The perils of biking

Originally Posted by Stig

I have noticed a fair amount of riders now choose to wear hi-viz. I do still wear my high-viz jacket if the weather is dire and seriously poor light when commuting to work.

+1, only times I wear it, or if I know I'll be coming home in the dark. I have black kit though and if the weather is blue sky and blazing sunshine then I think I'm a lot more visible (as visible as you can be on a 125) in just black kit rather than orange or yellow. But as folk say, if an idiot is going to do something perilous on the road then it won't make a difference what you wear, they will have already committed to pulling out/ramming you up the rear etc.

[mikerj]

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

It was the generalisation in this post that made me laugh. The WHOLE of South Asia believe in fate, not just the Hindu's, etc.

Ok it was a generalisation, but the majority of South Asia are Hindu (about 80% of India alone)

Originally Posted by mikerj

Ok it was a generalisation, but the majority of South Asia are Hindu (about 80% of India alone)

By population maybe there's more than 50 or 60% Hindu in South Asia, but only because India and Nepal are such a large piece of the sub Indian continent and they are vast majority Hindu. The rest of the countries have a Hindu minority, such as Pakistan have a tiny minority. So it's not true to generalise about "South Asia" driving based upon fate, it depends what country you go to, and where within that country you are.

[yorkie_chris]

The Pakistanis in Bradford seem to drive on fate too.

The 'Fate' system of roadcraft appears to be in favour round here too among all creeds and colours. A number of the mini roundabouts near me are approached by quite a few people apparently on the basis of 'everyone else slows to see if anyone is coming and give way, therefore I will neither slow down, look, or give way, in fact I might just speed up a little'. Seriously frightening.

My biggest bad driving bugbear, however, is that my road is used by some as a cut through to avoid some lights, especially school run parents as there is a school 500 yards away. Short road, about twenty terraced houses long, narrow (only one car can pass through at a time), cars parked either side and at last count about 7 young kids living on the road, including mine. The number of these school run idiots that fly down between parked cars about 40mph at a time when there are loads of kids on their way to school, it drives me nuts.

SJ, you could try petitioning your council to do something about it.

In these parts new housing estates have limited thoroughfares and a lot of old ones are having changes made for the reasons you describe.

That video shows the amount of red light jumping there is. This is getting particularly bad.

I reckon that driving standards are really taking a dive and partly because of the huge amount of traffic (and roadworks increasing the delays around my area- gas and water are on serious congestion missions at the moment) and peoples' lack of patience.

Though this is all exacerbated by thoughtless driving- sitting in a jam blocking someone else's exit where it is clear they won't be joining the same queue. Sitting across box junctions and keep clear boxes.

But that's alright- the police and authorities are (seemingly) only really interested in speeding offences...

It's attitudes as well.
I overtook a old duffer couple today in their smart 'car' ( not a car IMO) in a 30 zone, they were doing less than 25, as I overtook them safely, they gave me a long blast of the horn WTF ?

Lately, it's been old duffers who have been the problem, normally women and Asian taxi drivers.

The old lady I filtered past earlier on wasn't too impressed either, but why the hell was she stood in the road in roadworks? Just because your Jeep rotbox isn't going anywhere, doesn't give you the right to go for a stroll... get out my way and let me do my thing

Originally Posted by thedonal

I reckon that driving standards are really taking a dive

But that's alright- the police and authorities are (seemingly) only really interested in speeding offences...

Driving standards IMO are taking a dive because there are so few police patrols on the road. Getting stopped by the police and getting told off because they have seen some bad driving is very rare nowadays. When the cats away, the mice will play!

Having said that I got stopped last weekend in Birmingham City Centre, for the first time in many, many years. I turned right at a set of traffic lights past the front of an oncoming police car who was turning left. It was one of those situations where if you didn't take a gap, you wouldn't get across, and the lights would only let one car turning left through for each change of the lights. He didn't have to brake or anything, there was room to do it, but was just peeved that his left indicator was on and I hadn't given him priority and he stopped me and gave me a lecture about priority and how if it had been close enough for an accident, he'd be claiming off my insurance. He was just cheesed that I'd cut HIM up though, I'm sure if he'd seen me do it to somebody else, but been unaffected, he wouldn't have given a toss. At the end of the day everybody is agressive and takes gaps in B'ham otherwise you just wouldn't get anywhere, he must see it 100 times a day.