It’s time for another forum cycle/vehicle disagreement

[Jobbo]

"they're full of broken glass" is a shit excuse given it clearly wasn't. Obvs car should have stopped, tho.

It's a perfectly valid excuse - unless you stop and check before riding through each one then you don't know that until too late.

Mike's into road design in a professional capacity; is this type of cycle lane still built now? It doesn't look too hard to improve the design.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Is the conclusion of these videos always that everyone involved was a cunt?

Yes. Even the 5yo.

[ZedLeg]

In my limited experience all 5 year olds are cunts.

[Rich B]

I had an interesting one this morning. A mini came past me way too close (bearing in mind I'm a confident cyclist who is absolutely fine with a couple of foot gap).

The mini stopped at the next lights a minute or two later. So I pulled up next to him. By the time I'd got there his window was down and he was shouting that I should be on the pavement! So essentially he was saying that he drove close on purpose because he thought I should be on the pavement.

Anyway, I called him a cunt and moved in front of him, then pulled away at a snails pace in front of him when the lights went green. I gave him a few shakes beans once he got round me, which he considered stopping for. Bearing in mind I (internet hard man act coming up) had my CF knuckled DH gloves on and was already in a bit of a mood and looking to punch something, I think he did the right thing and carried on.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Mike's into road design in a professional capacity; is this type of cycle lane still built now? It doesn't look too hard to improve the design.

It varies hugely from one Authority to another to be honest Simon - some are keen to explore ideas and some are stuck very firmly in the past. I'd suggest that these days though you'd be more likely to see build-outs without cycle gates. There has genreally been a shift in attitude and awareness regarding non-motorised users (to use the official terminology), and this has started to affect design to the extent that segregation isn't always seen as a good thing now.

An example of upcoming design ideas that you'll start to see more of would be Cyclops junctions, which many Authorities are now looking at implementing - although I reserve judgement on those and how the British car driving public will manage with them. The public has famously managed to not get on with other grand ideas such as shared space junctions, so I fully expect that these will cause outrage/confusion.

[Jobbo]

I had an interesting one this morning. A mini came past me way too close (bearing in mind I'm a confident cyclist who is absolutely fine with a couple of foot gap).

The mini stopped at the next lights a minute or two later. So I pulled up next to him. By the time I'd got there his window was down and he was shouting that I should be on the pavement! So essentially he was saying that he drove close on purpose because he thought I should be on the pavement.

Anyway, I called him a cunt and moved in front of him, then pulled away at a snails pace in front of him when the lights went green. I gave him a few shakes beans once he got round me, which he considered stopping for. Bearing in mind I (internet hard man act coming up) had my CF knuckled DH gloves on and was already in a bit of a mood and looking to punch something, I think he did the right thing and carried on.

Was the Mini emitting any sort of smoke from the exhaust?

It's impossible not to end up a bit aggressive when you're faced with someone like that. Despite the risk that they're an idiot who might simply run you over.

Anyway, I bet Elon is fucking loving the Twitter traffic this 5yr old cyclist is generating!

[Rich B]

Yeah those little cycle lanes past traffic calming things are varied. Some are about a foot wide and filled with leaves and shit - fuck riding through them. some are plenty wide enough and clean/clear.

There's a new cycle lane through Guildford that has poles to separate it from the car lane. Unfortunately it's covered in wet rotting leaves and crap because presumably the road sweepers can't get down there because of the poles...

[Rich B]

I had an interesting one this morning. A mini came past me way too close (bearing in mind I'm a confident cyclist who is absolutely fine with a couple of foot gap).

The mini stopped at the next lights a minute or two later. So I pulled up next to him. By the time I'd got there his window was down and he was shouting that I should be on the pavement! So essentially he was saying that he drove close on purpose because he thought I should be on the pavement.

Anyway, I called him a cunt and moved in front of him, then pulled away at a snails pace in front of him when the lights went green. I gave him a few shakes beans once he got round me, which he considered stopping for. Bearing in mind I (internet hard man act coming up) had my CF knuckled DH gloves on and was already in a bit of a mood and looking to punch something, I think he did the right thing and carried on.

Was the Mini emitting any sort of smoke from the exhaust?

It's impossible not to end up a bit aggressive when you're faced with someone like that. Despite the risk that they're an idiot who might simply run you over.

Anyway, I bet Elon is fucking loving the Twitter traffic this 5yr old cyclist is generating!

it was an electric mini! The guy was aggressive way before I was - but I had loads of room/directions to get out of the way if I wanted to. He was clearly all talk anyway, hence his little slow down once he was passed before he thought better of it.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Yeah those little cycle lanes past traffic calming things are varied. Some are about a foot wide and filled with leaves and shit - fuck riding through them. some are plenty wide enough and clean/clear.

There's a new cycle lane through Guildford that has poles to separate it from the car lane. Unfortunately it's covered in wet rotting leaves and crap because presumably the road sweepers can't get down there because of the poles...

Yeah that's dumb. What they need are armadillos

[McSwede]

In my limited experience all 5 year olds are cunts.

Yes, but there's a big difference between you're little cunt, and other people's

[Rich B]

Just a Quick look on Google maps at it. The cycle lane is one direction away from the camera and the road lane is the other direction coming towards us, but where the little poles are (where the road sweepers can't get to it), the drain is blocked with a bush growing out of it, so it has a permanent puddle and now it's autumn a massive load of shit. Genius.

[Swervin_Mervin]

And that is the problem with much of our highway infrastructure, including cycle and pedestrian facilities. We spend a lot on these things and then let them go to shit.

But some would still think a cyclist should be going through that.

[Rich B]

I don't think it's even a year old either. It's just a shit design, it can't be maintained using the standardised road sweeper equipment.

[Jobbo]

The camber of the road directs water to the verges so that's always going to happen when it's wet. I bet the width of most of these constrained lanes is inconsistent with the highway code's new advice on how far to cycle from the kerb too.

Armadillos are for people to do tricks on, but they feel quite unsafe to me; if you are forced swerve slightly they could take you out completely as your wheel hits them.

[Ascender]

Those little filter things are such a crap design. Apart from the fact they're usually fill of debris, they're so damn narrow. Most people cycling on the road will be doing a reasonable pace on a road or commuting bike. Seeing one of those? Give me a minute and I'll just slow down and aim for that small channel... Pedestrians don't usually even notice them and in poor weather, sod that for a laugh. I'll take up a primary position and make it clear to cars what I'm doing.

So much of this is down to a lack of good, segregated infrastructure for cyclists which just leads to conflict between different road users. Edinburgh is a prime example of where trying to keep everyone happy, in an old town, with limited space for vehicles, has ended up with a broken traffic system which suits nobody.

[Swervin_Mervin]

I don't think it's even a year old either. It's just a shit design, it can't be maintained using the standardised road sweeper equipment.

What they probably thought was that those bollards look fairly easily demountable, and that they'd just do that for maintenance. But then the maintenance team have enough on hteir plate/can't be arsed so it just doesn't get done.

[Mito Man]

It’s better than the London type ones which seems to be a plastic bollard every metre. So then whenever a taxi or Uber stops they stop right in the middle of the road. Queue a whole load of cars on the horn. Better yet the frequent bus breakdowns which entirely block and shut down a major part of the city
It’s genius because now you have an even more narrow road which is accompanying both pedestrians, mopeds, cyclists, cars and those gang owned Tuk tuk cycles.

[Gavster]

Another interesting vid from same bloke.

Traffic calming restriction ahead - including a cycle lane to allow cyclists to safely navigate, separated from the rest of the traffic. I will not use this. It is my RIGHT. Others must then yield due to THE HIERARCHY.

It's worth noting that his previous post, with the kid, was tagged #kingstoncycling. If he was filming in or around Kingston upon Thames, that's the area I grew up in, and is home to the most psychotically passive-aggressive road users in all of London and his behaviour fits that. I've lived all around London and driving ranges from easy going, to aggressive, or even dangerous, yet nothing matches the internalised anger of suburban residents of Kingston.

A friend visited me in a McMerc SLR in Kingston and then phoned me 11 minutes later to let me know he'd been called a wanker twice since leaving. Another friend's dad drove from Dijon in France to Surbiton and upon arrival said he'd had a lovely journey except for the last mile because everyone on the roads in this area is so uniquely angry. It's also the only place I've ever had to get out of my car to break up a fight in the middle of the road.

[Gavster]

If we're talking about cunts on the road, here's where I was overtaken recently, exactly where that Yaris is. If you look below their nearside wing mirror, you can see a fault in the road - it's a 6" deep pothole. As a cyclist, you have to keep to the right of it, and also it helps if you can avoid the clusterfuck of potholes on the road a few metres earlier. For him to overtake me exactly in that spot requires passing within inches of me and was plenty to get me properly fired up. I smacked his car with my fist as he went past, then followed him down the road to his destination, where I called him a cunt.

His response "It's your fault, you should have been in the bloody cycle lane"

WHAT FUCKING CYCLE LANE?

[duncs500]

Another interesting vid from same bloke.

Traffic calming restriction ahead - including a cycle lane to allow cyclists to safely navigate, separated from the rest of the traffic. I will not use this. It is my RIGHT. Others must then yield due to THE HIERARCHY.

Tbf, in that instance, he was well in the carriageway on the approach and it was fairly clear what his intentions were - she should have seen him coming. Don't have any issue with that. Lots of cyclists don't use the cycle lanes as quite often they're on the worst bit of the carraigeway where either the surface is fucked or there are knackered gullies.

I don't think I would have even thought about the fact that there was a little cycle lane there, would have seen the cyclist moving out, and knowing it was his right of way waited as appropriate (even if it wasn't but he was committed obviously you wait anyway TBH, that's just common sense really even if you might be more inclined to complain about it).

What I wanted to say about this is that all this shaming is a bit sad really. Ok if they get aggressive, but people also make mistakes. I was not in the best form the other day and made a error that caused someone to beep at me, no big issue, I waived my apology and carried on. It would be a bit sad if they then stuck the boot in on the Internet afterwards for views (and let's face it, most of these people are mainly motivated by views).