Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

London cyclists

43 replies

AlexanderHamilton · 19/08/2017 13:57

Just got back from a few days in London.

Why do so many cyclists think they own the road & should get priority over everyone including pedestrians?

Several times we were at pedestrian crossings. We started to cross once the green man appeared. On one occasion we were reaching the end of the crossing as the green man began to flash when a cyclist came zooming roundctye corner almost knocking me over (dh & the kids had reached the other dude as they had ran across the road but I was only walking briskly)

On another occasion on a very busy crossing in Covent Garden. All the traffic had stopped at a red light, green man in pedestrian crossing. Due to crowds we were a bit slower. We had almost reached the other side, green man still flashing when a cyclist started to try and move off & when she couldn't yelled at the top of her voice for fucks sake this is a road (loads of families with young children)

Yet another incident at Tottenham Court Road with a cyclist ignoring a red light.

I know London traffic must be frustrating but really?????

OP posts:
10greenapples · 19/08/2017 14:05

I live in london and a lot of them drive on the pavement around here then at like your in their way!

Original poster
AlexanderHamilton · 19/08/2017 14:11

I'm not against cyclists, my dh cycles but he obeys the Highway Code & traffic lights.

OP posts:
spidey66 · 19/08/2017 14:13

I'm a London cyclist. I obey the lights cos I'm terrified a car will hit me coming from another direction if I don't!

Original poster
AlexanderHamilton · 19/08/2017 14:16

As a responsible London cyclist do you ever witness this sort of stuff. I put the first incident down to a one off but three in two days started to get ridiculous.

OP posts:
Dixiestamp · 20/08/2017 02:38

I'm sure many cyclists (most) are good riders and I've no doubt that some are treated badly by other road users. However, my opinion of cyclists wasn't improved by seeing one spit in a driver's face through her open window. Horrendous.

FastWindow · 20/08/2017 02:43

I live in Bracknell which is practically built for cyclists. Still they insist on using the road, right next to the bike lane. It's the twats in lycra with extra fancy flashy lights. You don't need them! Use the massively safer bike lane urghh Angry

SerfTerf · 20/08/2017 02:53

It's commonplace in London. Both the red-light jumping and the verbal aggression.

MrsTerryPratchett · 20/08/2017 04:07

Some of them are utter fuckers. Shame because the vast majority are law-abiding and doing something good for congestion and the environment.

highinthesky · 20/08/2017 04:12

I thought the same today as I watched cyclists on The Strand. Ride on the road, accept the traffic rules or suffer the inevitable consequences.

OliviaStabler · 20/08/2017 05:59

Happens a lot in London. I once saw a cyclist stop at a red light and I nearly fell over in shock.

HarrisHawk · 20/08/2017 06:21

Unfortunately it's very common. A lot of Londoners hate cyclists, which is unfair as most of them are fine, but there are also quite a lot who are very aggressive. Maybe it's so unpleasant riding a bike in crowded bits of London that it makes people stressed and aggressive?

Henrysmycat · 20/08/2017 06:45

Just yesterday, I had an incident on a side road of High Street Kensington. Boris Biker crossing roads and not checking. Thank feck, I was crawling to the junction. I stopped about 2 centimetres of her and she just giggled.
So many incidents, I stopped counting.
But once I did got into a scuffle with a bike twat as he was riding on the pavement coming straight into my pram and baby, I had to turn the pram quickly and position myself to get the hit. But I got so angry and in pain and I had a big, filled shopping bag. I'm sure, he never did it again.

Henrysmycat · 20/08/2017 06:51

HarrisHawk, I agree with you but if they find riding a bike in London stressful, maybe they could get one of the myriads of transport systems available to them. I could see the point of a bike living in the Highlands and had no other way of transport but when you travel from Marylebone to the City, there's 16 different bus routes, 4 underground lines, ubers, Lyfts, and your ol good legs, there's no need to ride if it stress you so much that you need to swear at pedestrians.

ImListening · 20/08/2017 06:55

Cyclists (& runners) are the bane of my life.

I'm limited mobility & if you knew the amount of times I get yelled at to move quicker or get out of the way & barged into I'd be a billionaire!

And breathe!

SheSaidHeSaid · 20/08/2017 07:01

It's a shame they mostly get tarred with the same brush because there are some reasonable ones out there. It's just the ones who cycle on the pavement, go the wrong way down one way streets, through red lights etc give them all a bad name. I dont understand why they do it.

Gorgosparta · 20/08/2017 07:12

I am in london alot.

I have noticed some bad cyclists. But the worst ones are the crowds of, usually, women that rent bloody Boris Bikes and clearly are terrified and dont know where they are going.

I live up north. The worst ones here are the cycling clubs. They shout, scream at people. Cross onto the wrong side of the road on corners.

Sunday can be a bit of nightmare round here when they are out.

Its nowhere near, all or most cyclists. But cyclists do seem to take it as though you are talking about them, personally, if you moan about a cyclist.

Then i hear cyclists talking about how vadly they are treates by drivers, as though its all of us.

ToffeeSauce · 20/08/2017 07:16

Excellent, another cyclist bashing thread.

You do know, don't you, that cyclists are just people, on bikes? Just like drivers are just people in cars. They're not united by some common life philosophy. Just like any group of people, some of them make decent, good, law abiding decisions, and some make shitty decisions.

Never understood why people seem to be so determined to fixate on the minority of cyclists (and it is a minority) who make shitty ones.

Gorgosparta · 20/08/2017 07:26

toffee you just proved my point.

Many of us have pointed out that its not all or even most.

ToffeeSauce · 20/08/2017 07:30

Hardly Gorgo, we're essentially making the same point! Smile

WhereDoesThisRoadGo · 20/08/2017 08:26

They're not united by some common life philosophy.

As a cyclist, sadly I have to disagree with this statement. I have quit many a cycle group or pelaton team because of the illegal, arsey, arrogant behaviour by significant numbers of the other members. Obviously not all cyclists are bad - I for one am super aware of other road users and the law and, touch wood, have never had any altercations with other road users. But, where people's personalities are already tempered towards arrogance or self absorption, cycling seems to bring it out in them. Being part of a group where everyone does the same things that they know to be wrong - skipping red lights, riding 3 or more abreast, hurtling towards pedestrian crossings or cycling on pedestrianised areas - it validates the behaviour. Hence the shouty people you come across in London.

GiveMeShade · 20/08/2017 08:29

I live and work in London, and I see cyclists going full pelt through red lights on a daily basis. It makes me furious and on the occasions that I've yelled something at them after nearly getting getting knocked over whilst walking across a pedestrian crossing when the green man is on, I've either been ignored or been given a bemused look by the cyclist, as though it hasn't even for a moment occurred to them that the red light applies to them.

I think cycling in London looks treacherous, and unfortunately it seems that the attitude of many cyclists that I encounter is that in order to try to make themselves less vulnerable on the road, they behave in a way that endangers an even more vulnerable group of road users- pedestrians. That's what really irritates me, when I hear people say "well, I have to get ahead at red lights because it's safer for me". No, you don't get to break the law and put other people in danger to make things easier for yourself; that is not the answer.

I can only speak from my own experience but I see cyclists going through red lights day after day in central London. Tend to have much more positive experiences of cyclists stopping at red lights outside of London.

PerfectlyPooPoo · 20/08/2017 08:32

Because Toffee that was the OPs experience Confused

And the 'minority of rude cyclist' is a fucking myth in London.

5rivers7hills · 20/08/2017 08:34

I also think it has something to do with being on 'high alert' - that pumps you full of testosterone and makes people react agressivly.

I'd say at least about 50% of my journies have 'near misses' from either a car behaving aggressively or obliviously. Makes you a bit flight or flight that. I have much calmer journeys to work now - I don't wear cycling now clothes except high via vest so look more like a person than a cyclist if that makes sense?

Some drivers are twats. Some cyclists are twats. Some pedestrians are twats (there was a thread about how men. Argh into women!). Some people on the tube are twats. Commuting isn't great however you do it!

Last year a pedestrian stepped out into the cycle path, in the rain, straight in front of me without looking. I was going about 15mph. I JUST managed to avoid her without coming off. I wasnt prepared to deck it myself to save her... if I'd hit her she would have been seriously injured. I shouted. That was the fear about what 'could have been'. So I looked really aggressive but actually I was just shitting myself that we nearly had a very serious accident.

Zampa · 20/08/2017 08:37

OP, did you notice the hundreds of cyclists travelling within the law? Thousands of cyclists commute in London and do so in a reasonable and respectable manner. It's likely you just noticed the ones cycling badly (probably couriers ...).

LakieLady · 20/08/2017 08:59

Bad cycling isn't just a London thing, I'm afraid. I live in Sussex and witness incidents of appalling riding on a daily basis.

A former colleague was knocked over by a cyclist jumping a pedestrian light in a town centre and suffered life-changing injuries, a friend was hit by a cyclist in a pedestrian precinct, a neighbour's dog was badly injured by a cyclist riding illegally on a public footpath. A few weeks ago, a cyclist cut along a pedestrian alleyway that joins 2 streets and went straight into the side of my friend's van. He then had the cheek to tell my friend that he shouldn't have been in the road, because it was pedestrians only (which was utter bollocks, as the road provides the only access to a car park, ffs).

There's one notorious lycra lout whose cycling is so dangerous that as soon as you describe him to anyone local, they know exactly who you mean.

I also resent the millions the council has spent on cycle tracks along 2 routes where there are busy, but narrow, winding rural roads. Most cyclists seem to prefer the roads. Beats me why anyone would risk their lives mixing it with lorries, buses, cars and tractors when they could have a nice level, riverside ride on an immaculate surface, but there you go.