Having cycled to work in the past I'm amazed I'm still around to tell the tale. Taxi's, buses, transit vans and pedestrians just do not look out for cyclists. The worst was a transit van who took offence that I was making progress in the Manchester rush hour and he was not. At traffic lights he deliberately veered towards the curb to prevent me getting passed, then his mate leaned out of the window to see where I was then flicked his cig at me. Cretins
Occasionally, when they ride through red lights and use the pavements to skirt traffic, but **** me that's just wrong. What a prick that driver was.
i got nudged by a bus outside HRI a few years ago , it was when the cycle track meandered from road to path - across a bus stop and back onto the path ! I was nudged on the back wheel by a bus turning into the stop as i was negotiating the ridiculous obstacle course set up by the Krypton Council. In all my years the biggest arses on the roads are Bus drivers a clear number one followed by the early morning white van man 3rd the randomness of parking in the street with hazzards flapping in the wind , when a perfectly good parking spot is moments away. Impatience is the biggest fault of drivers - some manouvers will only save someone 2-3 seconds on what might be a 10 min journey but may cause some poor sod to never complete theirs.
I've had a few people do the same kind of thing to me over the years, a couple were quite amusing because they quite obviously did it on purpose but ended up with their cars suffering far more damage than I did. (One got a window smashed as I hit it and the other had their door bent back so it wouldn't shut properly)
Can your lambretta keep up with the cyclists now it's having to cart around your middleaged podge as well?
My brother in law is a very keen cyclist and has competed in sections of the Tour de France, I think he could probably outrun me and my podge. I'm surprised he hasn't jacked it in, he lives in London and has had numerous incidents, he's ended in hospital twice with very bad injuries(one of them when he was run over by a drunk bin man in his dustcart, he got banged up for eight months - that's the bin man, not my brother in law)
A couple of weeks back I was on my bike and about to turn left into a tenfoot and was trying to time crossing the path with some pedestrians heading in the opposite direction. Some spotty herbert in a car decided he'd rev his engine and hoot his horn, presumably to encourage me to run into the pedestrians. If you are that herbert, if you'd been patient you wouldn't have looked as stupid as you did launching your car into the traffic island when your arse went when I moved towards you and tried blocking the road and inviting you to discuss the rights and wrongs. I'm not sure if the CCTV camera's caught the damage you did to the railings, but I doubt the fine will be as much as the repair bill to your car. Last time I looked, your wing mirror was still on the island, but you'd need to be good at jigsaws.
I like cycling myself and have nearly been wiped out on several occasions by motorists completely oblivious to me, the worst occasion was early in the morning years ago, I was cycling to work and there was literally just me on the road, no other traffic, a car pulled out, the driver obviously was half asleep and had not seen me at all, if he had hit me head on I wouldn't be here now, and I can safely I say I did nothing wrong at all, so it's not just bad cyclists to blame for things. I was too shocked to get his registration which I should have done.
Ooh I've just remembered the accidental one. I was riding my bike along the main road, and someone decided to drive out of the side street without looking and went into the side of me. Still not sure how I escaped injury, unlike the other two I wasn't expecting it so I couldn't prepare for the impact and I was about 10 foot from my bike at the end of it, all I'd done was cut my knee.
Lad i used to play football with was killed outside HRI a few years back. Its just not worth it these days too many idiots in cars.
Part of the problem is that some car drivers believe that the roads (and paths) are just for them, without realising that almost everyone else is there as of right, but car drivers need specific permission.
Cyclists do annoy me when I'm driving. If I was a cyclist though, I'm sure I'd be fuming with a lot of drivers. I think I just get very irritated with anyone (on anything) near 'my bit of road'.
cyclists can be a total mare when they believe to be in the right and try arguing with a 2tonn vehicle , though for the most part on my way to work I have to trust the vehicle behind me on the Calvert/North rd outer ring road . That route is a total joke , there is plenty of space on the grass verge to create a safe cycle path , but we are forced to cycle on a road which hasnt often got room for just 2 vehicles passing . The Kink on calvert (where the bridge once was) is probably the worst 20foot of road for a cyclist in my 2 mile journey - which includes Brighton st and its roundabouts
Cycle paths are wrong from so many perspectives, not least because they reinforce car drivers opinions that cyclists shouldn't be on their road but also because they're inherently dangerous.
A piece of motorway and a chunk of dual carriageway are having a drink in their local when in walks a lump of red tarmac. Motorway says to dual carriageway, "Let's drink up before he starts. He's a bit of a cycle path" I'll get me coat.
