At the lights on a three lane one way street. Lorry in the left lane, cyclist on leftside of middle lane, me on right side middle lane, coach in right hand lane signalling right. Cyclist pushes off while lights still red, I follow when they change. I am positioned to pass him but just as I reach him he decides to trun right. No signal, no glance over the shoulder, nothing that could have given me any warning. With a coach coming up on my right I have no option but to slam on the brakes and run into him. We both stay upright and without a word he simply pedals off to the right. No damage to my bike - just a mirror swivelled out of adjustment.
At the time I did everything to avoid hurting him but now I hope he has a least a bruise to remind him of me.
We need to get one of those little rubber stamps made up like they used to have on WWII aeroplanes. Every time you club one of the idiots over cos they didn’t look or indicate you get another stamp on your bike…
A lot of cyclists ride like goons but that doesn’t mean we should start treating them like 2nd class road users. Remember - that’s how a lot of 4-wheeled road users treat us. Passing the unpleasantness down another link in the food chain doesn’t reflect well on bikers.
Treat cyclists with respect (apart from the drunken ones who try to ride past you when you’re turning left - it’s OK to run them down; a policeman told me that it was.)
There was an A4 poster attached to the post of the traffic lights at Old Street roundabout last week, it read something like, “Every time a cyclist jumps a red light, God strangles a kitten.”
