AIBU to think that cyclists and drivers

[helloclitty]

might be a lot more civil to each other if it was mandatory to pass tests in both cycling and driving if using the road, whether you are a cyclist or vehicle driver.

Of course there would have to be exclusions for people unable to cycle or drive for any reason (a simulator perhaps). However, with the focus on green living and the sheer increase in road traffic on our narrow city roads something has to be done. We cannot divide up the roads there is simply not enough space, we need to be able to share them and understand all road users needs as well as our own.

This may have been already said, but I'm very much of the viewpoint that if you're an inconsiderate idiot, you'll remain an inconsiderate idiot in whichever form of transport you choose to use. Ninja cyclists running red lights, and careless drivers who think as long as the wing mirror misses you they've given you enough space, they are all just inconsiderate idiots. Blame the person, not the vehicle :)

Oy clitty calm yourself

Thank's Youwhalefish, that is what i meant

My son got run over by a cyclist on his first day of secondary school

Not all but a lot of them race along the road as if cycling in the tour de france.

BAN THEM!

Faversham

It may be what you meant but not what you wrote.

And Ban what?

I rode bicycles until I was age 17, and from about age 11 or so (when I was no longer a skinny child) hated every minute of it. I loathe bicycles.

I was so glad to pass my driving test and get my car!

Thanks for that Pendeen

As long as cyclists have no skin in the game it won't improve, any fuckwit can buy a bicycle and jump onto the roads without having a clue about the rules.

And so they do. And its a nightmare, because they do such fuckwitted things in traffic, yet if you hit them its often serious, and so that ups the ante of any accident.

It's time to regulate IMO - driving licence, insurance and cycle tax.

And a lot of drivers pass their test and then drive like fuckwits.
MsF - Sorry your son was knocked over - is it possible he was partly to blame for not being careful enough? You give no detail.

Most drivers ime are fine for most of the time. But even the attentive ones have lapses of concentration and cause accidents with cyclists. 99% of them are okay most of the time. Trouble is, the fuckwits and the 'lapse in concentration' ones are the ones that will kill you.

Cycle tax - do me a favour.

Thefresheggnoodlepan - Son was walking across small road to his school cyclist turned corner very fast and knocked him flying. Cyclist's fault but he did actually came back, picked my son up and offeedr him his card. He was a medic!

I do apologise to Hell for not making myself clearer. What I was trying to say was that London roads are not built to accommodate both to such a high degree - is that explanation ok?

MsF - so he was on the road, and the cyclist was also on the road cycling fast but legally? Not sure where the cyclist is at fault there, but messy nonetheless.

Bit of an example from just this evening. Woman tries to pull out from being parked up. She sees the van that is travelling in front of me on my bike. She stops to let the van pass. I am a good distance behind van (15 yds?) and see it all unfurling. She then pulls out in front of me with nooo idea I am there - so I swerve away to accommodate for her error. She drives off with no idea of what just happened. Tomorrow, in a survey if she was asked 'are you a good driver?' she may well answer 'yes'. In this (not uncommon example) the cyclist has to think for the driver. She isn't a 'fuckwit'. She just didn't bother looking past the van. Sort of thing that happens most days.

Cycle tax - do me a favour

You can't just keep on allowing more untrained, unproven people onto a limited capacity sytem full of 1-2 ton lumps of metal that can kill them. At some point it will have to be regulated.

Every other road user needs a licence to use it, cyclists should as well. And IMO every vehicle using the road needs to be registered, its cost to the road system paid for (aka cycle tax) and insured.

And I'd love cycles to have number plates so I could take photos of some of them and pass them on to the cops, and they could get fined.Then the fuckwittery might stop.

Oh, and my van story - turning right into oncoming traffic at junction this pm, oncoming van slows and signals me to go. I and car behind move forward, turning. Cyclist under-takes now stationary van and sails across junction. Other driver and I have to veer off and brake hard, nearly a 4 car accident. If either of us had hit the cyclist he would have been very badly hurt. And the fuckwit just kept on pedaling, oblivious of what he had done.

Cyclists will continue to act like prats for as long as they can choose to simply mount the pavement when they want and rejoin the road when they want and jump red lights when they want.

They'll continue to moan and whinge and have a general sense of sanctimonious moral superiority and entitlement too.

There is a fat chance of fines being handed out to cyclists, no matter how recklessly they drive, if the example being set by how leniently drivers are treated is anything to go by.

It is only through knowing which strings to pull in the legal system and being able to escalate his complaint up the system that this chap has managed to persuade the CPS to prosecute drivers who have threatened and attacked him and deliberately driven dangerously. The police just aren't interested otherwise.

"And I'd love cycles to have number plates so I could take photos of some of them and pass them on to the cops, and they could get fined.Then the fuckwittery might stop."

Try taking photos of the cars driven by fuckwits while you're at it. They may have paid tax for the priviledge but I'm not sure it excusess the sheer wankery most of them are guilty of. Would rather be hit by a tosser driving a bike than a tosser driving a car, regardless of how much tax he's paid.

Try taking photos of the cars driven by fuckwits while you're at it.

The point is that you can. Those camears watching junctions on red can't come after the cyclists who flout them.

I hate that situation you described with the van as well. It has happened that more than once, even when I have been going along a marked cycle path, a van- which will be blocking my view of the cars turning right- stops and signals for cars to turn in front of him without checking to see that he is signalling for them to turn across my path. The car drivers see the van signal and don't properly check that the road is clear and all the traffic has stopped.

The cars probably can't see me either, so the fault is with the van driver for failing to notice that he was signalling for the car to make a dangerous manoeuvre.

The cameras may be there but they seem to miss an awful lot of incidents. Drivers speeding, going through lights just as they switch to red, using phones, talking to their kids in the back etc etc. How many times do people manage to escape getting caught doing all those things? And the simple undeniable fact remains that if I get hit by a bike I will be a lot better off than if I get hit by a car - especially if I happen to be in a car as it happens.

And the simple undeniable fact remains that if I get hit by a bike I will be a lot better off than if I get hit by a car - especially if I happen to be in a car as it happens.

Yes, and the other simple undeniable fact is that roads are full of cars.

And? That seems to back up my argument that drivers must be more rigorously policed than cyclists,.

"They'll continue to moan and whinge and have a general sense of sanctimonious moral superiority and entitlement too."

Well, tbh, I do have a sort of sense of moral superiority when biking. I can drive my car to work, but I don't. The expense, the congestion, the damage to our environment are enormous by driving, something that is comfortably ignored, because driving a car is an immensely individual act, and comes with a horrible sense of, ironically (given the quote above), a misplaced sense of entitlement.

And in hte eg quoted above by Whatme, you and the other drivers are entirely at fault. Just because a van chooses to 'give way' it doesn't mean the cyclist, or anyone else eg another car driver has to. You were not being observant. Not the cyclist fault.

This thread recently has been a bit of a sort of confirmation as to how a lot of drivers just don't think cyclists are an 'equal' in terms of rights on the road.

What me worry, your van story is a bit concerning. The cyclist is allowed to filter on the left. I don't personally like this because as your example shows, drivers don't expect it. It's a classic example of what the op was on about. With better education the cyclist would know he's vulnerable when filtering on the left, especially when high sided vehicles are involved.

You were not being observant. Not the cyclist fault

"Undertaking in an aggressive or reckless manner could be considered Careless Driving or more seriously Dangerous Driving, both of which are legally enforceable offences"

I'd bet dimes to dollars that undertaking over the kerb when the van in front has slowed and stopped, to then race across a junction would be considered at least careless.

All this threads done is add fuel to the us and them fire.