To think this cyclist was an entitled idiot?

[Slh122]

I was taking 7 mo DS to the park in his pushchair. The path is along a busy road and is quite narrow. A cyclist was coming towards us on the path and I fully expected him to move onto the road so I carried on walking. He had on all the cycling gear, glasses etc, on a bike like they all had on Tour de France.
He didn't move and I couldn't take my pushchair onto the busy road. There wasn't enough space for both of us on the footpath. I stopped and he stopped about an inch away from the front wheel of my pushchair and said 'you should have moved to let me past, I'll let you off this time but please remember in future'. WTF?! It was not a designated cycle path either!
I said I can't take my pushchair onto the road it's too busy. He said 'you need to give way to cyclists'. We stood there for a moment until he moved his bike onto the road and cycled off.
If there had been somewhere to pull in, etc, I would have done to let him go past. But AIBU to think he was being a twat?!

Find all the comments regarding cyclists wearing lycra being twats really annoying. What you wear doesn't define your behaviour. There is a reason why cyclists wear what they wear. I cycle alot I wear shades - this helps stop small bits of dust and dirt going into my eyes, I wear the so called lycra gear - it helps keeps me cool and wicks away the sweat (something normal clothes don't do). My lycra shorts has padding in it (something normal clothes doesn't have) which is useful if you are cycling a long way.

Additionally lycra wear has flat seams or the seams are placed elsewhere so they don't irritate/rub against moving parts of your body.

So to be honest if you were a cyclist riding long miles daily/weekly/weekend only you would want to wear something comfortable.

I have seen plenty of normal clothes wearing cyclist who are just as bad as some that wear lycra. What a cyclist wear isn't a reason to make sweeping statements about behaviour just utterly ridiculous.

Very rude of him - he was in the wrong.

I don't like the slightly threatening way he spoke to you, either.

"Isn't this^^ exactly what you are saying posters are doing to cyclists?"

Surely it's clear that I am talking about the drivers who cut us up etc? If they don't do that then it doesn't apply to them. Of course not all drivers are bad towards cyclists. Most are fine.

I mention cars because threads like this contribute to the antipathy towards cyclists, which ends up affecting how people drive around cyclists. And it is vehicles which kill cyclists. If you want to talk about pedestrians, fine. I've hit two pedestrians, both times when they've stepped out into a cycle lane (on a road, not a shared pavement thing) without looking.

I don't know why people feel this way about cyclists. It genuinely baffles me why cyclists seem to annoy people so much more than other road users. I'm sure some people will say it is because of how cyclists behave, but that is not backed up by any evidence other than the anecdotal. Take this instance. Of course the cyclist was wrong. But he wasn't careering wildly along the pavement. At no point was anyone in danger. It really is such a trivial incident. These sorts of things happen every day, between all road/pavement users. Why is it the ones involving cyclists that seem worthy of starting a thread?

It is reinforcing the (incorrect) belief as cyclists being a menace, being selfish twats (and all the other abuse we get). If you don't believe me, try getting on a back and see how you get treated.

the only place cyclists have priority over pedestrians .is in holland .so unless he would like to move there tell him to bugger off next time .

'Try getting on a bike' I meant.

whatsthatcomingoverthehill
"Surely it's clear that I am talking about the drivers who cut us up etc? If they don't do that then it doesn't apply to them. Of course not all drivers are bad towards cyclists. Most are fine."

In which case shouldn't the cyclists comments be read in the same way?

"I mention cars because threads like this contribute to the antipathy towards cyclists, which ends up affecting how people drive around cyclists."

But there are no cars involved in this at all, I had an incident with a cyclist yesterday but its between a driver and a bike so it isn't relevant to this thread.

I would also love too ride a bike again but due to an accident caused by a cyclist (no car involved) it is unlikely that I will ever be able too ride a bike again.

whatsthat I think (and this is as a cyclist) that cyclists wind other road users up so much for a number of reasons. I don't agree with cyclist bashing and agree that it is counter productive, I think we have every right to be on the road and that the upsurge in cycling is fantastic. However....

Like it or lump it there are a not insignificant number of them who do ride in a frankly dangerous and inconsiderate manner, riding too fast and without common sense or any regard for the rules of the road. They are frankly frightening when you are driving because you don't want to be the one who, distracted by something in your right hand mirror etc, kills them when they shoot up your inside ignoring your left hand indicator and the upcoming junction and your infintesimal shift into that turn as you go to check the mirror sends them flying. NO driver wants that and I know several people for whom their anti cycling ranting is firmly rooted in fear having nearly had a collision.

I also think that unless you cycle some of the things that we do seem selfish/ wrong/ inconsiderate. So, cycling out in the middle of the road because you can hear the bloody tractor coming that they cant see, sitting out in towns to avoid being knocked off by car doors opening, riding two abreast, sitting forward at the lights so that you can get away and out of the way, riding down a one way street the wrong way because actually there is a cycle path etc are not always obviously logical or legal. Unfortunately there is not always a way to deal with that although hopefully as time passes if more people continue to cycle more will be aware of the method in what sometimes looks like madness.

Its not terribly socially accpetable to rant wildly about the appalling privations of sharing the road with other car drivers so for some the bloody cyclists will do very nicely as a target instead. There was a lot in that ad that ran a few years ago with the pedestrians screaming in each others faces basically suggesting that people wouldn't be so rude to others to their faces as they often routinely are behind the wheel of a car. Sadly.

HWBU for being dressed like a nob

YABU for saying "path" in your OP, which is a very ambiguous term

Some pavements are split into cycle paths and walking paths. If this was the case and you were on the cycle bit, he is still a complete nob, but an astonishing number of people are utterly oblivious to the weird inconsistent and shittily marked bits of dog-end sub-standard thoroughfare that are occasionally allocated to cyclists' use. it is possible that you were actually in one of them; also very likely that even if you weren't, he has foreign-object-in-cycle-path fatigue, which, combined with being a nob (we know he is a nob as he was dressed like one, see point 1 above) means we now have to upgrade is HWBU status to HWATDH (he was a total dick-head)

ButterflyMinded66 - a bell doesn't necessarily mean 'get out of my way', it should simply mean 'I'm here'. I ring mine to alert people that I am coming, as it can be a bit unsettling a bike suddenly coming past at any speed. And yes, I do slow down for pedestrians.

And WTF is it with the lycra bashing?? Road bike saddles are hard. The bike frames are rigid. You feel every tiny bump in the road through your fanjo. Hence the need for padded shoulders. Road bikes also tend to lack pannier racks, as we like to go quite fast. Cycling jerseys have big pockets on them, to put all the spare bits and bobs we might need in the case of a mechanical issue 25 miles from home. Not all of us get put off by a bit (or a lot) of rain neither, and lycra dries off quickly too.

padded shorts not shoulders, ffs!

oh and the sunglasses stop crap flying into your eyes, and even the windflow. Once you start getting to 30mph, you would be surprised how much it affects your eyes. And I've lost count of the number of flies I have eaten, and even one bee flew into my mouth. I wouldn't like those in my eyes.

I think it may be a combination of things. When cyclists do something wrong like jumping the lights, it can seem particularly brazen. Especially if you're a driver waiting at those lights. There also seems to be an acceptance of certain driver behaviours (e.g. speeding).

Plus cyclists seem to annoy some (happy Boney? ) drivers simply by being on the roads and causing cars to have to slow down now and again.

What a knob "I'll let you off this time..."....So whats he going to do next time? Duff you up?

YANBU

why do people hate cyclists?

cyclists going really fast are extremely inconvenienced by having to stop, especially if they are going uphill and have to start again from standing. they lose a huge amount of speed and energy from this. This can make some of them behave like nobs when they calculate that the inconvenience to the other party is negligible relative to the inconvenience from them in stopping / giving way so they unilaterally decide to over-ride the other party's rights. it is usually the lycra ones who do this. (hence the lycra-bashing)

also: where there are cycle paths, they are not effectively observed so some cyclists are chippy about other road users whom they perceive as habitually encroaching on their space

we do need better cycle paths, which ideally would minimise the interruptions to cyclists' flow

btw where a cycle path is marked through a park or common and can also be walked on, it is the responsibility of dog owners to keep their dogs off the path. some dog owners are outraged by people cycling near their dogs and are utter nobs about it and cause danger to cyclists

basically being a cyclist is like being a middle child and they are embattled and beleaguered from all sides with no unimpeached upon territory: the darling vulnerable baby of the family (pedestrian) gets sympathy while nicking their space because "he's only walking! come on give him a chance!" (= "hes only little" in family language) while the motorist just takes what he likes by brute force and the parents (= the law) can't be arsed to stand up to him (as oldest children do)

whatsthatcomingoverthehill

Bizarrely, I don't disagree with 95% of what you have posted, I'm not going to argue that some drivers believe that cyclists shouldn't be on the roads.

I don't dispute the fact that cars are the cause of most injuries, or that drivers also break the law.

But some cyclists do not help the cause, and instead of changing threads to "drivers do it", or "stats show that" or "I break the law and don't care because its safer for me", it would be better if cyclists where seen to "tell off" (waits for a better phrase to come up) those that are being dicks. (I know several semi-professional cyclists that already do this)

Many cyclists do that on the roads, and I have myself. But the culprit isn't here to tell off (and I did say they were quite clearly wrong). I'm just fed up of threads popping up about cyclists, knowing that it's going to end up slagging off cyclists as a group. And then when I'm on the roads and have drivers justifying dangerous behaviour no doubt fed by this mentality that we seem to have in this country.

I don't hate cyclists, cyclists are ace. People on bikes that have no clue annoy me though.

If there was a path that could be used by both cyclists and pedestrians I would move out of the way for them.

Once I was totally in my own little world and I didn't, the poor man had to slam on his breaks to avoid hitting me. I apologised to him, because I could carry on walking downhill without a care while he had to start all over on a big uphill cycle.

I can't think of a thread where drivers have justified dangerous behaviour on the roads by other drivers.

I have seen posters generate scenarios in threads where facts have been lacking and I have seen the many parking threads with there any connotations.

But what I have see most are the cyclists who justify bad behaviours by other cyclists.

But in RL those that I know with the greatest hatred of cyclists that do "silly" things are cyclists themselves because they know as you do that cyclists will get lumped under the same terms (as do drivers).

There is a minority (in my experience it is a small minority) of really unpleasant and aggressive cyclists. I've never seen a woman cyclist do it but on occasions men have been very confrontational, to the point of expecting me, elderly parents and the small DC to leap out of the way so they can continue bowling up the pavement. They don't do it to other men, mind you.

It's the same mentality as people who tailgate you madly on the motorway flashing lights until you risk your life screeching into the middle lane despite the fact there isn't actually enough of a gap.

Today I witnessed 4 cyclists going the wrong way around a busy roundabout at cheshire oaks.

How they weren't Klee I don't know? Everyone had to slam on and let them passed.

YANBU. Had a bad experience with an entitled cyclist on the way home tonight. By some miracle nobody was hurt. Bus driver in front of me was given a load of abuse by the cyclist who he (cyclist) had cut up. You could report a driver, but how do you report these knobheads? The poor bus driver was so upset and passengers and driver witnesses were having to reassure her that it was not her fault.

I had a bad experience with an entitled driver yesterday (I was also in a car). Pulled out infront of me on a roundabout which I was going round and then gave me a mouthful of abuse.

On shared pedestrian/cyclist paths, the cyclists actually have to give way to the pedestrians, as the latter are more vulnerable. So he would have been wrong even if it had been a shared path (which it wasn't).

And that's coming from a cyclist who also has all the gear.

Where I live, the shared paths are nightmarish with pedestrians weaving all over both sides (even the side where there is a huge BIKE painted, every few metres, as a slight clue) and they get arsy if you ring your bell or warn them verbally you're behind them. I've had pedestrians walking in a daydream on the cycling side of a shared path get verbal with me, before now, even though they are in the wrong. So maybe he'd had a bad day, and just before he hit your bit of path, been on a shared path full of entitled pedestrian arseholes - and snapped. Could also not know the area well and think he was on a shared path when he wasn't. He was wrong though. He should give way to you.

And yes, forgot to say - wearing lycra makes sense - don't have stupid clothes flapping in the breeze; which is no fun if you're cycling into a headwind, uphill, trust me. And we wear glasses because - well if you have ever had a fly go into your eye at 30 MPH going downhill, it's so much of a shock and so painful you could easily fall off. Fine on an off road cycle path (if not fun) but positively lethal with cars thundering a metre away from you. Also bits of dirt and grit from the road can get in your eyes. When I first returned to cycling, I was all casual like we were in the '70s. Within months I'd realised the benefits of lycra (cooler, more hygienic and makes you more visible) as well as the benefits of glasses.

Saw two drivers today texting whilst driving. Have yet to see a cyclist doing that.

"Pulled out infront of me on a roundabout which I was going round "

• this is tricky because cyclists tend to get forced into the hard left and then approaching a roundabout, if they want to turn right, they have to get out into the right somehow, somewhere, and obviously it should be done sensibly with signals etc but it isn't necessarily cut and dried like it is in a car when you would have easily got into the RH lane ages ago

"Where I live, the shared paths are nightmarish with pedestrians weaving all over both sides (even the side where there is a huge BIKE painted, every few metres, as a slight clue) and they get arsy if you ring your bell or warn them verbally you're behind them. I've had pedestrians walking in a daydream on the cycling side of a shared path get verbal with me, before now, even though they are in the wrong. "

Yep. People dawdling along with headphones on, right in the middle of cycle lane, on top of the picture of the bike, acting as if aliens had viciously landed up their arses, although you have been gently trying to let them know you are there for 20 yards.