Answer: stay off the road on your mobile death trap
Courts are overloaded. Laws have got to be enforced for them to be a deterrent for some people. The fact you cna kill someone in your car and barely get 3 years in prison clearly isn’t a deterrent enough.
Not just rural, but cities too. It feels like drivers have gone mad post lockdown ( especially delivery drivers, mopeds, vans etc. ) I don’t know what it is. Maybe the fact that as a cyclist in London ( and also a driver ) I’ve witnessed the roads being deserted during lockdown and then filling up again, but it feels like chaos out there. You’ve got to be extra vigilant on a bike that’s for sure.
We could really benefit from some of those road safety campaigns they used to show when I was a kid in the 80’s. Just making drivers ( and cyclists ) aware of the basics to be honest.
Anecdotally I’m convinced driving standards have gotten worse. Drive a white van for work so the speed limit for me is 50mph on country roads. Amount of people overtaking on blind bends or driving right up your arse has definitely increased so I’m not surprised the cyclists are getting hit more often.
A lot of cyclists don’t have lights nowadays, when I was a lad every cyclist had lights at night.
I drove to work yesterday at 4pm, I must have seen 4/5 cyclists all without lights, one young lad dressed all in black so he had a death wish.
The coppers should do something about that, give a warning first off to errant cyclists, give them a day to get some lights, then if they haven’t bought any then a big fine or take their bike away.
I gave up cycling on UK roads a decade ago now. It’s too dangerous, and it hasn’t gotten any better. Councils need to take brave steps and redesign their roadways to incorporate separate cycle lanes like in The Netherlands and Denmark, and to hell with all the complaints it’ll generate from whiny drivers. Our cities can’t scale endlessly to handle more and more cars. Unfortunately there are very few councils that seem to have actual cyclists anywhere in their planning department, so we get lots of stupid implementations that only make things worse. I saw a 3m cycle lane here recently.
I’d also be in favour of going down the Japan route of letting people cycle on the pavements, but I think our population is likely too selfish for that to work – it’ll start putting pedestrians more at risk because there are plenty of fucking idiots who cycle as well as those who drive cars.
Rural road cycling is very dangerous and I swore off that very quickly when I did cycle – the speed difference between you and the surrounding traffic is way too high and the roads too narrow. Plenty of country roads would have the space to convert the grass verges into cycle routes but I doubt that’ll ever happen without a big shift in funding.
At least here in Wales things are slightly better…ish. We do have a few national cycling routes that incorporate very few roads – being able to cycle over 50 miles on the Taff Trail without having to get into the road is pretty great, and a good example of what could be done with existing infrastructure in other places. But still, we have weird shit like this: https://goo.gl/maps/M3Uue2GQs2WqHCNu9
Depressingly not surprising, post lockdown I’ve noticed driving standards have gone down the toilet. I’ve all but given up recreational road cycling as I’ve had so many close calls with drivers including getting hit by an Uber driver last year.
I got a mountain bike and turbo trainer over lockdown and I’ve been having a blast without the fear of some inattentive arsehole mowing me down and getting a slap on the wrist.
Not a surprise. The other week I was on my bike, approaching a set of lights at roadworks, the lights were on green for me and a car coming the opposite way decided that they don’t have to wait at red lights so drove through them directly at me. My only options were pull off into the ditch or get hit. They had the audacity to beep at me too.
The lights on their side were working perfectly fine
Its seven miles on an A road to our local town. There and back yesterday i was stuck behind someone doing 35 / 40 mph in a big, powerful 4×4. Seems to be a constant thing now.
The UK roads are just not big enough in a lot of places for even modern day cars, never mind sharing the roads, it’s a shame we can’t just start again and build dedicated cycle paths that are totally separate from the roads.
Id love to be a cyclist but I wont cycle anywhere where cars are allowed. The fact you can be the perfect cyclist and die isnt a risk i feel is worth taking.
The standard of driving has plummeted, impatience, haste, rushing, speeding… people overtaking on turning right lanes because the one in front is waiting…
Just so many examples of people taking stupid risks.
[deleted]
Doesn’t list the cause. A number of years ago I looked into road deaths, and the stats for cyclists were quite strange with 60% of cyclist deaths (this was 2008) involved no other road user.
With more people taking up cycling having not done so before or for a long time, it’s hardly surprising. Yes there seems to be a more selfish and aggressive attitude by road users, but the number of people I’ve seen wobbling along the road just looking for a disaster is shocking. And people riding along on inappropriate roads, yesterday I saw a cyclist on the North Circular after Wembley.
I live in a very rural area and this does not surprise me at all. The cyclists that come here think nothing of riding 3-4 abreast in a pack of twenty down very narrow and winding roads. When you see them coming round the corner at speed it gives you very little time to break and most times you a mouthful from them. Whilst it is very sad to read such news I think there is an air of arrogance from some cyclists and an expectation or right that they can do whatever the hell they like. Some of the roads by me you need to do about 15-20 mile an hour around the corners as they have blind spots, I’ve seen cyclists go round them at probably 30-40 mph.
Given up road cycling here, far too dangerous especially on the country lanes. I have a mountain bike instead that I use for blasting off down the fields. All my road cycling is done in France where the cycling infrastructure is way superior to our own.
Reading further down over the annual accident figures for rural roads and urban routes, I’m surprised to see 1,880 deaths overall in cities and 3,115 in the countryside(this is across drivers, pedestrians, cyclists). It’s logical that narrow twisting roads would result in more accidents, but on volume alone I always assumed that built up areas had more casualties. That stat actually makes me feel a little bit safer as a cyclist, but in general I don’t feel confident that on any given day I’ll be afforded respect by car drivers when I’m on the road.
[deleted]
I’ve never understood why UK B roads have national speed limit signs. Narrow, bendy, blind bends, farm vehicles, walkers, bikes etc.
Give Audi boy a 60 limit and he’ll add his legal ten percent. He’s paid his road tax.
The question of increased cyclists on the road now needs to be looked at surely before drawing any conclusions. This increase in deaths might be proportional to any increase in popularity of road cycling. Anecdotally as someone who joined the spandex army many moons ago , it’s really taken off as sport in Ireland for instance.
I ride country lanes a lot, like 4-5 times a week. The biggest issue i see is that a lot of drivers underestimate a keen cyclists speed, they will assume you’re doing 5-10 mph when in fact you’re doing 20mph, so will pull out or overtake when there’s not as much time to overtake as they thought there would be.
Drivers are far worse in towns and busier roads, country lanes are so much better for safe cycling.
Unsurprising. There’s an enormous amount of bad driving (and some fairly bad cycling) on rural roads. We desperately need more dedicated cycle and footways separate from roads.
Not convinced this has anything to do with driving standards suddenly falling. In my experience cycling on a rural road has been highly unsafe for a long time due to poor driving standards – it’s not suddenly got a lot worse though.
What happened though during lockdown was a LOT of people took to cycling – I mean did you try buying a bike, or a bike part last year? The demand was crazy and everywhere was running out.
Because of lockdown, people got used to cycling on empty roads. I used to run on them and it was brilliant – so few cars. And then we reopened and within a matter of weeks the roads were busier than ever and initially full of people who hadn’t driven much in a long time together with a load of novice cyclists who didn’t know how to do things like ride defensively. It was never going to end well.
Speed limits need to be lower on rural roads. I grew up in a village and it really wasn’t safe to drive out along the lane at more than 30mph (apart from anything else, at certain times of day you were likely to come around a blind bend into a herd of cows on their way to milking) but the speed limit was national and some drivers seemed to take it as a challenge.
I’m a keen cyclist, people often give me a surprised look when I tell them I cycle in London, but I’m much happier and feel much safer when cycling in London as opposed to cycling on country roads.
City
– I have a 10 mile commute, 95% is bus or cycle lanes.
– Smooth tarmac most of the way
– Cycle shops everywhere if I were to get a puncture or issue with bike
– Hypothetically, if I were to be hit, I would be hit at 10-20 mph
– Huge campaign in the past few years to raise awareness in cities of cyclist, most trucks will have additional measures such as cameras or warnings.
​
Country
– No cycles lanes or cycle paths (on road)
– Trucks smashing past me with little space
– Roads are rough with potholes
– Cycle shops miles and miles away
– If I were to get hit I would be hit at 40-60mph
– Everyone hates cyclists on country roads
– 99% of national cycle routes are shared with cars or unsuitable with a road bike
​
Interesting, any close calls I’ve had has been with delivery drivers on mopeds, they overtake on the left and do all sorts of stupid shit.
I cycle to work every day, 10 miles each way along very fast, bendy country roads. Been doing so for 2 years now and not had any issues or ever felt unsafe and I will be hopping on my bike this evening to head home.
Saddened to read the number of posts stating they’ve given up cycling. You are going to die someday, might as well die whilst doing something you love!
I’m a cyclist but I’ve seen a lot of new cyclists during covid who literally don’t understand traffic signs or road symbols. Many just barrel on through give way etc.
There are drivers who are at fault but a soar to my mind might just be lots of new riders
I’ve had to stop road cycling due to injury. I’m silently happy at being forced to give it up though as the amount of close passes and near misses I’ve had over the last 5 years has had me genuinely worried that I’ll be another statistic before long
Cyclists definitely deserve more infrastructure, but headlines like this seem almost designed to scare people off cycling. Then less cyclists means less infrastructure. We’re thousands of times more likely to be killed by obesity or car fumes, if that started making headlines we might actually get more people cycling.
I’ve nearly been hit 3 times on a bicycle in the last 3 months from drivers just not looking when pulling out of junctions (daytime wearing bright colours) and 2 times on roundabouts. Driver attention has definitely suffered probably due to less practice these past 2 years.
I’m very careful to adhere to all highway laws but I’ve got to treat every car like they’re going to hit me and be ready to avoid at all times.
“Soar”? 90 deaths? C’mon. Every one a tragedy, yes, but that is a tiny number. More people than that died of Covid today. And it’s a small fraction of overall deaths on those roads.
This is almost certainly because lots of people took up cycling in Lockdown 1, because there was bugger all else to do. Lots of them would have been inexperienced in road cycling and less predictable for drivers – not that that changes who’s to blame in a collision, of course (almost definitely the driver). Once traffic picked back up, there’d have been more cyclists out on the road than in 2019 and as many cars.
It is important that if a driver hits and injures or kills someone that they’re properly punished by the law though. That doesn’t seem to happen in the headline cases we see.
31 comments
The figures: 89 in 2020, up from 60 in 2019.
Edit: Corrected the wrong year.
Answer: stay off the road on your mobile death trap
Courts are overloaded. Laws have got to be enforced for them to be a deterrent for some people. The fact you cna kill someone in your car and barely get 3 years in prison clearly isn’t a deterrent enough.
Not just rural, but cities too. It feels like drivers have gone mad post lockdown ( especially delivery drivers, mopeds, vans etc. ) I don’t know what it is. Maybe the fact that as a cyclist in London ( and also a driver ) I’ve witnessed the roads being deserted during lockdown and then filling up again, but it feels like chaos out there. You’ve got to be extra vigilant on a bike that’s for sure.
We could really benefit from some of those road safety campaigns they used to show when I was a kid in the 80’s. Just making drivers ( and cyclists ) aware of the basics to be honest.
Anecdotally I’m convinced driving standards have gotten worse. Drive a white van for work so the speed limit for me is 50mph on country roads. Amount of people overtaking on blind bends or driving right up your arse has definitely increased so I’m not surprised the cyclists are getting hit more often.
A lot of cyclists don’t have lights nowadays, when I was a lad every cyclist had lights at night.
I drove to work yesterday at 4pm, I must have seen 4/5 cyclists all without lights, one young lad dressed all in black so he had a death wish.
The coppers should do something about that, give a warning first off to errant cyclists, give them a day to get some lights, then if they haven’t bought any then a big fine or take their bike away.
I gave up cycling on UK roads a decade ago now. It’s too dangerous, and it hasn’t gotten any better. Councils need to take brave steps and redesign their roadways to incorporate separate cycle lanes like in The Netherlands and Denmark, and to hell with all the complaints it’ll generate from whiny drivers. Our cities can’t scale endlessly to handle more and more cars. Unfortunately there are very few councils that seem to have actual cyclists anywhere in their planning department, so we get lots of stupid implementations that only make things worse. I saw a 3m cycle lane here recently.
I’d also be in favour of going down the Japan route of letting people cycle on the pavements, but I think our population is likely too selfish for that to work – it’ll start putting pedestrians more at risk because there are plenty of fucking idiots who cycle as well as those who drive cars.
Rural road cycling is very dangerous and I swore off that very quickly when I did cycle – the speed difference between you and the surrounding traffic is way too high and the roads too narrow. Plenty of country roads would have the space to convert the grass verges into cycle routes but I doubt that’ll ever happen without a big shift in funding.
At least here in Wales things are slightly better…ish. We do have a few national cycling routes that incorporate very few roads – being able to cycle over 50 miles on the Taff Trail without having to get into the road is pretty great, and a good example of what could be done with existing infrastructure in other places. But still, we have weird shit like this: https://goo.gl/maps/M3Uue2GQs2WqHCNu9
Depressingly not surprising, post lockdown I’ve noticed driving standards have gone down the toilet. I’ve all but given up recreational road cycling as I’ve had so many close calls with drivers including getting hit by an Uber driver last year.
I got a mountain bike and turbo trainer over lockdown and I’ve been having a blast without the fear of some inattentive arsehole mowing me down and getting a slap on the wrist.
Not a surprise. The other week I was on my bike, approaching a set of lights at roadworks, the lights were on green for me and a car coming the opposite way decided that they don’t have to wait at red lights so drove through them directly at me. My only options were pull off into the ditch or get hit. They had the audacity to beep at me too.
The lights on their side were working perfectly fine
Its seven miles on an A road to our local town. There and back yesterday i was stuck behind someone doing 35 / 40 mph in a big, powerful 4×4. Seems to be a constant thing now.
The UK roads are just not big enough in a lot of places for even modern day cars, never mind sharing the roads, it’s a shame we can’t just start again and build dedicated cycle paths that are totally separate from the roads.
Id love to be a cyclist but I wont cycle anywhere where cars are allowed. The fact you can be the perfect cyclist and die isnt a risk i feel is worth taking.
The standard of driving has plummeted, impatience, haste, rushing, speeding… people overtaking on turning right lanes because the one in front is waiting…
Just so many examples of people taking stupid risks.
[deleted]
Doesn’t list the cause. A number of years ago I looked into road deaths, and the stats for cyclists were quite strange with 60% of cyclist deaths (this was 2008) involved no other road user.
With more people taking up cycling having not done so before or for a long time, it’s hardly surprising. Yes there seems to be a more selfish and aggressive attitude by road users, but the number of people I’ve seen wobbling along the road just looking for a disaster is shocking. And people riding along on inappropriate roads, yesterday I saw a cyclist on the North Circular after Wembley.
I live in a very rural area and this does not surprise me at all. The cyclists that come here think nothing of riding 3-4 abreast in a pack of twenty down very narrow and winding roads. When you see them coming round the corner at speed it gives you very little time to break and most times you a mouthful from them. Whilst it is very sad to read such news I think there is an air of arrogance from some cyclists and an expectation or right that they can do whatever the hell they like. Some of the roads by me you need to do about 15-20 mile an hour around the corners as they have blind spots, I’ve seen cyclists go round them at probably 30-40 mph.
Given up road cycling here, far too dangerous especially on the country lanes. I have a mountain bike instead that I use for blasting off down the fields. All my road cycling is done in France where the cycling infrastructure is way superior to our own.
Reading further down over the annual accident figures for rural roads and urban routes, I’m surprised to see 1,880 deaths overall in cities and 3,115 in the countryside(this is across drivers, pedestrians, cyclists). It’s logical that narrow twisting roads would result in more accidents, but on volume alone I always assumed that built up areas had more casualties. That stat actually makes me feel a little bit safer as a cyclist, but in general I don’t feel confident that on any given day I’ll be afforded respect by car drivers when I’m on the road.
[deleted]
I’ve never understood why UK B roads have national speed limit signs. Narrow, bendy, blind bends, farm vehicles, walkers, bikes etc.
Give Audi boy a 60 limit and he’ll add his legal ten percent. He’s paid his road tax.
The question of increased cyclists on the road now needs to be looked at surely before drawing any conclusions. This increase in deaths might be proportional to any increase in popularity of road cycling. Anecdotally as someone who joined the spandex army many moons ago , it’s really taken off as sport in Ireland for instance.
I ride country lanes a lot, like 4-5 times a week. The biggest issue i see is that a lot of drivers underestimate a keen cyclists speed, they will assume you’re doing 5-10 mph when in fact you’re doing 20mph, so will pull out or overtake when there’s not as much time to overtake as they thought there would be.
Drivers are far worse in towns and busier roads, country lanes are so much better for safe cycling.
Unsurprising. There’s an enormous amount of bad driving (and some fairly bad cycling) on rural roads. We desperately need more dedicated cycle and footways separate from roads.
Not convinced this has anything to do with driving standards suddenly falling. In my experience cycling on a rural road has been highly unsafe for a long time due to poor driving standards – it’s not suddenly got a lot worse though.
What happened though during lockdown was a LOT of people took to cycling – I mean did you try buying a bike, or a bike part last year? The demand was crazy and everywhere was running out.
Because of lockdown, people got used to cycling on empty roads. I used to run on them and it was brilliant – so few cars. And then we reopened and within a matter of weeks the roads were busier than ever and initially full of people who hadn’t driven much in a long time together with a load of novice cyclists who didn’t know how to do things like ride defensively. It was never going to end well.
Speed limits need to be lower on rural roads. I grew up in a village and it really wasn’t safe to drive out along the lane at more than 30mph (apart from anything else, at certain times of day you were likely to come around a blind bend into a herd of cows on their way to milking) but the speed limit was national and some drivers seemed to take it as a challenge.
I’m a keen cyclist, people often give me a surprised look when I tell them I cycle in London, but I’m much happier and feel much safer when cycling in London as opposed to cycling on country roads.
City
– I have a 10 mile commute, 95% is bus or cycle lanes.
– Smooth tarmac most of the way
– Cycle shops everywhere if I were to get a puncture or issue with bike
– Hypothetically, if I were to be hit, I would be hit at 10-20 mph
– Huge campaign in the past few years to raise awareness in cities of cyclist, most trucks will have additional measures such as cameras or warnings.
​
Country
– No cycles lanes or cycle paths (on road)
– Trucks smashing past me with little space
– Roads are rough with potholes
– Cycle shops miles and miles away
– If I were to get hit I would be hit at 40-60mph
– Everyone hates cyclists on country roads
– 99% of national cycle routes are shared with cars or unsuitable with a road bike
​
Interesting, any close calls I’ve had has been with delivery drivers on mopeds, they overtake on the left and do all sorts of stupid shit.
I cycle to work every day, 10 miles each way along very fast, bendy country roads. Been doing so for 2 years now and not had any issues or ever felt unsafe and I will be hopping on my bike this evening to head home.
Saddened to read the number of posts stating they’ve given up cycling. You are going to die someday, might as well die whilst doing something you love!
I’m a cyclist but I’ve seen a lot of new cyclists during covid who literally don’t understand traffic signs or road symbols. Many just barrel on through give way etc.
There are drivers who are at fault but a soar to my mind might just be lots of new riders
I’ve had to stop road cycling due to injury. I’m silently happy at being forced to give it up though as the amount of close passes and near misses I’ve had over the last 5 years has had me genuinely worried that I’ll be another statistic before long
Cyclists definitely deserve more infrastructure, but headlines like this seem almost designed to scare people off cycling. Then less cyclists means less infrastructure. We’re thousands of times more likely to be killed by obesity or car fumes, if that started making headlines we might actually get more people cycling.
I’ve nearly been hit 3 times on a bicycle in the last 3 months from drivers just not looking when pulling out of junctions (daytime wearing bright colours) and 2 times on roundabouts. Driver attention has definitely suffered probably due to less practice these past 2 years.
I’m very careful to adhere to all highway laws but I’ve got to treat every car like they’re going to hit me and be ready to avoid at all times.
“Soar”? 90 deaths? C’mon. Every one a tragedy, yes, but that is a tiny number. More people than that died of Covid today. And it’s a small fraction of overall deaths on those roads.
This is almost certainly because lots of people took up cycling in Lockdown 1, because there was bugger all else to do. Lots of them would have been inexperienced in road cycling and less predictable for drivers – not that that changes who’s to blame in a collision, of course (almost definitely the driver). Once traffic picked back up, there’d have been more cyclists out on the road than in 2019 and as many cars.
It is important that if a driver hits and injures or kills someone that they’re properly punished by the law though. That doesn’t seem to happen in the headline cases we see.