Cycle superhighway Wandsworth-Millbank

  • By clareh on at 03:42pm 07 Oct 2011
  • Posted in: General
  • Tagged with:

Hi all,

My first post...

I've been cycling for years but have been too nervous to cycle into town until changing jobs and needing to get into town. So I've just started commuting from Fulham to Holborn via the cycle superhighway CS8.

I love the cycle superhighway but... can someone please tell me why cyclists behave like crazed lunatics on it? Every day I see cyclists speeding through red lights, ploughing through zebra crossings, riding on the pavement. Yesterday I saw a cyclist nearly hit a pedestrian by zooming through a red light and then yelling at the pedestrian for getting in his way.

It makes me feel ashamed to be a cyclist. What can we fellow responsible cyclists do to reverse this trend? There must be something...

Clare

Replies

  • By ST at 06:03pm 07 Oct 2011

Simple.

Like many humans some cyclists are tw@ts!!!

Sadly you will find that a subject on RLJ can be more explosive than a nuclear bomb going off.

 

While i won't pretend to have not jumped the odd red light i too am asheamed at the way some of us fellow cyclists behave.

 

Sadly the only thing that wills top them is a red bus hitting them!!!

same experience on the CS3 for me. I sometimes think I am the only cyclist who stops at red lights . . .

There is nothing more guaranteed to harness dislike amongst other road users towards cyclists than the jumping of red lights and they are right. I've pulled cyclists before on this and they ignore me or stay silent. It is downright dangerous for all road users and can be the result of some horrific accidents and we all know who suffers most in a collision with other road users.A bit more commonsense wouldn't go amiss.

  • By clareh at 02:18pm 25 Oct 2011

Completely agreed, VeloWaterloo and bellthecat. Glad to hear it's not just me who stops at red lights! And the way that we are treated by other road users is in part down to the way we behave. At least we are flying the flag for stopping at red lights!

Clare, I wouldn't tie up your identity on the basis of transportation choice. Sure there are a lot of sports cyclists, and other inconsiderate people who view the world whilst upon a bike as a drag race, but then there are the rest of us.

When pedestrians are at risk, these careless cyclists ought to be punished to the full extent of the law, just as careless drivers ought to be when their driving puts cyclists or pedestrians at risks. Sadly, especially in the latter case, this is not often the case also to satiate public myth, a lot of police officers are cracking down on red-light jumpers (on bikes.)

However, there are also times where it makes sense to jump a red light, especially at gyratories, and other dangerous routes (the 'Super'highways included) where you just know that some driver is going to wield their vehicle as an intimidating weapon, and try to push you out the way. In such cases it makes sense to be out of their way and grant them their God-given right to have full dominance of the streets, rule the roads, and the city. If there are pedestrians crossing, one ought to be considerate and ensure they are not treated with the a similar level of disdain as we often are.

So it boils down to that simple proverb: treat others as you would like to be treated.

This post was edited by ManAboutTown at 12:58am 14 Nov 2011.

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