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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to still be fuming today about this cyclist?

173 replies

microserf · 15/06/2011 09:10

i have to rant. i have form ranting on here about how much i hate ill mannered cyclists, but this one really took the piss.

last night, at 5pm (so still sunny) i was walking with my 2 kids in the double buggy and we had to cross a busy road at a crossroads. i waited ages at the crossing for the green man. green man light flicked on, i checked the cars had actually stopped and stepped out onto the crossing. all seemed fine.

only for the buggy to be nearly hit by some fucking asshole who came flying around the corner on his bike and ran the red light (he was going downhill, so had built up a bit of speed) swerved at the last second and cycled off without a word of apology.

i am still furious!!! i was really shaken up by it, and i am really tired of bad cyclists running red lights and cycling over pedestrian crossings when i'm crossing, esp with the kids. it's not like a fully loaded buggy can jump out of the way!

i think we should put license plates on the cycles, so the bad ones can be weeded out! if i did that in my car, i'd not be driving for much longer.

OP posts:
TheSnickeringFox · 15/06/2011 09:15

YANBU. I was knocked down by a cyclist while walking on the pavement. I had to be taken to hospital by ambulance for a leg and neck xray. Luckily nothing was broken but several years later I still have scars. Stupid bastard. People have been killed by cyclists!

TheSnickeringFox · 15/06/2011 09:18

Oh yes and I was knocked forwards so fast that I had no time to put out my hands. I had injuries on the back of my hand and my face. I now carry my son in a front sling and feel sick about what would happen to him if I was knocked over in a similar way. I think it would have easily seriously injured or killed him.

YANBU at all!

Original poster
microserf · 15/06/2011 09:36

SnickeringFox, that's awful! Christ, that's really bad. I worry that especially a small child or an elderly person hit by a cyclist could be killed.

OP posts:
NotAgainPlease · 15/06/2011 09:37

YANBU!

Why some cyclists think red lights don't apply to them (even when traffic's at a standstill and they just pottle across the crossing because the camera can't get them), I don't know!

Hammy02 · 15/06/2011 09:38

Yes. Cyclists can be a nightmare. I was driving yesterday on a main road when a cyclist pulled out of a side street and didn't even turn to his right to check for traffic. I had to break so hard that I flung forward. The idiot. If I'd killed him, I'd have never forgiven myself even though it would've been 100% his fault. He was also wearing earphones! Who the fuck does that on a bike?

QueenofDreams · 15/06/2011 09:41

Ooh I hate bad cyclists.

MIL and I were on the pavement, I had DS in his buggy and was heavily pregnant and MIlL had her 5 yr old with her. It's a very wide stretch of pavement and yet a cyclist zoomed really close to us at speed and swore at us he rode past yelling 'watch where you're fucking going'. Um considering that a) we weren't moving as MIL was bent over doing her DD's coat up and b) He's not supposed to be on the bloody pavement in the first place Angry we were absolutely livid.

squeakytoy · 15/06/2011 09:42

YANBU at all. Some cyclists are a law to themselves and think they can go straight through red lights, and ignore many other laws of the road.

I often had to drive a van through central London and it is a nerve wracking experience as many cyclists have absolutely no regard for other vehicles at all.

confuseddotcodotuk · 15/06/2011 09:42

I hate inconsiderate cyclists as well. I've nearly hit two whilst driving now! First one was at traffic lights, they had red lights but ignored and cycled straight in front of me on a busy roundabout, idiot! The second was yesterday, a young adult cyclist came pelting out of a hidden alleyway, if I hadn't have known the alleyway was there I would have hit him and checked it as I reached it I would have hit him, had to slam on my brakes for him as it was!

I don't understand how people can be so stupid?! Bicycles are vehicles and can be dangerous (like any vehicle can be) if used irresponsibly, but people don't seem to realise or care.

confuseddotcodotuk · 15/06/2011 09:43

Oh, and I've only been driving for 5/6months!

MissM · 15/06/2011 09:45

This happened to me, luckily when I was on my own. I shouted at him 'So the red light doesn't apply to you then?' and felt a lot better. I'm a cyclist, and I hate these people as they give the rest of us a bad name.

StayingDavidTennantsGirl · 15/06/2011 09:46

A few years ago an adult cyclist speeding along the pavement on Southend seafront hit and knocked down an elderly lady, causing her to break her hip. She died as a result of complications of this injury.

All three of my dses are cyclists - they do their paper rounds on their bikes, ds2 likes road cycling and ds1 cycles at an indoor skate and cycle park. If I ever caught them behaving in such a thoughtless, arrogant and dangerous way, I would confiscate the bikes.

OP - YANBU!!

libelulle · 15/06/2011 09:48

I am still open-mouthed at the behaviour of the cyclist yesterday who ran a red light at a busy crossroads then had the nerve to tut at me because I happened to be crossing the road with my children at the time and therefore caused him to have to slow down fractionally so as not to run us over.

Having said that, I'm equally open-mouthed at the bloke who cut me up at a roundabout while I was on my bike the other day, forcing me to swerve so as not to be run over. And the bus driver a few months back who beeped at me then drove past terrifyingly close because I had the nerve to be cycling on the road in front of him. Or the middle aged respectable-looking bloke who once threatened to run me over 'you stupid little bitch' for the same 'crime'.

There are nobbers in all forms on the roads, and yabu for starting a tiresome old 'I hate cyclists' thread singling them out in particular. On the whole, it is cars and not bikes that kill pedestrians.

tyler80 · 15/06/2011 09:48

There are dicks amongst all groups of road users unfortunately.

Hammy02 · 15/06/2011 09:49

C'mon MN. Are there any cyclists out there that go through red lights? I'd love to know why they think it is OK for them to go through red lights and not cars?

TurkeyBurgerThing · 15/06/2011 09:49

Come on now, if you have 2 wheels and not one then everyone knows you can COMPLETELY disregard any rules of the road what so ever. (this includes motorbikes too...they have the advantage that there is no speed limit for them.)

Who needs a red light when you have a pushbike....ding ding I'm coming through on the inside of you, you motherfuckers!

YANBU.

cumbria81 · 15/06/2011 09:49

agree with lieblulle

PlanetEarth · 15/06/2011 09:52

YANBU! (of course)

I had a go at a colleague recently who I saw on the way to our work, flying through a red light on his bike - there was a pedestrian green light showing, plus a lollipop man round the corner, and he raced across the pedestrian crossing. When I challenged him on this at work and said it's just not acceptable (he's not from this country BTW but has been here a while) he said, well there were no kids on the crossing at the time. Not that he'd have had time to stop if there were! Hope I got through to him though...

BTW I'm a cyclist too - some time ago this same colleague asked me how many times I'd been stopped by the police for crossing a red light. None, I said, as I don't run red lights - he was surprised!

steviesmith · 15/06/2011 09:55

I agree this cyclist was stupid and dangerous but don't make this a general rant about cyclists. You get dangerous cyclists, dangerous car drivers and dangerous pedestrians. I know which group cause the most deaths.

MissM · 15/06/2011 09:56

To be fair, the OP isn't slagging off all cyclists or starting a 'I hate cyclists' thread, she's slagging off this particular cyclist. Who was an arse. As are the other cyclists who jump red lights, as are the drivers who terrorise cyclists. But this thread is about this particular cyclist, not anyone else so she isn't being in the least U.

TheseThingsAreGoodThings · 15/06/2011 09:57

A cyclist mowed down my 3.5 DS in a road going through a park. (she turned into a car park and so we crossed the road - but obviously changed her mind and came right out again and plowed on without looking). He lost his 2 front teeth and is now very nervous of cyclists.

I bloody hate cyclists and they are always so bloody self righteous about being vulnerable. I want to shout "YOU ARE NOT AS VULNERABLE AS A THREE YEAR OLD CROSSING THE ROAD"

AnnieLobeseder · 15/06/2011 10:05

Gah! Some cyclists really give all of us a bad name. I'm a cyclist, I stop at red lights (though I will sneak across the pedestrian crossings in the pedestrian direction instead of waiting if I can).

But drivers are equally knobbish towards cyclists. I was trying to turn right into a right-turn lane, had my arm out to indicate, so no confusion as to where I was going. Some idiot boy racer zoomed past me on the right - he'd moved way over into the turning-right lane just to overtake me instead of waiting until I'd moved over, then zoomed back into the going-straight lane, while hooting and swearing at me. Why? He came really close to knocking me off, and luckily DD2 wasn't in her seat behind me, where she usually is. I don't dare use that junction any more. I cross at a pedestrian crossing further down the road and then ride the last bit on the pavement (which, as a disclaimer, is also marked as a cycle lane).

Not to mention the women who opened her car door on me as I rode past, sending me flying, and then swore at me for being there as I lay stunned in a heap on the pavement!

Original poster
microserf · 15/06/2011 13:06

Just to be clear, I do think most cyclists obey the road rules, and I support them as road users. It's the one that break the rules that annoy me. It's not meant to be an anti cyclist rant. They are not contributing more co2 into the atmosphere after all! That was the meaning of my "ill mannered" in the original post.

There are certainly ill mannered car, truck and taxi drivers. (I called the police recently to report the license plate of an extremely rude truck driver who got out of his car, punched a woman's driver window and called her the c-word - just in case she reported it as a threatened assault).

They don't tend to affect me as much as a pedestrian though. Unfortunately, that's more an issue between drivers and cyclists.

OP posts:
Original poster
microserf · 15/06/2011 13:08

gah, woman driver's window.

i forgot to mention, the reason i mentioned it was a woman is that my taxi driver and i agreed he quite likely wouldn't have done it if there'd been a big bloke driving the car.

OP posts:
nightowlmostly · 15/06/2011 13:17

I don't really have a problem with cyclists going through red lights if they are being careful and there's nobody there, I don't understand why people get so het up about it. Obviously if they are going too fast and endangering people it's different, but in the main it is cars drivers that kill, 3000 a year I think. Compared to that cyclists really aren't a problem!

Am speaking as a driver too, but used to cycle in London and I know how dangerous it is! Cars just don't give you the space you need, seem to think you are just inconveniencing them.

tyler80 · 15/06/2011 13:27

I'm always aware when biking that I probably do things that piss off drivers and which they see as unfair

e.g. There is a huge junction I have to negotiate, the lights change according to number of cars and it's also on a hill. If there is only one car in the queue in order to stand any chance of making it across the junction I have to be beyond the stop line. As there is a pedestrian crossing immediately in front I wait beyond the crossing but before the junction. Then when I make it across the otherside I hop onto the pavement which is actually a shared use path for cyclists and pedestrians.

I'm sure that in most drivers minds they just see me 'jumping' the red light and then cycling on the pavement.