7 ms·

In the UK as a cyclist I still get so much hate on the road. I'm just trying to get to work like everyone else, but people still drive their cars up right behi

In the UK as a cyclist I still get so much hate on the road. I'm just trying to get to work like everyone else, but people still drive their cars up right behind me, squeeze past when there's not enough space, beep their horns and shout out the window. And then the justification is always "well I saw a cyclist run a red light once, therefore all cyclists are shit"

evandijk70 4y ago
How often does that kind of thing happen? Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly?
- MagnumOpus 4y ago
  You wouldn't need to ask if you rode a bike regularly. Every 20 minutes of riding is my guess.
- ndsipa_pomu 4y ago
  There's a huge variation. Some rides, I've had two or three incidents that the police have actioned after I submitted the cam footage, and other times, I can go a couple of months without a bad incident.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- austinjp 4y ago
  Motorist squeezing past at speed without adequate space? Every single time.
- laputan_machine 4y ago
  If you commute daily (5 times a week) then you will see at least one terrible / dangerous driver in that time period. Some weeks it can be really bad, several a day, some weeks it will be almost silent (but always at least one nutter). The weather makes a big difference, for some reason drivers drive a lot worse in the rain and really hot weather, usually speeding / running reds and not checking mirrors more often than in overcast / typical UK weather.
  - pastage 4y ago
    This was true for me, but now days it almost never happen. What changed was that my route got a serious upgrade, with lower speed intersections, better yield signs for everyone. All it took was a well thought out plan for all the streets with bicycle traffic. But yeah when I am not on my daily commute you still get that kind of behaviour.
- machinawhite 4y ago
  Every time you use a street together with cars. It'd be easier to ask when it does not happen because that's the exception here
- kuschku 4y ago
  I originally was making a list of every driver that came close to killing me, noting down their license plate and making a police report. After a single day with over a dozen, I've stopped counting. Now I only note down the drivers that, when turning a corner or passing me, threw me off the bicycle and/or drove over the bicycle, damaging parts of it. The list currently contains 2 events this month alone.
- matsemann 4y ago
  I bike with a camera. I capture cars doing illegal and dangerous stuff multiple times a day when I bike, and post it online or/and report them. So your suggestions are way off. Just in may&june I totaled over 160 reports.
ndsipa_pomu 4y ago
Motorists often forget that a lot of motorists jump red lights too, and then there's the habitual speeding that seems expected of drivers, rather than being recognised as dangerous behaviour. With red light jumping, there's also a very different pattern of behaviour as motorists will speed up to get through a light that's just turned red, whereas cyclists tend to either slow down or continue at the same pace when RLJing. There's also a difference in where the risk is, as cyclists are mainly endangering themselves (also pedestrians, but crashing into a pedestrian is likely to hurt the cyclist), whereas motorists are mainly endangering others. The best way of dealing with close-passing motorists is to run cameras (front and back) and let the police deal with the driver, but it depends on what area you're in as to whether the force will deal with it appropriately. Avon & Somerset is a good one in my experience.
- mrob 4y ago
  In the UK, it's illegal for a motorist to cross a solid white center line on their side of the road to overtake a cyclist unless the cyclist is traveling 10mph or slower. I estimate less than 1% of motorists obey this law. Rule 129: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/general-rules-techniques-and-advice-for-all-drivers-and-riders-103-to-158 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/general-rules-t... Some rules in the Highway Code are guidance only, but those marked with uppercase "MUST" or "MUST NOT" have legal force.
  - martyvis 4y ago
    Here in NSW Australia it is almost the exact opposite now. You are permitted to cross the centre lane to overtake a bicycle (if it is safe) and need to keep a 1 to 1.5 metre gap to the bike. https://www.nsw.gov.au/driving-boating-and-transport/roads-safety-and-rules/overtaking-and-merging/sharing-roads-bicycles#:~:text=When%20overtaking%20bicycles%2C%20you%20must,you%27re%20sure%20it%27s%20safe https://www.nsw.gov.au/driving-boating-and-transport/roads-s....
    - M2Ys4U 4y ago
      That's the law here in the UK, too, as long as the centre line isn't solid (which is what mrob was citing). Most roads don't have solid centre lines.
sschueller 4y ago
Well cyclist running red lights is extremely common here in Zürich Switzerland especially during morning rush hour. I have seen some crazy altercations between not cars and cyclist but public transport like trams and cyclist. Once a cyclist managed to pull up to the front of a double bendy trollybus[1] I was in just to cut across the front of the bus forcing the driver to hard break. In another incident recently which ended up in the paper, a bus had to break so hard because of a cyclist that several people got injured. [1] https://img.luzernerzeitung.ch/2020/9/30/9ae5b1ae-3593-4cc8-aae7-20637340dd5d.jpeg https://img.luzernerzeitung.ch/2020/9/30/9ae5b1ae-3593-4cc8-...
- laputan_machine 4y ago
  And just like that, you've proven his point. This guy doesn't run reds, I don't either. Apparently that's irrelevant because some cyclists do (and here's a bunch of anecdotes) so it's not a problem to harrass cyclists. Right on!
  - rimliu 4y ago
    I see a car passing red light maybe twice in a year. I see a cyclist doing the same twice a week.
    - cheschire 4y ago
      I see idiots at least twice a day. Does that mean it’s cool for me to treat you like an idiot? If no, then I think you may have skipped over the point of this sub thread.
    - wongarsu 4y ago
      I see cars driving 50km/h in a 30km/h area multiple times a day. Everyone breaks the traffic laws, it's just that for cars it's about speed (speed limits, illegal overtaking etc) while for cyclists it's about momentum (running red lights, stop signs etc). Both are dangerous behaviors that put others at risk
      - 4y ago
pacomerh 4y ago
Not a justification but here in CA I see cyclists cross red lights much too often. So it's not once it's way too many times. They probably think they're special somehow
- machinawhite 4y ago
  [flagged]
- Jochim 4y ago
  I think the prevalence of this behaviour can be explained by the fact that in car centric infrastructure only people willing to take a fairly significant risk will be cycling in the first place. As a result you've selected for people willing to engage in risky behaviour towards themselves resulting in a fair few of them running red lights recklessly. Couple this with the fact that the infrastructure was clearly not built with their safety in mind and it's no real surprise that many cyclists choose not to use it in the same way as cars. Personally I think there's a good argument to be made for why, in many cases, it would be ok for a cyclist to carefully make their way through a junction at a red light. Although the real answer would be to build infrastructure that removes the incentive to behave that way.
  - batiudrami 4y ago
    I don't run red lights but I do cross on pedestrian signals from the road in such a way that probably makes drivers some angry. The fact is it's much safer for me to clear the intersection ahead of drivers rather than have them try to pass me at the intersection. If there are two lanes of cars banked up behind me impatient people will try and pass without changing to the far lane; getting too close to me in the process. Some signals in my city have bike boxes and secondary lights for bikes which change a few seconds before the car signals to give riders a head start - this accomplishes the same thing and feels much safer. For example - https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-31.9548303,115.8601648,3a,50.5y,11.44h,91.89t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sdlMPDVh3uJtCORcgIub2FQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-31.9548303,115.8601648,3a,5...
    - 4y ago
baby 4y ago
I tried biking in London for a while and I will never try that again. Everybody hated me and wanted to kill me. Cars and pedestrians alike.
Ajedi32 4y ago
I don't think that's really a bike specific thing. Those same drivers would likely get just as angry at a car or other motor vehicle driving below the speed limit on the same road. Maybe even angrier since they can't pass as easily.

evandijk70 4y ago

How often does that kind of thing happen? Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly?

MagnumOpus 4y ago
You wouldn't need to ask if you rode a bike regularly. Every 20 minutes of riding is my guess.
ndsipa_pomu 4y ago
There's a huge variation. Some rides, I've had two or three incidents that the police have actioned after I submitted the cam footage, and other times, I can go a couple of months without a bad incident.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
austinjp 4y ago
Motorist squeezing past at speed without adequate space? Every single time.
laputan_machine 4y ago
If you commute daily (5 times a week) then you will see at least one terrible / dangerous driver in that time period. Some weeks it can be really bad, several a day, some weeks it will be almost silent (but always at least one nutter). The weather makes a big difference, for some reason drivers drive a lot worse in the rain and really hot weather, usually speeding / running reds and not checking mirrors more often than in overcast / typical UK weather.
- pastage 4y ago
  This was true for me, but now days it almost never happen. What changed was that my route got a serious upgrade, with lower speed intersections, better yield signs for everyone. All it took was a well thought out plan for all the streets with bicycle traffic. But yeah when I am not on my daily commute you still get that kind of behaviour.
machinawhite 4y ago
Every time you use a street together with cars. It'd be easier to ask when it does not happen because that's the exception here
kuschku 4y ago
I originally was making a list of every driver that came close to killing me, noting down their license plate and making a police report. After a single day with over a dozen, I've stopped counting. Now I only note down the drivers that, when turning a corner or passing me, threw me off the bicycle and/or drove over the bicycle, damaging parts of it. The list currently contains 2 events this month alone.
matsemann 4y ago
I bike with a camera. I capture cars doing illegal and dangerous stuff multiple times a day when I bike, and post it online or/and report them. So your suggestions are way off. Just in may&june I totaled over 160 reports.

ndsipa_pomu 4y ago

Motorists often forget that a lot of motorists jump red lights too, and then there's the habitual speeding that seems expected of drivers, rather than being recognised as dangerous behaviour. With red light jumping, there's also a very different pattern of behaviour as motorists will speed up to get through a light that's just turned red, whereas cyclists tend to either slow down or continue at the same pace when RLJing. There's also a difference in where the risk is, as cyclists are mainly endangering themselves (also pedestrians, but crashing into a pedestrian is likely to hurt the cyclist), whereas motorists are mainly endangering others. The best way of dealing with close-passing motorists is to run cameras (front and back) and let the police deal with the driver, but it depends on what area you're in as to whether the force will deal with it appropriately. Avon & Somerset is a good one in my experience.

mrob 4y ago
In the UK, it's illegal for a motorist to cross a solid white center line on their side of the road to overtake a cyclist unless the cyclist is traveling 10mph or slower. I estimate less than 1% of motorists obey this law. Rule 129: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/general-rules-techniques-and-advice-for-all-drivers-and-riders-103-to-158 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/general-rules-t... Some rules in the Highway Code are guidance only, but those marked with uppercase "MUST" or "MUST NOT" have legal force.
- martyvis 4y ago
  Here in NSW Australia it is almost the exact opposite now. You are permitted to cross the centre lane to overtake a bicycle (if it is safe) and need to keep a 1 to 1.5 metre gap to the bike. https://www.nsw.gov.au/driving-boating-and-transport/roads-safety-and-rules/overtaking-and-merging/sharing-roads-bicycles#:~:text=When%20overtaking%20bicycles%2C%20you%20must,you%27re%20sure%20it%27s%20safe https://www.nsw.gov.au/driving-boating-and-transport/roads-s....
  - M2Ys4U 4y ago
    That's the law here in the UK, too, as long as the centre line isn't solid (which is what mrob was citing). Most roads don't have solid centre lines.

sschueller 4y ago

Well cyclist running red lights is extremely common here in Zürich Switzerland especially during morning rush hour. I have seen some crazy altercations between not cars and cyclist but public transport like trams and cyclist. Once a cyclist managed to pull up to the front of a double bendy trollybus[1] I was in just to cut across the front of the bus forcing the driver to hard break. In another incident recently which ended up in the paper, a bus had to break so hard because of a cyclist that several people got injured. [1] https://img.luzernerzeitung.ch/2020/9/30/9ae5b1ae-3593-4cc8-aae7-20637340dd5d.jpeg https://img.luzernerzeitung.ch/2020/9/30/9ae5b1ae-3593-4cc8-...

laputan_machine 4y ago
And just like that, you've proven his point. This guy doesn't run reds, I don't either. Apparently that's irrelevant because some cyclists do (and here's a bunch of anecdotes) so it's not a problem to harrass cyclists. Right on!
- rimliu 4y ago
  I see a car passing red light maybe twice in a year. I see a cyclist doing the same twice a week.
  - cheschire 4y ago
    I see idiots at least twice a day. Does that mean it’s cool for me to treat you like an idiot? If no, then I think you may have skipped over the point of this sub thread.
  - wongarsu 4y ago
    I see cars driving 50km/h in a 30km/h area multiple times a day. Everyone breaks the traffic laws, it's just that for cars it's about speed (speed limits, illegal overtaking etc) while for cyclists it's about momentum (running red lights, stop signs etc). Both are dangerous behaviors that put others at risk
    - 4y ago

pacomerh 4y ago

Not a justification but here in CA I see cyclists cross red lights much too often. So it's not once it's way too many times. They probably think they're special somehow

machinawhite 4y ago
[flagged]
Jochim 4y ago
I think the prevalence of this behaviour can be explained by the fact that in car centric infrastructure only people willing to take a fairly significant risk will be cycling in the first place. As a result you've selected for people willing to engage in risky behaviour towards themselves resulting in a fair few of them running red lights recklessly. Couple this with the fact that the infrastructure was clearly not built with their safety in mind and it's no real surprise that many cyclists choose not to use it in the same way as cars. Personally I think there's a good argument to be made for why, in many cases, it would be ok for a cyclist to carefully make their way through a junction at a red light. Although the real answer would be to build infrastructure that removes the incentive to behave that way.
- batiudrami 4y ago
  I don't run red lights but I do cross on pedestrian signals from the road in such a way that probably makes drivers some angry. The fact is it's much safer for me to clear the intersection ahead of drivers rather than have them try to pass me at the intersection. If there are two lanes of cars banked up behind me impatient people will try and pass without changing to the far lane; getting too close to me in the process. Some signals in my city have bike boxes and secondary lights for bikes which change a few seconds before the car signals to give riders a head start - this accomplishes the same thing and feels much safer. For example - https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-31.9548303,115.8601648,3a,50.5y,11.44h,91.89t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sdlMPDVh3uJtCORcgIub2FQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-31.9548303,115.8601648,3a,5...
  - 4y ago

baby 4y ago

I tried biking in London for a while and I will never try that again. Everybody hated me and wanted to kill me. Cars and pedestrians alike.

Ajedi32 4y ago

I don't think that's really a bike specific thing. Those same drivers would likely get just as angry at a car or other motor vehicle driving below the speed limit on the same road. Maybe even angrier since they can't pass as easily.