to be scared of all these cyclists...

[PansBigChainring]

being so good for the environment, and not damaging the road and pavement surfaces so less cost, and meaning there are more spaces for me to park in, and having a less demand on the NHS and causing less traffic queues, and being really good role models.
AIBU to fear them and be inconsiderate to them?

Well whether it's right or wrong cyclists DO irritate me when they're on busy roads and you can't get round them.

I save my ire for twattish road users whatever their preferred mode of transport is. No group of road users is immune from having twats as members.

Skaen sorry to hear about your DH

Love it :-)

Here's a negative of cycling - all the cycling paraphernalia that ends up around the house. Helmets, hi-vis waterproof waterproof everything. And oh the Lycra!

Nu uh. Come home from work - take out handbag etc from pannier, put all cycling related stuff into pannier and put in cupboard. Solved!

Go for the sybaritic argument: in a car you get to stay comfortable and dry, and have your choice of radio programme.

Or the practical one: you can travel longer distances, you can carry passengers, luggage and shopping, you get to where you want to be more quickly.

I dunno. I've gone of cycling since I discovered you can't ride a bike over a Labrador, disguised as a cat in a controlled environment.

I'm off to buy a Range a Rover with Bull Bars and only ever drive to Tesco and back.

Damn, you're not being very helpful! No-ones given me any ammo re the points in the OP, just a few minor personal complaints about cyclists.

And to be frank some of them are pretty thin! The 'observe the rules of the road' is particularly useless as so many of us drivers exceed the speed limit most days, drive and park in cycle lanes, are amber-gamblers, honk our horns illegally, park with wheels on pavements, drink and drive, drive without due care, stop in the bike box, and generally break most rules to get where we want to be quicker.

and the 'can't get round them on busy roads' argument I won't be using. The riposte would be that you overtake them as normal road users i.e when safe to do so. Damn.

very pompous to claim that drivers are scared of cyclists.

Recently I was driving down a narrow one-way road by a river. Coming the other way was a bunch of cyclists. I stopped and they pushed past on both sides of my car. They all looked very aggressively at me and a couple bumped the side of the car - as if I was the one going the wrong way!

I was once approaching traffic lights in my Nissan micra, they turned red so I stopped (obviously). A few minutes later I heard an almighty crunch, looked over and saw a cyclist untangling his bike from my passenger side wing mirror! One of the genuine times when a driver can say a cyclist hit her and not the other way around!!

It was probably your fault. The driver is always in the wrong, apparently. Or at least if you believe what you read on MN.

They also kill much much fewer other road users. Which kinda pisses me off even more. They could try harder

Do all the insects I swallow everyday count? Yuck!

I think the major flaw with cycling is that there's no obligation for the biker to know the laws of the road and/or stick to them

Sure, because it works so well with drivers - who all behave excellently on the roads, following the rules at all times - not! 88% of cyclists are also drivers, therefore know the rules the same way other drivers do.

Picklemyster - you hit the nail on the head, and I completely agree with you. I have been known to cycle on a pavement on occasion if I feel safer for any reason, but I would never do it if there are any pedestrians at all - I would dismount and walk my bike.

Skaen - I am so sorry to hear that, I encounter that pretty much everyday but have been lucky to have not yet been hit, my sister was last week though when we were out together. I wish your dh a speedy recovery xx

Cyclists are a nightmare when I am out running on the country lanes around here. I can hear cars coming and get on the verge if necessary, but cyclists just creep up behind you - you can't hear them until they have virtually run over you. Why can't they have a bell like in the good old days just to warn you they are coming up behind you.

I live near a level crossing, which is then next to a very steep, winding hill.

Every single time I stop at the crossing a cyclist or three overtakes all the standing traffic so they can set off first as soon as the barriers are opened.

Obviously, the steep hill means that they can only go about 2mph, and the winding road means no one can overtake.

What are they gaining by doing this apart from the satisfaction of holding up everybody else? It can't be nice to be labouring up a hill with a queue of cars behind you. It has to be sheer bloody-mindedness.

It's very easy to argue against the cyclists who annoy me most.

They make a special car journey out of the city. Hold a time trial on a feeder road to a motorway getting in everyone's way.

Putting out smug little warning signs that make me want to knock their Lycra coated arses into the ditch.

Then they get back in their cars and drive home.

They do this not once, but lots of summer evenings.

You do get some incredibly inconsiderate cyclists though,just as there are idiotic drivers and pedestrians.

I live near a canal path,and country lane,and I am fed up with adult cyclists coming up behind me at speed,,and almost hitting me,with no warning that they are approaching.
I can't hear them approaching until they are literally right behind me,and being dyspraxic,it takes my brain a bit longer to register what's happening,so I've had several near misses.

I feel like gently assisting them and their bike into the canal. Ok I won't,but I'm going to stop being so polite about it when it happens.

I don't drive btw.

Ooh! I've got one
Cyclists are invariably sweaty when they reach their destination, so they either make the environment around them a bit less pleasant, or they are forced to use water and power to get clean...
(I'm a cyclist, sometimes even I don't want to sit near me after a long cycle)

I am generally nervous around cyclists when I'm in my car. On many roads on my route to work there is just no room to overtake, so they hold up traffic for miles (literally, about 3 miles) on one stretch if they do not pull over (which is 90% of the time). I probably give cyclists far too much room when overtaking which makes me nervous of crashing into a car coming from the other direction. I refuse to overtake cyclists going downhill in case they wobble into the middle of the road, which has caused one of them to be abusive towards me before. I get a lot of impatience from drivers behind me because I just hate overtaking them. They're far too unpredictable.

Also, I often hear the argument about cyclists not paying road tax. Road tax has not existed for a long long time. Instead, car owners pay vehicle excise duty, a tax on owning a car. Which I do pay, as I also a car.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23694438

As for the argument that cyclists do not understand the rules of the road - I find quite the opposite. Car drivers often misunderstand why cyclists behave as they do. For example, when they sit in the middle of a lane to prevent a car from dangerously squeezing by prior to a pinch point, or if they feel safer jumping red lights because it gives them a slight head start when they know the cars behind him are going to be turning left across their cycle lane and they don't want to be knocked off in the process. Research shows that females are more likely to follow the rules of the road when cycling, and they are also more likely to be killed in an accident - I admit I rigidly follow the rules and would never jump a red light, so it worries me to think I am actually putting myself in more danger.

www.telegraph.co.uk/men/10252518/Why-cyclists-should-be-allowed-to-jump-red-lights.html

Yes, the overtaking thing - obv you only do it when safe, but overall I suspect we have brought it on ourselves, by driving dangerously close, so you can't really blame them for choosing to not put themselves at risk of being seriously inured or killed. Besides when commuting we are only 'rushing' to get into another queue of other vehicles.

I was watching topgear in the gym the other day and they did a 'race' across London - one on a bike, one in a boat, one in a 4x4 and one on public transport. The cyclist of course 'won' and the 4x4 came last. Not because cyclists were in his way, but because other cars were. It always amuses me when motorists get impatient to pass me when there is clearly a line of traffic sitting stationary right ahead.

If only we could all share the road and respect each other - what an unrealistic ideology. There are prats on the road what ever their means of transport is.

It's a bit disappointing that we haven't, as an economy, got the message that globally, driving a car is a very expensive and damaging way of transporting ourselves and goods around.

Also, someone up thread said hi viz should be mandatory. I am also surprised no one has mentioned helmets. Some European countries where cycling is very much the 'norm' do not encourage helmets or hi viz. Yet their cyclists are safer. Mainly because they have the respect of other road users, who, as mentioned above, appreciate the environmentally friendly nature of cycling.

The hi viz thing. Perhaps we should only be driving round in lime-yellow cars so that everyone can see each other. Seriously, when you look at the number of cars hitting into each other. Seems to be. Similar arguments.