AIBU to think this event should never have happened.

[DaisiesAreOurSilver]

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mare-newborn-foal-die-because-15637103

Big cycle race of 100 miles in our area yesterday. Road closures from 5.30 am till 12.30 pm. Some streets were totally cut off for the whole time.

Residents were just told they should have parked outside the area the night before. For some that would mean a walk of a mile, given how many roads were closed. One family escorted through because they had a flight to catch but had to wait 25 minutes for an escort.

Carers were unable to visit the housebound clients, meals on wheels couldn't get through and the stewards didn't give a stuff. For some people it wasn't a question of finding a way around there were areas that were totally cut off for the duration.

But worst of all the stewards wouldn't let a emergency vet through and a mare and her foal died. The foal would have been worth a lot of money as was the mare. I hope the owner sues for every penny she can.

Residents are very angry and cannot understand why permission was granted for this to happen. If they try it again vigilantes have said they'll force the roads open if they try to close them. Feelings running very high.

dreich in which case it is the event that is the menace not the cyclists.
People like lumping "cyclists" into a general group to throw generally unfounded insults at.

For anyone slagging off cyclists for no reason: this video is very informative and gives lots of statistics proving that cycling isn't the problem that some people try to make it out to be www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/video/2019/may/09/do-cyclists-think-theyre-above-the-law-and-does-it-even-matter-video

Okay, I am a bit biased here because my family and lots of friends are cyclists. But really, what are these big crimes cyclists are guilty of? Making you a couple of minutes later in you planet destroying car? The utter bastards.

Cyclists mostly bunch up to stop people overtaking because they are in a situation where overtaking would be dangerous. If they string out, they end up in a situation where a really big gap in the oncoming traffic is needed to overtake and invariably a car overtakes half the line, is faced with another oncoming car, pulls in and a cyclist end up in the hedge.

Cyclist ride in the middle of the road because otherwise cars skim them to overtake them. A good friend of mine cheerily told my DH, “Oh the cyclists near us are awful; they kick your car when you pass them.” He told her he’d kick her car as well if she got so dangerously close.

We get a lot of cyclists near us. We get a lot of horse riders. I give both plenty of consideration. I hang well back until there is a decent gap and pass wide. The number of times I have done this, got a cheerful wave and then looked in my mirror and seen the car behind me scrape past them is shocking.

You I have to say I would like to know how many cyclists have died because they’ve done something that out in danger though.

Eg cycle in a group in such a way that cars can’t overtake wo taking risks and the blame the car driver who had enough of waiting after being stuck behind them for 2 miles (plenty of then where I live)

The bottom line, both cars and cyclists shouod be able to coexist on the roads.
As soon as there is a us and them mentality, ‘THEY are the ones who are wrong do do awful things’, then things just get worse.

Personally I’d like to see a limit on the size of the group of cyclists. Anything over 3 or 4 is a pain and dangerous to overtake unless you have a dead straight road.

Tinky I didn’t know that cyclists though they were also there to manage how car drivers are driving.
You do realise that, by acting like this, it’s likely that drivers will actually act EVEN MORE dangerously?
And that it’s not about waiting 2 mins. On some roads (like all the small B and sometimes A roads where I live) it makes it impossible to actually overtake for miles? Or at least not safely due to the fact they are twisty roads with little visibility

“But there’s a very specific breed of man who seem to be attracted to it. That’s where it gets it’s reputation from.”

Ivana - Can I ask, do you know any of this “breed” of man personally?

Just trying to work out what axe you have to grind here of how this issue affects you,

I was stuck in my cup-de-sac all day. We couldn’t get out because the road we exit on was part of the race. It was hell. My husband had to do an 18 hour shift because he had to leave for work at 6 just to get in before the roads closed. The noise was horrible and the amount of litter left behind was disgusting. I couldn’t get out to visit my mother in hospital and even if I could get out of the road on foot it would have been an hours walk to the nearest bus stop that was running. It made me feel like a prisoner in my own home. It was a pity because the weather was amazing and would have been nice to take the kids to the park.

Ballistic Ivana knows a few and apparently they are all "twats" so there you go for a nice bit of generalisation. I know loads of cyclists and they're all lovely - you have to shrug really don't you as we all look for the confirmation bias to support our pov.

flabby that does sound awful but couldn't you have parked a couple of streets away and accessed your car? Why couldn't you go to the park anyhow?

In everyones passionate rush to defend random cyclists cycling on the roads, they do seem to have forgotten the actual event this thread is about completely.
We aren't talking about a few cyclists who would move over for an ambulance, we're talking about a corporate event that trapped some limited-mobility or disabled people in their homes for an entire day with no way for carers or food services to get to them.

Maybe if it was the old mum or granny of some of these posters phoning them in tears because no-one had come that day with food or to get them out of bed or give them their medication, they would be a little less focused on how victimised cyclists are or the rights of the entrants to have a lovely day out cycling to raise a bit of charity money while the business running it pockets a huge sum of non-charity money.

@EggAndButter the "cyclists are a menace" statement implies they are harming more people than themselves.

1,700 people die on UK roads every year.
Of these Zero to 2 are killed by bikes.
But cyclists are the menace?

Anecdotally I can think of 7 people I have known who were killed by cars - one was on a bike the others all in cars themselves. Ages from 16-65. One other left with permanent life changing head injuries never worked again and his essence was gone. So forgive me if I don’t see cyclists as a “menace”

Coming to the thread very late, can I just check how far we've got:

So the pro-cyclists have decided that they are on a hiding to nothing defending the horse and foal being allowed to die? Or are they mostly saying not my fault not my problem?

In which case we've moved on to say that not many people get killed by cyclists so anything and everything else is ok?

Is that about the measure of it?

To be fair there wouldn’t be this very obvious annoyance towards cyclists if they weren’t being fucking annoying would there?

Everyone would be like oh I love cyclists! They’re great, never stop me getting past, never cycle on pavements, never skip red lights. Great bunch of people. Shame about the middle-aged balls through Lycra, but still! Love them.

When it comes to blocking roads, there's nothing quite like car drivers. Just have a look at the north circular or M25 at rush hour. Have a look at any town or city centre. Think how often you end up in passing situations or squeezing through a narrow gap, and ask yourself if you'd want an emergency services vehicle to be stuck in that same situation.

When it comes to cycling on pavements, have a look at the cracks in paving slabs. What do you think causes them? Cyclists? Pedestrians? Or do you think actually it's drivers who routinely take motor vehicles on pavements. Look at street furniture that's specifically designed to keep motor vehicles off pavements. And bear in mind that you're more likely to die because you're hit by a car on the pavement than by a cyclist. In 2016, 43 pedestrians died in collisions involving a vehicle on the footway or verge. None of them involved a cycle.

In terms of red light jumping, data shows that drivers and cyclists are equally likely to jump a red light, despite the fact that cyclists have more opportunity to do so. Cyclists can move to the front of the lights whereas drivers are stopped by the vehicle in front. You may notice cyclists more because people tend not to count drivers amber gambling or flooring it through as lights change.

Drivers break the law as often if not vastly more so than people on bikes and they cause far greater damage. Whatever reason it is you don't like people on bikes, it's nothing to do with any nuisance factor. If it were, it would be more logical to direct that ire at drivers who by any rational standards are far worse.

So if you find yourself getting irate about cyclists have a long think about why. Because I suspect you'll find your annoyance is more that they disrupt the status quo and that they present you with an uncomfortable truth. Car drivers kill more people, either by actually hitting them or through polluting the air. They make urban environments incredibly unpleasant and dangerous. Instead of acknowledging this and admitting that by driving you're part of the problem, it's far easier to use a minority group as a scapegoat.

Rabbitmug

Surely you would have all been given plenty of notice beforehand? I totally get that that doesn't help with emergencies though..

Yes, we were given weeks of notice, so I don't get why residents complained afterwards.
I was very lucky, the route to my son's swimming lesson was open so I was able to take him and then go home (and tell the steward to let me up the road as it wasn't blocked until much further on than our road so wtf did they need a steward and road closed signs miles from the closure?), but knew there was no point going elsewhere on Sunday

You I have never said they are menace. Not sure where you got that one from.

I’m saying that the behaviour of some cyclists (NOT ALL!) are not helping and actually that they put themselves into danger by doing that.
The example I gave (big group of cyclists together in small twisty roads with no visibility) is a good imo.
Yes you can argue that it’s to ‘stop awful car drivers from overtaking because they are dangerous’. But when what it actually means is stopping cars from overtaking at all for miles and miles, what it does is forcing people to overtake when they don’t have visibility.....

Basically, drivers are not the only to be badly behaved on the roads, cyclists do take the bigger risk though (even though you could also argue that being involved in a accident like this as the car driver is pretty awful too, from am emotional POV)

Giepve and take and all that

I think Belenus has answered the OP's post very clearly and in full. If a cyclist wants to do it, then nothing must stand in their way. Cos cars.

Belenus may I point out that many many people who are cycling aren’t just going to work? It’s not because they are less ‘polluting’ that it makes their behaviour automatically better

Once again, as your post proves anyway. SOME drivers are crap and and EQUAL NUMBER of cyclists are crap too.
Everyone is as bad as each other and no one wins that title.

DishingOutDone as far as I can see from your late-to-the-party posts, most of what you think is a great example of observation bias.

We live in an area winding roads, no edge except ditch and many places with "do notb pass" stretches of road.

Cyclists are a menace. What are we supposed to do? Follow them at their speed for miles? Pass and get killed on the curve?

My ds rides on designated pathways that do not have vehicles.

If we must choose btwn being crushed by an oncoming car who is passing a cyclist and coming into our lane or hitting the cyclist; ???

That's a ridiculous position to be put in by someone who wants to ride two wheels.

Cyclists may legally have the right of way but I don't think endangering others for a sport is morally correct.

Roads in our area are frequently shut on Sunday mornings for fun runs, cycle races etc and the stewards seem to be just placed at the top of closed roads to tell people not to drive down them. I've never fully understood how the council has the right to stop the free flow of traffic for the promotion of tourism, or whatever they'[re promoting, anyway, since I pay a road tax!

The refusal of a vet's access to a seriously ill animal is shocking, and I suspect comes from poor training of stewards.

Jessbow

Presumably the town concerned ( I know where it was) shouldn't have bid - and won- city for sport this year then,

You clearly don't if you think it was just one town affected. I live the other end from one of the cut-off villages, haven't bid for anything. We don't even come under the same local authority!

About that mare....

The article I read said mare was 21 yrs old.
Which is relatively elderly in breeding terms.
From start of labour to death was 1 hour elapsed (what if no vet had been available anyway?)

I'm not animal rights freak, but you could make the case it was a risky situation, an irresponsible owner, & even if vet had not been delayed the animal had no hope.

*I live in the area and had no idea it was happening. The stewards were really unhelpful and couldn’t/wouldn’t give directions so I gave up on visiting my Ill relative and went home instead.

A few people I spoke to today said they knew it was happening as they had friends taking part, so went along to cheer the cyclists on*

I don't understand how you didn't know, we had signs up for weeks (which haven't been taken down) saying this road will be closed at these times on 12th May and to not park there for the duration

Bold fail