Cyclists - let's kill them all

[richard]

Why is it that so many cyclists think that traffic lights/pedestrian lights and all the other rules of behaviour on the road don't apply to them ? I was waiting to cross with a bunch of other pedestrians, the lights have definitely turned red and a female cyclist chooses to sail straight through narrowly avoiding maiming myself and several other folks. I've seen this happen countless times as well as their other trick of swerving onto the pavement at the last second as though that's okay.   

I don't drive or ride a bike and I've experienced some appalling behaviour from motorists but nothing to compare to the breathtaking arrogance of some cyclists. I'm afraid that one day I'll just lose it and kick the bas*ard off their fuc**ng bike.

[_tom_]

Cyclists like that tend to be the minority rather than the majority, at least round here. In cities it may be different I suppose. I don't really ride in towns but have skipped a few reds before - only when I could clearly see it was safe to do so though.

[dave_mc]

i'm guessing it's because you can buy a bike and ride it without having to pass a test.

granted a lot of drivers ignore what they learned to pass their tests, but at least it hopefully stops them from doing the really serious stuff.

[badgermark]

You should have been watching the road more carefully then. It may be her fault but if you got hit then you're still a tw@t for not looking.

[Afghan Dave]

You should have been watching the road more carefully then. It may be her fault but if you got hit then you're still a tw@t for not looking.

I'm not usually confrontational but... you're talking a bunch of total sh!t there.

[richard]

Of course I was looking as was everyone else present. Just thought that, as she had plenty of distance in which to see that the lights had changed, she might have considered stopping. Not so long ago I nearly got mowed down on the pavement by a cylist who was heading at me from behind at high speed but at least decided to ring their bell. How considerate.

[Dmoney]

should of booted her off as she went past or at least played chicken with her. I have a bad habit of doing that with motorcycle couriers road oxford street.

[Elliot]

I had a similar experience today - and despite the cyclist riding the wrong way down a one way street, the arrogant crusty bar-steward cyclist still shouted some expletive at me for not looking where I was going on the road.  To be honest, even when the pedestrian is at fault a cyclist should, like any other user of a vehicle that is going at speed, should have the awareness to slow down.  Of all road users in London, I think cyclists are the worst and should have to have compulsory accident insurance.

[JacksonRR]

Cyclists have recently become a problem in my area. My town is sort of a rural area nestled within the Metro-Atlanta area. A really odd situation, but what it amounts to is a bunch of people using our "back roads" for both cycling AND as a traffic cut-through from one busy area to the next. With cyclists loving to group up in numbers for "safety", no shoulders, curvy roads and vehicles going 55mph, it's a dangerous situation. More than once, I've had to slam on the brakes so I don't kill several families in one go. It's not like they don't know what's going on either. They'll have 15 cars backed up behind them and don't care. I'd really love to see some sort of law passed limiting the amount of cyclists per group and perhaps a rule of thumb where if you can see the next group you have to slow down or turn around. It's just a scary situation for everyone and that's why I've attached a small cable to my lawn mower's grass guard that let's  me lift it up, spraying clippings from one side of the road to the next. Only hit one group in the sweaty legs so far, but I think I just need to monitor their behavior more to get a good feel for when's my best chance to dissuade them from putting themselves and others in danger.

[djl]

As a pedestrian in the UK, you're 250 times more likely to be killed by a car than by a cyclist (government stats). It's weird that there are a huge number of anti-cyclist threads in internet forums (and daily mail, telegraph etc - maybe Jeremy Clarkson fans?) but no one ever starts discussions like "kill all motorists".

Not that this excuses this cyclist's behaviour, of course

[Afghan Dave]

Wow...

Who would have guessed that you're more likely to be killed when hit by a car?

Duh... :roll:

[djl]

There are on average 2 pedestrians killed/year by cyclists in the UK. There are 5 killed by lightning on average, and 15 killed by falling off ladders. So before you kill all cyclists, you'd be better off getting rid of inclement weather (?lightning conducting clothes) and removing all ladders...

[Afghan Dave]

Death isn't the only measure...

If I slapped you round the back of the head with a wet fish every other week as you crossed the road... you would probably grow to hate me.

[Matt77]

There are on average 2 pedestrians killed/year by cyclists in the UK. There are 5 killed by lightning on average, and 15 killed by falling off ladders. So before you kill all cyclists, you'd be better off getting rid of inclement weather (?lightning conducting clothes) and removing all ladders...

Are you Angus Loughran?  :)

[djl]

Death isn't the only measure...

If I slapped you round the back of the head with a wet fish every other week as you crossed the road... you would probably grow to hate me.

No sure, but my original point was the large number of anti-cycling threads, calling cycling a menace, with no evidence that it is.

There always have been a minority of Brits who feel the need to whinge about the perceived threat of a minority, and now that things like racism are considered a social faux pas, it seems that there has been a switch to other less "well defended" groups. I mean, seriously can you imagine any other thread beginning with "kill all......" that wouldn't get you in some sort of trouble?