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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To shout "get some lights!" to stupid teenagers on dark bikes/clothes and no reflectors

26 replies

Ripeberry · 13/03/2008 20:59

Tonight, when getting back from visiting friends, some mindless morron cyclists (2 of them) decided to cut right accross me coming from my right and then carried on up the road.
They had no relectors, lights and were basically just shadows.. no streetlights either, so i just wound down the window and shouted get some lights and they just said "get some glasses!"
Bloody cheek, they were lucky i did not hit them, i mean my fist not with the car
My Nan used to say that people who rode around at night in dark clothes and no lights were thieves and robbers as they did not want to be seen.
AB

OP posts:

seeker · 13/03/2008 21:02

I shout at them all the time. Much to the embarrasment of my children. I am going to get a boot through my car winsow one of these days.

snorris · 13/03/2008 21:04

I'm glad it's not just me that does it then. I thought I was just becoming a grumpy old woman

theyoungvisiter · 13/03/2008 21:11

oh god I so agree.

Amazingly it's not just teenagers though - round our way you regularly get middle-aged commuters on shit-hot cost-a-fortune bikes, with nothing but a single wavery backlight that you can barely see, or often not even that.

I feel like screaming, how can you spend £800 on your bike and refuse to spend a tenner on lights and a reflective jacket?

It's completely mad - at least teenagers have the excuse of their agre for not believing it's possible to die. You'd have thought a 40-something commuter would have worked out that head meets windscreen is not a good combination.

ladette · 13/03/2008 21:14

YANBU. DH cycles and this drives him mad, as does seeing people cycling without helmets, or badly placed helmets which apparently wouldn't do any good anyway.

LOOBYLOU2 · 13/03/2008 21:24

YANBU - and "think Bike" signs drive me nuts
They should think for themselves and not drive up the inside to overtake you!!!!

worley · 13/03/2008 21:25

not at all, i've done it myself!!!

and theres one bloody woman round here who rides her horse as its dusky and she should really wear reflective stuff to, maybe i should shout at her !

southeastastra · 13/03/2008 21:26

we used to get free reflector bands from school. now they get nowt. there needs to be more cycling proficiency type things. teenagers don't realise how invisible they are on the road.

theyoungvisiter · 13/03/2008 21:31

"YANBU - and "think Bike" signs drive me nuts"

I have to disagree - about the Think Bike signs. I don't have one, but as a cyclist in central London you would be amazed, literally amazed, at how fuckwitted and downright insane many car drivers are with bikes.

I am a driver too and I always obey normal road rules, stop at red lights, never undertake etc. But I've had people pass me so close they've clipped my panniers, or try to overtake me with a traffic island coming up and then swerve back in and crush me into the curb so I fell off, or open their car door metres in front of me, so close it's impossible for a cyclist to stop.

Lots of cyclist are irresponsible, but so are many car drivers and since it's the cyclist who will die, I think the car driver DOES need to "think bike". It certainly isn't going to be the cyclist doing a year in jail for vehicular manslaughter.

JaneHH · 13/03/2008 21:39

Speaking as someone who lives in Holland where there are (I think) more bikes than people I can agree with both theyoungvisiter and the original poster... I have been known to shout at cyclists who think they are bullet-proof in traffic. This is practically every Dutch cyclist on the road, by the way. The problem starts with the fact that cyclists are ALLOWED to undertake here at junctions, even if they're going straight on and you're turning left (that's translated into "English" - in Holland they undercut you when you're turning RIGHT ) and if there's a collision between a car and a bike then the car driver is ALWAYS at fault!!!!! Complete disbelief at this when I heard this for the first time.

So no. YANBU!!

OverMyDeadBody · 14/03/2008 08:36

YANBU. I'm a cyclist and live in a town over-run with bikes, and it annoys me when I see stupid cyclists with no lights or reflectors at night. They're fasir game to motorists for being that stupid imo . It also pisses me off when cyclists are on the pavement too, grrrrrrrr. Get on the F**KING road!

It also makes me cross and sad to see kids on the back of bikes with no helmets on.

Some motorists are overly aggressive and disregarding to cyclists though without good reason, and I've had some near misses with fuckwitted motorists over the years and shouted at them. But I have lights, indicate, and have reflective gear.

VictorianSqualor · 14/03/2008 08:48

YANBU, I live in Oxfordshire and whenever we go into the city it amazes me how many cyclists take no notice of their own safety and decide to put it in the hands of the car drivers.

In my vilage itself we have a long country road between it and the closest village, it has a nice big path on the side of the road, half of which is a cycle path, yet numbnuts still decide to come wandering along the road in the dark, no lights etc and think they're safe.
Cyclepaths are there for a reason!

DoodleToYou · 14/03/2008 08:57

Message withdrawn

OverMyDeadBody · 14/03/2008 10:01

Doodle where I live the police never turn a blind eye to lack of lights, cycling on paths and cycling in pedestrain-only areas. They quite often issue on the spot fines

LOUBYLOO what do you mean by driving up the inside to overtake you? Do you mean going round the right-hand side of the traffic or the left? As I do both in slow-moving traffic but am pretty sure that's not against the law?

Mercy · 14/03/2008 10:03

I shout at my middle-aged dh for doing this too.

I'm going to buy him a bike helmet and a flurescent vest for Father's day.

needmorecoffee · 14/03/2008 10:07

stealth cyclists annoy me too. Don't they realise car drivers can't see giant buses/bollards etc and hit them reguarly? So you need reflective gear. My bike looks like a Xmas tree at night and I wear a reflective jacket.
Don't agree about helmets though. I only wear one if its raining. The safety rating is for falling a few feet while stationary, not being hit by several tons of speeding metal. And dd has CP and can't wear a bike helmet but she shouldn't miss out on a wheelchair bike cos of that.

beaniesteve · 14/03/2008 10:14

As someone who used a bike as my main form of transport for years, it really upsets me when I see cyclists

with no lights
On teh pavement
Going through red lights.

I think parents who buy their kids bikes but fail yo give them lights and insist they use them are negligent.

Imagine your son/daughter/spouse being killed on their bike, and knowing that they wouldn't have been had they been taking more care.

However there are many many great cyclists out there who are being given a bad name by people who take no responsibility for their own and others safety.

fluffyanimal · 14/03/2008 10:16

YANBU. This happened to me once, I nearly hit one of the cyclists and it really shook me up, but I honestly couldn't see him until I was right on top of him - they came shooting across a crossroads where I had priority, on a country lane at night. It still sends my blood cold thinking about it.

PurlyQueen · 14/03/2008 10:25

The number of cyclists who ride around in heavy traffic listening to iPods or personal music players always amazes me.

Kimi · 14/03/2008 10:26

I get so mad at people who cycle without the proper equipment.

DH knocked a bloke off his bike a few years ago, thankfully apart from a dented back wheel all was ok, but it was poring with rain on a winters evening so very dark, bloke had a dark blue bike, no lights was wearing black jeans and black coat and a black hat , no cycle helmet DH paid to fix the bike but I was fuming especially as the bloke said oh I did not think you saw me but I had right of way!!!!!!!

beaniesteve · 14/03/2008 10:39

I was knocked off my bike while wearing a full reflective tabard, reflective arm-bands, lights and luckily a helmet. The bloke didn't give way to me on a troundabout. When he stopped to see I was ok he said 'I'm really sorry I didn't see you'.

Basically what I am saying is not all cyclists are bad, and not all drivers are good.

OverMyDeadBody · 14/03/2008 10:53

good post beenie, I agree. Accidents still happen but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be as careful as you can.

LOOBYLOU2 · 14/03/2008 13:23

I'm referring to a particular incident I had at a roundabout
I was indicating to take the first exit left and a bike came up my left side - and was going straight on
Fortunately I had an idea he might do this (thinking bike!!!!!!!!!!)and waited for him to go before me and so avoided knocking him flying as I turned left.

Squirdle · 14/03/2008 13:42

It annoys me that bike helmets aren't compulsory for school age children. DS1 (14) cycles to school and always wears a helmet, we've insisted on this and he is fine with it. Thankfully quite a lot of the children around here seem to.

However a good friend of mine who lives in Somerset - very sensible, intelligent lady - has allowed her son to stop wearing his helmet when he cycles to school because of peer pressure/image side of things. Apparently it isn't cool to wear a cycle helmet and she didn't want him to get teased. I was pretty shcoked when she told me this!

My DS was sent flying off his bike last year by a man who didn't bother looking before opening his car door outside a shop. DS was quite hurt, but the worst of it was that his helmet was dented and scraped - if hadn't been wearing it he would have ended up in hospital!

Should be law as far as I am concerned then this 'wearing a helmet isn't cool' thind wouldn't mean anything.

theyoungvisiter · 14/03/2008 15:00

I agree with wearing a helmet - not obviously if there is some good reason why not (like your DD's CP Needmorecoffee). But if there's no reason not to wear the helmet then why wouldn't you?

Most accidents aren't full on 90-mile crashes, (obviously it would take more than a helmet to save you in that situation). Most are cyclists hit in heavy traffic, sliding over a car bonnet and cracking their skull on the tarmac at a few miles an hour, so in that situation a helmet does help.

Also I kind of think that by wearing a helmet I am showing the drivers I take my own safety seriously and expect them to do the same. If I can't be bothered with the basics, why should they? It shows I am a responsible cyclist prepared to do my bit, and that they should be prepared to do their bit too.

Lilymaid · 14/03/2008 15:04

If you live in Cambridge and drive you are dicing with death every day from the thousands of students who cycle in dark clothing without lights - and some of the foreign students cycle the wrong way down the street. Canny local cyclists are lit up like a Christmas tree but it doesn't occur to the young (who believe themselves to be immortal).

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