AIBU to think drivers should do a cycle test before being allowed to drive?

[bicuriousgeorge]

Sorry thread about a thread but there are good and bad cyclists and good and bad drivers.
Unfortunately bad drivers are likely to do far more damage than bad cyclists.

So... The poor learner driver will not only have to be paying for the test as it is, but also another test, plus buy a bike for it!!????

YABU. Have cycling awareness in the test, yes. Actually make them ride, not necessary.

I don't agree and furthermore suggest that cyclists should have to be tested for anger issues before they are allowed out.
I have never ridden a bike and don't intend to, it just seems depressing to me when you could be in a nice warm car with doors and windows. And the lycra brigade do look like twats, sorry but they do.

Lessmissabs

What do you mean attitudes like the op's contribute to the problem?

Missymarmite
So... The poor learner driver will not only have to be paying for the test as it is, but also another test, plus buy a bike for it!!????

TFL are offering free and subsidized tests. There is no reason why other counties couldn't do the same. In addition the bike test could be taken years before someone is old enough to drive. It wouldn't be the "poor learner driver" as cyclist would need to take it too.

Theodorous
"And the lycra brihade so look like twats, sorry but they do" What do you care what they look like?

Theodorous

Maybe you should try it some time and get some understanding of the problems cyclists face, and the reasons why people prefer to get out on the bike rather than being trapped in a car.

BBJ , you post as if all things were equal,regarding accident causing and damage done, which is patently untrue.

I posted on the wrong thread BicuriousGeorge I meant to post that comment on the other thread with a similar name.

Theodorus I don't agree and furthermore suggest that cyclists should have to be tested for anger issues before they are allowed out.
I have never ridden a bike and don't intend to, it just seems depressing to me when you could be in a nice warm car with doors and windows. And the lycra brigade do look like twats, sorry but they do

I find it really sad that there are so many people like you around who have never had a chance to learn basic skills like learning a bike and, from that, tolerance and patience for other road users, as well as some physical robustness. I run because I want to keep in shape and look nice (as well as race). Yes, I could be inside keeping warm and eating cakes, but theres a time and a place for everything.

However, you are not someone I would take advice from. That would be like a kind of physical atrophy. I would take advice from people who are physically high achievers, who can run or cycle fast, who are athletic and fit. As for looking like twats, I think one look round the average supermarket and then one look round the physique of the average cycling club would tell you more precisely who looks like a twat. I really cannot believe the terrible physical shape the average person over 40 is in in this country. They look quite horrific.

I sometimes wonder what the people who complain about sportspeople wearing lycra think they ought to wear? Is it just men in lycra they dislike, or is it women too? Perhaps they think I should wear a skirt and jumper while pedalling along, without perspiring too much. Maybe jeans and a t shirt for that long 100mile cycle? Maybe a nice little black dress?

Are they equally critical of other people's clothing choice, or is it just athletes they object to? Do they dress with such care in the morning that they never go out of the house without being clad in the most up to date, subtly fitting and superbly tailored understated yet classy garments known?

Mind you, I once turned down a date (before I met DH) from a guy on a cycling holiday because he wore those cotton mix touring cycling shorts instead of proper cycling shorts. So uncool. He was also quite slow, whereas DH has won national medals, been on teams and has done a pretty decent ironman time.

"As for looking like twats, I think one look round the average supermarket and then one look round the physique of the average cycling club would tell you more precisely who looks like a twat"

Maybe we should dump the lycra for onsies? Because then we definitely would not look like twats

www.hottriathletes.com/images/users/desiree_ficker_08.jpg

This is the nearest a onsie I could find, to be fair she carries it off well.

Those men in lycra sure look rough:

www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Tiger_Tri_71-682x1024.jpg

I mean, he just looks like a total twat, doesn't he:

cdn03.cdn.justjared.com/wp-content/uploads/headlines/2010/10/james-marsden-los-angeles-triathlon-believer.jpg

Lot of bitching on here from non-cyclists. Truly, you aren't being held up for that long despite the cyclists in front of you. Lycra? It's the best thing for the job as it performs a certain function and if makes look 'like twats' what do you think the puddings in their replica football shirts look like?
If you want cyclists tested/insured then lobby your MP or campaign yourselves on that topic. But you'd be better off campaigning for safer driving/tougher road safety etc judging by the driving I see and the fact that tens of thousands of motorists are driving with no insurance/license etc

YANBU (barring caveats about simulators etc. for those unable to ride a bike).

The thing drivers never seem to realise is that as a cyclist (I commute by bike - can't afford a car, though I can drive and have owned one in the past) is that even on a relatively short journey, you're going to encounter of the order of 100 cars passing you. Even if only one of that hundred is a twat, you're still going to be shaken up (at best) or plastered all over the tarmac (at worst) by that encounter. (And yes, I too hate numpties who cycle on the pavement or jump lights - I'd prosecute the bastards - though probably give longer jail sentences to motorists who drive through pedestrian crossings on red, on the grounds that they are much more likely to kill).

I do feel that a lot of drivers forget that they are in charge of a tonne or so of metal which can kill if they have a momentary lack of concentration. And I've lost count of the number of friends who (when I've been a passenger in their car) have complained about cyclist riding "in primary position", i.e. about 1 metre out from the kerb rather than in the gutter, and been really surprised when I've pointed out that they're doing it for safety, and that in fact you need to leave as much space when you overtake a bike as you would when you overtake a car.

Just caught up with some of the thread. Seen the demand that cyclists should always wear hi-viz.

Sooo should all vehicles be painted light lime green, or yellow? You know, so drivers can see each other, as the number of car accidents that happen...

Rather a silly statement really.... Cars have 2 head ligthts and 2 tail lights which in many cars come on automatically. In my experience it is rare to see a cycle light during daylight hours.

All this may be the case, but with the number of cars crashing into each other, then either the drivers are utterly incompetent or they aren't seeing each other?

And there is a world of difference between 'looking like a twat', and posting like one.

I didn't call you a teat, I said Lycra clad aggressive cyclists are twats and look like twats. Thanks so much for proving me correct. I don't have to like cyclists, most people don't.

Twat

Theodorus

"I didn't call you a twat, I said Lycra clad aggressive cyclists are twats"

No you didn't you said " And the lycra brigade do look like twats, sorry but they do."

Theo

You are actually proving me right. You claim that "most people don't like cyclists".

Maybe if all drivers had to spend a few days on a bike they might not dislike them so much as they would have a better understanding of what it's like.

To think that most people dislike a group of people who are only connected by a common use of a bicycle is rather bigoted don't you think.

YABU.

I learned to ride a bike when I was 4 and rode until I was 15 however I have no proof or documents to show a driving examiner.

I don't feel the need to buy a bike and take some sort of 'training' and a test i.e. do it all again just to satisfy a small minority that I have acquired a "life skill" (whatever that is supposed to be).

PS, I hated cycling and would be quite happy never to see another bike on the road.

PPS I have quite a good figure despte never cycling or running.

Pendeen

What if
a) you had been offered a free test at school when you were 15
b) bikes were available to hire cheaply or free like the London scheme.
c) if by having this a part of the requirement to be able to drive it saved lives

Would you still oppose it?

Also
you say "I hated cycling and would be quite happy never to see another bike on the road."

What do you think congestion would be like in inner cities if all cyclists took to using cars or public transport?

A significant point of debate (at least among the non-twats on the thread) is that the majority of adult commuters are also car drivers - discovered via numerous surveys. BUT proportionately much fewer car drivers have any idea what it is like to ride a bike on a road, and so they don't have the same understanding as to why cyclists do certain things. Drivers are also less likely to understand the law/HC re cycling.

Pendeen - okay, fair enough you don't want to cycle.

But my income tax and council tax pay for the road network as well as yours - I have as much right to use it to get to work on a bike as you do to drive around on it in your car (in fact, I would argue that in terms of miles travelled and damage done to the road surface by our respective choices of vehicles, arguably my taxes subsidise your road use).

FlockOfTwats Smacking cars with whips despite them passing quite safely and considerately

Should the car not overtake the horse without being in distance of being touched by the rider's whip?

Volestair Why does every thread for discussing poor cycling instantaneously devolve into a thread discussing poor driving? The moment anyone suggests any cyclist has ever done anything wrong, a hundred people pop up with the indisputable fact that there are many shitty drivers. Well, yes. And?

Oh no! Lots of people not doing what you say!