Cyclists on pavements, do police really care?

Dimple said:
I'd like to thank the motorist who pulled out on me Friday morning and put me in A&E.
I've ended up with cracked ribs and a poorly bike but her car was way worse -

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AND I PAY FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF THE ROADS
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I hope you're claiming on her insurance!
 
Rroff said:
Its not so much what he should or shouldn't do - I know it doesn't come over in my posts very well - and I might be unfairly judging him based on the attitudes shown by the riders in some of the similar videos that are on youtube.

I just don't have a lot of sympathy for the attitudes typically shown by the riders in these kind of videos when riding in an assertive and/or advanced manner and not making enough allowance for the fact that not all road users are going to have the same level of proficiency even when they aren't being muppets or unsafe as such.

If they are going to ride in that manner then IMO they should deal a bit more with the fact that they are going across some situations which other drivers don't handle so well. (Thats not to say they won't have some unfortunate interactions sticking to the cycle lanes and a slower pace, etc. but still its asking less on the skill of other road users).

End of the day though that van driver needs taking off the road if you watch the bit towards the end when hes in the distance his driving is atrocious and likely to get someone hurt or worse sooner or later.
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I'm still not sure you're getting your point across clearly then as you haven't explained what manner he should be riding. He was riding safely, in his lane, at a reasonable speed. Other than getting off the road, hugging the kerb or slowing right down I don't see how he could ride in a more proactive manner.
 
Just watched the video, the cyclist did bloody well not to panic and swerve off the bike. I've had a pass that close on one occasion, I imagined I could feel the morons car on my arm hairs. The difference was I was on a quite wide country road and I was hugging the right hand side of the cycle lane, which meant I actually had somewhere to go.

That van driver needs taking off the road, you can see after the pass he's weaving between lanes, absolute idiot.

Touch wood, in two years of commuting in by bike I've never had an accident, Cambridgeshire is probably one of the safer areas to commute by bike due to motorists being used to it. However, my opinion is that it's just a matter of time before somebody takes me out, I just hope when it happens it's not too bad. I swear to God if it's some moron opening a car door to get out in traffic (my closest shave so far), I'm taking them with me.
 
Spacedeck said:
Do cyclists not need insurance? If they are using the same roads as other vehicles, then why not? Doesn't it just mean that, even if a cyclist did cause any damage to another road user, they wouldn't be brought up on it?
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Cyclists don't have to have insurance but many with more expensive bikes will do. Regardless, if the accident was the fault of the other road user he should be claiming on theirs.
 
One of my friends is blind and has a guide dog, having walked to the pub with him on several occasions I can honestly say that people forget just how hard it is for people with sight problems to do simple things. Pedestrians are bad enough for walking into him and blaming him for not looking.

Bikes on pavements? No, just no. A guide dog can help someone move out of the way but they can't when it's a fast moving bike which is changing it's path constantly or coming quickly from behind them.
 
Spacedeck said:
The only issue I can see with having no insurance is it must be easy to get away with? A car causing damage, even they if they speed away. You can identify them by the licence plate. A bike doesn't have anything to identify them in the case that someone doesn't stop after causing damage.
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true. but nobody, even the police want licence plates on cycles. it just wont work.
 
Police numbers have dropped considerably and what they deal with has to be prioritised. Currently, about 50% of my workload are concerns for safety/self harm/ mental health incidents and dealing with problems and messes that EDT and the Crisis Teams cuff over to police either because it's near home time, the thought of leaving the office is too traumatic or they haven't got many staff on - join the club!

It's a hard fact that pavement cycling will not be much attention if at all.
 
spudbynight said:
Down here in Brighton we see this a lot and police don't seem to care.

We also see people on the road who shouldn't be. People on rollerskates and skateboards quite a lot. My favourite though are people on mobility scooters who ride in the middle of the road and then go onto the pavement at full speed. (Some of them have licence plates but the majority don't )
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This I will never understand with the dedicated cycle lanes almost everywhere.
 
Amp34 said:
I hope you're claiming on her insurance!
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I was that shocked that she actually admitted it was her fault that it sent me a curveball. In virtually every incident I've had, the motorist will argue black is blue and then think they win the argument by saying I don't pay road tax.
This woman cried her eyes out and couldn't be more apologetic.
The cost of the repair was two new brake levers which cost nothing and a couple of cable ties to put my mirror back on.
Cracked ribs & pain goes with the territory.

Spacedeck said:
Do cyclists not need insurance? If they are using the same roads as other vehicles, then why not? Doesn't it just mean that, even if a cyclist did cause any damage to another road user, they wouldn't be brought up on it?
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I agree, if we use the roads we should pay insurance but every time I ring up the DVLA to pay road tax they tell me it doesn't exist - WTF:eek:
 
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