BS: Bleeping Cyclist

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Mr Red
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 03:17 AM

I had words from a lady as I was cutting her hedge. My reply was "Am I a citizen? Is this a right of way?" no more explanation.

narrow enclosed footpath, she was more worried about her privacy, to the point she didn't lop the tops of the fir trees and thus promote growth down lower, she still has privacy. I was concerned about kids hooning around on bikes that could be motorised. Health & safety, principally mine.

UK law allows any citizen to improve a public right of way and demands that landowners maintain their borders.

She slunk off saying "I don't like it" - I suspect she was a local councillor. She knew the law on both counts, that was clear.

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 10:30 AM

It's quite clear that it is putting people in cars that causes them to become law-breakers.

Steve has assured us that back when he was cycling thousands of miles per year he never once broke the rules of the road. But put him in a car and he regularly disregards speed limits (even if he's only been caught 4 times).

It is clearly the cars themselves that are the problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 10:45 AM

There is definitely something about getting into a car that can change some people's personalities for the worse. I was in town this afternoon when I saw a whole stream of cars moving slowly in convoy up the high street failing to let a young woman with a baby in a pushchair cross the road.

Well, Nigel, I don't watch my speedo enough I suppose but I don't exactly hare manically around the place.

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Charmion
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 01:17 PM

Driving at the speed limit can get one into more trouble than speeding would.

In this part of the world, drivers routinely exceed the speed limit by about ten percent, and often push it more. The pedant who cleaves to the magic number at all costs will provoke fellow motorists into some spectacularly risky behaviour, especially on a two-lane highway such as Highway 7 or 8, the main drags of Perth County.

I once witnessed a motorcyclist ride the white line between such a pedant and an on-coming tractor hauling a harrow, so desperate was he to get in front of that bastard determinedly doing 79 kph in an 80 kph zone.

As for cyclists, most of them scare me when I'm driving in the city. It's not just their blithe refusal to follow the rules of the road, but also their tendency to unpredictable -- and unsignalled -- movement. The last time I nearly killed a cyclist, he was riding toward me (the wrong way) on a one-way street, in the dark. His bike may have had reflectors, but I could not see them. Fortunately, he was wearing a light-coloured tee shirt. Otherwise, he'd be dead and I'd be in court, if not jail.

Children on bikes who abruptly jink off the sidewalk to cross the street in the middle of a block -- don't get me started.

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 03:54 PM

So you refuse to exceed the speed limit...what could that mean?

First, cars in the UK must have their speedos adjusted to be optimistic about speed. That's the law. Typically, a speedo will show around 10% above your actual speed. If your needle is stuck on 30, you are doing 26 or 27.

Second, so many of the non-speeders don't drive AT the speed limit as shown on their dial: they drive BELOW the speed limit.

Third, if you're an absolute stickler for the speed limit, it could mean that you're obsessed with watching your needle instead of the road ahead and behind.

Fourth, look in your mirror. If you're dragging your heels with an impatient convoy behind you, pull over. That's the morally correct thing to do. If you don't, you simply don't understand the failings of human nature that could lead to a horrible overtaking accident.

Fifth, you're not a policeman (unless you are a policeman). You don't have the right to impose your moral high horse on anyone else. Pull over. End of politically-incorrect rant.

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 04:51 PM

if you're an absolute stickler for the speed limit, it could mean that you're obsessed with watching your needle instead of the road ahead and behind.

Most modern cars have speed limiters. Once set, there is no need to keep watching the needle.

It's a limit, not a target. There is nothing moral about expecting someone to aid and abet others to break the law.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 06:06 PM

There's something very moral about doing your best to prevent serious overtaking accidents once you've managed to recognise that human beings behind the wheel can be impatient and inclined to take risks when, as they see it, they're stuck behind you. To take your argument into the absurd, you might as well say that you're aiding and abetting speeding by staying at home to watch the telly instead of going out in your car when you could be leading a convoy. It's safer all round to pull over and let them pass.

As for speed limiters, well it's four miles from my house into Bude. The speed limits on that route are 20, then 60, then 50, then 30, then 40, then 30. On the way home, the same in reverse. I'd be interested to hear how your speed limiter would handle that.

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 06:06 PM

HuwG:

"Cyclist fails to sign in to Google when he fails to recognise any image containing traffic lights."

I love it!

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 06:30 PM

The speed limits on that route are 20, then 60, then 50, then 30, then 40, then 30. ........ I'd be interested to hear how your speed limiter would handle that.

My car, a Honda Jazz, has two speed limiter settings:-

one where I set the limit manually, starting at the current road speed and then moving up or down in either 1 mph (short push) or 10 mph (longer push) using buttons on the steering wheel;

an 'intelligent' setting which reads the speed limit signs and adjusts the limit accordingly.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 07:11 PM

I had you down as a Honda Jazz man, Doug. We had one when it first came out. We traded it in when we realised that everybody else who had one was at least 30 years older than us. Anything more than an hour's drive in that thing had me needing back surgery and the short gearbox made the engine whine on the motorway. Awful thing, even though the clever back seats would let you fit a Ford Ka or something inside. I'm sure they've improved.

My Focus Titanium reads road signs but it lets me decide what to do about them. I haven't investigated whether the car can be set to decide what to do and I haven't got the faintest interest in finding out. I don't want lane assist, pre-crash assist, cruise control, telling me what gear I should be in or any of that paraphernalia. The most unintelligent thing about my car is the intelligent windscreen wipers. The problem seems to be that they don't actually know what rain is. And. The "automatic" headlights come in without fail in low, bright sun but never in fog. I do find parking sensors to be quite useful, though my son regards them as "a bit girlie." I can lock, unlock, start and stop my car without taking the key out of my pocket. My tailgate unlocks so that I don't have to put my shopping down in the dogshit while I grovel for a key. That's quite cool.

George Carlin:

"Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?"

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 25 Aug 23 - 04:12 AM

The most unintelligent thing about my car is .....

I always heard it as "..... the nut holding the steering wheel".
;-)

My wife has a Focus Vignale and its speed limiter system is even more sophisticated than mine. If you drive a Focus, then I’m amazed that you had to ask how the speed limiter would cope with the varying speed limits on your journey into town. Even if you don’t want to use the various driver assist functions, I would have thought that sheer curiosity would have made want to find out how they work. Such an outmoded attitude to the benefits of modern technology surprises me, given your scientific background.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Aug 23 - 05:20 AM

Mine is a C-Max with inbuilt satnav and has no speed limiter at all. Mind you it is 7 years old now although it is the last model of C-Max they made. The inbuilt Ford Sync satnav and sound system is crap!

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 23 - 06:49 AM

Vignale? Showoff! :-)

Mrs Steve has a 2018 Fiesta ST-line which is a delight. Oddly, though it's a smaller, lighter car than mine and is 100HP as opposed to my 125, it's slightly less economical, even in eco mode. And she's no speedster either! The one thing I don't like is that it's not happy in 6th gear unless you're doing at least 60.

Why should I have to investigate things that I wouldn't want in a million years, Doug? Life's too short. You'll be telling me next to get an automatic (I'd sooner rip me top off and staple me tit to a beehive...)

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 25 Aug 23 - 09:54 AM

Why should I have to investigate things that I wouldn't want in a million years, Doug?

Because it could save you a fine, points on your licence and possible increased insurance premiums. You have been caught 4 times. Why make it a 5th?

If you want to take account of the 10% under-reporting of your speedometer, then nudge it up a couple of mph. It's easy enough to flip it off, using the buttons on the steering wheel, if you need to get past a slow moving vehicle and then re-set it once you have completed your manoeuvre. Like all things, the more it is used, the less you have to think about it.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 23 - 10:18 AM

Four times in 55 years, Doug...

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 25 Aug 23 - 10:32 AM

Your choice! It's a tool - you are still in charge.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 25 Aug 23 - 12:26 PM

Todays 'brain dead' cyclist - rode in the wrong direction along a one way street, on the right hand side (for the cyclist) of the road. When he/she got to a delivery van stopped he/she instead of swerving into the path of the oncoming traffic decided to endanger pedestrians my mounting the pavement instead. I was safe, observing this all from yards away at a bus stop!!!

What is worse is their is no clause in the Highway Code instructing to only use the pavement with extreme caution when approach stopped high sided vehicles as oncoming cyclists going the wrong way down a one way street on the wrong side of the road may not be in a pedestrian's line of sight until too late. Worse than that, the local authority failed to put a hazard warning sign for pedestrians where the vehicle was stopped. (end of very random, possiblevery passive-aggressive stream of consciousness).

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Aug 23 - 12:54 PM

Like I said before, SPB, there are 'brain dead' in every group. I doubt very much that the proportion in cyclists is any higher than that in pedestrians, dog walkers, mobility scooter riders, drivers, nuns on roller skates or penguins on skateboards. Not whataboutery or making excuses. Just putting things in perspective. The other thing of course is that inconsiderate cyclists rarely cause death or serious injury. The same cannot be said about drivers. I tend to save my energy for the more serious transport abusers!

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 23 - 12:56 PM

1969: fined £8 for 47/30 in Bolton (Moss Bank Way) in my dad's Viva. I'd only just passed my test. I was extremely miffed when my dad was fined only £6 in the same month for doing the same speed on Bury New Road.

2002: fined £60 for 47/30 in Wiltshire, two minutes after I'd been tearily tending a grave. The nice cop asked me the unanswerable question: "Did you see the speed limit sign, sir?"

2010: speed awareness course with Dixon of Dock Green clone for doing 60 in an M5 roadworks with average speed cameras.

2019: fined £100 for 87/70 on A30 near Bodmin. Sunny morning, long straight downhill, no traffic. Mobile camera in police van. Saw him too late. That was the only one that significantly put up my insurance premium.

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 23 - 12:57 PM

Hey, Dave, aren't nuns on roller skates and penguins on skateboards virtually the same thing?

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Aug 23 - 01:52 PM

Damn! I have been rumbled.

Transfer to the joke thread

What is back, white and red?

A sunburnt penguin

An embarrassed nun

Or, if you excuse the spelling

A newspaper

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 25 Aug 23 - 04:34 PM

> aren't nuns on roller skates and penguins on skateboards virtually the
> same thing?

Try asking Linus Torvalds that .... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 23 - 06:05 PM

I'm struggling a bit with that, MJTF (may I call you that?)...

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 26 Aug 23 - 02:53 AM

Techie joke, Steve. Torvalds developed the operating system Linux. The symbol of which is a penguin

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Aug 23 - 04:05 AM

Ahah. I knew about the Linux bit but not the penguin bit... Every day's a school day!

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 26 Aug 23 - 06:44 AM

There's an entanglement of history to Linux's logo brand character ....

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 30 Aug 23 - 03:31 PM

Just remebered a little incident I had only a couple of months back locally when 3 drivers decided to try and kill me!

Nutters

It is little wonder that cyclists feel safer off the road when drivers cannot give way to cyclists even when the cyclist has the right of way.

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 30 Aug 23 - 03:35 PM

BTW, before you ask, I did send the footage to the police. This was their response.

Thank you for your submission to Op Snap, sent on:
2023-05-29

This submission has now been reviewed and the following decision has been made :
No further action to be taken

As no further action will be taken, our justification is below along with any other comments:
Reference DV66EYA, MF15WWV & CN22BWA. Unfortunately this submission has gone time expired due to resource issues and a rapid increase in submissions so we have been unable to process this within the time limit. Please note it has still been logged for reference purposes.

Kind regards,

OpSnap

So basically, the police get so many reports of shit driving that they cannot action them all. :-(

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 05:25 AM

Well, long before the era of dashcams, helmet cams or handlebar cams (or whatever cams), I was cycling home from Holsworthy to Bude one afternoon and had just reached Holsworthy golf course when the no 9 bus overtook me so close that I had to tuck my elbows in, ride in the gutter and shut my eyes praying for deliverance until he'd passed. I'd clearly been invisible to him despite my hi-viz Sam Browne belt. My shaking at this near-death encounter turned to rage and I rang the police when I got home, thinking that the bus driver could easily be identified (there were only four buses a day).

Nothing happened for weeks, then one night as I was putting the cat out (it was 11.45 pm!) a police patrol car pulled into our drive. Oh my God, who's dead, have they finally twigged which four-year-old shoplifted that licorice Penny Arrow in 1955...

"Er, everything OK, Chief Inspector...?"

"Yes, I just happened to be passing at the end of me shift so I thought I'd report back on your complaint about the bus driver...." (We are over half a mile down farm lanes from tge

The police had contacted the bus company, who had tracked down the driver and questioned him. He'd said that he had no recollection of the incident and didn't remember seeing a cyclist (!) Unfortunately, as there'd been no witnesses the police were unable to take the matter further.

I was very impressed with the police's response - but a cop car pulling into your drive at quarter to midnight!!

(I made up the Penny Arrow bit, by the way...)

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 05:28 AM

from the main road. Sheesh!

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Mr Red
Date: 04 Sep 23 - 03:16 AM

Well, Nigel, I don't watch my speedo enough I suppose but I don't exactly hare manically around the place.

Fit a dash cam and you may well find you do notice speed limits. In the event, if Mr Plod sees the camera, he would commandeer the SD card. And knowing that is a sobering thought. IME

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Sep 23 - 03:52 AM

My car dashboard shows the speed limit on the road I'm on, except when it's the national 60/70 limit, when it doesn't. .

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: BobL
Date: 04 Sep 23 - 04:07 AM

Too many points for comfort are a good incentive to self-train in speedo watching...

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 04 Sep 23 - 04:40 AM

I was in Lodon at the weekend and visited the West End theatre land. The cyclists are well provided for with their own cycle lanes and pretty much behaved themselves, from what I could see, apart from one young lady who let the side down by hurtling downhill on Haymarket and went straight through the red light at great speed when pedestrian were actually using the crossing.

Most of the pedestrians seemed to recognise their vulnerability and waited for the green signal to cross, although there were a few who crossed to islands against the red man if there were no cars bearing down on them.

What did give problems were the roller skaters on Victoria Embankment. They were old enough to know better but hopped on and off the curb, from the footpath to the cycle lane, at will, zig-zagging in front of pedestrians and cyclists alike.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 04 Sep 23 - 05:19 AM

Were there any nuns on roller skates?

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 04 Sep 23 - 05:24 AM

There might have been some penguins on skateboards but I was too busy avoiding the middle-aged men to notice.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Raggytash
Date: 05 Sep 23 - 02:33 PM

This morning waiting at a T junction with traffic lights waiting to turn left a cyclist going my way came passed me on the opposite carriage way (double white lines) went the wrong way round a traffic island just before the lights, got to the front of the queue cut across the car there and then turned left through a red light.

Had I done that in my car I would have broken at least 3 traffic rules and ended up with at least 9 points on my licence.

It is little wonder that car drivers get p****d off with them

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 06 Sep 23 - 04:41 AM

He was an idiot but he is more likely to kill himself than kill someone else.

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 06 Sep 23 - 04:45 AM

I have just read that speed limits do not apply to cyclists. That is crazy!

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 06 Sep 23 - 05:54 AM

Most bikes aren’t fitted with speedometers, so cyclists can’t be charged with speeding offences. They could, however, be charged with ‘wanton or furious cycling’ if they are considered to be going too fast for the conditions.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 06 Sep 23 - 06:21 AM

I arrived home by bus yesterday afternoon and was about to get off on the pedestrian only side of the road. The bus had stopped at the bus stop, the doors were open and I was making my towards the exit, with a guitar case in one hand and a bag in the other, when an electric scooter went wizzing by on the footpath from behind the bus. A few seconds difference and there would have been a serious accident as he couldn't see if passengers were getting off and there was no way he could have stopped in time. He was not wearing a helmet or any other form of protection that I could see.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 06 Sep 23 - 08:30 AM

Another idiot Doug! Maybe the guitar case could have nudged him :-D

Cyclists can also be charged with dangerous cycling. From "The Independant"

They can however be charged with dangerous cycling under the 1988 Road and Traffic Act Section 28, which sets out that an offence has been committed if “the way they ride falls far below what could be expected of a competent and careful cyclist”.

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Charmion
Date: 06 Sep 23 - 08:59 AM

Another problematic electric scooter!

Proof positive that, in the wrong hands, the most beneficial gadget can be a source of chaos.

Whenever I see one, I think how handy it could be for doing my messages ... But no. I'd end up dead on Ontario Street, half-way home from the supermarket.

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 06 Sep 23 - 09:06 AM

My second eldest and his pal decided to hire electric scooters on their way home from the pub once night. They were returned to the hire point in 2 minutes and he still has the bruises!

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Charmion
Date: 06 Sep 23 - 09:21 AM

When I lived in Germany, back in the Cold War, my favourite menace to navigation was a middle-aged woman on a moped, heading home from work with her basket brimming with briefcase, office shoes and supper ingredients, steering with one hand and using the other to secure the load. Typically, this person would find her place in the heavy Hauptstrasse traffic right spung in my blind spot, from which she would erupt without warning (Signal? Never!) to rocket through the tiniest imaginable gap between Landkreuzwagons and disappear in the general direction of suburbia.

I wondered where they trained -- the Wall of Death?

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Thompson
Date: 08 Sep 23 - 02:56 PM

More or less universally, studies of road law breaking show cyclists break far fewer laws, and break the law fewer times, than motorists.
Virtually all bicycles sold today (apart from folding bikes) have disc brakes, which make it possible to stop not just on a dime but on a nickel.
Most road deaths, by a spectacular level of difference, are caused by four-wheeled motorised vehicles. The same with most life-changing injuries.

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Thompson
Date: 08 Sep 23 - 03:17 PM

Incidentally… 
I've been cycling around or about 70 years now. But it's only in the last couple of years that people in cars, and to an extent people walking, have become really horrible to me.
Now, as I cycle along, people in cars jab their fingers to the side of the road, incorrectly telling me that this is where I should be cycling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phNMzsRrbNU
People drive too close to me if I'm wearing a helmet (unless, oddly, I'm carrying visible greenery or flowers on the back). If I *don't wear a helmet, my grey locks are no impediment to their impertinence in lecturing me about why I should.
Where did this nasty enmity come from?

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 08 Sep 23 - 05:47 PM

I think it's covid!

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 08 Sep 23 - 05:47 PM

And 99...

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping Cyclist
From: Thompson
Date: 09 Sep 23 - 02:33 AM

Could be. People are indignant about all kinds of surprising things, and they're buying (*where* do they get the money?) giant tank-like cars that can scarcely be possible to drive safely, but must make them feel safe inside in the dark there with only their phone.