Just another cyclist rant
Discussion
Driving two miles back to my house in last night, in the dark, through a suburban area with poor street lighting.
Encountered in that small 2 mile stretch 4 separate cases of f
kwits on bicycles who ALL exhibited ALL the following characteristics:
1. Wearing dark clothing with nothing whatsoever reflective. Even their skin was black (not that I'm suggesting we start drawing parallels on that).
2. None of these bikes had even a single reflector, never mind any form of lighting whatsoever.
3. Were cycling in the middle of the road.
Were I not a more mentally controlled person, I'd bump the next one I come across into the ditch
Encountered in that small 2 mile stretch 4 separate cases of f
kwits on bicycles who ALL exhibited ALL the following characteristics:1. Wearing dark clothing with nothing whatsoever reflective. Even their skin was black (not that I'm suggesting we start drawing parallels on that).
2. None of these bikes had even a single reflector, never mind any form of lighting whatsoever.
3. Were cycling in the middle of the road.
Were I not a more mentally controlled person, I'd bump the next one I come across into the ditch
AlVal said:
Driving two miles back to my house in last night, in the dark, through a suburban area with poor street lighting.
Encountered in that small 2 mile stretch 4 separate cases of fkwits on bicycles who ALL exhibited ALL the following characteristics:
1. Wearing dark clothing with nothing whatsoever reflective. Even their skin was black (not that I'm suggesting we start drawing parallels on that).
2. None of these bikes had even a single reflector, never mind any form of lighting whatsoever.
3. Were cycling in the middle of the road.
Were I not a more mentally controlled person, I'd bump the next one I come across into the ditch
I bet none of them wearing a helmet either.Encountered in that small 2 mile stretch 4 separate cases of f
kwits on bicycles who ALL exhibited ALL the following characteristics:1. Wearing dark clothing with nothing whatsoever reflective. Even their skin was black (not that I'm suggesting we start drawing parallels on that).
2. None of these bikes had even a single reflector, never mind any form of lighting whatsoever.
3. Were cycling in the middle of the road.
Were I not a more mentally controlled person, I'd bump the next one I come across into the ditch
You are telling the wrong people. You need to be reporting these incidents to the police, just like you would (maybe) if you saw someone in a car being reckless or irresponsible. Otherwise nothing will happen, and if it doesn't bother you enough to do that, it can't really be a problem worth punting anyone into a ditch over. Also, if you truly believe that they are at great risk of not being seen and thus driven into by you, posting an intention to do so on purpose here is a particularly dumb move because if you do hit one, you're going to have a hard time proving it was an accident.
Alfanatic said:
You are telling the wrong people. You need to be reporting these incidents to the police, just like you would (maybe) if you saw someone in a car being reckless or irresponsible. Otherwise nothing will happen.....
Seriously? I think we can all take an educated guess as to the actions of the police on this one (I've put it in bold) . The police are pretty much there to "keep the peace" not much else (all in my humble experience and of those known to me) . zac510 said:
It's nice to read that you have the cyclists safety at the forefront of your priorities. If only everyone else in the world was so considerate of others.
almost guaranteed that there'd be one piping up with this ste.For f
ks sake, I'm an exceptionally considerate driver. Those plebs I speak of are untraceable and therefore obviously for all practical purposes unaccountable for their actions on the road. They're quite happy to go out there risking accidents and then either a) try and claim something or b) disappear off into the night having caused accidents for others. These aren't the type of individuals who you can reasonably expect, given what they do, would hang around and accept liability for any of their actions in the event of an accident No number plate, no way of finding them, totally unaccountable. I have no problem with cyclists on the road who at least show that they're being responsible enough to be properly clothed/lit etc.As somebody who occasionally cycles to work I try to keep an eye out for them while driving and a lot of them cycle like idiots. If I hit one at night due to a lack of high-vis clothes and lights, the cyclist is the one that is going to end up dead and insurance will pay for the damage to my car, no skin off my nose. It would be a minor inconvenience.
When you cycle its your responsibility to make sure that you maximise your potential to be seen. I always wear a helmet and a high-vis jacket even during hot summer days and have good lights on at night. I also drive and cycle with the expectation that every other road-user is an idiot and or trying to kill you. Worked well for me so far...
When you cycle its your responsibility to make sure that you maximise your potential to be seen. I always wear a helmet and a high-vis jacket even during hot summer days and have good lights on at night. I also drive and cycle with the expectation that every other road-user is an idiot and or trying to kill you. Worked well for me so far...
I do wish police were more proactive at pulling in these cycling ninja's for a chat. I know they have better things to do arguably but..
As a petrol head AND keen cyclist (and am therefore sympathetic to both causes!) it horrifies me when I see some idiot wobbling along the road on a badly maintained bike, in dark clothing, without a single light or reflector. I don't see why motorists should be guilt-tripped into being concerned for these people who clearly have no interest in self preservation and are frankly being incredibly inconsiderate putting responsibility on motorists to see them.
As a petrol head AND keen cyclist (and am therefore sympathetic to both causes!) it horrifies me when I see some idiot wobbling along the road on a badly maintained bike, in dark clothing, without a single light or reflector. I don't see why motorists should be guilt-tripped into being concerned for these people who clearly have no interest in self preservation and are frankly being incredibly inconsiderate putting responsibility on motorists to see them.
AlVal said:
Driving two miles back to my house in last night, in the dark, through a suburban area with poor street lighting.
Encountered in that small 2 mile stretch 4 separate cases of fkwits on bicycles who ALL exhibited ALL the following characteristics:
1. Wearing dark clothing with nothing whatsoever reflective. Even their skin was black (not that I'm suggesting we start drawing parallels on that).
2. None of these bikes had even a single reflector, never mind any form of lighting whatsoever.
3. Were cycling in the middle of the road.
Were I not a more mentally controlled person, I'd bump the next one I come across into the ditch
For some reason this reminded me of the "How to troll a dating website" thread.Encountered in that small 2 mile stretch 4 separate cases of f
kwits on bicycles who ALL exhibited ALL the following characteristics:1. Wearing dark clothing with nothing whatsoever reflective. Even their skin was black (not that I'm suggesting we start drawing parallels on that).
2. None of these bikes had even a single reflector, never mind any form of lighting whatsoever.
3. Were cycling in the middle of the road.
Were I not a more mentally controlled person, I'd bump the next one I come across into the ditch
Were they all smiling at you as you drove past them very carefully?
Garlick said:
Hmm...I'm not sure that killing someone is dealt with that easily by the human mind, regardless of where the blame lies or who was killed.
hmm.. an amazing thing to ponder, because there's only one way to know if you could kill without remorse, and even if you're one of the presumably few who might be able to, it would surely be foolish to assume that you could. You'll never know unless you've done the act.
944fan said:
AlVal said:
Driving two miles back to my house in last night, in the dark, through a suburban area with poor street lighting.
Encountered in that small 2 mile stretch 4 separate cases of fkwits on bicycles who ALL exhibited ALL the following characteristics:
1. Wearing dark clothing with nothing whatsoever reflective. Even their skin was black (not that I'm suggesting we start drawing parallels on that).
2. None of these bikes had even a single reflector, never mind any form of lighting whatsoever.
3. Were cycling in the middle of the road.
Were I not a more mentally controlled person, I'd bump the next one I come across into the ditch
I bet none of them wearing a helmet either.Encountered in that small 2 mile stretch 4 separate cases of f
kwits on bicycles who ALL exhibited ALL the following characteristics:1. Wearing dark clothing with nothing whatsoever reflective. Even their skin was black (not that I'm suggesting we start drawing parallels on that).
2. None of these bikes had even a single reflector, never mind any form of lighting whatsoever.
3. Were cycling in the middle of the road.
Were I not a more mentally controlled person, I'd bump the next one I come across into the ditch
Jinx said:
Seriously? I think we can all take an educated guess as to the actions of the police on this one (I've put it in bold) . The police are pretty much there to "keep the peace" not much else (all in my humble experience and of those known to me) .
That is a defeatist attitude. In your experience tey are likely to do nothing. They are guaranteed to do nothing if they aren't told, untill one of the cyclists gets injured or killed and the driver finds themself the subject of an investigation.If they do nothing it's their problem. Who would you rather be in the courtroom after you've killed run over one of these morons? The defendant saying "I alerted the police, they did nothing but I did everything I could to try and ensure the safery of these cyclists. Unfortunately even with all this action I could not save this poor cyclist from themself."
Or, the defendant saying "No, I wasn't being serious when I claimed on PH that it is only my self control that was keeping my desire to run a cyclist down in check. Honest."
It's either worth acting to prevent an accident, or it's not that dangerous and isn't worth doing anything about. Either way it's definitely not worth yet another f
king replay of the PH anti cyclists rant.Edited by Alfanatic on Wednesday 5th December 11:53
Garlick said:
Galsia said:
...no skin off my nose. It would be a minor inconvenience.
Hmm...I'm not sure that killing someone is dealt with that easily by the human mind, regardless of where the blame lies or who was killed. Alfanatic said:
Either way it's definitely not worth yet another fking replay of the PH anti cyclists rant.
king replay of the PH anti cyclists rant.
Definitely agreed on this point.Whilst I still suspect the call to the police would be a waste of time, guess it depends on your local area - mine would definitely ignore it even if the police could be bothered to answer the call (local station is only open between 2 and 5 on a Wednesday afternoon)
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff