Stop talking out of your arse, I've cycled to school daily from the age of 10 and cycled a lot before that simply because I was a kid. We have to take a traffic exam at 11 here too for safe cycling...
I forgot you were from another country, as I remember you from the last time there was a cycling thread.
So the traffic exam is compulsory?
There is no such thing here. We have a cycling proficiency test, this is usually done in schools and when I did it, it was a choice by your parents as to if you wanted to attend.
Bla bla bla moan moan moan, ohnoes drains and potholes, are you a bloody 3 year old ?
Perhaps you aren't aware of the standard of just how bad most of the roads are in this country for cycling?
I've seen comments from European Pro-Cyclists who have come over here and been shocked at just how bad they are, in-regards to traffic and motorists one even said:
"Wow, you Brits have balls, I've never seen anything like how they treat cyclists over here".
How am I acting like a 3 year old by having concerns over potholes?
You realize that they can not only damage bikes, but they can throw you off, injuring you, worse still throwing you into the path of a car behind. That's why when you report a pothole here, the council has to fix it sharpish as they are liable for any accidents that happen.
Lol, that's a good one ''me is special, me clip pedal to the kerb''
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No need to be a d**k about it, I'm just saying if you expect cyclists to ride in the gutter, things like that are likely to happen.
The people who made that recommendation are clearly high, they should take a look at places where cycling WORKS... If they'd recommend a whole car lane for passing a cyclists, cycling would fail here too.
Luckily it is ILLEGAL here for a cyclist to claim a lane and they are legally required to keep to the right as much as possible.
Well Marijuana is illegal here in Britain, so road planners won't be smoking anything, certainly not on the job.
The rules are different here.
The Cyclist is allowed to take primary position, or 'claim a lane' as you put it.
I'm not sure how it is in the UK, but here the car which goes straight has the right of way, a cyclist has to wait at the side till the cars pass him then turn... In reality this barely happens, cyclists move out from the side to the center of the lane after having looked while stretching their arm out indicating they want to turn, and turn when they can.
That's not the case here.
The fact that it gets ignored shows that it sounds like it doesn't work.
Exactly, the person who designed that infrastructure should be sacked, the left is for small traffic like cyclists and mopeds and the 2 car lanes should be right of it. Not squeezing a cycle lane between the 2 car lanes, that is clearly a matter of someone having smoked too much pot when designing the street.
I'm not sure what you are talking about?
The video of this incident doesn't even feature a cycle lane.
On most roads in the UK we don't have two lanes for cars traveling the same direction, those are only on Dual Carriageways or Motorways, both of which Cyclists aren't permitted on. I won't deny that there are some badly constructed cycle lanes though, as I have the unfortunate consequence of running into some on my commute to work.
Sorry, for a breeze of reality how cycling is supposed to be, you should visit, Belgium or Holland or the north west of Germany or Denmark. Rather than trying to justify cyclists claiming a ridiculous amount of space.
I'm not trying to justify, I'm just telling it how it is, this is what our government in the UK has outlined as to how motorists should deal with passing cyclists.
I think what you fail to understand, which I earlier pointed out is the difference in culture. Cycling has been big as a means of transport to commute for a long time in Holland, hell there is even a type of bike that is known as a 'Dutch' bike due to their proliferation in the country. People are brought up cycling, it's seen as a much more common way to get to work and like you said yourself you have a test at 11.
In this country cycling has only recently gone through a huge boom, which is why there is suddenly an enormous amount of people on the road. We have only just got street based hire bikes, like some European countries have had for years.
Cyclists may cycle in the gutter in Holland, but I'd wager they get a lot more respect from their fellow motorists, which is what is largely absent in a lot of cases here.
