Cyclist's 'rights'

PodroPodro ✭✭✭

Should cyclists have rights?

Comments

  • M.ister WM.ister W ✭✭✭
    Yes, but only the same rights as other road users.  But with rights comes responsibilities.  If you're cycling on the road you should obey traffic signs, stop at red lights, give way at junctions and be a considerate road user.
  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    Hmmmm - if you rear-end another vehicle, isn't it your own fault for being too close?

    What if a motorist slammed on their brakes to avoid hitting another vehicle (or cyclist!) or running over a child?

    Cyclists should have the same rights as all road users, but should also follow the rules.  I work in London and see many, many cyclists ignoring red traffic lights.

  • when i ride to work i see some peeps riding on pavements and going the wrong way down 1-way-streets etc ...

     ... this gets the rest of us a bad name

  • PodroPodro ✭✭✭

    There are a number of idiots about that give cyclists a bad name, just as there are a lot of idiots in cars that give motorists a bad reputation.

    When I'm cycling home on the roads I count the number of cars/lorries that come past me too close for comfrt and compare it with the number that give me loads of room. Interestingly, only about 5% give me less than the regulation 6 foot on the A65 coming out of Leeds.

    Wilkie - I suspect that the rear ending was a result of a manouver similar to that which occurred recently in Australia where there a car deliberately pulled in front of a peleton and then jammed on his brakes to cause a crash. Do you think that you would be able to avoid that in your car in the event of a similar deliberate manouver? Would you consider it to be your fault or that of the driver who set out to make you run into the back of him?

  • popsiderpopsider ✭✭✭

    Can't get that link to open but googling it the rights they are asking for don't seem to be about special rules but about equal consideration in the design of roads and facilities.    I think that's a good idea - at the moment they don't get that - in fact there are a couple of places I do break the rules of the road because to follow them would put me in more danger - I'm thinking of a bus lane where the bike weight doesn't trigger the lights at one point where I would go through the red or another where if you follow the bike lane it comes out onto a roundabout at a point where drivers will cut across you and if you did it often enough you'd end up dead.   

    There are always people who bring up law breaking cyclists but there are far more motorists who break the speed limit - the amount of moaning about poor cycling is disproportionate to the problem it causes.

  • Prodo - yep it realy boils my goat the peeps that overtake and ony leave an inch between you and their big safe car, truck ...image
  • *walks away from the hornet's nest that is being stirred up*

    This always ends in a row, this one........image

  • i Hike, run, MTB, cycle drive and have a motor bike  ..... so i always hate part of myself image

    What i hate from any party is inconsideration

  • So which "Will" do you hate the most then, WIll? image
  • PodroPodro ✭✭✭

    I think that the problem is also one of ignorance. I was horrified to hear from one of our tri club coaches that there are adults out there who have never ridden a bike. Incomprehensible. I thought it was obligatory for all kids!

    Perhaps people shouldn't be allowed a car licence until they have learnt to ride a bike on the road. They could then progress to a moped at 16 and be allowed a provisional car licence once they have passed the basic motorbike test. Existing drivers should be made to cycle 100miles a year on roads to renew their car licence image

  • My kids will have a moped over my dead body.......image
  • PodroPodro ✭✭✭

    We'll let them off the moped if they do the Fred Whitton image (with their Mum).

  • M.ister WM.ister W ✭✭✭

    My driving suddenly became a whole lot better when I started riding a motorbike so I can see the benefit in drivers being forced onto two wheels every now and then.

  • Did anybody watch Tonight With Trevor McDonald last night?  A bloke was slung in jail for jaywalking abroad and the bail was set at thousands....image I didn't know it's illegal in Germany to park facing the direction of traffic either or you must illluminate your lights by law in France in a tunnel. It's common sense, but I wouldn't expect to be arrested for it!

    Not having any sort of refresher after you've passed your test causes us to become lazy with traffic regulations in our own country, let alone foreign climes!

    Podro - 112 miles? Easy! image

  • PodroPodro ✭✭✭

    I found that when I did my motorbike test at the age of 22 I had forgotten most of the theory that I had learnt for my car test. When my oldest son wanted to learn to drive I had to learn the theory all over again. I think it might finally be beginning to sink in.....

    Liverbird - and you can't walk up Hardknott pass.image

  • Should cyclists be obliged to carry third party insurance, pay VED/road tax, and carry a registration number ? 

    Of course I don't think that they should, but car owners pay something close to £50bn into the UK economy.....

      

  • As a cyclist, I also pay road tax and car insurance .... and then I leave my car at home!
  • Gargamel wrote (see)
    Of course I don't think that they should, but car owners pay something close to £50bn into the UK economy.....

    But they pay duty to drive the car not to use the roads - thats why its called VED

  • fat buddhafat buddha ✭✭✭
    you must illluminate your lights by law in France in a tunnel. It's common sense, but I wouldn't expect to be arrested for it!

    if the law in that country says it's an arrestable offence - then expect to get arrested.....

    don't try to judge other countries by our own set of laws

    anyway - all road tunnels in France have a "turn on your headlights" (allumez vos feux) at the entrance - if you choose to ignore it, expect the consequences.....
  • and i thought it ment 'Beware if the foxes' image
  • What I meant was....image

    if it said "Allumez vos feux ou nous vous arreterons" then I could understand it. Some of our laws in England are advisory - others are compulsory, just as in France. I lived there for a while and I always thought the rain speed restriction is a particularly good idea. I guess you're right though-  we shouldn't expect to have the same rules everywhere. Arresting Brits ignorant of the law doesn't do much for Anglo-French relations though, even if they should beef up on them before they leave! image

  • I have seen countless people with iPods in as they are cycling about in morning traffic.

    To me, you can run with an iPod on in - but cycling?

  • fat buddhafat buddha ✭✭✭
    Arresting Brits ignorant of the law is something that has happened for many years and will continue - too many Brits go overseas (especially on summer holidays) thinking they can get away with acting like they do in the UK and end up being arrested - then go bleating to the press about it when they get home......

    viz. that bunch of photographers caught taking pictures at a Greek military airbase and then being locked up - yeh, no issues with this in the UK but the Greeks are very sensitive when it comes to their military facilities. clearly they hadn't done their homework before going and yet the press were making them out as being wronged.........errm, no - the Greeks had every right to lock them up as they had broken Greek laws......so it turns into a stupid diplomatic argument because the redtops were bleating away about it. should have left the fools locked up imho....
  • Podro, I'm one of those adults who never had a bike as a kid. Parents thought it was too dangerous. I finally learnt to ride just under 2 years ago. My 9 year old is better and safer than me.

    You'll be glad I don't drive either image

  • I thought cycling with an Ipod was illegal? I also thought you could be charged with driving without due care and attention in a car if you had one in. Somebody please clear this up!

    I probably made it upimage

  • Eh - I think the line between what his Tonyness disagreed with and passed laws on is so thin, it just confuses me.

    I go on the "reasonable man" idea. 

    If you can't hear anything on a bike on a busy road in central road in London, is that dangerous or safe?

  • fat buddhafat buddha ✭✭✭
    I thought cycling with an Ipod was illegal?

    nope - it's not. like cycling with no helmet is not illegal.

    they're only advisory
  • I assumed that cyclists with ipods were competing in the Darwin award nominations
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