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.

If it wasn't for the fact that DS isn't 14, I'd say you we're the sort of poster with impressive outside security lighting.

Stop being such a drama llama with the "everyone's trying to kill me, especially Goat".

When everyone on a thread says "YABU" it's really time to re-think your perspective, or at least turn off the PC.

Pavement cycling - sans bell, at speed, in the dark - is de rigueur where I live.

May jackals dance on their grandmothers graves.

I am not saying that all drivers her perfect by the way, far from it.

Some are reckless and put cyclists in danger.

But all of them?

are perfect.

So, you cycle on the pavement and you don't think it's your responsibility to make yourself visible at night? But car drivers are idiots?

Get a fucking grip.

There are some cyclists who are idiots, some drivers who are idiots. Most of both groups aren't but we only ever notice those who are.

But... if you think every single other person around you ever is always in the wrong maybe it's time to look at yourself.

60cm - i think your husband has being fibbing about length

I'd say you we're the sort of poster with impressive outside security lighting

Brilliant.

Oh get stuffed OP

way to alienate EVERYONE who might have been on your side.

"Oh and your point about cars driving behind you until it is safe to over take, WTF? Why should they? A car is designed to go a fairly high speed not snails pace." Because it says so in the highway code???

I can see where Jam is coming from... my DP cycles to work and comes home every day with a story about near misses including bus drivers cutting him up and shouting out the window how funny it is but until I drove the same route at the same time as him I didn't appreciate how bad it really is. I saw for myself how other drivers were driving around him almost killing him. Its made me more aware of how I drive around cyclists now.

I agree there are loads of stupid cyclists and there are loads of stupid car/van/lorry/bus drivers too. What I would like is for everyone to accept that they have a right to be on the road and not act like an idiot.

Y'know what the sad thing is? i don't believe any one posting here today would disagree with the point that car drivers need to take care around cyclists.

But the OP has bulldozed her way through this thread and just pissed everyone off like a total nutter. It would have been so easy to have so many more people onside with the principle of the thread - and maybe have made a difference - as it is a no brainer!

'We look cute in our matching helmets' ...

Mmm I live in a village with no pavements... So regularly come across rude cyclists, who won't go around me but want me to jump in the nearest hedge! Car drivers usually- but not always more considerate!

No lights on at night is just bloody stupid. I know of a death caused by that...on a winters morning. The driver was deemed not at fault, the cyclist was as fault and paid for it by leaving a widow and 2 primary school children.

i cycle around in central manchester and hardly ever encountered bad driving tbh. but I don't cycle that often though.
My DH cycles everyday to work 10 miles each way through central manchester and he is a very competant and careful cyclist. He has had a few near misses, but not really in the centre, more towards his work in north manchester.

YABU to say all car drivers are idiots. Not true. Most (but not all) car drivers try to drive safely.
Just like most cyclists are sensible but some behave like idiots, for example the cyclist I passed going the wrong way down a stretch of dual carriageway in rush hour last week.

And your statement 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.

So, by your logic, if I'm driving my car down a road with lights everywhere, it's okay for me to not put my headlights on. Everyone else should just pay attention and notice me anyway, and I'm completely blameless if they don't, right?

Aww, all the diving jokes have already been done.

Anyway, YABU. I hate cyclists with a passion. You're all unsafe, and think you own the road.

I would like ALL cyclists to hold insurance.

Aww I suspect this is a wind up, which makes me a bit sad as I love the thought that there is someone out there who 'forgets it gets dark'

Now imagining OP emerging from gym with a 'wtf?' look on her face

I cycle and drive, not at the same time obviously!

Some drivers are twats who pass too close, too fast, etc. Some cyclists are twats who swerve about all over the place.

I always wear high vis clothing even if its not dark/gloomy. Its no point moaning that the car should have seen you if you're dead. You'd be in the right but not much consolation. And you should always have lights if its dark, if caught out then you push your bike home!

YABU - THERE ARE PLENTY OF IDIOTIC CYCLISTS ON THE ROADS TOO.

Sorry but with street lights it is still very very hard to see cyclists, especially without high vis jackets. If you are out that late you should take them with you. A simple reflector and high vis jackets BTW do not work until the headlights hit you, so Mr Jogger, when you are running around the Cathedral green in the dark (where there are not streetlights) if you are around the bend I cannot see you until I have started to turn.

My DH cycles a lot, he has extra good flashing lights, lots of high vis and knows how to command the road. He also says car drivers have got much better recently.

Yanbu - those drivers are nobs. Fwiw not all of us are - I always wait for a gap to overtake properly as you are expected to treat a cyclist as you would a car when overtaking. I would drive behind you at road works. I don't do makeup while driving and do stop at lights and never park illegally.