It is really interesting to read peoples opinions on this matter. When I cycle I usually wear a helmet, always have my lights on pointing at the ground and cycle on a mixture of roads and sometimes cycle pathways if they are good enough. Additionally I do walk through red lights if everything is clear then I will hop on my bike and continue.
Most of my cycling is to get me around, and every now again I will go out on a long ride around the Pennines on my nice bike for pleasure but 95% of my cycling is commuting and getting around as my main form of transport, anything up to about 20 miles. Similarly my girlfriend cycles around 20 miles to and from work each day.
I have lots of bikes, I own a car, my bikes are insured three times via home insurance, Cycling UK and specific bike insurance for my nicer bike.
Sadly I have also had plenty of accidents caused by both myself, drivers and pedestrians. Most recently this little beauty. This almost certainly wouldn't have happened in somewhere like the Netherlands or if I was driving.
I cycle the way I drive, which is giving way where necessary. Always stopping for more vulnerable traffic, in the case of my bike this will be pedestrians for example.
Yet sadly I get people shouting at me daily to 'buy a car', or 'get insurance' to 'Get in the ******* bike lane'. See these pictures to see why I don't usually cycle in the bike lane, or rather a pavement or some other random piece of inappropriate garbage.
Here is an album of what I pass and ignore daily near me:
And some other examples of typical naff cycle infrastructure:
Sadly there are poor examples of cycling as there are, driving or even Pedestrians. But the reason I made this thread was I was interested to see what people on these forums think. Most people here are typically well rounded and fairly intelligent people yet many of the same opinions of this random hatred towards quite simply another road user.
Uninsured, often lack of hi-vis or lights, no helmets, jumping red lights and crossings, refusal to use cycle paths where applicable.
All things that annoy me about a lot of cyclists, most are often OK but unfortunately the fact that anyone can buy a bike and jump onto the public highway and exhibit the above points is what infuriates me the most.
Why does a cyclist need insurance, the worst damage is usually a bit of a bruise or scratch even in the worst accidents the cyclist is usually only going to ruin his bike and him or herself.
Similar with helmets, pedestrians don't need them neither do car drivers? One of the safest countries for cycling in the world basically no one wears helmet or high viz.
And as I show above, the large majority of 'cycle lanes' are simply nuts and should be avoided.
According to my Dad, its because "They pay no tax or insurance, they're dangerous and they think they ******* own the road"
Thats his words not mine.
Your dad is wrong here, road tax isn't a thing VED is, and simply put is a tax on a car chugging out loads of garbage into the atmosphere, I own a Diesel and pay considerably more than most drivers will. Our roads we all pay for mostly in the form of council tax. Oddly my bike causes no damage to the road, so does that mean I should get a refund for the car I rarely drive?
Cyclists would get a far better rap if they started to take some responsibility for their actions. For example, guess who had to fork out a shedload of cash to repair my motor when some idiot decided he could fit in between me and and another car and proceeded to leave a gash the size of the grand canyon from rear quarter panel to front wing? Yes, that would be me since the **** just said 'tough ****', gave me the finger and rode off.
It's one of the main reason why I now practice the ancient art of bangernomics.
This guy was a *****, but there are plenty of pricks. Imagine if that was a car? You'd be paying a lot more than a bit of scratch damage.
Because they choose to take leisurely rides during rush hour, literally delaying hundreds of people.
The cars in the road during rush hour are what delays you not a single person riding a tiny bike.
The only issue I have with cyclists is the idiotic morons who do things like have no lights, wear dark clothing (including hoods) and then go off down an unlit road.
That and the organ donors who cycle with no hands on the bike texting their mates (presumably with a list of last request) or hands in pockets, often whilst riding without lights/reflectors and wearing dark clothing (I saw one of those idiots yesterday nearly go into the road, he didn't realise the turning he wanted was just ahead and nearly carried on from the pavement into the road before he got his hands on the handlebars).
Unfortunately I'm seeing a lot more cyclists these days who are riding hands free so they can use their mobiles, which is not a great idea if they want to live, especially when they're doing it on what is becoming an increasingly busy set of local roads.
This frustrates me, I hate this as much as the next person.
Cycling isn't method of transportation, it is activity, with a side effect of transporting you places.
The cyclist that won't use cycle lane.
Cycling and trains are basically my only method of transportation these days, driving is dreadful slow and makes me hate everyone else.
Here are some videos and pictures of how things can be done properly. I cycled the entire of the Netherlands earlier in the year it was quite an amazing place. But the attitude and cycling infrastructure is quite amazing. Do this and then everyone will use the cycle lanes. Yes that is small kids, elderly people basically everyone getting around without a car...
I dislike them on the road. Getting stuck behind a cyclist is beyond annoying, and it feels risky every time you want to overtake one leaving 'enough room' to be safe.
I would much rather they didn't clog up the roads and instead had to use the pavements/cycle paths. When I was young people would ride their bikes on the pavement without crashing into pedestrians (bells for warning) so I'm not sure why they now have to screw up road drivers.
Because legally a cyclist cannot use the pavement. I don't get this odd mentality of 'clogging up' the roads. When a 100x people on bikes takes up the physical space of around 5 cars.
