cyclists

[Guest Ferret1959]

Tax should be charged to USE the roads.

Cyclist would get charged very little and bigger motors more.

Now that way more folk would cycle and the place would be loverly n green. :)

 

 

 

 

 

Whoops,nodded off for a mo then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Try driving a goods lorry around London if you wanna see cyclist at thier best.

Idiots the lot of them. :crazy:

[snakey1]

Sorry kleinboat but you said and i quote "As long as the cyclists continue to ignore the "rules of the road" there will be vehicle/bicycle RTA's! " that sounds to me like your blaming ALL vehicle/bicycle RTA's on the the bicycle by saying if they obeyed the rules of the road there would be no vehicle/bicyle RTA's. that is completely wrong and as for saying that most RTA's involving cyclists and car, the cyclist is under 20 so its his fault, well where are the cyclists under 20 meant to ride, you can't ride on the pavement it illegal and you can be subject to on the spot fines(not if your under 16 however. please read the link i placed on the law and cycling in an earlier post),there are very few well maintened cycle routes in the country that are usable to get around, in & between the large cities,you could cycle along canal towpaths but i'm sure most of the anglers on here would love that,so really your only left with the public roads which the right for cyclists to use is enshrined in the law (with the exception of motorways).

As to whether cyclists have to ride aggressively, you say rubbish, i'd like to know if you have ever cycled at rushhour through a busy city or up a major road if you had you'd know that if you don't ride with confidence(probably a better word to use than aggressively) you won't last very long before some nutter in a car carves you up.

i'm not saying all cyclists are guiltless they are bad cyclists out there but the difference is out of the thousands of pedestrians killed in road accidents each year how many were killed by cyclists as opposed to cars? not many i would think so what are you going to do blame all pedestrian/car accidents on the pedestrian because he doesn't follow "the rules of the road" and he hasn't passed a test entitling him to cross the road in safety(i believe pedestrians have the right of way in general in this country).The reason you need a licence to drive a car is because it is a LETHAL WEAPON massively more deadly than a push bike.

you also seem to think that everyone on the road who drives a car has a full driving licence and obeys the laws of the road completely this is also blatently wrong, how many drivers end up in court each year for driving without a licence because they either have never had one or they have been banned and carried on driving anyway, quite a few and they're only the ones who get caught there are thousands who don't get caught.

As for "sorting out" those safe to ride on the road, well thats worked really well with the car licences considering last time i checked over 10,000 people died on the roads each year due to RTA's involving cars.

[kleinboet]

There you go - banging on about a lethal weapon!! I have licence for mine and HAD to be tested before i used it! DO YOU have one for your cycle? I am sorry, but I have never driven in London, is it different to Birmingam, Manchester or Liverpool? I have driven in all three of those cities and found the normal, good cyclists - obeying the law and riding properly, and idiots who think the roads belong to them and do whatever they want!!

Cyclists must get the idiots sorted out before they cause cyclists to be severely restricted.

I would hate that to happen, but it would appear that with cyclists it is a question of "us and them".

I, as a motorist will be the first to admit that there are motorists who should not be on the road, and I will report anyone I see breaking the law.

I would like the the sensible cyclists to do the same, although it would be an almost impossible job to identify the culprits!

[Guest Ferret1959]

 

http://www.becoolbesafe.co.uk/roadsafety.php

[kleinboet]

I agree Ferret, when the idea of safety helmets were raised (rather like safety belts in cars) the cyclist threw their dummies out of their prams and told the government that they would NOT wear them! Apparently the voice was louder than the motorists, as the government gave in!

[snakey1]

No i dont have a licence for my bicycle but then its hardly lethal in comparison to a car. having a licence doesn't mean a fat lot really does it though. it just means for an hour on a particular day you behaved well enough to convince the authorites to give you said licence, you may never obey the laws of the road again but hell you've got a licence now so that doesn't matter does it. hardly convincing really, its like an MOT its valid up until the moment you leave the garage after that well you could do anything to the car but you'd still have a valid MOT certificate in your hand to produce if needed. Sorry can't comment on cycling in london, i'm from birmingham and most of my cycling was done around birmingham and the black country.

So you report anyone breaking the law in a car you must be really busy then reporting everyone doing over 70 on a motorway (or speeding on any other road infact)or using a mobile while driving or breaking any other of the many road traffic laws that drivers are so found of ignoring so busy infact i'm surprised you have time to read these forums. I mean everyday that i'm on the road either in a car on a bike or using public transport i see dozens if not hundreds of motoring offences being commited i'd have a phone bill the size of the national debt and probably be arrested for wasting police time if i tried to report them all.

As for cyclists being restricted i'd think again if i were you. the politicians love them because they're green unlike cars and they(the politicians) can wave their cycles around saying how their doing their bit to combat global warming , i think your much more like to see cars being restricted further in the future so get used to seeing cyclists because i have a sneaking suspicion you maybe seeing a lot more of them.

chesters1 i could bite at your comments but as they are a plainly stupid attempt to get a rise i won't bother.

Anyway i'm off to wales now to go kayak fishing so have fun i will be.

[chesters1]

towed by your bike hopefully

[kleinboet]

You just don't get it do you! A licence for the bike (registration, call it what you like!) will enable people to KNOW the cyclists that are giving trouble, and the cycling fraternatity don't want it to happen because they KNOW that they will be reported for ignoring basic road safety! Their thinking is - we are not pedestrians and we are not motorists, so we can ignore the laws!

 

BY the way TANSTAAFL! If, as you so fervently wish, all the vehicles stopped using the roads today. Where would the money come from to pay for the upkeep of the road network?

[Guest tigger]

I was run over by an 80 year old woman 18 months back. She came round the corner towards me doing about 40+ mph on my side of the road .

Just to show how hard she hit me...windscreen smashed, drivers window smashed, wing mirror ripped off and scollapped the side of her car out all the way down the drivers side leaving peices of me stuck all the way down it. The car had to be winched onto a towtruck as it was undrivable. I was (stretchered)rushed off to Hospital (3 1/2 hrs Surgery, 28 xrys and in ozzy for a week). I'm now coverd in scars and have got on going probs which will be with me as long as I live!!!

The police said if it had been a woman or child they would have been dead. It's only because I was 18 stone of muscle I survived.

The old woman never even got out to see if I was ok!!!!

Luckily for me there was a car behind me that saw everything.

The woman was prosecuted by the Police and when she was found guilty they revealed that about 4 wks after running over me she was done for speeding past a Infant school.

All she got was a fine plus court costs and 8 points so with her 3 other speeding points (making 11 ) she was still allowed to drive!!!!

Needless to say I won't go on a public road on a bike of any sort again, the roads are just to busy and alot of the people behind the steering wheels have no regard for anyone or anything else !

There are undoubtably Knob heads on push bikes and in vehicles, you only have to go to your local supermarket and see how they push those bloody trollys round then they get behind a steering wheel.

Edited April 14, 2007 by tigger

[kleinboet]

Tigger - I feel for you mate, I really do. (been there, done that, 18months in hospital!)

What I have tried to do is say that there are as you call knob heads in vehicle and on bikes.

The bikers just won't have that!! If a cyclist does a runner, there is no tracing him.

If a motorist does a runner, there are Number Plates, make, model and colour to find him!