Originally Posted by philbut (Post 2156538)

I agree to a point but then you get into a situation where by pedestrians would need to take a licence before they could cross the road. Hitting a ped in the car will cause as much damage as a cyclist to your paintwork and THEY don't have insurance. By haveing a licence to drive a motorised vehicle you have (or should have) been deemed sensible enough to appreciate that more vunerable and less qualified road users such as peds and cyclists will not have the same level of training and road craft as you, and as such should expect them to do stupid stuff - you have a duty of care to them in other words, as the road user who can cause more injury and is better protected should look out for the idiots.

As bikers we know that car drivers are sometimes not as aware as a biker. The same applies to cyclists - you must allow for the fact they may have less training than you, and EXPECT them to behave in a way which you might not want them to.

Originally Posted by McK (Post 2156426)

Just to give you my take on things as Ive been cycling around London for a few years now (dont worry, getting a real bike again now).

I often jump red lights and zebra crossings. I dont do it to get where Im going faster or to look cool but to get the hell away from all the idiots in their cages who are constantly trying to kill me.

Jumping a red light allows you to get away from big turnings where cars often do the stupidest things without checking for cyclists. It also means that if you're going straight ahead, you have a jump start on the cars which means they *should* have plenty of time to actually see you and be aware of you as you're in front of them. Basically I follow the idea of aggressive road positioning to make other road users aware of you.

It may be illegal but when laws interfere with my right to not get splatted all across the road, those laws take second place. I call this the common sense approach.

This isn't to say I zoom through traffic lights with no regard, but if I can put space between myself and cars, I take it. Cycling is much like motorbiking - its up to you not to get into a crash as you're always going to come off worse. However cyclists cant accelerate out of a trouble, or sometimes brake in time. We also dont have the same advantage of being able to hold our place in the line of traffic due to the speed we're going. Instead we're forced into the most potholed, debris filed part of the road squeezed up against the kerb so we need to make sure that whatever we can do to make ourselves less of a target we do and that includes not being in the firing line (ie near cars).

Really surprised to find bikers moaning about cyclists as both groups often suffer due to the inattention of car/van/bus/lorry drivers who've got better things to do than, y'know, pay attention to where they're going and whats around them.

My 2p and hope that helps.

edit give some love to our 2 wheeled brethren who like to enjoy the feel of the wind in their hair!

Originally Posted by barwel1992 (Post 2156574)

and i think evory one should have to take a theory type test befor been alowed on the road

Originally Posted by 21QUEST (Post 2156556)

Here's a tip...if a cyclist looks over their should, then comon sense :rolleyes: should suggest, they are looking to change direction etc. Yet, time and time again, I see dim wits completely ignore that and then moan about the cyclist.

Originally Posted by fizzwheel (Post 2156831)

Might I draw your attention to the post where a chap had a knife pulled on him, and another chap who got pushed off his bike and broke his pelvis, now if somebody pushed you off your SV when you were minding your own busines, you'd all be crowing for their blood, yet because its a cyclist that makes it OK does it ?

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris (Post 2157485)

But that's just chavs and inbred dribbling mongs in general. Nothing special because you're a lycraist, they attack normal people walking down the road all the time too.

Originally Posted by thulfi (Post 2156875)

I can't see how there would be a bicycle test. Perhaps the police should just say that cyclists are expected to obey the highway code, and if they don't, they face a fine, etc.

Fines and points are never gonna stop cagers/bikers etc doing dangerous things, but it makes people less inclined to constantly push their luck, and sets the repeat offenders straight (we hope anyway). Perhaps something similar in terms of monetary losses for hooligan cyclists.