To think if you dive a car, you are an idiot

[jam17]

In reply to 'cyclists having a deathwish'. All these things have happened this week, no wonder we're an angry bunch! I cycle everyday to work and drop DS (18mo) off at nursery on the way

• IF I INDICATE RIGHT, DO NOT THEN OVERTAKE ME ON MY RIGHT HAND SIDE! thanks. If one more person overtakes me on my right hand side when i've indicated, i will purposefully fall off my bike and claim then knocked me off and sue them

• A cycle lane is for me to cycle in, not for you to park.

• a woman doing her make up in her mirror at 7:30am drove through a red light, when me and DS were trying to cross the road at the green man and clipped our back wheel, sending us flying. He is fine, thanks to a helmet. (cycle on the pavement at busy times when I have DS and pavements are empty)

• If you insist on driving your little darlings to school in a fucking ridiculous 4x4, it's not my problem to make way for you and you should drive behind me sensibly until it's safe to overtake and not drive me into the pavement

• When there are road works blocking half the road, i am infront of you and have right of way. I shouldn't have to stop and wait for their to be a gap so I can overtake roadworks, you go after me and don't try and run me over

-Me and DS always have helmets and lights on. BUT if i have cycled by myself to the gym in the evening, i may not have a highvis jacket on or lights because I was expecting it to be dark. You're issue, i'm going down a road with fucking lights everywhere, it's not an excuse not to see me. I shouldn't have to paint mysef flurouscent just because you're distracted.

• Crossroads? Deathroads. I have to wait for a car going the way i'm going to cycle alongside and guide me across safely, or i would be pummeled.

-If you are on your phone. text/talking, you deserve to be shot.

• Mostly, I am on a bike. You are on your ass in a car. I am cold. It is usually wet too. I have a baby on my bike. GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK AND LET ME CYCLE!

• If you ever shout at me out the window for being a good human being and not poluting the planet and excercising, unlike you lazy bastards in cars, then i will remember you. Just because you can drive off afterwards, doesn't mean you get the last word.

I can't even explain my fury, I am so angry at the other thread. i'm sure i've missed some off.

Jam, don't you see that your assertions that 'no one's ever had a problem' with you on the pavement, that people 'happily move' and that you 'don't endanger anyone' sounds to this pedestrian/driver/occasional cyclist (knocked down twice, once bad enough for A&E, pram knocked sideways once, all by cyclists breaking the rules) like the drivers who dimly say that no cyclist has ever complained to them about their driving / are very safe / don't endanger cyclists?

I'm not a terribly confident cyclist so I don't cycle on busy roads. Full stop. I don't decide that if the road is busy, I'll cycle on the pavement instead. If I can't cycle safely and confidently while abiding by the rules, I won't cycle. That means I walk, take public transport or drive instead, depending on the circumstances. I don't have the arrogance to assume that others will be just fine with me making a choice with the potential to put pedestrians at risk.

You may be the safest pavement cyclist in the world. But each person who does it makes it more socially acceptable for others to do it. You are part of the problem.

You said yourself - i've got a baby on my bike for god sake! we're barely going faster than a pedestrian anyway so its not like cycling is getting you there faster is it? Just walk it and stop endangering your sons life every day.

The OP puts me in mind of that charming little ditty:

"This is the grave of Mike O'Day
who died maintaining his right of way.
He was right, dead right, as he sped along,
but he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong."

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1964to1979/filmpage_pedal.htm

Jam 17 - poss. some ideas for you???!

I think hysterical covers someone who claims to be physically sick and then laughing a few minutes later.

Although attention seeking fucknugget might be equally valid

it might be time to consdier a nursey nearer you or something on a bus route, i can understand why you are upset, this getting like a fight club, perhaps posters could offer some helpful suggestions instead that might help jam, okay she has got wound up but wouldn't anyone if hey felt they were being ganged up on, you car drivers are vocal too, it's natural reaction, incidently i walk don't cycle or drive.

me thinks you need an anger management course (or a car )

So your having a laugh then!

Wow you really need to find a hobby.

I was actually enjoying this until what Goat said

Aah so you are enjoying insulting people and arguing until someone points out a hypothetical situation that might occur (actually a cyclist came off the pavement in front of me on my way to work yesterday, luckily I managed to break in time)

If you think its too dangerous because some idiot car drivers have nearly hit your son on a main road, STOP RIDING WITH HIM ON A MAIN ROAD.

Ranting on MN and insulting people with not stop it.

I think your title is a bit of a sweeping statement. There are many car drivers who also ride bikes. My dh is one. He is very considerate to bike riders when driving because he knows what it's like to be overtaken at speed by trucks almost touching him. For people to turn left in front of him. For people not to notice him at roundabouts and cut in front of him.

FWIW he wears a high vis jacket and has lights.

Yes there are a lot of impatient idiots around. But not all car drivers fall into that category.

perhaps try some deep breathing? In..2..3..4.. Out...2...3...4...

Haven't see the thread you refer to, or read the rest of this thread. But if, as you say in your OP that you don't see why you should trouble your arse to make yourself visible in the dark then frankly you're a bit of a twat.

Everyone is capable of being a twat, no matter what their mode of transport. But I would have thought that being so much more vulnerable would make you think more about how you cycle. Obviously not. Why should I bother about your safety if you clearly don't?

This is a wind up. This is the second load of clearly inflammatory posts I've seen by jam in 1 day.

Like a little Internet ruckus when your drinking your tea op?

girls, girls, this is getting so bitchy, I have to go have a lie down (in a cycle lane, obviously)

Bye bye world!

I've just received a PM from OP.

Bonkers IMO

I've cycled in Manchester - I'll be honest, pretty much every journey a car driver would do something stupid/dangerous such as squeezing past me in too small a space, the left hook (overtake a cyclist just before the car turns left, meaning the cyclist has to break suddenly), overtaking me when I'm signalling right, park in cycle lanes, pull into cycle/bus lanes without looking properly.

I just have to remember that whilst every journey has a twat, I was probably near 200 cars during the journey, so not all car drivers are twats. Saying that, I've given up cycling to work after a bus nearly took me out by pulling in to a bus stop suddenly when he had partially overtaken me.

TBH I posted on the other thread a few hours ago, before this one started.

I actually said that I've had more near misses and an accident a year ago by another driver who wrote my car off. That post was more in sympathy of cyclists.

OP hasn't done cyclists any favours by this thread.

Pumpkin i love that rhyme, i think i've heard it before years ago, it's good.

OP - you are quite funny too, no offence but i like the ''Crossroads? No, Deathroads.''

However your comment: ''you lazy bastards in cars, i will remember you'' is a little scary in that it reminds me of Liam Neeson's famous line in Taken - ''I will find you and i will kill you!!'' ie slightly obsessively cross.

Maybe try decaf

just because you drink green tea and have a cat doesn't mean you are not hysterical

I'm sure they aren't all trying to kill you. Just those who have read this thread.

PMSL thanks lueji!

When you are turning right you should wait at the kerbside until it is clear for you to go into the middle of the road to make your manoeuvre. not just cycle out in front of cars and expect us to avoid you.

Say what? If I'm cycling along and wish to turn right, I will behave like any other vehicle. Look over my right shoulder to check that no-one is overtaking me or in position to overtake, signal and start my manoeuvre. To overtake me after that point is madness, you wouldn't do it to a car.

Cyclists thinking they are entitled to ride on the pavement really get my goat.

The road is dangerous for you, agreed. Cyclists can feel bullied by cars, agreed. But on what level does this entitle cyclists to bully pedestrians in turn?

If you've got a problem with a lack of usable cycle lanes, sort it out yourselves as a cycling community and get yourselves decent cycle lanes and routes. Pedestrians couldn't care less abour your transportation choices, just like we couldn't care less about other people choosing to drive cars. We shouldn't have to suffer for your choice to ride a bike.

For me, cyclists are the worst of the lot: sanctimonious (look at me! Saving the planet!), hypocritical (the Highway Code applies to you as much as to anyone else, don't care how good a cyclist you think you are), entitled (bullies to pedestrians) - and, in your case, can't spell (iPads do have a delete button, I'm on one right now).

Have never ranted on MN before, but this OP is on another level. Take responsibility for your life choices, woman.

If I felt in danger of being killed every time I went out on a bike I wouldn't be blaming every driver in the city, it's not possible for every one of them to be dangerous drivers. That's silly.

I would be questioning my own cycling skills and my road confidence.

I would also be asking myself why other cyclists don't feel like this every time they travel.

Maybe it's you OP, not all the drivers in Manchester?