AIBU to be annoyed with cyclists with no lights?

[BigMamaFratelli]

On the way home, so 20-25 min journey, I saw no less than 4 cyclists with dark clothing and no lights on the road.
AIBU to think these people are idiots?

YANBU. See also cyclists not wearing helmets. Idiots.

Couldn’t agree more op. There’s s young lad I see most evenings all in black, no lights, country lane. I am tempted to follow him to see where he lives and complain to his mother. So bloody dangerous

I don’t wear a helmet usually.
It is legal not to, unlike having lights on.

YANBU

But even worse are pedestrians on cycle paths at night. If challenged, they seem to think that they are entitled not to wear lights or reflective gear! Dangerous.

Also see drivers going more than 20mph. Idiots.

It drives me insane, I reported to the local school that I was concerned about the many paper boy/girls that I see on my morning run that don’t have lights and not being old enough to drive they have no concept that they are not seen. I was basically told that it’s not the schools problem and that I was a busybody.

Ok, slightly tongue in cheek but why pick on one group when others are just as bad in different ways?

They are dicing with death.

You see all the Lycra'd up gang and they're in dark colours. They must be crazy. They've been to the shop and picked out dark colours which will have been directly next to bright/fluro clothes and thought, nah, fuck it, I want to blend in so that no one can see me. They really do want their bumps feeling.

Stripey - why pick on them? Mainly because they are idiots who deserve it. They are rolling the dice with their lives and not only do they stand a chance of being killed or seriously injured but they will also fuck up the lives of and/or traumatise their families, friends, ambulance crew, driver etc. All for the sake of not wearing reflective clothing.

Why would you not wear a helmet?

Was it dark?

If yes then they are idiots risking their lives.

If no then you are being VVU.

Wearing reflective clothing and having lights is not a requirement in the daytime.

I think it should be compulsory to have lights and wear a helmet. And whilst we are at it, make them sit a cyclone proficiency test and fine the biggest when they go through red lights, go up a one way street the wrong way and hurdle along pavements.

We have a fair few cyclists (mostly light mornings) who do all of this after the council spent loads of money narrowing the roads to put in separates cycle lanes and bike traffic lights so traffic now crawls along and it takes half an hour for what used to take five minutes by bus. Use the cycle lanes, you idiots!

For the same reason people in Germany and Holland don’t wear them.

Yanbu.

Cyclists without light and in dark clothes scare the willies out of me. Our local dealer has form for this.

Try crossing the corner of Hyde Park at speakers corner in the dark - you take your life in your hands as the park is badly lit and they hurtle along, often without lights.

Passive suicide.

It might sound selfish but I don't want my life ruined because they can't be arsed to make themselves visible.

stripey
Cos this is AIBU and I'm venting about the thing that has hacked me off most recently. Do you think I should vent about all the people that piss me off just to be fair? Because that's a pretty long list.

But don't worry, I don't hate cyclists as a whole. Just the ones breaking the law. I also detest drivers who use their phones whilst driving. I don't discriminate. People in charge of all sorts of modes of transport can be that's equally.

Yes patriarchy it was dark. Sorry, should have mentioned that! I was in a rush. And cross.

Cyclists should legally have to have lights and a helmet! So dangerous

• twats not that's

Ok, slightly tongue in cheek but why pick on one group when others are just as bad in different ways?

Because the OP was annoyed about this one particular group I reckon!

No need to have compulsory helmets. Research shows people just drop cycling and health outcomes are not improved.

Germany and Holland have well planned cycle routes where cyclists don't generally have to share roads with motor vechicles.
UK has very, very few proper cycling paths therefore cyclists who don't take all possible precautions to be visible and safe, i.e. , wear helmets, are indeed idiots.
.

It's idiots like that who give the rest of us responsible cyclists a bad name. Twats.

I don't know about helmets - I knew 2 women who came off their bikes and cracked their heads but were wearing helmets so avoided more than concussion, and a man who wasn't wearing a helmet when he was knocked off his bike and spend a year recovering and still has ongoing health issues as a result of his cracked skull.

It's already illegal to cycle without lights at night!

Do you live near me Op? I was thinking of starting a thread about this after my drive home tonight. It's against the law to drive without headlights on a car, so why isn't it the same for cyclists? I'd go further and say they need to also be required to wear high viz clothing. This could literally save lives.