To ask cyclists to follow the rules!!!

[summeriscomingsoon]

Nearly hit by a cyclist going through a red light again as I was crossing the road. We have numerous offenders doing this.

Also going on the pavement to avoid traffic jams.

Cycling has increased so much since lockdown and great health benefits but some of them make me mad!!!

Aibu to expect them to behave as if they were a car on the road and stick to the rules.

Obviously #notallcyclists, but as with #notallmen, there are way too many bad ones. I've never seen a supposedly "good" cyclist stop and take issue with one breaking the rules.
How can we? We're waiting patiently at the lights while they've charged off.

I've never seen a supposedly "good" cyclist stop and take issue with one breaking the rules. As we demand men should be active in stopping misogyny, all cyclists have an obligation to tackle bad cycling

Do you see "good" drivers stop and take issue with drivers breaking the rules? No. Do you even expect them to? No. So why is it different for "cyclists"? Oh right, because you aren't one so obviously "they" need to do something about "their" bad behaviour.

And on red lights, the vast majority of cars will go through an Amber light when they could have stopped, and the vast majority will also go through red if it just changed even though they could have stopped. It's usually two or three cars go through that "mature amber" before one stops and stops the rest of them.

You did.

Read again and try to comprehend. It was a reply to the opening post all about the "minority" (in your opinion) that run red lights.

I've never seen a supposedly "good" cyclist stop and take issue with one breaking the rules

You are funny!

Have you seen good pedestrians take issue with bad ones? Drivers?

Why is the responsibility with other cyclists?

From your little chart, it looks like cyclists should be complaining about drivers. But they don't, not in the way that both pedestrians and drivers complain about cyclists, like it's all cyclists that is the problem.

When people complain about drivers, they complain about that one driver. Same with pedestrians.

But cyclists, as a group, are seen as fair game by everyone else.

If this thread was about a cyclist, per the title, rather than cyclists, I would have a lot more time for it.

But I'm not into this blaming all cyclists for one incident thing.

So a 5ft 6 woman cyclist is now supposed to challenge 6ft male cyclists when I see them jumping red lights now?

Ok then.

Keen cyclist here. I agree that some cyclists blatantly ignore rules and should be pulled over and fined for doing so. In central London you can see this happening more frequently. Generally though I think cycling is great. It is pollution free, helps combat obesity, is good for mental health (makes a major contribution to mine) and on the whole takes cars off the road which reduces congestion. I note a number of posters arguing that cyclists "slow then down", okay, but you do not have more rights to the roads than we do. I will pull over to let a vehicle past, but only where I can move over safely. Elsewhere in Europe (Denmark and Holland in particular), cyclists and drivers appear to get on much better. I suspect that this is because they are all one and the same at different times of the day and there are not a group of car only people who never cycle, and a separate tribe of warrior cyclists who feel car owners are "the enemy".

Do you always follow the rules as a pedestrian OP? Or as a driver?

I get fed up with all the hate for cyclists (although it makes a pleasant change from the virus shedding jogger hate).

I've never seen a supposedly "good" cyclist stop and take issue with one breaking the rules

Happens quite alot on cycling websites and forums. People posting gleeful videos of red light jumpers being pulled by the police etc

I live in the outskirts of London, if I'm heading into town I ride, if I'm heading out then mostly I drive

I've driven 100s of 1000s of miles without major incident and I've ridden probably a few thousand miles and been run over, knocked off by pedestrians, clipped by badly overtaking drivers and had more near misses and life flash before your eyes moments in one 15 mile journey than I will ever have in my life time of driving

I don't hate drivers though, or cars. I don't think they're the problem. The problem is dickheads

A bad driver is obviously much worse for everyone on the road or pavement than a bad cyclists is as they're better equipped to cause life changing injuries or death to whoever their bad driving impacts and the stats clearly bear this out

Obviously #notallcyclists, but as with #notallmen, there are way too many bad ones. I've never seen a supposedly "good" cyclist stop and take issue with one breaking the rules. As we demand men should be active in stopping misogyny, all cyclists have an obligation to tackle bad cycling.

If you're gonna bring that analogy into it then:

Cars=men ie capable of greater damage and more likely to be a culprit
Cyclists=women ie much less suited to causing damage or death to others and statistically much less significant

Would be how that analogy would work really innit

@poppycat10

Do you always follow the rules as a pedestrian OP? Or as a driver?

I get fed up with all the hate for cyclists (although it makes a pleasant change from the virus shedding jogger hate).

Mostly I do.

I've never ever gone through a red light in any vehicle as I'm not an entitled prick.

I've never been knocked over by a car whilst I'm on the pavement.

I have been by a cyclist. Fortunately I was not badly hurt but every year pedestrians are killed by cyclists.

Cyclists are as dangerous to pedestrians as cars are to cyclists but this is always totally overlooked. Cyclists should be required to have insurance just like drivers

Cyclists are as dangerous to pedestrians as cars are to cyclists but this is always totally overlooked.

Evidence?

I have been by a cyclist. Fortunately I was not badly hurt but every year pedestrians are killed by cyclists.

I'll come back with the stats shortly for # of people killed by drivers vs cyclists. If I can I'll also post the # of people killed or seriously WHILE ON THE PAVEMENT by drivers vs cyclists.

In the meantime, please think about why someone hit by a bike is more likely to be around to complain about it than someone hit by a car.

Yes - didn't think my comment would be popular with the cycle lovers!

Very few incidents are actually reported to the police - by the time I was picked up by a fellow pedestrian the culprit was long gone with no way of identifying them. I've been witness to too many near misses as well to count. It is simply not safe for cyclists and peds to share space. I no longer walk along the Avon into Bath along the shared footpath/cycle track as it is far too dangerous.

There's like 3 people killed by cyclists a year and that's not giving details of who was at fault

That leaves 447 pedestrians per year killed by drivers, again without going into details of who's at fault

It's not really comparable

I've never been knocked over by a car whilst I'm on the pavement.

Between 2005 and 2018, 8.6% of the 5,835 pedestrian deaths in England, Scotland and Wales occurred on pavements, the University of Westminster’s Active Travel Academy, a new academic think tank, has found. The majority (542) involved motor vehicles, with six pedestrian-cycle footway collisions.

Very few incidents are actually reported to the police - by the time I was picked up by a fellow pedestrian the culprit was long gone with no way of identifying them.

Killed and seriously injured are reported, because they involve medical attention.

www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/ras20-drivers-riders-and-vehicles-in-reported-road-accidents

In 2019, the most recent year we have stats for:

410 pedestrians killed, of which 4 (

I’m not anti cyclists at all but I got absolutely annihilated by one who had mounted the pavement to avoid traffic. I stepped through my gate and was turning round to close it when he smashed into me, I first knew he was there when his breaks squeaked abs he smashed into my side. He was in full Lycra on a racing bike and he was flying along. He was very apologetic but still.

It was really horrible. And I’m weirdly twitchy about walking on mixed use paths now.

OP, YABU to make sweeping statements about a whole category of people, which is just goady.

From my perspective as a pedestrian, cyclist and driver, the problem is inconsiderate people who are not aware of their surroundings and/or do not make good-faith attempts to share space safely. Whether you're an impatient driver revving your engine 1 metre behind a cyclist, a pedestrian meandering along the middle of a shared path/cycle way or a cyclist training for the Tour de Yorkshire scattering dog-walkers along the sea-front.

None of them have yet to induce the same rage in me as someone who gets to the top of the escalator on the Underground and then stops dead while people pile up behind them. They are the ultimate in "queen/king of my bubble" thinking.

YANBU. Cyclists do follow the highway code and like ti quote it regularly, but only when it suits.
Grown men in lycra riding round on children's Christmas presents...

YANBU. My DP is a keen cyclist and we both get the rage when cyclists run red lights as it gives the (majority) of rule-abiding cyclists a bad name. And I would say I do think the majority do follow the rules. There is a lot of anti-cyclist feeling among some sections which I just don't understand, and maybe because overall there are fewer cyclists than motorists in the roads they somehow stick more in people's minds when they're spotted breaking a rule (because honestly, the number of cyclists breaking the rules is minimal compared to motorists - running red lights, very close unsafe passes of cyclists, and the big one - using mobile phones whilst driving as they think they're invisible and invincible safely hidden inside their vehicle).

But as I said, get the rage when a cyclist does run a red because there is so much anti-cycle feeling and that perception of cyclists breaking the rules, I feel giving cyclists a bad name like that puts my DP in increased harm's way when he is on his bike, following all the rules, because some motorists just hate cyclists.

@Whammyyammy

YANBU. Cyclists do follow the highway code and like ti quote it regularly, but only when it suits. Grown men in lycra riding round on children's Christmas presents...

Last time I looked i was not a man. Cycling can play a really important part in sustainable transport on the UK as it does abroad and we should be encouraging women and girls to cycle more. If we see it as men only we risk giving up on a really important option.

Oh yes and also tons of pedestrians don't follow the rules abs frequently just step into the road without looking. I'm not saying you did that OP but this happens all of the time, abs yet it's always cyclists who are labelled as the arrogant ones who think the rules don't apply to them. When a cyclist has to break very very suddenly because a pedestrian just stepped out without looking they risk going over the handlebars and getting seriously injured.

And of course, cyclists breaking the rules (which I don't deny a few do) cause far far less damage than a motorist breaking the rules has the potential to do, given the weight and power of a car versus a bike, and yet it's always cyclists for some reason getting the bad name. I really don't understand the 'us' and 'them' attitude of some in this country, as though cyclists are a totally separate breed of road user - I mean, most cyclists also drive a car sometimes, so not exactly a completely different species.

Having read a bit more of the thread it's really quite depressing the irrational hatred some people seem to have for cyclists. As others have pointed out - you want PEOPLE to follow the rules. Why cyclists get singled out for this anymore than pedestrians and motorists I have no idea.
And that's the thing - motorists don't want them on the roads (despite them having every bit as much right to be there), and pedestrians don't seem to want them on mixed use paths (they're very rarely on actual pavements) - so where would you have them cycle? And if the answer is you wouldn't, you would ban them - I mean, really - just why? It's an efficient, healthy and environmental way of getting from A to B as well as being enjoyable. I just don't get the attitude in this country and wish we could have more of a Northern European approach to this. Everyone cycles, it's just a normal way of getting around. Those cyclists also probably sometimes drive their cars. So they're just people moving around together, not 'us' and 'them'.