Stupid Pedestrian!

[Tumble]

It helps to know *just* where to push an oncoming bike without damaging yourself. I've only done that once - walking down the pedestrianised area of town some years back and a bunch of chavs were generally being idiots (as per). I had a pop at one of them because they were behaving properly anti-socially, and shouldn't even have been riding as it was quite busy. Anyhoo, after about 5 minutes they came back the other way, so I stood right in front of the lead chav, ducked out of the way at the last second and gently tagged the end of his left bar as he sailed past. Nothing quite as satisfying as a crumpled heap of whimpering Adidas

They all got off and walked

[razer121]

It helps to know *just* where to push an oncoming bike without damaging yourself. I've only done that once - walking down the pedestrianised area of town some years back and a bunch of chavs were generally being idiots (as per). I had a pop at one of them because they were behaving properly anti-socially, and shouldn't even have been riding as it was quite busy. Anyhoo, after about 5 minutes they came back the other way, so I stood right in front of the lead chav, ducked out of the way at the last second and gently tagged the end of his left bar as he sailed past. Nothing quite as satisfying as a crumpled heap of whimpering Adidas

They all got off and walked

Now that would have been a sight to see

[shelley bda]

Car-drivers can be just as worse.

Why is it some of them park on the fuggin' pavement so close to their wall/fence/privets that to get passed you have to actually walk around the car on the road to get passed?

It seems some car owners do not give a diddly about people with prams or buggys walking on the pavement as they think they own the road just because of the road tax levied upon them.

I encountered this the other day while out walking with a group of children from work, we came across someones 4x4 parked fully on the pavement which left us no room, there were two blokes leaning on the vehicle talking, they saw me there with my charges and didn't offer to move it etc, I assume one of them owned it! afterall why would they be leaning on it??? after instructing my littlies we waited while the road was clear of cars to walk into the road around it, at just that moment a Police car drove past, saw us and slowed down, after helping us around the car, he drove off and turned around.... I can only assume he told the driver to shift it as when we walked back the car was parked on the road

[KBeee]

If you're doing any sort of speed, you should be using the road. I had an accident due to signage on a bike lane (there wasn't any), so now I stick to the roads. You still get idiots wandering out in front of you, so I bought one of the airhorns above. It's REALLY loud -115dB. For reference, a jackhammer is ~ 120dB and danger of hearing damage starts at around 125. People really shift when they hear it.

Unfortunately the first time I really needed to use it, I hit the horn and there was no reaction from the two girls wandering around in front of me. I passed them and they were signing to each other. Completely deaf. True story.

No, I quite believe it - cyclists will often SHOUT/HONK/SWEAR at pedestrians before they steam through a red light or pedestrian crossing - usually calling them "Jaywalkers" cos they learned all their law from US TV shows

[HSK]

I cycle on the pavement on my way on to work, but the thing is, our main (bath) road is pretty big, and the pavements are clearly marked for both people and cyclists. They still get annoyed even if you're in the cycle lanes!

[peterb]

I was pleasantly surprised today to find three cyclists stopped at the red light on the pedestrian crossing on Westminster Bridge Road (outside St Thomas's for those that know the area). Usually a place where cyclists like to play dodgems with pedestrians on the crossing!

[HSK]

^ I think they're enforcing on-the-spot fines now in central for riders who jump the lights!

[TheAnimus]

You shouldn't have swerved, landing on people (kids excluded of course) is softer than tarmac. If it happens again simply throw your arms around them and let gravity take its course.

I was out cycling the other day when I was stopped by a woman who said her off-the-leash dog hates bikes; sure enough, when she called it over, it went ballistic. I treated it to one of my special kung fu style cleat kicks and apologised for forgetting to mention that I am a cyclist that doesn't like dogs that attack me.

Yelp is such a satisfying sound.

Just saw this...... The scary thing is this Santa post, it could have been written by me.

[santa claus]

just saw this...... The scary thing is this santa post, it could have been written by me.

..

[Dingo]

Why can't people pay attention? It's a cycle lane for a reason!
Fell off my bike on the way home because some idiot stepped into the cycle lane without looking,

Ooh, don't get me started......If I had a pound for every cyclist who either refuses or is just too plain stupid to look behind themselves before pulling out to overtake parked cars.......and then have the gall to imagine it is every motorised vehicle driver's "responsibility" to ensure they don't get hurt!!.

Pedestrians and Cyclists.......clearly spawned the film title Dumb and Dumber!!

[Rave]

Ooh, don't get me started......If I had a pound for every cyclist who either refuses or is just too plain stupid to look behind themselves before pulling out to overtake parked cars.......and then have the gall to imagine it is every motorised vehicle driver's "responsibility" to ensure they don't get hurt!!.

Hang on- you can't 'overtake' a parked car, you can merely ride round it. The alternative to 'pulling out' is that cyclists stay right out in the flow of traffic all the time restricting all traffic to 10-15mph, all the time. Would you prefer that? Because they have a legal right to do so.

Read the road. It's not hard to spot when a cyclist is going to have to go round a parked car. If there's no space to overtake them while they're going round, then let off the throttle 30-50 yards in advance and you usually won't even have to use your brakes.

For the record, nowadays I do 10x more miles in a car than I do on a bike, but I used to cycle everywhere. As a car driver, I can't remember the last time a cyclist caused me more than a moment's inconvenience- except when other stupid car drivers failed to plan ahead and had to slam on the brakes . This is not because I'm a 'bimble everywhere at 5-10mph below the speed limit' driver- I like to 'make progress'.

As it happens, an ability to read the road has meant that I've never had a car v. bike accident (well not one that caused me to fall off my bike at least*) and I haven't had any sort of accident in a car for 8 years, hence my 8 years NBC aged 31.

* I once got my back wheel nudged sideways by a woman in a Metro who'd shot round a car that was turning right- which I was using as cover for my own right turn across traffic. But since I'd been skidding a BMX from the age of 6 I just countersteered and gave her a dirty look.

[Lucio]

Ooh, don't get me started......If I had a pound for every cyclist who either refuses or is just too plain stupid to look behind themselves before pulling out to overtake parked cars.......and then have the gall to imagine it is every motorised vehicle driver's "responsibility" to ensure they don't get hurt!!.

Pedestrians and Cyclists.......clearly spawned the film title Dumb and Dumber!!

To be honest it *is* the motorists responsbility to avoid accidents, all road users have a basic duty of care towards other road users, hence why things like "Dangerous Driving" and "Driving without due care and attention" are criminal offenses.


TBH, lack of consideration for other road users is what causes a good chunk of accidents. Case in point, driving home from a friends house, M25 went from 4 lanes to one, clearly marked 3 miles back with plenty of time to merge. 90% of drivers got into the queue and trundled along at 20mph, a small minority decided to ignore the signs, blitz along at 80mph until they hit the cones and then push into the queue of traffic, slowing things down for everybody.

[Rave]

Case in point, driving home from a friends house, M25 went from 4 lanes to one,o be honest it *is* the motorists responsbility to avoid accidents, all road users have a basic duty of care towards other road users, hence why things like "Dangerous Driving" and "Driving without due care clearly marked 3 miles back with plenty of time to merge. 90% of drivers got into the queue and trundled along at 20mph, a small minority decided to ignore the signs, blitz along at 80mph until they hit the cones and then push into the queue of traffic, slowing things down for everybody.

I never let people like that in, and it gets right on my nerves if I'm behind a driver that does. In Germany, nearly everybody gets in line in time, and the traffic flows smoothly as a result. Apparently people who try to push in get properly stranded, because it's impossible to push in to a smoothly flowing queue of 30-40mph traffic.

[badass]

I never let people like that in, and it gets right on my nerves if I'm behind a driver that does.

The most efficient way is always to merge in turn. If everyone lined up in advance of the bottleneck and then merged in turn, all that would ever happen is that traffic speed drops by up to 1/2 the previous speed. Not too bad really. They keep trying this - the police advise this - they have signs saying "please merge in turn" near where the merging is necessary and going way up and yet still the utterly stupid queuing obsessed british public all make it into one long queue that stops and starts. Then they get really angry when someone actually does follow the rules and uses the clear lane.

[Rave]

The most efficient way is always to merge in turn. If everyone lined up in advance of the bottleneck and then merged in turn, all that would ever happen is that traffic speed drops by up to 1/2 the previous speed. Not too bad really. They keep trying this - the police advise this - they have signs saying "please merge in turn" near where the merging is necessary and going way up and yet still the utterly stupid queuing obsessed british public all make it into one long queue that stops and starts. Then they get really angry when someone actually does follow the rules and uses the clear lane.

Yeah? I've never seen a sign like that. All I've ever seen are signs a half and then a again quarter of a mile out advising that the motorway will be going from three lanes to one. I rarely have occasion to drive motorways at peak times; I generally can choose to travel in the evenings when it's quiet. And it massively cheeses me off when I hit a queue of traffic at 9pm on a Sunday evening because a few idiots ignore the warning posted half a mile back and stay in the lane that's going to disappear- and then other idiots stop to let them in in front of them.

You don't have a right to change lane at will. If everyone was like me- as they apparently are in Germany- the selfish gits who scoot down the the front of the queue assuming that some muppet will stop and let them in will soon learn.

One of my favourite memories from my teenage years is when my mum was driving my brothers and I down to my Grandad's in Somerset in our 2CV. The A303 for reasons I forget had a section of the dual carriageway reduced to one lane. 90% of people read the signs and got in line, but a regular stream of dickheads went down the outside with a view to pushing in, which obviously caused the queue to grind to a complete halt. When we got to the front of the queue, a Rover 414 or similar appeared on the outside and attempted to push in front of the car in front of us. He didn't give way. Never mind, thought Rover man, I'll pull in in front of this 2CV instead.

But my mum, and I will forever love her for this, just sat on the bumper of the car in front with great skill. Rover man just couldn't get his nose in front. Sadly the car behind wasn't as principled as us and let him in, but on the plus side that meant we kids could wave at him all the way through the section of roadworks.

Happy days.

Edit to say that: merge in turn is a fine principle for when two or more lanes merge into one, and I generally follow it quite scrupulously, except when some knob in the lane in front of me has dithered and allowed cars that I know for a fact joined the queue long after me to get alongside me. In that situation I stand my ground.

[Oobie-]

Should have plowed into him, that way he gets injured too.