AIBU to find cyclists annoying

[MumOfTheNorth]

This probably is unreasonable but I just find cyclists so annoying. Not saying every cyclist does every one of these things. It just seems to happen a lot. Am I the only one that gets this irrational irritation?

What I find annoying...

• Taking up the whole road so you can't leave enough space to safely over take
• Weaving in and out of traffic
• Walking around cafes or the office in sweaty lycra with their click clacky shoes
• Running red lights when I'm trying to cross on a green man
• Cycling on the pavement
• Not tucking in on small country roads once in a while when there's a massive que of traffic behind them
• Having no lights or helmet on in the dark
• And most of all... talking to me about cycling

@WillowCraft he has only been doing it for about a year but he claims he never experiences any problems or hostility.

I think he’s just trying to stop his mum from worrying herself sick!!

I'm with you, OP. I find them annoying too. However, I recognise that this is my problem and that they're entitled (like drivers) to do their thing so long as they do it safely and considerately. So I try to dampen down my annoyance.

Except at people who cycle with small children in ridiculous contraptions on busy roads. They fill me with rage. Why would you entrust the safety of your children to a plywood or canvas box, often below eye level, on urban roads shared with buses, HGVs and crowds of delivery drivers on motorbikes (most of whom haven't even passed their test!) where hundreds of cyclists are killed or injured each year? It's completely crazy!

100% this.

I haven’t got used to bells yet. I’m wandering along lost in my thoughts thinking “I wonder what that ringing noise is?”

Twice in the past 5 years I've experienced rude behaviour from black people, despite treating them the same as I'd treat a white person. Now I feel like I just can't win.

Does that make sense? Or could it just have been 2 individuals who behaved badly, rather than "you just can't win" with any of them?

It's primitive, tribal behaviour to generalise about groups of people.

Think of the benefits to his health, that's my advice. Cycling is a safe mode if transport. Far better than sitting on his bottom in a car

AIBU to find motorists annoying?

Whenever I’m cycling, with exactly the same rights to use the road as a motorist, motorists are really annoying.

What I find annoying:

• Always trying to knock me off my bike by turning across my path when I have right of way.
• Overtaking me so closely that their vehicle brushes against my arm
• Shouting abuse at me for not using a dangerous cycle lane full of glass and potholes
• Going on about road tax all the time, even though it no longer exists, and thinking that their emissions tax gives them greater rights to the road than other road users
• knocking my partner off his bike, breaking his back and ribs, leaving him permanently disabled, and then driving off without helping him

This probably is unreasonable but I just find motorists so annoying. Not saying every motorist does every one of these things. It just seems to happen a lot. Am I the only one that gets this irrational irritation?

I have two hates . One being the inconsiderate lack of pulling in for just a few seconds and let the build up of cars go by you .
And two being waved on to pass a cyclist. I will never trust someone else's judgement as to whether it's safe for me to overtake.
I will bide my time behind the bike until I see it's safe to pass.

It's rural where I live and lots of cyclists. There is one long bendy road in particular that often has a big queue behind cyclists. It has lots of little lay bys/entrances they could pull into for a second. I've seen the odd one pull in, but not many. I groan when there's a bike queue there. Instead of a 3 or 4 minute drive, it can be 15 minutes. It's really not fair when it's so frequent. I know there are bad drivers too, but I personally wouldn't want to inconvenience so many people at once. When the solution is to just pull over and let them past.

Good lord, maybe there are enough idiots out there that Rishi's "poor discriminated against drivers" policy platform will work 😩

Five people in the UK are killed by vehicles every day (1,825 per year) and 84 people are seriously injured every day (30,660 per year)
Around 50 pedestrians a year are killed by vehicles while they are walking on the pavement.
Cyclists kill about 1 person per year, almost all of which have been on the road.

There is an epidemic of drivers using phones and computers while driving. Cars are getting bigger, heavier and able to accelerate more quickly so becoming much more deadly. Drug driving, like under the influence of nitrous oxide, is becoming more prevalent and hard to catch as it gets out of the body quicker than booze.

Cyclists riding recklessly on the pavement are annoying but if you are more angry about that than the number of people killed and injured every day by car drivers, then you are an idiot.

I have not cycled for many years (too frightened in London!) and I don't drive. Where I live £thousands have been spent on separating a cycle lane. Do they use it? No, they speed along the pavements. They ignore zebra crossings and they ignore traffic light. Frankly, sod the cyclists and the drivers - what about pedestrians?!!!

Why are so many people so desperate to drive at high speeds on country lanes?

As a pedestrian, I think I quite like the idea of you lot being forced to slow down. Maybe cheese it with the stupid concern trolling about "Oooh, cyclists are so dangerous to pedestrians!" The risk to pedestrians comes from cars; fewer cars and slower cars is what might keep us safer. I support cyclists.

The bell v shoot a cheery greeting comments on here show that cyclists will always be in the wrong for some people.

Cyclists riding recklessly on the pavement are annoying but if you are more angry about that than the number of people killed and injured every day by car drivers, then you are an idiot.

if you're unable to be equally angry about more than one thing at a time then you are an idiot.

@Newfortoday I cycle for my commute. The first cycle path I use in a morning at 5am takes me off a lovely well lit A road onto a lower,lit, but absolutely deserted quiet road with potholes. I'm not keen but use it.
Coming home at 2pm the roads in town are busy so the council have provided me with a cycle lane alongside a busy main road. I don't use this one because of the broken glass, abusive pedestrians who have a path of their own and dodgy mobility scooters ( I've been hit twice). I stay on the main road.
I would love, and would definitely use, an appropriate cycle network.

Anyone who’s been stuck behind one or a gaggle of them puffing their way slowly up Box Hill will definitely say YANBU.

Anger at parents transporting their kids by bike - not at people driving dangerously and putting kids at risk??
I live on an estate with a grid of streets. Basically my kids are trapped without me. Even if they sensibly cross the road, drivers are speeding, failing to indicate, driving on pavements rather than wait to go through a narrow gap..... then people moan about childhood obesity and kids not going out much!! One of my son's friends was hit by a car in the summer holidays. But somehow its worse to wear lycra and clicky shoes??
Our car obsessed society is ruining everything.

Our

Sigh.
Nobody pays "road tax"

On Wednesday I overtook a cyclist and gave him at least two metres clearance - I slowed down as I was going into a 30 mph and someone was pulling out in front of me to turn across me turning right -
he whizzed up the inside and clipped my wing mirror and then cycled off - wtf? Why didn’t he give me clearance? Don’t get it ?

In other words, not facilitating a dangerous close pass.

I have a camera and I will report you. Enjoy your fine 🤗

I waited in my car at a set of temporary lights this morning. One lane was closed off so the temporary lights were regulating alternating one-way traffic on the open lane.

Our light had gone green, the line had begun to move and…a group of cyclists came through against the traffic. Shouting and aggressive gestures from the cyclists, of course, because obeying a red light was not something they should do. 🙄. (Yes, there was a delay between the lights changing. I watched the cars going the other way stop and wait. The cyclists just carried on.)

Self-important hobby cyclists in Lycra, natch.

I think cyclists and pedestrians should pay the same amount of vehicle tax as electric vehicles

Of course I don't get mad at a horse. It's an animal. I'm more than happy to drive slowly and quietly for a horse.

I WISH cyclists would only hold people up for a few minutes. Many times I've seen one huffing and puffing up a hill with an entire convoy of vehicles held captive behind them for a long, long time. It takes forever for each vehicle to be able to pass them safely. Fair enough, if you think that's all fine and dandy. I'd be so embarrassed to do that, I wouldn't show my face in that county again.

Not to mention how incredibly dangerous it is for them on some roads. I've spoken to people in my career who have killed someone or caused life changing injuries in an accident. It's genuinely upsetting to hear how haunted they are. I will never be able to forget those people for the rest of my life. So I don't have a huge amount of patience for people with a cavalier attitude about putting their lives in danger.

So I don't have a huge amount of patience for people with a cavalier attitude about putting their lives in danger
How are they putting their lives in danger? They are cycling legally. Going up a hill is always to be slow.

You could argue why are drivers using tight country roads where cyclists are likely to hold them up rather than larger roads just to cut their time by a few minutes?

Because some roads are just plain dangerous to be cycling on, some cyclists don't care if they make themselves practically invisible to other road users, and because car versus cycle is never going to have a good outcome.