AIBU to think cyclists should pay tax and insurance?

[Pumpernickel10]

I'm probably digging a big hole here but I really feel that cyclists should pay road tax and insurance. This is why...
My SIL had a smash yesterday in her car, caused several thousand pounds worth of damage and had whiplash, this happened cause a cyclist rode through a red light causing her to swerve and hit a tree. The cyclist just carried on riding not knowing the damage he had caused. SIL will now lose 12 years no claims cause of this fucking idiot cyclist. He's got no number plate as they don't have them so there no telling who he is. This just doesn't seem right.
AIBU?

yada yada

You're not being unreasonable in thinking that, if someone is at fault, they should be punished for it. But I'm an avid cyclist (or I was before getting pregnant!) and I've witnessed first-hand the hostility and the anger that most cars have simply because I'm a cyclist and therefore I'm "encroaching on their territory" or something stupid like that. I know the highway code, and I know how to indicate to others, so the fault doesn't lie with me. I've lost count of the amounts of times I've come close to having a serious accident because of a car, and one particular incident scared my partner so much he's not happy with me cycling after dark.

It is give-and-take though. I've seen cyclists disobey the rules of the road and cause unending destruction. So I think that it's a bit of the 6-on-one-hand-half-a-dozen-on-the-other. Cars think they own the road, and bikes think the rules don't apply because they are smaller. Both as bad as eachother in my opinion.

Dullard if you can't offer a decent debate then shut up

no you shut up

Right, the pair of you stop it or I'll put you in a time-out. And I don't want to hear about who started it, because it doesn't matter. I'm the one who is ending it :P

If you can't talk about it like adults then there'll be no pudding after dinner!

Now now ladies

snigger

Arf @ katvondee's attempt at 'decent debate'.

When I was learning to drive, my driving instructor told me that I should give cyclists plenty of space, and then a bit extra, so that if the cyclist has to do something unexpected, they've still got enough room. I've remembered that ever since, and applied it to my driving. I'd rather slow down behind a cyclist and idle along until I have enough space to pass, leaving them enough elbow room, than go past them with the minimum safe distance or less. Maybe I irritate drivers behind me when I do this, but that's tough.

Genuine question - what sort of response do cyclists get from the police if someone almost mows them down/cuts them up/ignores their safety, and they get the vehicle's registration number and report it? Do the police take any positive action?

applauds sdtg's driving instructor

Dunno about police but I've had a disciplinary organised against a bus driver by TfL. It was a bendy bus that repeatedly overtook then pulled in in front of me so I was nearly crushed against the curb, tailgated me at lights, including pulling up so close that he was a few inches from my back wheel at a red light etc. It went on for about a mile and I was really frightened so I took the bus's reference number and took a good look at the driver when he tailgated me.

Rang TfL and they were horrified by his behaviour and pulled him on it.

Good for TfL!!

I was in a collision with a car that resulted in me breaking a collar bone. I gave the police a description of the car and told them that I thought it was owned locally (it turned out to be owned by a family who lived about 30 yards from where the accident happened and was normally parked on their drive). They wrote to me several days after the accident saying that they were unable to trace the car so wouldn't be taking the matter any further. In those several days I had walked past the car numerous times, parked outside the house.

I wasn't looking for action to be taken against the driver as it was a 50/50 accident but I was surprised that they couldn't walk 30 yards from the scene of the accident to find the car. TBH they wouldn't even have had to walk anywhere. They could have stood on the post where I hit the road and seen where it was parked. I think they just couldn't be arsed.

That's bad, nocake. Your description should have been enough for reasonable cause for examining the car for evidence of a recent collision. If they'd found that, they could have tied it to your bike and at least warned the driver, even without the licence plate. When they told you they couldn't find the car, did you tell them where it was?

unfortunately, incidents between cars and bikes are not so well regulated. I have had numerous incidents over the decades where I have 'come off worse' in incidents, one where I was hit from the side by a lorry and left in the middle of a v.busy junction, and left to hope I wouldn't have been run over by on-coming raffic. Getting a reg. plate is amongst the last things on one's mind. Of course the truck just drove off.

Again, recently, being hit by a van that ( I know) swerved to take my space. I caught up with him, laid my bike in the lane in front of him in stopped traffic, took off my bike gear and gestured to 'have him out'. He declined by staying in his car. Not my best self-contol moment I admit. But to my mind understandable.

For those 'rules is rules' posters on this thread, esp. drivers, they have apparently nooo idea what it is like to fight for space on busy roads. Yes , a teeny proportion of cyclists do daft things and endanger themselves and/or others. BUT, keep things in proportion. I'd suggest that drivers should mandatorily have to ride a bike, or motorbike first before being given a licence to drive ( excepting any disabiltiy issues for individuals) and so improve on their observational skills.

YANBU at all. However, even cars don't pay road tax. The upkeep of roads is paid for "out of the pot". Vehicle tax is different, and as bicycles don't harm the environment then they shouldn't be taxed.

They should be forced to take out insurance and wear a helmet though.

I have zero tolerance for idiots on bikes. I despise the way they jump from road to pavement, I despise the way they jump red lights and I despise the way they cut me up on roundabouts with their inability to indicate.

I nearly hit one the other day, I was pulling up to a zebra crossing and there was a woman MOUNTED on a bike waiting to cross. I refused to stop as she was NOT a pedestrian. She, however, thought she had right of way. I drove onto the zebra crossing and opened the window and told her if she wanted to cross she'd have to get off her bike as I wouldn't be stopping otherwise. Stupid woman.

I also think they should have to take a hazard awareness test similar to the one drivers have to take. Cyclists are not above hazards, despite what they think.

Trust me. We know all about the hazards. Far more than most motorists. Helmets aren't really neccessary but that should be an individual choice (I wear one but don't expect others to). Insurance? that is up to the Govt. to legislate. if car insurance wasn't compulsory I doubt many people would have it.

LCM, have you ever cycled? Do you have kids that cycle? I wear a helmet, most cyclists do these days but are you aware that the majority of research shows they are ineffectual? It's a choice, if you want to limit people's choice based on ineffectual data that's up to you. A bit of polysterene doesn't really do huge amounts when a car smashes into a cyclist. For example a motorist hitting a woman on a zebra crossing even if she is in "the wrong". BTW your insurance, and the police may have looked at that incident very differently. Even if the lady was "in the wrong" (as she was rule 64 Highway code).

Have you paid for insurance for your kids cycling? If so where? I got some for ours but only in a very roundabout way ie through a cycling club.

Hazards for cyclists are there, but they can be very very different. Great potholes, glass, drivers opening doors unaware of them, left turning drivers who squash them, road rage filled ladies...... Cyclist travel at far slower speeds, they can react generally in plenty of time. I drive and cycle, and have never taken a "hazard awareness test", yet have the common sense to recognise they are there. Drivers often need to realise why a cyclist can't ride in the gutter (pot holes, glass, deep puddles hiding God knows what)

"Zero tolrerance" for idiots on bikes? What does that mean precisely? Are you going to endanger them just because they're stupid? The daftest cyclists (maybe dispatch riders excluded) are kids. Please be very tolerant, of these "idiots on bikes", they're pretty precious items.

BTW Step minor is 10, Insurance for 12 years and over is pretty easy to get.

wrt to wearing helmets: in australia since helmets are compulsory, the number of bike riders has gone done and the number of accidents has gone up. from ctc

You were in the wrong there lady. You must stop at a pedestrian crissing even uf someone is on wheels.

The Australian research is interesting. I was quite dubious when i first read it. When I'm on my bike I wear helmet/reflective gear etc. However, I use the Boris bikes fairly frequently to travel between meetings. I tend not to wear a helmet then because, usually, I've failed to plan ahead. I find when on the Boris bikes I'm given a wide berth and even white van man and black cabs (the worst offenders IMHO) treat me with the respect I don't get when geared up.

Of course, many cyclists are also drivers and pay road tax via that route. They also know the road rules. The worst accident I ever had was caused by a left turning driver. When the bystanders chased her down her excuse was that I hadn't indicated. Now even in my dazed state I was sharp enough to point out that there was no requirement for me to indicate that I was going straight on, and that, despite being on a bike, I had the right of way. I tried to claim for my helmet and bike repair costs via her insurance but guess what, she wasn't insured.

Do the Boris bikes adjust so tall poeple are comfortable? And can non Londoners use them?

Wow, you were way in the wrong.

What can be done to get dangerous road ragers like you off our roads?

That would please me as driver, cyclist and pedestrian.

Deliberately driving at someone is wrong, even if they do disobey the highway code.

You self-righteousness would be amusing if the rest of us weren't at risk from having to share the road with your aggression.