Even more cyclists now breaking the law

[DistingusedSocialCommentator]

Most drivers and pedestrians will be aware of this as many have seen or been victims of a cycle rider.

Watching Talktv this morning there was a lady who had lost her mother due to an e-scooter rider on the pavement. The show had a lawyer on talking about what I agree with, IE cyclists are very hard to identify if they get away from an accident.

E-scooters we all know are against the law unless provided for by your local council in central London. Several times over the years, me and the family have had close calls with them on pavements and parks as they zoom down, you cant hear them and they often dress in all black clothing.

Push bike riders are travelling faster and faster as many more have those battery packs on them

With the introduction of 20mph zones in vast areas of London, even more, push bike riders are now breaking the law, EG travelling well over 20mph in a 20mph and passing slower cars travelling at 20mph We are all aware how some push bike riders have ignored the rules for years, EG jump red lights, ignore pedestrians on crossings, cause accidents and walk of or rise off and now, much more able to break the speed limits off 20mph with almost 100% impunity and some that at red lights get o the pavement and cross a red light that way or some just ride on pavements

For the record, note, Its some cyclists not all but we have all seen them more so as going to work, or dropping off children at schools the speed of some of these riders

The Talktv debate also talked about those who kill people while riding a push bike/scooter, I think they said the maximum prison sentence was two years (I may be wrong) but the laws needed vast improvements.

This had been talked about a lot before but nothing happened.

AIBU proposes that all cyclists have number plates/easily identifiable markings, all have insurance, all have a bell and lights, and all wear a helmet and hi-vis jacket (This would in my judgment make many more riders more responsible for their actions and our roads/pavements safer for all)

The police need to be more proactive on e-scooter riders. However, as cyclists are almost impossible to identify, my proposal as above will aid the police and hopefully, modify the dangerous behaviours of those cyclists that are now regularly breaking the law, EG, travelling at more than the speed allowed, jumping red lights, putting pedestrians at risk on crossings and pavements.

You still, for the umtenth time, cannot produce a shred of evidence on current let alone future accident reporting incidents.

Why? because they don't exist, why don't they exist? because no-one is stupid enough to do any real research into this batshit idea of yours.

You cannot even come up with estimated costs for running a live database similar to the DVLA for the UKs 8m cyclists, the people needed to administer it, the IT and building ... the costs of producing a Hi Viz jacket to a suitable standard nor the effects on reduced cycle rates.

Nothing, zero evidence to support your irrational ideas, all you are is hot air.

We need a leaner and fitter population but all you want to do with your hatred of cyclists is to force people back into cars....Selfish.

Here we agree and i hope you will support my petition on Change.Org to make pedestrians wear an easily identifiable number? this seems to be a simple solution to this scourge that you've experienced.

Perhaps the number could be on a Hi Viz jacket?

What are you talking about? I just don't want cyclists to injure me when I'm on the pavement or in a car free environment.

Dark forces, good job they rarely do then

I think that’s fair enough. And you should feel safe and be safe on the pavement. However the greater risk to you, even on the pavement still comes from motor vehicles rather than people on bikes. The statistics bear this out. 2% risk from cycles versus 98% from motor vehicles. There’s a graph on this link detailing all the types of vehicles, including bikes.

https://www.cyclinguk.org/briefing/cycling-and-pedestrians

Yes, you're more likely to be killed by a car on a pavement than a cyclist, even cars with registration plates

But the danger of cars doesn’t wash away the responsibility of cyclists.

Yet again, cyclists do not get a free pass because there are other, greater dangers.

Why do some people persist with this? Cyclists even blame pedestrians!

Well that might be true statistically but I personally have had far more near misses with bikes cycling on pavements and down country paths where no cars are allowed than in the roads. I live in a city so cars are mostly moving slowly between traffic lights

Of course its about the greater risk, society hasn't billions to spend on mitigating every single possible danger or we'd have pavements with armco barriers separating them from roads & pedestrians wearing crash hats.

The costs of having a cycle registration scheme far outweighs the actual danger/risk, as a pp says "near misses" so nothing actually happened.... & having lived and worked in central London, Bristol and Reading all involving quite a bit of city centre walking but never had a near miss with a cycle or for that matter a car, i doubt very much whether anyone else has had loads of these either.
Rural now and guess what? nr misses happen with cars and vans driving too fucking fast down narrow lanes.

Dark forces, that's because cars are not a very effective mode of transport for cities, bikes and public transport are the way forward, quite literally

I’m not in favour of cyclists having to be registered. RTFT.

I just reject the idea that cyclists shouldn’t be responsible for anything. Anybody who comes on a cycling thread and says that cyclists are a menace round their way gets a volley of answers from cyclists about cars. Why? It’s so bone-headed.

It's more bone headed to not see why that happens

🙄

Absolutely right. It doesn’t.
Cyclists on shared paths and illegally on pavements should of course show consideration. I don’t think a single cyclist on this thread said they shouldn’t. I certainly always have done, and teach my child to too, as we are often pedestrians too. But in terms of risk of injury, even if you were hit by a bike, you’re so much less likely to be seriously injured, than if you were hit by a car. Therefor the OPs proposals don’t make sense. That’s the point many are making here. Nobody is saying that some people don’t behave dangerously but that those same people are just far more dangerous in a car than on a bike.

i don’t think at all cyclists should get a free pass but if you have limited resources then it makes sense to spend them where the greatest risk is.

https://actionvisionzero.org/

Vision zero is a worldwide scheme aiming to cut road traffic deaths to zero. Its focus is cars not bicycles

Well, you seem to have changed your tune.

Cyclists pay with skin, broken bones and death when things go wrong, the vast majority realise this and ride accordingly.

A cyclist near me was knocked off his bike by a dog on a extendable lead, he will never cycle again.

When i say cyclists, i don't mean fast food couriers, gangs of feral kids on bmx style bikes or e-scooter riders.

and if you'd RTFT you'd know i support compulsory 3rd party insurance, i think that is a fair compromise.

Have you considered that the vast vast majority of cyclists are perfectly law abiding. Yes there are a few dickheads, of course there are. They exist in all walks of life and use all modes of transport. It’s just that cyclist bashing threads always just bash an entire group as if it’s one homologous being. Given the volume of red light jumping by motorists vs cyclists, the ratio of bashing threads seems disproportionate towards hatred of cyclists. This is why cars get bought into it as the comparison because more often then not cycle bashing threads want to compare the actions in relation to road laws someone believes all and only cyclists are violating.

if like most people you are a law abiding cyclist you will see this gets very old very quickly, and actually when you are on the road and people wind down their window to throw stuff at you because ‘you jump red lights’ even though there are none on your route at all, the storm bashing threads like this in the media whip up actually affect our safety when out and about.

if you have an issue locally with a particular junction, take it up with your local councillor or something who can do something about it, put police there or whatever if it’s a real issue. Don’t just come and start a generic bash against a whole wide group of people

No I haven’t. You just made that up.

I think cyclists carry some responsibility. I don’t see why that’s controversial. Expecting cyclists to ride carefully and use lights is not controversial. The responsibility is less than that of drivers because motor vehicles are more dangerous. But it’s still there.

I just dislike the attitude that cycling is a responsibility-free activity. I certainly accept that only some cyclists take that view. But a few of them seem to be on this thread.

Compulsory insurance would indeed be a good thing. Presumably with fines and bans for those caught without it.

Anybody who comes on a cycling thread and says that cyclists are a menace round their way gets a volley of answers from cyclists about cars

I would hazard a guess that most of the cyclists posting here myself included, are probably also drivers too, and not some sort of militant anti cars brigade. I certainly am. But the op is clearly very angry and somewhat delusional about their solutions- they’re simply unworkable.

Interesting that the very vocal op hasn’t been back to answer the question about speeding

I thought I remembered the op from a thread a couple weeks back, about the environment, and sure enough I was right. From the op:

Me and my OH feel guilty re our cars, a massive/propery diesel Range Rover, a massive MB diesel - and big engined petrol 2 door sports car

So the Op has a massive Range Rover, a massive Merc and a very fast sports car, right? Exactly the sort of fkn idiot that I avoid as generally these people are self absorbed twats and believe they own the road. I’ve hardly ever seen a Range Rover adhere to the motorway speed limit- their limit is 95 it would seem.

Huge sweeping and judgy generalisation, but hey, the entire thread is founded on huge sweeping judgy generalisations.

If as a cyclist you don't ride carefully then you will end up injured if you are lucky and dead if you aren't.

Anybody who comes on a cycling thread and says that cyclists are a menace round their way gets a volley of answers from cyclists about cars

I take your point. Threads on here are rarely thoughtful and nuanced, whatever they’re about (except maybe Chicken Keepers). That’s part of the attraction I suppose.

But the bit in bold above is substantially true and not a sweeping generalisation.

How about riding into children/adults on pavements?
How about almost hitting and at times hitting people on a crossing?
How about almost killing people as they step out of a shop door and a push bike riders shoots past?
We all know why certain groups of people are against the proposal of being easily identified on their bikes are so anti this proposal

As I said in a previous post - it will take a major incident where a toddler is mowed down on the pavement or crossing before anything real happens as many politicians are only interested in their status and how much they can earn

How is it that cycle riders go around videoing those they feel guilty of breaking the law, EG drivers using a mobile often ins stationary traffic or where they perceive a driver drove to close to them and report them to the police, rightly so.

Why do this bunch of riders DO NOT report cycle riders jumping red lights, almost mowing down people on crossings, and riding over pavements where not allowed?
Why do the same cyclists that video and report to the police the drivers that break the law but not the cyclists??

So do you break the speed limits in your huge engine sports car?

We all know why certain groups of people

They’ve probably rational people with a brain that understand these proposals are utterly bonkers and cannot be implemented. They’re also people who aren’t angry, entitled drivers with massive cars that want all other road users banished for their own self absorbed importance. Most of those people will be drivers too- just not selfish bad ones.

At least try and hide the envy about people that have worked hard and spent/save prudently and able to reward themselves with the nicer things in life, lol, FGS.

How is it that cycle riders go around videoing those they feel guilty of breaking the law, EG drivers using a mobile often ins stationary traffic or where they perceive a driver drove to close to them and report them to the police, rightly so.

Why do this bunch of riders DO NOT report cycle riders jumping red lights, almost mowing down people on crossings, and riding over pavements where not allowed?
Why do the same cyclists that video and report to the police the drivers that break the law but not the cyclists?

I'll let you have the last word and you can find all of the answers in my previous posts here.