Do cyclists need regulation?

[aidanjt]

Well you could apply that logic to the driver of any vehicle. "I thought it was safe to do so (until I collided with......)"

A car isn't a bicycle.

[peterb]

A car isn't a bicycle.

That is very observant of you!

[santa claus]

Cycling on the roads in the UK is dangerous. If you're going to do it, do it like this:

1. All road users are a potential danger; always ride defensively.

2. Other road users see you as a cyclist, not as a dad or mum or teenager or child, so expect to be treated with disdain, impatience and unbridled hatred.

3. Always assume that motorists have not seen you; that is usually the basis of their defence in court (if the emergency services have managed to scrape enough of you off the tarmac).

4. Command roadspace. All of it. You do not belong in the gutter, so don't ride there.

5. Slow down the traffic as much as you can. Things are safer for you at lower speeds.

6. Ignore traffic lights when you know it is safe to do so. The lights are there for motorised vehicles not you. You also need to get hell out of the way of that blindspot girls.

7. Always filter to the front of traffic queues and make full use of the Advanced Cycle Zone. If a motorist is on the Zone, pull in front of him/her and leisurely ride away when the lights change. This is a good one.

8. Where motorists ignore cycle lanes, squeeze through, apparently gingerly, but clipping as many wing mirrors as possible along the way.

9. Ignore cycle lanes that are poorly maintained. They are a danger to your bike and your health.

10. Don't be put off by the presence of police. They don't have time to worry about cycling misdemeanours.

11. Use the pavement. Do watch out for pedestrians but they should know the score by now.

12. Never swerve to avoid uncontrolled dogs. It is possible to severely injure an errant hound if you keep your nerve and get it right. If you are unseated, make a meal out of it and get the pooch put down.

13. Use lights; don't give them any excuses.

14. If a vehicle so much as brushes you, throw yourself dramatically onto the shiny paintwork as an immediate punishment. Let them take you to court for damages. Arrive with a limp.

15. Spit. Especially that stringy spit that sticks to side windows (which can't be removed by the windscreen wiper).

Of course, we could forget all this if motorists would just be more careful . Hrhrhrhr!

[Geist]

Such traffic controls are for heavy lumbering vehicles. Any cyclist can easily, and legally, dismount, get up the kerb, bypass the lights, and push off. Only that is less safe than actually continuing if you judge doing so is safe. You say it's unacceptable, I say it's absurd absolutism to apply motor regs to cycling.

Maybe I have miss-interpreted this but you seem to be saying that it's fine for motorbikes or scooters to go through red lights as well? I don't ride but it can't be hard to switch the engine off.(?) They can of course do all the things you have said. I'm not sure I'd call my Clio 172 a heavy lumbering vehicle either but I'm ignoring that we are comparing that to bikes.

I don't cycle to work as I would be on the exact same roads as I drive and I don't feel safe. This being Edinburgh it is not possible to have proper cycle lanes retrofitted due to the existing layout. The lanes that are here are normally along the gutters with even more pot-holes than in the centre of the road.

I get annoyed by cyclists daily with the sheer bloody-mindedness that many seem to have.

I get annoyed by motorists daily with the sheer bloody-mindedness that many seem to have.

I feel due to cyclists been the minority that the focus is put on them over other road users. I've thought for years that the driving test needs to be changed and upgraded but that's another topic.

When bicycles first appeared was there not a test needed to use them? Was it not when they became common that this stopped? (may be completely wrong with this...)

[Englander]

I've been riding around a a fair bit lately, especially in the evenings when it is dark. I notice that an awful lot of cyclists set their lights to flash, whereas I opt to have my lights on constantly. Is there any convention over whether to have the lights flashing vs constant other than saving battery life?

[Flibb]

Th normal reason for having flashing lights is that they tend to be more visible to asleep drivers, rather than battery saving. I have a mixture of both

[MaddAussie]

Its simple really the highway code is there for the safety of ALL road users, end of.

If you are a road user you obey the rules of the road, any type of road user, driver, cyclist or pedestrian.

Yes stupid people do stupid things on the road but as a responsible road user you should be aware of your surroundings.

As for cyclists running red lights (especially pedestrian crossings) on the spot fines. 3 times while walking in London I've almost been hit by a cyclist while crossing on a pedestrian crossing, in fact once the cyclist brushed my hand he was that close.

[Alex]

If the OP is unbiased then I'm a Chinaman.

Not quite sure what you mean by this tbh.

As a cyclist I feel that motorists often don't pay the attention they should to cyclists and feel they own the road.

As a motorist I often see cyclists who cycle without any lights or helmet, rarely signal and sometimes pull unexpected maneuvers.

I'm equally annoyed by bad driving and bad cycling, though I'm sure at times in my life I've been guilty of both, like most of us

[santa claus]

Not quite sure what you mean by this tbh.

Ok, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. I've withdrawn the comment

One of my real concerns is that regulation will discourage participation and I'm talking about kids here. Air quality is poor, obesity is..erm...growing, traffic congestion increasing. At the very least we can expect gridlock.

And you're suggesting we make it harder to get on a bike? Are we stupid or something? We should be giving bikes away for free.

[Mono0405]

I've been cycling in London for 2 years now, and i feel there should definitely be some kind of regulation. A test for new cyclists would probably be the best idea.

There are just so many crazy cyclists out there, who storm across a crossroads at a red light, don't have lights/reflective clothes etc. I unfortunately had to learn the hard way how to cycle safely. Basically assume that all drivers are pigs and give them room. The cyclist in that BBC video was an idiot. Sure, he may have been following the rules of the road and the driver was a dick, but he should have just slowed down and let the van pass.

Not to mention all those fatties out there slowing down rush hour cycle traffic...

I say subsidise gym memberships and have a safety/fitness test for london cyclists.

[TheAnimus]

Thing is on the beeb video, right from the start you see a double decker blocking the cycle box.

Ultimately that guy could have just slowed down and let the van pass, but he shouldn't be asked too. The attitude of that other person who is actively endangering someoneelse is just reprehensible. The stealth dickheads are for the majority of the time going to injure themselves.

People complain about cyclists jumping red lights, but when people have filled the box, often its safer to go when its green for pedestrians, safer for the cyclist obviously. Occasionally cyclists do hit pedestrians, I myself hit a lady in Lussene who walked out backwards onto a crossing, there was a trolly bus to my left so I had no where to go but into her (and with my 3 day pack on the bike, stopping was slow). She was fine, not even a scrape on her. I don't know of anyone who has even come close to hitting a ped when crossing illegally at a red light because your alert and only doing it when its safe because you know its naughty.

[peterb]

Unfortunately the real problem is that which seems to affect all aspects of society, a lack of tolerance for other people and a selfish 'me' attitude. Car (and lorry) drivers seem to regard their 'right' to use the rioad as all imoportant and many seem to pay scant regard to other more vulnerable users such as cyclists or pedestrians. Their journey is the most important thing to them.

Many (not all) cyclists seem to regard car drivers as 'the enemy' and don't always realise that cars have blind spots and they have as much 'right' to use the road as the next person - whether they are in a 32 ton truck or a smart car.

So - having got that off my chest, excuse me while I lean on the car horn at the truck driver in the outside lane travelling at 60.1 mph overtaking (on a hill) his mate travelling at 59.7 mph. Grrrr!

[Mono0405]

Thing is on the beeb video, right from the start you see a double decker blocking the cycle box.

Ya, people dont care about the ASLs in London If drivers do that I just stop in front of them and start as slowly as possible to piss them off jk.

But yeah, if the lights are red but it is safe to go, I will always go. Although I only do this at junctions I know well i.e. knowing the light change timings.

tbh when pedestrians get hurt, it is usually their own fault. They don't think about bicyles so if there is stationary traffic, they walk onto the road without looking (sometimes without stationary traffic too ).

[chadders]

I thought you had to do cycling proficiency tests at infant/primary/junior school, I remember doing that a long time ago - have they got rid of it?

[Mono0405]

It was optional for me (like 15 years ago) so not many people did it. I'm not sure about state school though.

[HSK]

I failed my cycling proficiency test, because my chain was too tight (I adjusted it in the morning for no reason). This was in infant school lol.

I want to take it again