to think some cyclists appear to have a death wish

[whoneedssleepanyway]

last night it was dark and rainy I was turning right into a residential street with cars parked both sides so only room for one car and as I am turning suddenly a cyclist comes into view coming out from behind parked cars, no lights and wearing a dark jacket...I nearly knocked him off.

If I had would it have been my fault, I am guessing it would have...? But I can't understand why someone would cycle in the dark and rain without the proper equipment (lights and visible clothing...)

Yes in sensible countries where most people actually cycle, helmets are not generally worn.

There's pretty strong proof that helmets for car occupants would save lives, likewise for pedestrians, but for cyclists the evidence is contradictory at best.

I told a motorist off the other day 'you're in the cycle box'. 'Where's your helmet?' was his reply. 'What the hell has it got to do with you if I wear a helmet?' was mine.

Lifeisontheup I take it you're a paramedic?

But Amsterdam and Cologne have perfectly good and well thought cycle routes/lanes not the shambles that the U.K has that is just a white line added to an existing road causing problems for motorists and cyclists alike. The bulk of the problems that have motorists and cyclists at each others throats is the useless and antiquated roads system in the U.K which are frankly pretty crap no matter what vehicle you use.

I have just started driving after years of walking/ train / cycling (need to drive as nursery is in the opposite direction to work). I am appalled at some of the cyclists I see (not all, by any means). the road out of our village is very busy, including lots of lorries, but has a fantastic wide cycle lane running the length of it on the especially widened pavement. So why oh why do some cyclists choose to cycle (with no high vis gear or lights) along the road instead of the cycle lane? there is no room to pass them safely as there is nearly always traffic in the other direction, but it causes huge queues and therefore some people give in and pull risky overtaking manoeuvres.

Student para and emergency care assistant for the past three years.

Probably better to say some road users have a death wish as their are reckless cyclists , motorcyclists, car drivers, van drivers, lorry drivers, pedestrians etc etc.

If you were indicating to turn right he should not have overtaken you and he should have been properly illuminated.

tiredfeet, my local cycle lanes are nothing more than a line on the road separating cars from bikes, but the area where cyclists have to ride is full of road rubbish, broken glass ,recessed manholes and drainage covers, hard enough to walk over let alone ride a bike over.

Amsterdam and Cologne have better provision for cyclists, but in fact cycle helmets there should be more effective than they are here, since a cycle helmet is self-evidently going to be more effective for someone falling off in the wet on a cycle path with no motor vehicles in Cologne, than for a cyclist being hit by a tipper truck in London.

Nobody even claims that cycle helmets are effective in collisions with ten-tonne trucks, the reality is that cycling is either too dangerous in the UK or it's not, a helmet is not going to change that equation in the slightest.

A 66-year-old female cyclist died here:

maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=51.653409,-0.201091&spn=0.005724,0.011523&sll=51.654555,-0.201613&sspn=0.011449,0.023046&t=m&fll=51.653083,-0.203955&fspn=0.005725,0.011523&z=17&layer=c&cbll=51.653466,-0.201209&panoid=c_aS2-UC_jIXo_DBS7BGVQ&cbp=12,135.13,,0,8.99

on Tuesday.

She was killed by a vehicle not dissimilar to the Lawsons truck in that Streetview.

Not sure if she was wearing a helmet, but reports are that she was killed instantly, so it's irrelevant - the helmet would not save her.

Chances are she was cycling in the gutter, the truck overtook her and took her out. If that is what happened, then by cycling in the middle of that very narrow lane, she would have prevented this happening and would be still alive. Helmet not relevant.

"the road out of our village is very busy, including lots of lorries, but has a fantastic wide cycle lane running the length of it on the especially widened pavement. "

A pavement is a pavement.

It's not a cycle lane.

Do you have a google maps link so I can check it out?

Reasons I would very seldom use such a facilitiy:

• I'm travelling ten miles and the pavement covers only half-a-mile, so it's an irrelevance to my journey
• the pavement is likely to have driveways running across it, and at every driveway you face a risk of being hit by a car who is not expecting cyclists to be coming across the pavement
• the pavement is going to intersect with every side road, which could be very frequent. To navigate these safely you must come to a stop, check for traffic from the side road, and from the main road (which could be approaching fast and cut the corner, etc.). (The alternative is just to keep going without checking properly - very dangerous indeed, much more dangerous than cycling in the traffic on the main road.) Imagine if you were driving along the main road and had to stop at every side road. You wouldn't, would you? You'd drive along the main road and be grateful for the fact you have right of way and don't have to stop. It would be madness to choose an alternative route where you have to give way to EVERYTHING - little kids on scooters, dogs off the leash, cars from the main road, cars from the side road, pedestrians. Just ridiculous.

Such facilities are almost never fantastic I'm afraid.

My DH is a serious cyclist and has been at the receiving end of some ridiculous drivers' behaviour. The difference is, terrible car driving is more likely to result in the death of someone else

But yes, when I see a cyclist with no lights, helmet, reflective gear, I think "If you have no thought for your own safety, why the hell so you expect anyone else to have?"

All drivers should experience cycling, and all cyclists should know what it's like to drive and not be able to see cyclists.

life amazing how many people pull out on front of an ambulance, or the many pedestrians that expect them to stop at a zebra crossing, isn't it!

Yy to some road users having a deathwish. The cyclists get picked on because they're the most vulnerable so its particularly visible when they do something idiotic

If cyclists need to wear helmets, then so do pedestrians and car drivers/passengers. All are at risk of head injuries. If cycle helmets were made compulsory, many cyclists would use their cars instead and add to the congestion on the roads.
I wish people would stop trying to impose their own nonsensical safety rules on others. I choose not to wear a helmet and I am entitled to make that choice. It doesn't make me a bad cyclist

Yesterday morning on my way to work a cyclist decided to come off the pavement without any warning right in front of my car. Luckily I managed to break in time but he scared the shit out of me.

I have also seen a cyclist hit by some idiot who came screaming round a roundabout, who then drove off while the cyclist was on the side of the road injured.

There are idiots everywhere who think they have a right to do as they please without a thought of others people's safety.

Forgot to add that I'm one of those people who get frustrated when I see a cyclist holding up traffic etc

But when I think about it, its other car drivers who I've had the most near misses with, and one who wrote my car off a year ago due to his own negligence. I'm still having physio and I have lost out financially as a result.

Certainly where I am, the ones like that are too dangeorus - and are a waste of the paint that was used to define them.

Not only are they too narrow and force the cyclists into the crud, potholes and drain covers at the side of the road, they also create a mindset in some drivers that they therefore no longer have a requirement to give the cyclist appropriate space.

And that's before beginning a rant about mentioning the cars that park in the cycle lane - and do so legally because there are no yellow lines.

The councils that do this (and Glasgow City Council is one, to name and shame) do so purely so that they can meet targets having having introduced "X" mils of cycle lanes - despite having done nothing to improve the safety and road "experience" of both cyclists and drivers. :(

The good "On Road" cycle lanes (and they can be done - but only where the road is wide enough) have a "parking lane" defined, then the cycle lane and then the car lane. But it takes a wide, what-could-be-two-lanes-each-way if it weren't for parked cars road and makes it permanently into a single-lane-each-way-for-cars road.

And you still get numpties some drivers double parking in the cycle lane because they couldn't possibly* walk 10 extra metres to the ATM and so forcing cyclists out into the car traffic.

Typical example of dangerous driving today. I'm cycling happily through a 30mph village, all dolled up in high viz, going around 14mph. My side of the road is clear, the other side has a long row of parked cars, and the road is pretty narrow. Given that the side I'm on has broken tarmac, slippery drain covers etc, and the fact that there isn't really enough room to overtake due to the parked cars, I was a good three feet from the kerb. Some fool decides that I really don't need my life, and overtakes (albeit within the speed limit) me, with a gap of about a foot. He then had to stop at the mini roundabout ahead anyway. I just don't get it. There is no way it would have made a significant difference to his journey time if he'd waited until there was room before overtaking. That is the sort of thing that happens at least once every time I go out - and people moan about cyclists acting belligerent and entitled? I am entitled to stay alive, and I'll do everything in my power to remain that way.

Next thing on my to do list for today is to go to the shop. I shall drive there, and if there are cyclists on the road, I shall pass them safely, when there is time and space to do so.

Oh, and I also got overtaken on a country road by an Audi that was going rather quickly, but it was right over on the other side of the road, giving me loads of room. Thank you, that Audi driver :)

YANBU!

Cyclists in my area...think red lights don't apply to them,in the main don't wear helmets/high vis clothing/have lights,don't indicate, think they have right of way on pavements and are aggressive to pedestrians.

I hate them all.

I have all the time in the world for cyclists who do everything properly,I've yet to see/meet one however.

Alisvolatpropiis I hate all drivers that ^don't wear flowering swimming caps in the cars they are driving

I have all the time in the world for motorists that do everything properly but have yet to meet one that does everything the way I want

All these motorists going out with no crash helmets on. I hate them all.

worse than that skippy - is they drive about in their cars and they don't have swimming goggles on - in all my life I have every only once seen a man driving with swimming goggles ( yes really) Hate them all - apart from that one man

Well yes. And some of them drive in full leather bondage gear. What would happen if they crashed - they'd have to be cut out of it, it shouldn't be allowed.

motorists have seatbelts and airbags though.

I don't give a shit if cyclists don't want to wear helmets or have lights on their bikes - it will be their brains splattered all over the pavement.

gosh yes and as my ex found out it is dangerous to have an airbag if you don't wear a seat belt....and he also found that smoking is dangerous whilst driving if you flick it out the window at passing strangers.

The fag came back in the car and he was scrabbling around trying to find it - thus running into a very large brick wall and the airbag going off and him being rescued by fire brigade and placed in hospital for 5 das unable to move.

Whilst his passenger walked away without a scratch as he was wearing a seatbelt