There have been a few posts re cyclists of recent and I wanted to let you guys know the following.
We have a Danish guy who is new to our company and new to cycling in London. Denmark, like Holland, is big on cycling and he said he finds that cyclists in London are dangerous and oblivious to traffic rules. He says that although there is no offical bicycle licencing system in Denmark - as there is in Holland and Sweden - there are very clear cycling regulations such as: no filtering between cars or moving across to the right hand lane. Any infraction of these rules is punishable by on the spot fines.
London, and the UK generally, should surely be on the heels of Europe by introducing clear cycling regulations and a possible licencing system. If it can work over there, it certainly can work here.
That’s so true, i have been by bike in Holand and they are in a different league like the car drivers in France, the ciclists are much better. This sort of behaviour should definitely be incentivated by the goverment!
That sounds like a fair systems, RiderK4. Why should they be excluded from the laws of the road? If it helps reduce accidents and frustration, then it has to be good, no? Also, the government should love another stealth-tax system.
Kinda torn about this. On the one hand it makes perfect sense, but on the other hand they’re bloody self righteous enough already, and I get the feeling that they’d be so much worse if licenced/insured/taxed etc.
Yeah, but apart from cyclists jumping the lights, weaving down the road, crashing into Cezars bike, cutting everyone up, flouting the law at every opportunity, what harm have they done to us?
Just think about it! You can walk into any cycle shop and buy a bike for as little as 60 quid. Then you can get it and go straight away in the road without even the need to know what a red traffic light means! Let alone other non basic but not less important traffic rules.
What you forgot to mention, K4, is that in Denmark (and the rest of Scandinavia) and Holland, there are cycle paths everywhere, as well as secure parking. Here, if the cyclists are ‘lucky’ enough to have a cycle path, it’s often very badly asphalted, some even have a tree bang in the middle of them. Hence, they have no option but to cycle among the other other traffic.
We’re hoping that those bigger than us look out for us, so how about we extend the same courtesy to those even more vulnerable than us?
Yes cyclists do flout the law but on my daily commute into London I ses just as many motorcyclists who are equally as bad as cyclists. Riding down charing cross road yesterday evening I saw motorcyclists jump red lights, ride around crossings on the wrong side of the road because they couldn’t be arsed to wait a couple of seconds behind a car, even a muppet on a scooter rode on the pavement! When I started commuting into london last year on my bike I thought it would be the cars I needed to be wary of, but the near misses I have had have been with other riders who ride like morons. Nine times out of ten they perform some stupid undertake or overtake only for me to catch up with them at the next set of lights a few second later. No advantage gained!
Before we as bikers, are so critical of cyclists we should take a good look at our own riding.
Im still not convinced that cyclists cause that much of a problem. It certainly appears on here that there is but personally ive had very little problem with them and i`ve done plenty of mileage.
It reminds me of the argument about taxi drivers and there were many of you on here who put them down. Personally i`ve literally never had a problem with them and found their driving to be of a high standard and skill.
I see the main problem on the road being the average driver who has little skill, observation, anticipation and consideration.
I actually couldn’t agree more with you on that! Problems exist in both sides the only thing that makes it unfair is the fact that there’s no law watching out for the cyclists errors.
Cyclist are supposed to adhere to the same laws of the road as everyone else. Just seems like they can get away with a lot more as they don’t have a number plate and don’t seem to care if the trash their bike. That said I did see a cyclist stopped by a copper a couple of days ago near Lambeth Bridge for cycling on the pavament. I believe they can now be issued with on the spot fines for this.
I agree with TheLoneGunman on this and was thinking about posting something similar.
How many times have you changed lanes with indicating?
How many times have you filtered, slightly on the wrong side of the centre line and forced oncoming traffic to move over?
How many times have you accidently knocked a car’s rear view mirror when filtering? Did you stop and apologise?
Motorcyclists are not lilly white either.
Bicyclists have just as much right to use the road as anyone else.
There are some that blatantly flout the law, but there are many who do not too. Many who stop at red lights. Many who signal their turning intentions.
If there were more people on two wheels - motorised and leg powered - wouldn’t the city be a better place?
