To think there is a new generation of reckless cyclists?

[FuriousVexation]

In the last few years there has been a massive increase in cyclists. I have no problem with this at all! People cycling to work rather than driving can only be a good thing. And it is at least a healthy hobby for those who get a bit obsessed with their timings. (I get a bit obsessed with my strength training at the gym so can't judge.)

But over the last year I have seen an increasing number of young people, mainly teenagers, riding around and "popping a wheelie" as we used to say in the 1980s. (IE - leaning back on the seat and raising the front wheel off the road/pavement.)

More concerning, there seems to be a trend of teenage cyclists to just swerve into the road or across the road without looking for traffic. I can count 3 times in the last week that a cyclist has put their life in my hands.

For example, on Friday I was driving up to the side road I needed to turn into, had my indicator on. No obstructions in front of me. I saw a young lad cycling down the pavement of the main road, towards me, with his little sister (I assume) being given a backie. If I had only been paying attention to the road and other cars then he would have plowed straight into me as I turned into the road. Thankfully for us all I stopped as I reached the turnoff (as I had clocked him and that he probably wasn't looking around) as he sailed across the road in front of me without even looking.

Worst of all, the young people who I see doing this aren't wearing headgear. I know teenagers always think they're immortal - I did! But to ride without a helmet AND be so reckless just seems insane.

Has there been a TV programme or something which encourages teens to ride? and isn't too hot on safety?

I've said it before I'll say to again. I'm all for cyclists to be on the road but there needs to be a standardised approach

There need to be proper cycle paths. In most places there aren’t. That would resolve a lot of cycling conflict and encourage more people to cycle. I used to live in Germany where cycle paths are the norm and cycled all the time - lots of people do just to get from a to b, including the elderly and little children. I don’t cycle here because it doesn’t feel safe. I think for many people from countries with appropriate cycle paths the idea that some hobby cyclist in lycra is able to bring traffic to a standstill on a narrow country lane would be seen as quite dangerous and ridiculous. (Our narrow little roads that don’t seem to have been widened since the time of horse and carts probably would probably seem quite ridiculous in themselves too.)

Pinkblueberry There need to be proper cycle paths. In most places there aren’t. That would resolve a lot of cycling conflict and encourage more people to cycle.

I think its a mixture of lack of cycle paths and the fact that the British, on the whole, are spectacularly inactive (outwith competitive athletes). There are so many people here that are so welded to their cars that they consider walking any duration as exercise, even though they are relatively young and healthy. They think that being held up for 30s on their car journey is a great drama. They turn into the sort of mid fifties plus people who have been inactive all their lives who get all worked up if they ever see anyone doing anything involving physical effort at speed. They just cannot compute it.

I regularly get trapped behind these slow movers in entrances to supermarkets. I literally cannot believe how slowly they move. Again, young and healthy enough to move at a normal speed. These are the sort of people I imagine going all pearl-clutchy at anyone moving a bit faster.

I grew up in The Netherlands. Perfectly normal for children and adults to be active and fit there. Not normal to go everywhere by car. Not normal to be overweight.

I hate bastard cyclists with a passion and wish they'd fuck off to the far side of fuck. Hate, hate, hate them.
Did that get my view across?

Agree with the cycle lanes but if in London where there's the cs2 cycle superhighway- half the cyclists ignore the fact they have a designated lane and drive into the main road recklessly anyways.. frustrating.

If it was called that in the eighties, why do you consider it a new thing now?

Because until this year, I hadn't seen it SINCE the 80s!

Also, a cyclist turning left at a red isn't inherently dangerous and is often safer for the cyclist.

But it’s not safer for the pedestrian crossing on a green signal, or does that not matter to you?

@Zackly round our way they try the door handles of the cars driving on the road, not the parked ones.

I feel sorry for the bus drivers as they get the most agro from these idiots.

Aaaw, did the nasty cyclist get in the way of your car? Did they slow you down for a whole 2 minutes? Don’t they know you have complete right of way and are allowed to drive over anything you like? Poor you.

And don’t go blathering about being concerned for their safety either, we all know full well that you’re just annoyed about being slowed down.

Aaaw, did the nasty cyclist get in the way of your car? Did they slow you down for a whole 2 minutes? Don’t they know you have complete right of way and are allowed to drive over anything you like? Poor you

And don’t go blathering about being concerned for their safety either, we all know full well that you’re just annoyed about being slowed down

Point proven beautifully, thank you.

JacquesHammer but seriously, this thread is complaining about people being outside or moving faster than a dawdle.

Theres a certain type of person, usually one who can't move without the assistance of a vehicle, who gets all frustrated about this and then sits on their backside to bitch about it to likeminded supporters on the internet.

I'm going out on my bike now. Its such a lovely evening to spoil it with traffic fumes. I will be wearing lycra. Quite the collection I have.

but seriously, this thread is complaining about people being outside or moving faster than a dawdle

Of course that’s what you took from it.

I have no issue with many cyclists. I have issues with the odd ones I’ve come across who have behaved atrociously, if you somehow see that as an attack on all cyclists that’s not my problem.

Locally there is an extensive network of cycle lanes. There are also loads of cyclists. The cyclists don't use the cycle lanes, why?

I got hit by a cyclist going through a red light while I was crossing the road on a green man in the city a few weeks ago, luckily (?!) he only clipped my shoulder and knee spinning me round, whilst he came off his bike. I have arthritis in both joints already so have been in agony since. He just got back on his bike and rode off. Had many, many near misses too, a lot of them involving cyclists light jumping or being on the wrong side of the road. It’s awful and the attitude of some people so dismissive of this problem is awful too.

Theres a certain type of person, usually one who can't move without the assistance of a vehicle, who gets all frustrated about this and then sits on their backside to bitch about it to likeminded supporters on the internet.

I’m a pedestrian, as was the pp upthread who also mentioned a similar scenario to mine but don’t let that stop your shitty little rant eh?

Ido worry about the youngsters who cycle in the middle of the road here. It’s a narrow road and on a bend and motorists don’t always adjust their speed to accommodate the width of the road.

I was shocked last week, to see a woman cycling with a ‘basket’ in front of her with a child in it and a child seat with a child in it behind her. None of the three of them were wearing helmets. I’m sure the weight distribution of the bike must have been altered by the three of them.

@Windygate

The local council up here have been making a big fuss about their shiny new cycle lane. Unfortunately neither end of it connects up with places I need to travel between or other cycle routes....

There's a 2 way cycle route fairly near my workplace that makes me nervous every time I get off the bus because it runs between the bus stop and the road. It's also full of water when it rains and cross the road/interacts with junctions in very weird ways.

If cars had to put up with that sort of infrastructure folk would be up in arms!

@Rosemary7391 I can understand your point, that would be annoying. Actually around us the cycle lanes and paths have less holes than the multiple user road.

It’s not just kids: took a step out of my (solid) gate a couple of weeks ago and had to leap backwards again or be knocked flying by a lady about my age, mid-50s, going hell for leather on the pavement. It was obvious from the panic on her face that it hadn’t even occurred to her that pedestrians might step out of their gardens onto the pavement. That what she was doing is, I believe, illegal anyway had obviously escaped her entirely.

I have a bike, love it. But adult cyclists, please, keep off of the bloody pavements when you’ve a nice, wide 20mph, quiet suburban road to cycle on. And adult cyclists, please, don’t cycle in the middle of the main bloody arterial into towns when you have a new, expensive, dedicated cycle lane, on a shared pavement with a tall kerb so no risk of being hit by cars unless they deliberately mount the pavement and aim at you. Riding at 20 mph in the middle of the 50 mph lane at 7.45 am on a weds morning in those circumstances is not going to endear you to people (many cyclists themselves) driving to work.

And adult cyclists, please, don’t cycle in the middle of the main bloody arterial into towns when you have a new, expensive, dedicated cycle lane, on a shared pavement with a tall kerb so no risk of being hit by cars unless they deliberately mount the pavement and aim at you.

This!

I live just off one of the main A roads into central London. It used to be 2 lanes. They made one of the lanes into a dedicated cycle super highway (at huge expense, and it took forever). This made the traffic significantly worse, as you'd expect. Much of the traffic is commercial so it's not as easy as saying just get the tube/train instead. The cycle superhighway sits empty all the time apart from at rush hour. So it's only used for a few hours each day. And the more aggressive cyclists still insist on cycling in the one remaining car/lorry lane anyway as they don't like getting stuck behind slow cyclists on the cycle superhighway. So the traffic is slowed even further by these cyclists. It's miserable. And cost a fortune just so a few middle class hipsters can bumble their way along on their bikes to work. Meanwhile everyone is crammed in one lane of traffic getting increasingly frustrated.

I write this as both a London cyclist and driver (and pedestrian). There are far too many people in the city who appear to be 1. clueless and 2. don't give a damn about anyone else. I include in that pedestrians who step out into the road without looking, cyclists who are not safe to be on a bike (cycle superhighway or not) and car drivers who are just morons and continuously cut people up and drive aggressively. It's exhausting, it really is. I want to move to somewhere remote where there are no people. Or cars. Or bikes.

Some people on bikes are twats.
Some people in cars are twats.
We never have any motorist bashing threads despite the fact they kill hundreds of people a year.

Slowasasnail

Indeed they are. Some pedestrians are idiots too.

More consideration needed all round, really.

By the second post in and we've got two entries into anti-cycling bingo

In case anybody needs a card.

It's acceptable to bash cyclists, say you hate them (RichPetunia above - lovely person otherwise no doubt, who I'm sure is loved by someone, somewhere) and otherwise massively generalise about how awful they all are but never do the same about car drivers because most of those doing the bashing also regularly break the law when they're driving and so to do so would make them massive hypocrites.

Also, let's not forget the real reason everyone hates cyclists but don't want to admit because it sounds so petty and self-important - who doesn't get pissed off when you suddenly have to slow down and trundle behind a bike for a few hundred yards.

Cycling is my main mode of transport and one of my favourite recreational activities, so I suppose that makes me a cyclist, and I think a lot of teenagers are just naturally reckless with a delusion of invincibility and lack of general road sense.

I see a lot of them glued to their phones as they pedal along. I just ding my bell at them repeatedly until they realise they're in public on a moving vehicle. They'll grow up and hopefully wise up before they get themselves killed. I much prefer the kids on bikes to the kids riding bloody vespas on the bike paths.

It's acceptable to bash cyclists, say you hate them (RichPetunia above - lovely person otherwise no doubt, who I'm sure is loved by someone, somewhere) and otherwise massively generalise about how awful they all are but never do the same about car drivers because most of those doing the bashing also regularly break the law when they're driving and so to do so would make them massive hypocrites.

So no one is allowed to complain about cyclists unless they also provide a comparable list of complaints about drivers? So if I start a thread about bad service in shops, for example, I also have to discuss restaurant service in the interests of fairness?

This seems like desperate straw-clutching to me.

Musnt criticise any cyclist on here. If they shit in your shopping you will thank them for saving the earth. The fact more and more people are sick of their dangerous bullshit is cos we're jealous or something.