets

London would certainly benefit from traffic police enforcing the law for both drivers and cyclists
It is depressing that I have to teach my children that they are not safe to cross when the green man is showing as so many cyclists seem to think the rules do not apply to them

bubblecoral · 15/04/2011 20:15

a car is required to give a cyclist 3 foot distance between the off side of the car and the cyclist - this means on most uk roads a car driver needs to put the near side wheels over the white line.

Unfortuantley a lot of drivers refuse to give cyclists three foot when cycling in single file but are forced to when two abreast. it does slow the traffic down.

And this is exactly why cyclists are unpopular with motorists!

I object to being made to slow down by people who haven't had to prove that they are as safe on their chosen mode of transport as I have had to do with mine, and who don't have to pay to be there, and don't have to be insured if they cause damage to me or my property.

Some cyclists may choose to insure their bike, but that is unlikely to do me any favours if my car gets dented by a cyclist, or I need councelling because I have injured a cyclist that wasn't following the rules.

Some cyclists may also have a car and pay road tax, or whatever you want to dress it up as. But that is completely irrelevant. If I want two cars as my chosen means of transport I pay the tax twice, if a cyclist wants a car and a bike on the road they only pay once. That injustice annoys motorists, and why shouldn't it? It is unfair.

MissBetsyTrotwood · 15/04/2011 20:15

Another one here whose DH cycles to work. He has been physically attacked and threatened 3 times in the last 2 years. One nutter even threatened to follow him home and 'kill his children'.

He never jumps lights, races or cycles on pavements. He's lit up like a Christmas Tree and wears a helmet. And has insurance.

And DrNortherner , I ask the same question as you - where is he meant to cycle, exactly, if not on the road?

cazzybabs · 15/04/2011 20:16

i nearly got killed today.. car stopped at lights, green for me i went to cross he couldn't be bothered to wait for his lights to change

DrNortherner · 15/04/2011 20:19

bubblecoral you object to slowing down for a person on a push bike when you are in a metal box on wheels with gears that goes so much faster than a bike? My God. You are exactly the type of person I fear will one day knock my dh off his bike, becaus you objected to slowing down.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

MissBetsyTrotwood · 15/04/2011 20:21

And I agree with your point, EldonAve , about traffic police enforcing safe, considerate cycling as well as the same for cars.

Wearing a helmet is safer than not. We know someone who works as a doctor in a major A and E department who says that most of the fatal injuries she sees among cyclists are caused by the front of their head hitting the edge of the kerbstone, splitting open their frontal lobe. Most of those who she sees wearing helmets survive. Most of those who don't, don't.

bubblecoral · 15/04/2011 20:25

I'm happy to slow down enough to overtake a cyclist that is showing me consideration by being visible and wearing lights and a helmet, and choosing to hug the kerb so that I can pass safely without having to wait an unreasonable amount of time.

But yes, I do object to being forced to drive at 15mph on a 40mph road so that cyclists can have a chat as they ride along side by side knowing that there is likely to be no safe place for me to overtake for the next five minutes.

nijinsky · 15/04/2011 20:26

Sidge "I see idiotic and dangerous behaviour from cyclists most days on my local roads. I see idiotic and dangerous behaviour from motorists less often."

How odd. Are you oblivous to the cars you get with malfunctioning lights? I wonder if the people complaining here about cyclists not wearing helmets ever run a red light or have correct legal tread on their tyres.

tbh I see less cyclists running red lights (which is bloody crazy anyway) than I do cars, and as soon as it rains, I seem to always see at least one car wheelspinning at low speed as the little remaining tread on its tyres fails to gain traction.

I'm glad I'm a cyclist; it makes me more road aware when I'm driving.

tarantula · 15/04/2011 20:29

Road tax was abolished by Winston Churchill so noone pays it anymore.
Highway maintanence is paid for from our council tax.
If only people who pay taxes can use things do people who pay more council tax have more rights to use the libraries then?
Ridiculous arguement on all levels

nijinsky · 15/04/2011 20:32

bubblecorral you are actually filling me with terror when I read your remarks about how you drive and how you consider yourself and no other road users when you do so. You terrify me both as a cyclist and a fellow driver!

I find it a tad psychopathic when you seem to place more importance on your car being dented by a cyclist, rather than the harm caused to the human being involved.

You're not one of these drivers who tailgates others because you think you have the right to police the driving of others, are you? Or one of those nightmares who drives in the middle lane of the motorway, no matter whether you are overtaking or not? Please reassure me you not as unsafe a driver as you sound! Its just that you sound so irritated that you have to share the roads with other road users! Unfortunately, unless you are driving on a motorway, that is just what you have to do though.

LadyOfTheManor · 15/04/2011 20:32

I also hate it when cyclists refuse to cycle single file-I really don't have all day for them to be environmentally friendly with all the time in the world.

SardineQueen · 15/04/2011 20:34

"It is depressing that I have to teach my children that they are not safe to cross when the green man is showing as so many cyclists seem to think the rules do not apply to them"

Erm

I'd rather be hit by a bicycle going through a red light than a car. And in this neck of the woods I rarely see bicycles going through red lights - cars lorries and buses do it frequently. It is depressing that I have to teach my children that that they are not safe to cross when the green man is showing as so many people in massive fuck-off lumps of metal seem to think the rules do not apply to them.

tarantula · 15/04/2011 20:35

and as for cycle paths! They are for Sunday cyclists out for a nice pleasant cycle not for people who use their bicycle as a means of transport and would like to get from place to place in a reasonable amount of time. They are often rubbish strewed, used by pedestrains as an extra pathway, go nowhere and end abruptly leaving you stranded with no reasonable way of regaining the highway. Its a bit like suggesting that a motorist gets to work using only B roads.

DrNortherner · 15/04/2011 20:36

bubble I have never seen cyclists riding 2 abreast, but if they do, then yes, they are of course in the wrong.

However, the cyclist is the one who should choose when to move over to the kerb to allow you to overtake, and they should only do this when they feel it is safe for them to do so. Pot holes are extremely dangerous for cyclists, esp those on road bikes as the wheels are just so thin.

Bicycles cause no harm to our environment whatsoever. They create no noise, no stink, no pollution, and no congestion. They do not need motorways or big parking areas. In a collision, they are unlikely to kill, and a cyclist can more easily avoid a collision. Plus it's good for your health.

SardineQueen · 15/04/2011 20:36

Do all of you "they're asking for it and I'm not slowing down for anyone" crew realise that there are real actual people riding these bicycles, with real actual families and children, who are really actually being killed on the roads every day?

Some of you seem to be expressing ideas which indicate that you genuinely don't give a shit, they deserve it, and I find that quite scary, to be brutally honest.

SardineQueen · 15/04/2011 20:40

Betsy the crash helmet question is because it has been shown that drivers give more room to cyclists without helmets on as they subconsciously see them as more vulnerable. I guess a question is what proportion of people who come in were wearing helmets and which weren't. It may be that those without helmets are less likely to get hit in the first place IYSWIM.

nijinsky · 15/04/2011 20:40

Even speaking as a driver, people who do not drive safely around cyclists irritate the hell out of me. Do you realise how much insurance companies will have to pay out if you maim a cyclist who will never be able to work again as the result of his injuries, or kill them so that their family and children require compensation for loss of support? We all end up paying the higher insurance premiums.

And for the people on here who claim being inconvenienced by seconds on not waiting to overtake safely - I doubt very much that you're going anywhere so important it justifies risking someone else's life. Most of the worse examples of dangerous overtaking I've seen have occurred on Sunday morning rides in the countryside.