That's it, I am no longer defending Cyclists!
Discussion
I am normally one to defend cyclists on the roads, but last night tipped me over the edge.
There is a main road that I use every day, it's on a hill and it is quite narrow for the volume of traffic it carries. It has a path on the side of the road going down the hill.
Naturally, when a cyclists decides to take this route (going up the hill) it causes massive hold ups becuase:
- The cyclist isn't as fit as they think they are, so start flagging half way up the road and go at a near crawl
- As the road is narrow and normally busy in both directions, traffic cannot safely pass, so quite rightly does not.
Recently, the council has put in a lovely wide path/cycle path so that cyclists can use that to go up, rather than using the busy and dangerous road. So it's now got a small path on the side of the road going down the hill (not suitable for cyclists) and a lovely wide one on the side of the road going up.
Have I seen any cyclists use it? Nope.
Was I stuck behind a massive throbber going up the road instead of the cycle path causing hold-ups behind? Yes.
Rant over, cool story bro etc, etc!
Thanks for reading.
There is a main road that I use every day, it's on a hill and it is quite narrow for the volume of traffic it carries. It has a path on the side of the road going down the hill.
Naturally, when a cyclists decides to take this route (going up the hill) it causes massive hold ups becuase:
- The cyclist isn't as fit as they think they are, so start flagging half way up the road and go at a near crawl
- As the road is narrow and normally busy in both directions, traffic cannot safely pass, so quite rightly does not.
Recently, the council has put in a lovely wide path/cycle path so that cyclists can use that to go up, rather than using the busy and dangerous road. So it's now got a small path on the side of the road going down the hill (not suitable for cyclists) and a lovely wide one on the side of the road going up.
Have I seen any cyclists use it? Nope.
Was I stuck behind a massive throbber going up the road instead of the cycle path causing hold-ups behind? Yes.
Rant over, cool story bro etc, etc!
Thanks for reading.
BobSaunders said:
Welcome to come and borrow my bicycle
Thanks for the offer, but i've got a few of my own! I have cycled on the road in the past, but mainly stick to off-road and Trail centres now. Hence why I used to defend road cyclists.BobSaunders said:
The road is additionally free for all to use. Cycle lanes are optional. Until that changes, legally, then there is no discussion or argument
Well there is, my point is that something has been put in place so free up traffic (which is the main cause of hostility towards cyclists on the roads) but also to protect them. Too often have I seen dodgy overtakes and cars literally pushing past bikes on this road. While completley wrong on the drivers part, why on earth would you still insist of using the road? To make a point? Stuff car drivers, i'm entitled to be here too! Yes you are, but you're no good to anyone squished under a HGV!funkyrobot said:
Here we go again. 
Do you moan when you get stuck in traffic jams? I bet you are held up much more by other drivers than a few cyclists.
Not at all, I am meerly moaning about the continued use of the road in question. It's just plain daft IMO.Do you moan when you get stuck in traffic jams? I bet you are held up much more by other drivers than a few cyclists.
I would put it up on Google street view, but as the path is so new it's not been updated yet.
Funny thing is,
With the state of the roads in the UK, cycle lanes even with broken glass, used Condoms and branches strewn across them must still be a better option!
I still go back to the argument of, if it were me, I would be taking myself off the road at every oppurtunity from a safety point of view. We can all agree that the standard of driving on our roads is pretty poor, everyone is in a rush to be somewhere and vunlerable road users like cyclists needs to remember that you'll never win in a fight against a car.
TL:DR - Use the bloody paths we all paid for you tw@'s!
With the state of the roads in the UK, cycle lanes even with broken glass, used Condoms and branches strewn across them must still be a better option!
I still go back to the argument of, if it were me, I would be taking myself off the road at every oppurtunity from a safety point of view. We can all agree that the standard of driving on our roads is pretty poor, everyone is in a rush to be somewhere and vunlerable road users like cyclists needs to remember that you'll never win in a fight against a car.
TL:DR - Use the bloody paths we all paid for you tw@'s!
syl said:
If a queue of traffic is building up they should pull over and let it pass. Maybe they don't know you are there? Sounding your horn and flashing your lights might warn them of your presence.
haha yes! I'll try that next, If that fails i'll drive right up behind them and rev my engine. rxe said:
Problem is that cyclists are not a homogeneous group.
The people campaigning for cycle lanes largely represent the interests of people toddling around on bikes, generally very slow, short journeys. Most of the people you see riding fast on roads don't fit that stereotype. I commuted 300 miles a week by bike a few years ago - up the A4 into London, and I'd beat a car on that journey by about 45 minutes. On the flat, a steady cruise was about 28 mph, max (without drafting a lorry) was about 35 mph. For a good chunk of the journey, there was a cycle lane - loads of glass (unswept), parked cars on it, give way to every side road, people pulling out of driveways, not expecting someone to be doing 30 mph.... I'd get occasional verbal from some prong in a car - but in all cases the appropriate response was to vanish in the distance as they sat in traffic.
So I hate bloody cycle lanes, they're awful things, and I wish they didn't exist. But I'm out of step with the goons that do planning these days.
Thats great, but if you could not sustain that 28mph up the hill in question, I would expect you to use the cycle lane thus not holding up the busy road.The people campaigning for cycle lanes largely represent the interests of people toddling around on bikes, generally very slow, short journeys. Most of the people you see riding fast on roads don't fit that stereotype. I commuted 300 miles a week by bike a few years ago - up the A4 into London, and I'd beat a car on that journey by about 45 minutes. On the flat, a steady cruise was about 28 mph, max (without drafting a lorry) was about 35 mph. For a good chunk of the journey, there was a cycle lane - loads of glass (unswept), parked cars on it, give way to every side road, people pulling out of driveways, not expecting someone to be doing 30 mph.... I'd get occasional verbal from some prong in a car - but in all cases the appropriate response was to vanish in the distance as they sat in traffic.
So I hate bloody cycle lanes, they're awful things, and I wish they didn't exist. But I'm out of step with the goons that do planning these days.
No shame in it, we're all just trying to get to where we need to be as quickly and safely as possible.
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