to think cyclists ought to sit a test before being allowed on the road?

[SantanaLopez]

I live on a route popular with amateur cyclists. Yet again this morning another group of folk were causing absolute havoc on a two lane road. They aren't dressed properly, they don't signal, they don't even look where they're going. One man was weaving along instead of cycling in a straight line!

So while I have a cup of tea and a cake (for medicinal reasons)- aibu to think that they should have to be tested before being allowed on the road? I know drivers are the biggest hazard, but safety works both ways!

What's your point? Because you could be killed, you shouldn't have to sit a test? That makes no sense.

santana Taking a test is just a measure of basic competence. Then they let you loose.

I imagine you'd agree that there are plenty of people who hold driving licences who are dangerous for various reasons.

Luckily for us we're both excellent drivers, aren't we?

Oddboots, yes tractor drivers will pull over, I don't want any farmers getting cross with me, sorry. Just trying to make a point ineptly that roads can be busy

Another vote for the end of the boris bike scheme.

I think that's a real shame. It has been really positive - loads of people zipping around on the bikes, usually doing short hops from station to place of work or similar.

The effect as I have observed it is that in this very mixed environment - with loads of pedestrians, bikes, cars (usually driven for a living rather than private vehicles), motorcycles and buses people give each other much more consideration. It works very well IMO.

Oh christ please do read my posts.

Three cars over nearly six miles along a country road peppered with laybys. Not all one hill. Perfectly safe to overtake six cyclists standing in a layby.

Perfectly reasonable to pull over to allow us to drive past. Riders of horses would have done but then they do have manners and read their Highway Code.

I didn't overtake them dangerously because I do have road manners and road sense. Unlike them.

Ah yes. I keep forgetting all cyclists are the same. Much like all horse riders are the same. And all drivers are twats... Oh, wait...

And anyone who describes cyclists as being 'selfish road users': sometimes the safest place for a cyclist to be is in the middle of the lane and in front of the cars. The cyclists in questions are the ones who might have had training.
Can't win.
I tried to be quite reasonable in my first post but some of you just have a problem with the existence of cyclists.

No, these cyclists were tossers. It wasn't about their placing in the road being inconvenient to us. It was about their refusal to allow the free flow of traffic when they had every opportunity to share the road with other users by pulling over.

I have yet to encounter selfish use of the roads around here by horse riders. Not yet.

To date, the local horse riders have proved to be unselfish and legally cognizant of the Highway Code. Not all the local cyclists have.

That better ?

And selfish drivers? Met any of them?

sometimes the safest place for a cyclist to be is in the middle of the lane and in front of the cars.

It absolutely is but I've come across too many we are there because in their heads their right to cycle next to their mates takes precedence over other people's wishes and their own safety.

It's happening more and more and I just don't get why. It feels like they are trying to engage in some sort of power game.

Loads. One of them killed my best friend.

There is a massive amount of rubbish spouted by people who have never cycled on the roads, but seem to think they know how to cycle better than people who do it every day.

I don't ride in the cycle lanes on my commute to work because they're badly designed, dangerous, and much, much slower than using the road.

I'm on a road bike, feet clipped into pedals, often at speeds in excess of 20mph. I'm traffic, pal, and if you don't like it - if my speed and assertiveness unnerves you - you can fuck right off.

Sick of trying to make idiot car drivers understand. Sick of the victim-blaming when another cyclist is killed or injured ('Ooh, he should have been wearing hi-viz!' like there's a single shred of evidence that that saves any lives - there isn't, before you look it up).

Sick of car culture which ruins so much in our communities, kills and injures so many.

Sick of parents who would rather their children sat, getting fatter and fatter and more and more passive, in the back of their 'safe' cars, than out riding their bikes.

Sick of the astonishing level of ignorance, bigotry and spite on display on this thread and others like it.

Posted too soon.

yes loads but just because car drivers can be tossers doesn't mean that cyclists get a saintly free pass to behave as they like.

This is a thread about should cyclists be subject to the same laws of the road and testing. Not a 'all car drivers are selfish'.

I repeat. These cyclists were tossers and appeared to think the laws of the highway applied not to them.

And as somebody who was hit by a cyclist on a Zebra crossing three Summers ago and injured, they do a hell of a lot of damage too. Not as much as a car admittedly (usually but not always) but they are not a risk free option to all.

their right to cycle next to their mates takes precedence over other people's wishes and their own safety.

But it's perfectly legal to cycle two abreast. Legal and often safer. If you can't overtake, you must wait, just as you would for a car.

You're in a car, like I'm on my bike. You don't have precedence - especially not if you doing a close overtake will endanger me. Stay the fuck back till it's safe.

Strange how difficult people find this concept.

I wonder what the venn diagram of cyclists and drivers is, I would have thought that many (adult) cyclists are also drivers but I might be wrong.

Difficult how some people seem unable to read the part of my posts that make it clear I was stuck behind cyclists for 6 fucking miles because I don't overtake them unsafely or at my will.

I do however expect you to follow the Highway code and to NOT obstruct the flow of traffic. Any other vehicle on country lanes that is slow moving makes way round here so why not some cyclists?

Or are you above all codes of law, politeness and consideration?

And as somebody who was hit by a cyclist on a Zebra crossing three Summers ago and injured, they do a hell of a lot of damage too.

Yes, I've had near misses at a crossing near my Dd's school 4 times in the past 2 years because cyclists seem to think they don't need to stop at traffic lights. Twice they've just clipped the back of my heel because I haven't crossed fast enough.

Last week when I was crossing with my 6 year old a cyclist crossed the lights before I had reached the other side. This is breaking the law. This happens all the time, even when I'm driving I see it happen.

Which 'you' are you referring to mignonette? No one is arguing with the fact that some cyclists don't follow the rules. What we object to is generalisations that all cyclists are like this.
We have as much right to be on the road as anyone else.

I've held a driving licence since 1984. I think I'm good in the urban and suburban traffic that I'm used to and competent though quite annoyingly cautious to locals on the rural roads I sometimes go on.

But these days I'm mostly a pedestrian because I live in an area where I don't need to drive.

So now I watch out for dozy and arrogant drivers and cyclists. It's about the same.

It's amusing to look over my shoulder before crossing a road and see the frustrated look on someone's face because they were really looking forward to self-righteously tooting me or shouting for not looking.

I feel terrible for letting them down but much better for not being in the graveyard.

Pedestrians need to look where they're going and be considerate too. But not me, because like OP, I'm perfect

Yes totally agree with you op, they are a danger some of them...they should all be made to have high viz jackets, safety wear, and do signals and so on..

Yanbu, it also seems the majority of cyclists in my area think pavements (normal pedestrian pavements) are there for them and dangerously try to manouver past my pram and my young children every day, instead of getting on the road where they belong!

It seems the cars rule the roads, bikes rule the pavements and where are we pedestrians supposed to actually walk without danger??

Twice this week i have told cyclists to get on to the road on very narrow pavements, as they expected me to put my pram in the road so THEY could get past

"just because car drivers can be tossers doesn't mean that cyclists get a saintly free pass to behave as they like"

I think the best is a mandatory way of identifying cyclists on roads so they can be prosecuted when if they break the rules, IMO that would clean up the act quite fast.

I'm increasingly thinking of getting a spot camera, some of the stuff I see daily is unbelievable. IMO cyclists are now a far worse menace than drivers on average.

Buy that's just it. In your opinion, cyclists are a far worse menace and you can't believe what you see.
Well in my opinion, drivers are a far worse menace and I can't believe what I see every day in terms of incredibly dangerous driving.
The difference between me on my bike and someone in a car is I'm not in control of a deadly weapon in general.

Cyclists are NOT more dangerous than drivers. That's like saying someone carrying their left sock is more dangerous than someone carrying a gun.

If you think cyclists are more dangerous than drivers it's because you are only observing cyclists and are not noticing the number of car drivers talking on their phone or forgetting to indicate.

I repeat: yes, some cyclists are dicks. Proper dicks. But most of us aren't and far more deaths are caused by cars than bikes so stop blaming us for everything.

Jesus, I started off by agreeing with the OP that training is a good idea. But I'm sick of people just having a go at cyclists simply because you hate the fact that we even exist.

Lazyjaney
"I'm increasingly thinking of getting a spot camera, some of the stuff I see daily is unbelievable."

It would be interesting to see the other side put on youtube