1.5 metres

[sidepod]

It all comes down to the same thing, when people in this country step into a car they become total ***ts.

 

[Amarillo]

Oddly enough.
People have more patience when they see the huge baby carrier on the back of my mountain bike.
It’s not often I’m on the road, stick to cycle paths as much as possible when I carry my little one.
But when I do hit the road on that bike, motorists are much better behaved and more considerate.
Why can’t they be this sensible regardless and appreciate its a human life on two wheels. Father, mother, son or daughter etc.

In the morning I cycle with Ben on his bike and Jack in the carrier on my bike to school. Jack and I then return home, heading back to school again early afternoon for nursery. I collect both boys at 3.15.

Not once have we had an issue with impatient motorists.

Double and triple parked parents outside the school is another matter. Why they drive when the most distant pupil offered a place at the school last year lives just 770.56 metres (straight line distance) from the main gate is beyond my intellectual ability to understand.


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[Velma's Dad]

Double and triple parked parents outside the school is another matter. Why they drive when the most distant pupil offered a place at the school last year lives just 770.56 metres (straight line distance) from the main gate is beyond my intellectual ability to understand.

Ha, but that's based on the address they put on the form when they applied for the school. They actually live over on the other side of town, where house prices are lower, next door to that school Ofsted said was only Good.

 

[motacyclist]

Double and triple parked parents outside the school is another matter. Why they drive when the most distant pupil offered a place at the school last year lives just 770.56 metres (straight line distance) from the main gate is beyond my intellectual ability to understand.

And they probably pay for a gym subscription instead of getting their exercise walking/cycling.

 

[Amarillo]

And they probably pay for a gym subscription instead of getting their exercise walking/cycling.

When Mrs Amarillo told me this morning that she was taking the van to her spinning class, I had an image of a little old lady teaching a group of younger ladies how to transform wool into yarn. It wasn’t until her return that I learned she had taken 20 minutes to drive just under a mile along the South Circular Road to ride a stationary bicycle.


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[soulstyledevon]

Amarillo
I live in a smallish town.
It amazes me how lazy people have become. I walk and cycle around the town as much as possible.
Often see neighbours stuck in traffic coming back from the shops. I can cycle to the centre in 5 mins, leisurely. Walking is 15mins. But they insist on driving...???
Madness

 

[pjm-84]

I think the best was my parents who live (lived) up in small Welsh town. They had a new "neighbour" who had moved in. The village is not that big so I suggested walking, assuming that worst case it could be up to 800metres away.

No we would go in the car.

Arghh I thought, it must be just outside the village, on one of the rural roads with no footpath. Wrong. It was about 70metres away (out of the drive / turn left / turn immediately right / 2nd house on the right). My Mother, bless her soul, defended the requirement to drive saying it might be raining when we leave.

According to my Garmin Connect account I have walked 113.1km* in the last 4weeks
(45km was walked with the dogs in the last 7 days) . I don't record the shorter / more numerous dog walks via GPS so this figure would be a fair bit higher.

(*The step count on the Garmin Fenix 5+ for the 4week period = 342,262 steps + 289.3km)

In the same period I have cycled 626km.

I have an MTB Enduro race on Sunday. I will still get my backside handed to me! The disadvantage of being built for rowing (XXXL) / not cycling. I will clip a few trees.

When I was on the road (roadie) I would be regularly clocking 250 to 350km a week.

 

[Steven Birbeck]

The 1.5 mtr law should definately be brought in but how are they going to police it.I cycle most days and it is a rare day that I don't feel threatened by a moron in a car.I have cycled abroad and compared to here it is an absolute pleasure and I think it is down to the attitude of drivers

 

[Cwoods1405]

Is this really the forum for this kind of a debate? I certainly see no place in any forum for saying “80%of cyclist near me are !!!!!!!” This post should be removed. I find that offensive I drive and ride a lot and see many examples of poor driving and riding. Education is key and the realisation that most of the time if a car hits a cyclist (regardless of fault) the cyclist will end up with significant injuries or die. I suppose there are many that will say it’s their own fault unless it’s a friend or family member! A sad reflection of how selfish society has become. Small rant over!

 

[soulstyledevon]

I suppose there are many that will say it’s their own fault unless it’s a friend or family member! A sad reflection of how selfish society has become!

Very true.
We need to look after each other, not destroy.

 

[DaveB]

I ride a road bike and mountain bike as well. I do over 8000 miles most years on roads, cycle paths and trails. I've been doing it for 20 years +.

This year I had to buy a camera and use it on all road rides. The reason is simple I am definitely going to get hit soon. The standard of driving (but worse so) sense of entitlement is now ludicrous. I am close passed at 40-60mph regularly and I hate to tell you all this fact but VW vans are some of the worst I get. For some reason drivers now believe they have a right to travel in a car at up to the speed limit. And nothing should ever get in the way of that right. Nothing. If you look back at history the road network was there well before cars. It started out as horse tracks and the rise of the bicycle led to it being improved for wheels. Cars took over the roads and made them theirs.

Thanks Jeremy Clarkson and thanks Rod Liddle and all the other gammons for propagating the lycra hate. These 5 chin idiots are definitely going to get me killed. No matter how safely, considerately and carefully I ride my life feels constantly at threat. None of you get that in your vans, I know as I have one.

The main problem is that the views of many motorists are tainted by chavs jumping pavements, red lights and causing a nuisance. Yes these are idiots, but show me some stats on injuries/deaths they cause please? Negligible. More people burden our NHS with their inactivity than are sent there by cyclists.

Last month a driver nearly put me into a wall near Dartmouth. I sent footage to the police who (for once) took action and paid him a visit. He was horrified when he saw it from my point of view. He genuinely did not realise just what it was like to be passed that fast and that close. I chose not to prosecute which the police were willing to do as I hoped I'd change one attitude for the better.

So next time you feel aggrieved sat behind some people engaging in physical activity or active transport. Put the stopwatch on and see how long you are really delayed. Probably no more than a minute or two. Were you taking a pregnant woman to hospital, was it a life or death journey or are you simply feeling entitled to go faster?

Our society is becoming a polarised mess of factions. as you can see I've been beaten down into one of them. Just be a bit more tolerant of the idiots as well as those who do not deserve to lose their life to impatience. Accept that you may not get the same back from the idiots, but these people will push past you in queues, not pick up their dogshit and play music until 3am. They don't deserve to die for those behaviours. They are just part of the mess that society currently is. Stoked by a sense of entitlement to anything and everything.

Sorry for the rant. I'm off out on my bike to calm down a bit.

 

[Amarillo]

Very true.
We need to look after each other, not destroy.

Even Matthew Parris was at it:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/whats-smug-and-deserves-to-be-decapitated-5k877kjgfpk

Though at least he did later realise the utter ignorance of his festive attack on cyclists and issue a proper apology.


Follow my blog: www.au-revoir.eu

 

[aileron346]

They probably feel the same as you when sat behind the wheel of their car...????
Not to disagree with your feelings about not using cycle paths...I feel the same just so long as they aren't so ill maintained that they are dangerous. If I stuck to the one closest to where I live I'd get struck by low branches, get outed from the saddle by tree roots and flung off by the loose debris, drains and puntures from the glass where motorists have rear ended each other.
Its a big subject.

Yes, and what many seem to not realise is that cycle lanes and cycle tracks are not compulsory for cyclists. They do not affect their ride to ride in the main carriageway. Exactly the same as buses and bus lanes. Exactly the same right to drive my Cali down a country lane running parallel to a motorway.

Just astonishing how many people think that cycle lanes/tracks are there to constrain cyclists. In reality, there will be times when faster cyclists are just not safe on those shared pavement tracks.

In fact compulsory cycle tracks could be an option if we went for the high quality engineered ones like in NL. But the shabby, bumpy, narrow, glass and dog poo strewn tracks we have will never be compulsory for bikes.

 

[aileron346]

We all need to be accountable for our actions. The question should be about which classes of road users need to be licensed. I cannot see any good reason why cyclists or pedestrians should be licensed or their bikes registered to use the highway given the small amount of harm they cause to others.

Agree, this is the main issue. Cycling is bedevilled with ‘false equivalence’. As if the risk to others from bikes is anything like the risk to others from motor vehicles. It’s is orders of magnitude different.

There is a bizarre psychology around these periodic anti-cyclist diatribes. I know some say it’s a jealousy thing, but I think it’s far more complex than that. It is something about the freedom and flexibility of cycling which infuriates people stuck in endless traffic.

What is that makes people moan about cyclists and motorcyclists weaving through traffic? Scratches and scrapes they quote. Really? So frequent an occurrence that I’ve never known anyone suffer this.

Oh dear. I blame the Express and the Mail for poisoning our country. You expect embittered any-cyclist stuff in those but in a Cali forum. Please ... no.

 

[aileron346]

I ride a road bike and mountain bike as well. I do over 8000 miles most years on roads, cycle paths and trails. I've been doing it for 20 years +.

This year I had to buy a camera and use it on all road rides. The reason is simple I am definitely going to get hit soon. The standard of driving (but worse so) sense of entitlement is now ludicrous. I am close passed at 40-60mph regularly and I hate to tell you all this fact but VW vans are some of the worst I get. For some reason drivers now believe they have a right to travel in a car at up to the speed limit. And nothing should ever get in the way of that right. Nothing. If you look back at history the road network was there well before cars. It started out as horse tracks and the rise of the bicycle led to it being improved for wheels. Cars took over the roads and made them theirs.

Thanks Jeremy Clarkson and thanks Rod Liddle and all the other gammons for propagating the lycra hate. These 5 chin idiots are definitely going to get me killed. No matter how safely, considerately and carefully I ride my life feels constantly at threat. None of you get that in your vans, I know as I have one.

The main problem is that the views of many motorists are tainted by chavs jumping pavements, red lights and causing a nuisance. Yes these are idiots, but show me some stats on injuries/deaths they cause please? Negligible. More people burden our NHS with their inactivity than are sent there by cyclists.

Last month a driver nearly put me into a wall near Dartmouth. I sent footage to the police who (for once) took action and paid him a visit. He was horrified when he saw it from my point of view. He genuinely did not realise just what it was like to be passed that fast and that close. I chose not to prosecute which the police were willing to do as I hoped I'd change one attitude for the better.

So next time you feel aggrieved sat behind some people engaging in physical activity or active transport. Put the stopwatch on and see how long you are really delayed. Probably no more than a minute or two. Were you taking a pregnant woman to hospital, was it a life or death journey or are you simply feeling entitled to go faster?

Our society is becoming a polarised mess of factions. as you can see I've been beaten down into one of them. Just be a bit more tolerant of the idiots as well as those who do not deserve to lose their life to impatience. Accept that you may not get the same back from the idiots, but these people will push past you in queues, not pick up their dogshit and play music until 3am. They don't deserve to die for those behaviours. They are just part of the mess that society currently is. Stoked by a sense of entitlement to anything and everything.

Sorry for the rant. I'm off out on my bike to calm down a bit.

Beautifully written and mirrors my experience too. Something seriously changing on the roads and probably does reflect increasing polarisation in society. People talk about ‘cyclists’ but who are ‘cyclists’ ... they are Cali owners, mums, dads, brothers, sisters, basically fellow human beings. Not pleasant when they are the target of prejudice.

 

[soulstyledevon]

Let’s pray attitudes change for the sake of the next generation.
I wouldn’t want anything to happen to this little star...

 

[Velma's Dad]

The other day while procrastinating something more important (as usual) I strayed into watching a whole Youtube dashcam footage compilation of dozens of accidents and near misses.

What struck me was that in so many of the clips the 'innocent' driver - ie the one with the dashcam - was at least partly responsible, often by ploughing on in when another road user had made a stupid mistake like overshooting a junction. Then in many cases forcing the transgressing driver to reverse back, rather than hanging back and letting them go on their way: pointless and petty.

We all get impatient at other road users sometimes, including people on various numbers of wheels, well I know I do. I have also made stupid mistakes, on two and four wheels over the years, like pulling out without looking properly. But I have a lot of sympathy with what DaveB wrote. It would be better if tolerance and courtesy and forbearance were more valued on the roads than the "I win if you lose" mentality seems to be.

 

[Velma's Dad]

Let’s pray attitudes change for the sake of the next generation.

Well the Gen Zs seem a bit more balanced than some of the previous ones... but give 'em time, they've got another couple of decades to turn into sad, angry middle-aged gits, whether in lycra or behind a wheel.

Sorry, getting my coat...

 

[aileron346]

...

The Dutch and Danish get it right - they stick to normal everyday clothing for cycling. Same too in some British university cities.

I know what you mean. They have a huge culture of everyday utility cycling.

But both those countries also support cycling as a fitness activity and are big into cycle sport as well as everyday cycling. You don’t hear disparaging comments about wearing Lycra there - it’s just sports clothing.

They support pootling along on a town bike but also have no problem with a sporty ride on a carbon framed road bike in sports kit. Amazingly you get comments on the UK about speed merchants on bikes and you’re really talking about, what, 30 kph sort of speeds.

 

[pjm-84]

Cycling in Belgium is great. You do use the cycle lanes as strangely a bike in the cycle lane has the right of way and car drivers respect this.

 

[BikerGran]

A lot of money was spent locally on making what they laughingly call a cycle path, even involving cutting down some trees. The fact is, the so-called cycle path is just a wider pavement where pedestrians have to contend with cyclists coming up behind them in total silence (whatever happened to bells on bicycles?), some of whom shout at you if you don't get out of the way quick enough.
It's a nightmare for mums with prams, for me on my mobility scooter, and particularly for blind people with or without guide dogs.
Fortunately most cyclists don't use it. I asked one why they don't, and he said it's partly all the reasons already cited, and partly because unlike the traffic on the road, they have to stop at every junction (there are quite a lot of them) and so they can't make any real progress. I understand that completely - it's the wrong lane in the wrong place.
As a former motorcyclist, I also understand why they ride two abreast on the road. A motorcycle - even a small one - is large enough to 'own' its place on the road, but on a bicycle if the rider doesn't keep well out onto the road the cars will try to slide past without doing a proper overtaking manouvre, hence the 1.5m suggestion. However, we have so many narrow rural roads in this country that you can't make that a law as it would then be completely impossible to pass a bike for miles!

As others have said, it's all down to road users of every kind needing to show consideration, which is something that seems to be sadly lacking in many of them whatever they ride or drive.

 

[Amarillo]

Yes, and what many seem to not realise is that cycle lanes and cycle tracks are not compulsory for cyclists. They do not affect their ride to ride in the main carriageway. Exactly the same as buses and bus lanes. Exactly the same right to drive my Cali down a country lane running parallel to a motorway.

Just astonishing how many people think that cycle lanes/tracks are there to constrain cyclists. In reality, there will be times when faster cyclists are just not safe on those shared pavement tracks.

In fact compulsory cycle tracks could be an option if we went for the high quality engineered ones like in NL. But the shabby, bumpy, narrow, glass and dog poo strewn tracks we have will never be compulsory for bikes.

Oddly, there are lanes called "mandatory cycle lanes", marked by a solid white line and others called "advisory cycle lanes", marked by a broken white line. Motor vehicles are not permitted to encroach a mandatory cycle line but may drive in an advisory lane. Except motorways and in a few limited places there is no offence for a cyclist riding on the road.

 

[bassbikemike]

If cyclist stay off the road they won't get injured or killed.

Before anyone asks, I am a cyclist but I stick to the 1,000s of miles of cycle paths and trails so I can have stress free cycling.

Lucky for you. Not everyone is fortunate enough to live near a practical and effective traffic free cycle network. Can you cycle from your house to the shops or to work without using a road shared by cars? Can you complete a variety of entirely traffic-free cycle routes from your house? ...or even nearby, if you were to drive to the start?

The roads were the domain of the bike long before the emergence and popularity of the modern car, which really is a post-war phenomenon... arguably, accepted cultural norms and priorities need a long hard look at here...

The answer, of course, is to share the space and to do so with care and courtesey. I completely agree with everything that has already been said regarding all car drivers that are physically able to being required to spend some time riding a bike, along with having the mentality that the person you see on the bike being someone you care for... that is someone's loved one right there.

 

[bassbikemike]

Well I cycled myself and agree that a lot of motorists are inconsiderate to cyclists. However, there are also a lot of cyclists who are just as bad. Nice day here today in the Peak District so lots of people out and about and what do we get, cyclists two or three abreast on the main A6 road creating a tailback and leading to frustration which in turn leads to more likelyhood of someone getting hurt so it works both ways.

This is a good article which explains why groups of cyclists do this. Generally in the real world there are plenty of examples where this is not followed perfectly and indeed the Highway Code is often open to interpretation which doesn't help. As ever though education and mutual awareness are key and if you haven't seen this before it is worth a look...
https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/...s-ride-two-abreast-in-new-safety-video-187215

 

[soulstyledevon]

Coventry we’re onto something in 1959.
Sounds like Gibson had the answers? a true visionary.
What we need now is crucial investment and education to fix our towns and cities, traffic, environmental and obesity issues all by building cycleways that are upto the job.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlto...0gwoG-JmndgobYitOq8V9zhvbcw2InEQ#280909337eb2