Are drivers becoming more intolerant?

TheCyclingRooster wrote:

This issue has been debated several times over the years and on several cycle related forums.

I am a lone cyclist and have been for many many years having built and ridden many bikes from the naked frames on both fixed wheel and 5,6,7,8,9 and 10spd Campagnolo and Shimano drive chains.

As a 72 years+ still active cyclist I can only really speak truthfully from the perspective of both the cyclist and a car driver;of which I am.

I live out in rural Bescar,Scarisbrick,West Lancashire and see/suffer and see what goes on on a daily basis when the ‘make believe’ Peloton takes over the narrow country lanes.

I have no choice but to use these lanes in order to access the main routes through the local area.

Bunching up and several abreast is common place and stupidly when negotiating the many bends that often only permit the careful passing of one car in each direction and many with ‘Traffic Calming’ measures and especially the many many narrowings – these are often approached in the style of ‘Suicide Jockies’ or exponents of Kamikaze practices.

I often wonder whether the cyclists of today have ever read the Highway Code and the sections that allude to cyclists in particular or do they work on the premise that the car driver is always guilty/at fault until proven otherwise in a court of law.

I currently have two bikes – one a 51cm Steve Goff dropped bars and the other a 50cm Bianchi Via Nirone 7 Alu Carbon built as a Flatbar Hybrid. They were both built from naked frames and both run on 10spd Campagnolo with Triple Stronglight Chainrings and 140mm Thorn (SJS Cycles) cranks.

you need to brush up on what is safe and what isn’t, what is tolerable and what isn’t. Sorry but your ‘have they read the Highway Code’ is pathetic, you should be asking that of motorists seeing as they break it massively every day and hence why they are deemed solely at fault (even by a motorcentric police force) around 75% of the time for incidents involving people on bikes for cyclists. The HC is massivlry flawed, out of date and has always had a motorbias slant to it favouring the uninterrupted progress of killers, sorry motorists at the expense of safety for vulnerable road users.

Go have a read why overtaking on a bend is not acceptable, why two/three abreast is acceptable and indeed increases safety of people riding bikes as well as that of the motorists not to mention decreasing the overtaking time.

I own 10 bikes, from a 50s Reynolds 531 to a pro level carbon build, I’ve built up hundreds of bikes and have ridden about 200,000 miles over 32-33 years since I actively started commuting/riding more seriously, so going by your continual reference to bikes owned/built I think I trump you and thus my ‘wisdom’ is greater than yours

This issue has been debated

This issue has been debated several times over the years and on several cycle related forums.

I am a lone cyclist and have been for many many years having built and ridden many bikes from the naked frames on both fixed wheel and 5,6,7,8,9 and 10spd Campagnolo and Shimano drive chains.

As a 72 years+ still active cyclist I can only really speak truthfully from the perspective of both the cyclist and a car driver;of which I am.

I live out in rural Bescar,Scarisbrick,West Lancashire and see/suffer and see what goes on on a daily basis when the ‘make believe’ Peloton takes over the narrow country lanes.

I have no choice but to use these lanes in order to access the main routes through the local area.

Bunching up and several abreast is common place and stupidly when negotiating the many bends that often only permit the careful passing of one car in each direction and many with ‘Traffic Calming’ measures and especially the many many narrowings – these are often approached in the style of ‘Suicide Jockies’ or exponents of Kamikaze practices.

I often wonder whether the cyclists of today have ever read the Highway Code and the sections that allude to cyclists in particular or do they work on the premise that the car driver is always guilty/at fault until proven otherwise in a court of law.

I currently have two bikes – one a 51cm Steve Goff dropped bars and the other a 50cm Bianchi Via Nirone 7 Alu Carbon built as a Flatbar Hybrid. They were both built from naked frames and both run on 10spd Campagnolo with Triple Stronglight Chainrings and 140mm Thorn (SJS Cycles) cranks.

Duncann wrote:

hawkinspeter wrote:

vonhelmet wrote:

This morning I was waiting at the lights st a crossroads. The driver opposite wanted to turn right, so across my path. The lights turned green so I moved off. She drove and made to turn them had to wait for me, and sat there shaking her head at me. Like, what?

Can’t you just ‘share the road’ with her? It’d only hold you up for a few seconds to let her go first.

That’s an odd comment. W

e don’t have the exact details of this particular situation but there’s ovbiously no obligation to waive your priority, and it can be confusing and potentially dangerous – perhaps particularly on a bike where you don’t ‘control’ the space as much as in a car (and the consequences of a collision are much more serious). 

Caught another one!

I reckon car drivers have got
I reckon car drivers have got more tolerant since I habitually started using a camera. I’m not sure the car drivers realise it is a camera and behave different, but I know it is there and am conscious of being squeeky clean / 100% in the right if something does happen.

So I guess maybe it is I that has become more tolerant knowing I am under surveillance…

ktache wrote:

Or an amusing squirrel based picture.

If you insist

Or an amusing squirrel based

Or an amusing squirrel based picture.

hawkinspeter wrote:

vonhelmet wrote:

This morning I was waiting at the lights st a crossroads. The driver opposite wanted to turn right, so across my path. The lights turned green so I moved off. She drove and made to turn them had to wait for me, and sat there shaking her head at me. Like, what?

Can’t you just ‘share the road’ with her? It’d only hold you up for a few seconds to let her go first.

Are you being serious ?  Dude going straight ahead has right of way. If we start giving way then nobody will know what to do.  You’d not expect a car to let you turn across if the roles were reversed.  And as you said yourself Peter – she’d only be held up for a few seconds. 

vonhelmet wrote:

This morning I was waiting at the lights st a crossroads. The driver opposite wanted to turn right, so across my path. The lights turned green so I moved off. She drove and made to turn them had to wait for me, and sat there shaking her head at me. Like, what?

Can’t you just ‘share the road’ with her? It’d only hold you up for a few seconds to let her go first.