All it takes is one look at something like a Daily Mail comment section on an article about cyclists to see people’s irrational frothing hatred towards then.
That being said, I still feel safer on a bike in the UK than I have been in many other countries across the world where the driving standard is even worse.
Too many people become arseholes when they get in the car both to cyclists and other road users though I completely get why cyclists are will feel more vulnerable considering they’re exposed and the abuser is usually safe and sound in their car with absolutely no intention of getting out and repeating the abuse when the driver and cyclist are on equal terms.
Also does help that there are more cars on the roads and the roads are in quite a poor condition in lots of places.
Personal opinion is that dedicated cycle lanes that don’t take away road space from other vehicles are the only way to go. The very seldom time I cycle on the road I don’t particularly want to be sharing it with cars and lorries and they don’t want to be sharing it with me. That being said it would require serious investment and I can’t see it happening anytime soon.
Though that being said a quick fix would be for the people who abuse other road users to chill the fuck out and maybe start their journey a bit earlier rather than complain about others getting in their way and holding them up.
[deleted]
I love biking. For me a 30 minute commute in standstill became a 12 minute sprint through the back way.
I feel safe riding my bike in the UK, clearly they haven’t cycle in others countries
I used to do 26 mile bike rides as a kid. As a much fitter adult I wouldn’t even risk riding 5 miles down the road. It’s not worth the risk imo.
Britain is a car nation and British people HATE cyclists with murderous intent. Provisions for cyclists, outside of a few cities like Cambridge, are an absolute joke.
Good read.
More infrastructure and more stick for car users, without backing down. I’m talking about 20mph zones, traffic light prioritisation for cycle lanes, removing curb side parking spaces. Fewer private cars in urban areas have so many spillover benefits that most people in the UK seem to be completely blind to. Those of us who cycle also need to stress that you don’t need a £2K road bike and Rapha gear to commute 3 miles (and you also don’t need a shower upon arrival, although these facilities are nice to have).
In rural areas it is difficult, but in most towns and cities a cycling revolution is theoretically achievable. For London, I’m optimistic. For everywhere else I’m not so sure – the little Englander motorist lobby seem to call most of the shots.
I wonder what demographic is the most opposed to the UK becoming a “great cycling nation”.
Is it mainly a certain age bracket?
We do need to improve, but that article is needlessly negative and will put people off, which is the worst possible outcome. The cheapest and easiest way to encourage cycling is for more people to cycle, so they’re seen as normal road users and not some irritating exception.
It will never be practical to have a complete parallel set of infrastructure for bikes in addition to roads. So roads will always need to be shared spaces. Asking for separated infrastructure is actually counterproductive because then drivers get even more used to bikes not being supposed to be on “their road”.
Have to say, the borough where I live, Waltham Forest, have absolutely smashed cycling infrastructure by British standards.
Scary, and if you do have an altercation, or end up dead, punishments for drivers in this country are an absolute joke, so drivers continue to take the piss
You can always judge how well a country is doing by the state of their roads.
How are cyclists supposed to ride safely on roads that resemble cheese graters?
One of the interesting things I think is how takeaway cyclists are becoming so prevalent that it hopefully leads to those companies to lobby their local councils to provide more cycling infrastructure to keep their workers safe.
Simply because safer (and therefore faster) cyclists will probably end up with them making more money.
Dedicated bike lanes. Heck make them next to railway lines ( obviously barrier in between)
I’ve cycled for nearly 20 years I’ve had more near misses over the last few years than my entire years cycling.
We need segregated cycling lanes on main roads, pedestrians should be banned from walking on all cycle infrastructure and cyclists not following the highway code should be prosecuted.
If those basics are not met the UK will never become a cycling nation. I commute to work on a bike, I am currently training to run it and stop cycling to work altogether it’s just too dangerous peak times.
Cars aren’t trying to hit them despite what everyone thinks.
Steps like respecting a car signalling to turn and not acting like filtering is a god given right will solve so many issues. I’ve seen plenty of clips of cars pulling out on a cyclist in a roundabout and those people are pretty dumb, but to assume that on every road a cyclist has a “RAM ME” sign on them is ridiculous. Cyclists respecting cars and vice versa will go a long way.
My local council are totally clueless when it comes to cycling infrastructure. They keep adding cycle lanes 10feet long that end in a 90degree turn and rejoin the footpath with children and dogs.
Simply not going to work. Until the cycle lanes take priority over vehicle traffic, no ody will want to use them. You dont want to cycle 20 feet and stop to give way to cars, feck that, you’ll just ride in the main lane and keep rolling through.
Scary to ride a bike on a 60 road or in a city centre maybe. Round my town it’s pretty good actually, I’m new to biking and discovered so many biking trails, canal paths and fun routes to do.
It takes time. Build bike lanes separated from car traffic, jn places where you would actually want to commute
Where I live all the roads that lead to cycling areas are 60mph roads and as I discovered recently, there seems to many more people using the ‘quiet’ roads for testing the handling of their sports cars and vans so I’ve resigned to riding around the town.
I wish they would lower the speed limit of some of the roads or introduce peak and off peak speed limits. E.g 30mph at weekends between 10am and 6pm on popular cyling routes especially roads which are narrow and have no pavements.
A major problem with cycling is that most drivers seem to have the idea that push-bikes aren’t supposed to be on the road so they don’t owe cyclists a duty of care.
My council are spending £1.2million for a random 1 mile cycling lane stretch which leads back onto an unpainted road. Huge waste, but it’s progress?
I must say that I haven’t ever had a bad reaction from a car driver, only politeness and giving way. But I do think this does depend on where you live, with busier areas being more agressive.
I just wish they would actually properly plan in cycling when changing any road layouts. That cyclists and pedestrians wouldn’t be forced to stop, or go up and down hills, or along big diversions in order to get anywhere. A lot of the time, I just use the road, as any cycle path is unusable, due to surface problems or sharing it with pedestrians, or having to stop and give way at multiple roads.
I love cycling! And most cyclists are also pedestrians and drivers too.
If I wanted to combine exercise, travel, and increased likelihood of being killed – maybe then I’d get a bike.
As a driver I know my view on cyclists is not a popular one.
I have always given way to cyclists and given them as much room as I can.
Why, it’s really simple, I’m surrounded by a ton and half of metal with crumple zones, seat belts and more airbags I can count, the cyclist has a helmet…
I have never been in such a rush that the 30 seconds it takes to let a cyclist pass is going to make any difference.
During my life I’ve easily driven over 250,000 miles and I have seen many accidents, several of which unfortunately involved the loss of life and the vast majority were caused by speed and stupidity.
I don’t see the point of risking somebodies life for the sakes of a handful of seconds.
If I could replace 50% of cars with bikes I would do it in a heart beat.
Yep. A big part of my route home is covered well by cycle super highway, but walked the entire thing to check the details and decided tube it is. Large parts are excellent, but still some decidedly sketchy bits too and well getting home requires 100% of the journey be completed
(Though toying with santander bike partial walk plan…)
We drastically need to change the mentality of the car for it to work.
Infrastructure. Good luck getting investment from the Tories, though.
My brother who lives in Brighton has bugged me about why I don’t ride a bike where I live on top of the fact I think I do actually need to relearn how to ride a bike (dyspraxia ftw) i would’nt really feel safe cycling around where I live as there’s not really any cycling infrastructure other than very old not very well maintained cycle lanes.
If you actually want to make Britain a great cycling nation, the first step is to accept that half the country is not suitable for cycling as a mode of transport.
This fella can’t even seem to fathom that cycling off road is a thing.
31 comments
All it takes is one look at something like a Daily Mail comment section on an article about cyclists to see people’s irrational frothing hatred towards then.
That being said, I still feel safer on a bike in the UK than I have been in many other countries across the world where the driving standard is even worse.
Too many people become arseholes when they get in the car both to cyclists and other road users though I completely get why cyclists are will feel more vulnerable considering they’re exposed and the abuser is usually safe and sound in their car with absolutely no intention of getting out and repeating the abuse when the driver and cyclist are on equal terms.
Also does help that there are more cars on the roads and the roads are in quite a poor condition in lots of places.
Personal opinion is that dedicated cycle lanes that don’t take away road space from other vehicles are the only way to go. The very seldom time I cycle on the road I don’t particularly want to be sharing it with cars and lorries and they don’t want to be sharing it with me. That being said it would require serious investment and I can’t see it happening anytime soon.
Though that being said a quick fix would be for the people who abuse other road users to chill the fuck out and maybe start their journey a bit earlier rather than complain about others getting in their way and holding them up.
[deleted]
I love biking. For me a 30 minute commute in standstill became a 12 minute sprint through the back way.
I feel safe riding my bike in the UK, clearly they haven’t cycle in others countries
I used to do 26 mile bike rides as a kid. As a much fitter adult I wouldn’t even risk riding 5 miles down the road. It’s not worth the risk imo.
Britain is a car nation and British people HATE cyclists with murderous intent. Provisions for cyclists, outside of a few cities like Cambridge, are an absolute joke.
Good read.
More infrastructure and more stick for car users, without backing down. I’m talking about 20mph zones, traffic light prioritisation for cycle lanes, removing curb side parking spaces. Fewer private cars in urban areas have so many spillover benefits that most people in the UK seem to be completely blind to. Those of us who cycle also need to stress that you don’t need a £2K road bike and Rapha gear to commute 3 miles (and you also don’t need a shower upon arrival, although these facilities are nice to have).
In rural areas it is difficult, but in most towns and cities a cycling revolution is theoretically achievable. For London, I’m optimistic. For everywhere else I’m not so sure – the little Englander motorist lobby seem to call most of the shots.
I wonder what demographic is the most opposed to the UK becoming a “great cycling nation”.
Is it mainly a certain age bracket?
We do need to improve, but that article is needlessly negative and will put people off, which is the worst possible outcome. The cheapest and easiest way to encourage cycling is for more people to cycle, so they’re seen as normal road users and not some irritating exception.
It will never be practical to have a complete parallel set of infrastructure for bikes in addition to roads. So roads will always need to be shared spaces. Asking for separated infrastructure is actually counterproductive because then drivers get even more used to bikes not being supposed to be on “their road”.
Have to say, the borough where I live, Waltham Forest, have absolutely smashed cycling infrastructure by British standards.
Scary, and if you do have an altercation, or end up dead, punishments for drivers in this country are an absolute joke, so drivers continue to take the piss
You can always judge how well a country is doing by the state of their roads.
How are cyclists supposed to ride safely on roads that resemble cheese graters?
One of the interesting things I think is how takeaway cyclists are becoming so prevalent that it hopefully leads to those companies to lobby their local councils to provide more cycling infrastructure to keep their workers safe.
Simply because safer (and therefore faster) cyclists will probably end up with them making more money.
Dedicated bike lanes. Heck make them next to railway lines ( obviously barrier in between)
I’ve cycled for nearly 20 years I’ve had more near misses over the last few years than my entire years cycling.
We need segregated cycling lanes on main roads, pedestrians should be banned from walking on all cycle infrastructure and cyclists not following the highway code should be prosecuted.
If those basics are not met the UK will never become a cycling nation. I commute to work on a bike, I am currently training to run it and stop cycling to work altogether it’s just too dangerous peak times.
Cars aren’t trying to hit them despite what everyone thinks.
Steps like respecting a car signalling to turn and not acting like filtering is a god given right will solve so many issues. I’ve seen plenty of clips of cars pulling out on a cyclist in a roundabout and those people are pretty dumb, but to assume that on every road a cyclist has a “RAM ME” sign on them is ridiculous. Cyclists respecting cars and vice versa will go a long way.
My local council are totally clueless when it comes to cycling infrastructure. They keep adding cycle lanes 10feet long that end in a 90degree turn and rejoin the footpath with children and dogs.
Simply not going to work. Until the cycle lanes take priority over vehicle traffic, no ody will want to use them. You dont want to cycle 20 feet and stop to give way to cars, feck that, you’ll just ride in the main lane and keep rolling through.
Just look at this abortion of a junction and all the nearby cycle laneage : https://maps.app.goo.gl/i7aUGCHeuoKRNDMAA
Scary to ride a bike on a 60 road or in a city centre maybe. Round my town it’s pretty good actually, I’m new to biking and discovered so many biking trails, canal paths and fun routes to do.
It takes time. Build bike lanes separated from car traffic, jn places where you would actually want to commute
Where I live all the roads that lead to cycling areas are 60mph roads and as I discovered recently, there seems to many more people using the ‘quiet’ roads for testing the handling of their sports cars and vans so I’ve resigned to riding around the town.
I wish they would lower the speed limit of some of the roads or introduce peak and off peak speed limits. E.g 30mph at weekends between 10am and 6pm on popular cyling routes especially roads which are narrow and have no pavements.
A major problem with cycling is that most drivers seem to have the idea that push-bikes aren’t supposed to be on the road so they don’t owe cyclists a duty of care.
My council are spending £1.2million for a random 1 mile cycling lane stretch which leads back onto an unpainted road. Huge waste, but it’s progress?
I must say that I haven’t ever had a bad reaction from a car driver, only politeness and giving way. But I do think this does depend on where you live, with busier areas being more agressive.
I just wish they would actually properly plan in cycling when changing any road layouts. That cyclists and pedestrians wouldn’t be forced to stop, or go up and down hills, or along big diversions in order to get anywhere. A lot of the time, I just use the road, as any cycle path is unusable, due to surface problems or sharing it with pedestrians, or having to stop and give way at multiple roads.
I love cycling! And most cyclists are also pedestrians and drivers too.
If I wanted to combine exercise, travel, and increased likelihood of being killed – maybe then I’d get a bike.
As a driver I know my view on cyclists is not a popular one.
I have always given way to cyclists and given them as much room as I can.
Why, it’s really simple, I’m surrounded by a ton and half of metal with crumple zones, seat belts and more airbags I can count, the cyclist has a helmet…
I have never been in such a rush that the 30 seconds it takes to let a cyclist pass is going to make any difference.
During my life I’ve easily driven over 250,000 miles and I have seen many accidents, several of which unfortunately involved the loss of life and the vast majority were caused by speed and stupidity.
I don’t see the point of risking somebodies life for the sakes of a handful of seconds.
If I could replace 50% of cars with bikes I would do it in a heart beat.
Yep. A big part of my route home is covered well by cycle super highway, but walked the entire thing to check the details and decided tube it is. Large parts are excellent, but still some decidedly sketchy bits too and well getting home requires 100% of the journey be completed
(Though toying with santander bike partial walk plan…)
We drastically need to change the mentality of the car for it to work.
Infrastructure. Good luck getting investment from the Tories, though.
My brother who lives in Brighton has bugged me about why I don’t ride a bike where I live on top of the fact I think I do actually need to relearn how to ride a bike (dyspraxia ftw) i would’nt really feel safe cycling around where I live as there’s not really any cycling infrastructure other than very old not very well maintained cycle lanes.
If you actually want to make Britain a great cycling nation, the first step is to accept that half the country is not suitable for cycling as a mode of transport.
This fella can’t even seem to fathom that cycling off road is a thing.