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Deepings Free Discussion
Is this Deepings as in South Lincs?
Yup.
It's a [s]flat[/s] small world.
That Facebook page - yep, almost word for word the rants ive had said to my face. Along with demanding that I agree that cyclists should be forced to use cycle lanes where they exist*
Its the mental gymnastics required to think that the cyclist you are ranting at will at any point agree with them that their views are rational that baffles me.
*I agreed, by pointing out all lanes are already cycle lanes 😆
MoreCashThanDash - Member
It's a flat small world.
It is. I would imagine you're more likely to bump into the PMBR riders than me though, as I'm the other side of Peterborough and ride Wakerley mainly locally. Did teach in Deeping until July though...
Some people that I once worked with once said 'aren't you supposed to grow out of that'?
And 'aren't you abit old to be still riding a bike'?
Ive also heard 'cyclists are such angry people'.
The sort of people that say that aren't worth challenging. So I just smile. Life's for living not being sedatory long before you've got no choice.
Every time I read one of these I keep expecting MV to show up.
One of the lines in the Facebook responses is solid gold:
"Let us pass, we have dogs in the car"
Surely this is a never ending argument, car drivers think cyclists are only there to hold them up and cyclists think car drivers are aggressive.
We've all seen things that boil our piss from either side whether it be the driver leaving a fag paper gap or the Sunday middle management peloton taking up an entire road. I think we just need to all agree that people are dicks and let them get on with it
Colournoise - I left Deeping in 95 after 20 years in the flatlands. Happy memories of growing up there though.
MoreCashThanDash - MemberColournoise - I left Deeping in 95 after 20 years in the flatlands. Happy memories of growing up there though.
I moved there around 2004 or so. It's a bit flat, but apart from that it's alright.
My Wife grew up in the area; Glinton & Northborough......
We've all seen things that boil our piss from either side whether it be the driver leaving a fag paper gap or the Sunday middle management peloton taking up an entire road.
That's a false equivalence.
The close pass is aggressive, territorial and dangerous driving, and how people are killed.
The two-abreast-group-ride (ignoring your redundant stereotyping of the participants) is 1. good cycling and 2. harms no-one. [url=
educate yourself[/url]
I think we just need to all agree that people are dicks
Nothing dickish about riding in a group.
Sunday middle management peloton taking up an entire road
this? On a bike forum..? 😐
I think we just need to all agree that people are dicks and let [s]them [/s] us get on with it
Makes more sense now that if people are dicks then you should include yourself. 😛
That's a false equivalence.The close pass is aggressive, territorial and dangerous driving, and how people are killed.
The two-abreast-group-ride (ignoring your redundant stereotyping of the participants) is 1. good cycling and 2. harms no-one. Please educate yourself
Well said.
Point and laugh at their fat belly.
You've not met anyone off here then?
It's all portly IT managers 8)
Theres plenty dickish when cyclists take primary and refuse to move into the ~100m long layby to let the queue of traffic by. Plenty like that round here.
But I'm forgetting myself' cyclists never do anything selfish, do they?
Let's understand 'eachover' and all get along?
[url] https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/163495 [/url]
There's a hint of throbberdom in some of the posts in this thread.
Having had numerous punishment passes and on one occasion being threatened with a metal pole for having the audacity of riding my bike on a road, which I've helped pay for I take a very dim view of the opinions expressed by people who take a blanket view of cyclists.
That petition is somewhat special though.
A lot of people are dicks yes. Especially when there's a label they can apply to people.
Seems like some drivers get angry when some cyclists are dicks and they then hate all cyclists. However I'd like to point out that the overwhelming majority of drivers (at least around my way) are decent and give space not aggro.
However I'd like to point out that the overwhelming majority of drivers (at least around my way) are decent and give space not aggro
Heck yes. The vast majority of drivers are absolutely fine and courteous. As with all walks of life, a tiny number of knobbers can ruin it for the rest.
Mr Ely has a facebook page where he's thanking the people what have signed the petition. Anyone know what Ewhurst is like?
I moved there around 2004 or so. It's a bit flat, but apart from that it's alright.
My Wife grew up in the area; Glinton & Northborough....
We won't have met then 😉
And a friend is a business owner (of a bus company) and often posts on Facebook about his hate of cyclists and reposts some pretty nasty stuff about it. Not surprisingly, around our way it is his company's buses that show no respect for cyclists whereas others generally do.
A bit of research to find out when his 'o' licence is up for renewal and a letter writing campaign with reference to the FaceBook posts and the problem will go away. The objection should be along the lines of a 'lack of professional competence' by the management team.
As we were always told 'play nicely or you won't get to play' when we were younger.
WTAF?"Let us pass, we have dogs in the car"
Well I can't speak for all cyclists (coz, you know, we're not a homogeneous group) but I'd say a lot of drivers are careless and/or clueless with a few actual aggressive ones in there. There's certainly a lot of evidence to that fact (not just helmet cams) whereas about 10 seconds thought would show that cyclists don't actually [s]hold drivers up[/s] increase journey time by any meaningful amount (may be different in london, I dunno)car drivers think cyclists are only there to hold them up and cyclists think car drivers are aggressive.
may be different in london, I dunno
Even less likely in city centres - how many times do city cyclists get passed unnecessarily by vehicles only to catch up with them in traffic / at junctions a few seconds later? (lots of times IME)
Donk, was with you till here:
whereas about 10 seconds thought would show that cyclists don't actually hold drivers up increase journey time by any meaningful amount (may be different in london, I dunno)
This is on a roughly five mile stretch of road with literally no safe passing places except where said layby occurs. Of course if you meet a line of traffic in the other direction then youre screwed. At 15 miles an hour, depending on the time of day, thats a 4x increase on your journey time along those 5 miles. All for a lack of courtesy by someone who would be in no way inconvenienced by pulling over as they dont even need to slow down.
I think people forget sometimes that when you share something compromise works both ways.
@squirrelking "five mile stretch of road with literally no safe passing places" Could you link to a Google map of the road in question.
Sure, https://www.google.co.uk/maps/ @55.8155364,-4.8853697,3a,75y,12.84h,62.05t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sKBjMunbVjAkbh8ltphtGWQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1
Bear in mind though that the google car camera is about 10' up and can't see the blind bends and dips as well as the driver. It's also generally much busier than when the shots were taken, being a trunk road.
five mile stretch of road with literally no safe passing places
It's just... a road. There are straight bits. And bendy bits. It's a two-way road like any other.
Of course if you meet a line of traffic in the other direction then youre screwed.
Ah. Then why not rant at the fact that the road is too busy with cars? You could just as equally rant that those other-direction-driving-bastards are holding you up, and should pull over to let you through. Because you're special, for some reason.
All for a lack of courtesy
Only if you think that "courtesy" means slower road users getting out of the way of the Proper People in their cars.
On the general point, whether I'm in the car, on foot or on my bike, it is invariably not cyclists that are holding me up. It's queue after queue after queue of cars, all sitting there, stuck. So when you are stuck in a queue of motorised vehicles, do you rant and rave at the drivers in front of you for not pulling over and letting you through?
Was that the right link? It took me right to a big long straight bit where you could overtake a bus. Actually, you could overtake a line of buses.
If you merely mean that you can't overtake when there is actually something coming the other way, why don't you let us know the next time you actually drive 5 miles behind a cyclist without being able to overtake them? I'm betting it won't be in your lifetime.
I think people forget sometimes that when you share something compromise works both ways.
This.
I go to single file when cars can't pass. On country lanes if I'm climbing I pull over and let cars pass, with a wave. I'll pull over and let cars pass if I'm driving slowly in a car for some reason too. If I'm strolling down the street and someone walks up behind me in a hurry, I'll get out of their way. I'l do it voluntarily though and I won't be bullied into doing it if it's not appropriate or I don't want to for some other reason.
It's cos I'm nice.
If I'm riding along and holding up a queue of traffic that can't get by me, then I'll happily pull over into lay-by/field entrance etc and give them a chance to get past. As per the Highway Code.
If I'm riding along and holding up an entitled prick who thinks he has a right to get past me because he is in a car, the "courtesy switch" in my brain is unlikely to operate correctly.
Edit: beaten to it by that nice molgrips
Like mol and mctd I do the same.
Did 1100 miles on lejog and didn't have one nasty encounter. Plenty of support - people chatting at traffic lights and chearing us on when we told them where we were going. All very odd, but pleasant.
We met a couple of riders at jog. They told us about the constant abuse and swearing every hour of the day of their 3 week trip.
Ride like an arsehole and you get treated like one.
Ride like an arsehole and you get treated like one.
That's it.
Don't underestimate the power of eye contact either.
Don't underestimate the power of eye contact either.
Don't overestimate it either. If I had a pound for every time someone's looked me straight in the eye and then pulled out on me anyway, whether I'm on a cycle, motorbike or in a car, I could afford to pay my own hospital bills.
Ride like an arsehole and you get treated like one.
I can't subscribe to this "wild west" view of road culture. There is never any excuse for abuse or aggression.
We met a couple of riders at jog. They told us about the constant abuse and swearing every hour of the day of their 3 week trip.
You've concluded that these people received abuse and aggression because they were riding like "arseholes". Maybe they were, maybe they weren't. You need to define terms. Taking primary when the road narrows is not "riding like an arsehole." Riding two abreast is not "riding like an arsehole". Riding out of the door zone is not "riding like an arsehole". Filtering, to the left or to the right, is not "riding like an arsehole".
All of these behaviours are perfectly good cycling, and in some cases recommended safe cycling, yet will often cause a cyclist to be abused and intimidated, due to a "might is right" culture of entitlement on the roads, which is evident even on this very thread.
If I'm riding along and holding up a queue of traffic that can't get by me, then I'll happily pull over into lay-by/field entrance etc and give them a chance to get past. As per the Highway Code.If I'm riding along and holding up an entitled prick who thinks he has a right to get past me because he is in a car, the "courtesy switch" in my brain is unlikely to operate correctly.
This^^
Ride like an arsehole and you get treated like one.
The implication of that is that people who are the victims of (other) arseholes deserved it.
I've told this before, but I was riding along a deserted suburban road at 7am one morning when I heard a car horn beep behind me. There was a car quite a way back catching up with me. I ignored the horn, no reason the car couldn't pass me safely, I wasn't in primary or swerving or two abreast.
But he slowed down a bit, waited until we were on the up ramp of a humpback bridge and THEN started to overtake, very close. Then a car came the other way so he veered left, clipped me, finished the overtake, then pulled over and started getting out of his car. I passed him, he jumped back in, so I hopped on the pavement and stopped, not wanting to be run down by a lunatic. He pulled up, jumped out, ran towards me and gave me half a dozen punches to the head and face while I lay tangled up in my bike on the floor. All because he thought I'd kicked his car when he veered left and hit me. He went to the police station and said "I saw a cyclist in front of me, I beeped my horn but he didn't get out of the way so I punched him". They asked him to write a letter saying "I'm sorry we bumped in to each other last week" and that was the end of the matter. I'm sure the info sheet the PC brought into the interview room said he's got a shotgun licence. 😯
Short of hopping onto the pavement every time a car approaches, I don't see how I could have avoided that.
Never shout at a car. You instantly look in the wrong.
Never shout at a car. You instantly look in the wrong.
What? Who's shouted?
EDIT:
But it's this kind of reverence for the car that gets us in a mess. Never shout at a car? Even if you've been hit by it? If the driver is pulling out and going to hit you? If they're starting a left hook? Shouting "WHOA" in those situations makes you look bad? When you're responding to someone who's about to run you over?! Are you supposed to just take it with a "yessir, thankyasir"? Shouting on a bike is equivalent to beeping the horn on a car.
If someone is about to cut across into you it's reasonable to sound the horn as a warning. If you're just doing it because you're angry then yeah, it's not great.
Never shout at a car. You instantly look in the wrong.
What?
Had a look through the Highway Code. Never saw that one.
The other week I had to shout at a woman in a Range Rover (parked half on the pavement, half on double yellows outside the Co-Op, natch) who was about to pull away into my path, without looking or indicating, and knock me off.
Pretty sure I wasn't in the wrong.
Even on a supposedly cyclists forum, the overwhelming attitude is that the car is king.
Wonderful isn't it?
Never shout at a car. You instantly look in the wrong.
I can't agree with this.
Why ever not?
If a motorist is about to do something I think is stupid & dangerous then you're damn right I'm going to try & alert them, rather in much the same way you'd beep your horn if in a car.............
Pretty sure I wasn't in the wrong.
The problem on the roads is that NO-ONE thinks they are in the wrong. Ever.
On the roads it doesn't seem to matter how catastrophically stupid their driving, what sort of daft manoeuvre they were pulling - it wasn't their fault.
And because they feel it wasn't their fault they get defensive and angry and the situation escalates from there. And they're in a Range Rover, you're on a bike. Being right versus being alive... Sometimes it really is better to live to fight another day.
The problem on the roads is that NO-ONE thinks they are in the wrong. Ever.On the roads it doesn't seem to matter how catastrophically stupid their driving, what sort of daft manoeuvre they were pulling - it wasn't their fault.
And because they feel it wasn't their fault they get defensive and angry and the situation escalates from there. And they're in a Range Rover, you're on a bike. Being right versus being alive...
Are you serious?
If I hadn't shouted, I would have been knocked off my bike into a busy road.
And they're in a Range Rover, you're on a bike.
And there we have it again. Might is right.
Surely we can do better than this.
And there we have it again. Might is right.
I didn't say that, I was more pointing out the need to use judgement for your own safety.
I was more pointing out the need to use judgement for your own safety.
Yes, and he used it and decided that being run over was worse than not being run over, so he shouted as a warning, which presumably meant the driver stopped as he'd probably not be posting otherwise.
You've concluded that these people received abuse and aggression because they were riding like "arseholes".
Well, we'd just done the same trip without incident. We didn't ride a-roads, ride two-abreast and pulled over when in the way. They took great pride in doing the exact opposite.
I guess plenty on here don't realise what utter arseholes they are and assume it's everyone else. It's not. It's you.
Well, we'd just done the same trip without incident. We didn't ride a-roads, ride two-abreast and pulled over when in the way. They took great pride in doing the exact opposite.I guess plenty on here don't realise what utter arseholes they are and assume it's everyone else. It's not. It's you.
With attitudes like this, it's no wonder we have a road culture that's stuck in the dark ages.
Even on a supposedly cyclists forum, the overwhelming attitude is that the car is king.
It's really not.
What people are trying to say (I think) is that no-one is king.
Ah. Then why not rant at the fact that the road is too busy with cars? You could just as equally rant that those other-direction-driving-bastards are holding you up, and should pull over to let you through. Because you're special, for some reason.
Pulling over and riding along an empty layby whilst faster traffic overtakes? Jesus, the humanity! It's called common courtesy. A bit of 'give and take' if you will.
Only if you think that "courtesy" means slower road users getting out of the way of the Proper People in their cars.
No, people who, in the way of going about their business, have held up faster traffic and who now have the opportunity to let that traffic past at no penalty to their own enjoyment.
Was that the right link? It took me right to a big long straight bit where you could overtake a bus. Actually, you could overtake a line of buses.
As I said, the camera is mounted 10' up on a pole, try driving the road (all five miles to Skelmorlie) and you'll get a very different picture. It's full of dips, bad cambers and blind bends* that make a safe overtake very difficult (especially from a 15-20mph rolling start) and is generally much busier than whenever the photos were taken.
*All of which catch out the "driving gods" and regularly spit them off down onto the rocks.
Even on a supposedly cyclists forum, the overwhelming attitude is that the car is king.
Wonderful isn't it?
I'd say it's more people who understand the concept of sharing vs those who think it only goes one way.
I expect farmers on tractors to pull over every now and then too out of courtesy to everyone else. Is that wrong?
Rule 169 of the Highway Code
"Do not hold up a long queue of traffic, especially if you are driving a large or slow-moving vehicle. Check your mirrors frequently, and if necessary, pull in where it is safe and let traffic pass."
Q: are cyclists slow moving vehicles? I'd say some most definitely are, then again I've been on club runs where the average speed might land you with a speeding ticket....
Bottom lime? Use your common sense..
Bottom lime? Use your common sense..
Careful, you could break the internet with comments like that!
Bottom lime? Use your common sense..
You're new here, right? 😉
But that is basically the point I was trying to make earlier.
When dealing with conversational anti-cyclist types at work/parties/pub IME it annoys them more if you simply don't engage, I think they like hearing the standard line responses to their clarksonite clone views.
A straightforward "yeah if you think so..." or "well you're perfectly entitled to your opinion..." with no attempt to address their "arguments" against cyclists tends to shut them up far more effectively than any attempt at reasoned debate with a moron...
In the long term you win anyway, the modern motorist is a doomed species. Cycling has a brighter future IMO...
[quote="hora"]
Never shout at a car. You instantly look in the wrong.TBH, reading your posts makes me wonder if you are a troll or just unhinged. Or both.
It's difficult to tell.
The only certainty is that you've never ridden a bike.
I guess plenty on here don't realise what utter arseholes they are and assume it's everyone else. It's not. It's you.
Which is sort of the point I was making ^^.
Everyone on the road assumes that they are perfect and everyone else is the arsehole. You only have to look at those surveys of drivers where "80% of drivers think they are 'above average'" or "60% of drivers say they never use their mobile/speed/jump red lights"
Everyone assumes they're better than average - they'll look up and swear at another driver using the phone but then justify their own sneaky check of a text message with "oh it was just a quick glance while I was at the lights".