Police action on motorists endangering cyclists

[shims 10]

The running costs of walking include shoes and fuel (food)

 

Running costs of cycling include tyres, various wearing components and fuel (food)

 

Running costs of a private jet or yacht...

It's all pretty proportional. I don't whine that I can't afford to run an aircraft carrier.

Owning a majority of motor vehicles will incur VED. Almost all will require paying for a MOT or PSV and the preparation required to pass this along with registration and insurance. (There is a disproportionate amount of duty on road fuel too compared to your breakfast or lunch). Cyclists are required to comply with none of this, despite sharing the same roads and being just as capable of commuting carelessly or causing accidents. That isn't my idea of proportionate.

[Santo 10]

Owning a majority of motor vehicles will incur VED. Almost all will require paying for a MOT or PSV and the preparation required to pass this along with registration and insurance. (There is a disproportionate amount of duty on road fuel too compared to your breakfast or lunch). Cyclists are required to comply with none of this, despite sharing the same roads and being just as capable of commuting carelessly or causing accidents. That isn't my idea of proportionate.

 

Buy a bike then!

[soopah 17]

Buy a bike then!

 

Most people tend to think that bikes are cheap.

 

A good bike costs as much as a reasonably new small hatchback.

Each tyre can cost as much as a car tyre, as can brake pads.

Lube etc is usually more expensive for bikes, a little 250ml bottle of chain lube is the same price as 5L for my car.

 

This is if you're doing it properly and care about your bike, safety and performance.

 

They usually are less of a burden on the health system due to being healthier.

[Cyclone 10]

Much of the cost is not occupational. It is forced onto motor-vehicle owners. Cars go up the road, bikes go up the road. One set of commuters has to have pay a series of fees and meet various regulations, the other does not.

Which doesn't make it okay for car drivers to behave dangerously, doesn't give them any 'right' to the road and doesn't mean that cyclists should have to pay.

 

 

You're a motorist who owns a bike. You use it for convenience and possibly cost. If you were massively concerned about congestion and reducing pollution you might elect to not own a car at all. This 'pull over' stuff you keep going on about is nonsense, by the way.

You were the one who said that motorists expect cyclists to get out of the way because they pay more tax.

 

 

No they are not wrong about being delayed. As we both can see, it can depend on the circumstances. Hence your caveat. They pay premiums that are not applicable to cyclists. I didn't say they have priority. I said they may feel they do.

And they'd be wrong wouldn't they.

They are not delayed are they, you've never been delayed have you, I've never been delayed, it would be a really weird journey where a cyclist had delayed a motorist.

 

 

If a stretch of your commute is on a 60mph road for three miles and you drive at 60mph it will take you three minutes. If you drive on the same road at sixty for two miles and at 10mph for one a mile in the middle (because you are stuck behind a bunch of cyclists who won't drop to single file despite causing a tailback and regardless of what they are required to do according to the Highway Code) the same stretch of road will have taken eight minutes. If you tend to drive at the speed limit (conditions permitting) as many drivers seem to, you will reach you destination later. UNLESS you make up the time by speeding.

Yes, indeed. It's really difficult to make up a scenario where any delay happens isn't it.

It has to involve a stretch of road with no other traffic doing < than the speed limit. No other congestion. A very short journey. A very unlikely length of the journey where you're held up, and not just 1, but a whole group of cyclists who are delaying the motorist.

Ooooh, what if a tractor had driven the entire 3 miles at 10mph... Should it be legal to run tractors off the road?

 

I have no idea what point you were ever trying to make to be honest, I might go back and look at your first post to see if I can see one.

 

---------- Post added 19-09-2016 at 15:05 ----------

 

Most people tend to think that bikes are cheap.

 

A good bike costs as much as a reasonably new small hatchback.

Each tyre can cost as much as a car tyre, as can brake pads.

Lube etc is usually more expensive for bikes, a little 250ml bottle of chain lube is the same price as 5L for my car.

 

This is if you're doing it properly and care about your bike, safety and performance.

 

They usually are less of a burden on the health system due to being healthier.

 

I think you're confusing people who want to race with people who want to commute.

Even if I did have a bike which cost many thousands, I wouldn't ride it to work, I'd have a beater (I do), because riding through the winter is hard on the bike, and I wouldn't want to grind up an expensive bike for my commute.

[Santo 10]

Most people tend to think that bikes are cheap.

 

A good bike costs as much as a reasonably new small hatchback.

Each tyre can cost as much as a car tyre, as can brake pads.

Lube etc is usually more expensive for bikes, a little 250ml bottle of chain lube is the same price as 5L for my car.

 

This is if you're doing it properly and care about your bike, safety and performance.

 

They usually are less of a burden on the health system due to being healthier.

 

Yes appreciated. But I'm fed up of whinging about bikes. Loads of people have a bike AND a car so pay all the costs of both.

 

In 2008 (financial crisis) Argos started selling a knock-off Brompton for £99. It was very popular indeed.

[Cyclone 10]

Owning a majority of motor vehicles will incur VED. Almost all will require paying for a MOT or PSV and the preparation required to pass this along with registration and insurance. (There is a disproportionate amount of duty on road fuel too compared to your breakfast or lunch). Cyclists are required to comply with none of this, despite sharing the same roads and being just as capable of commuting carelessly or causing accidents. That isn't my idea of proportionate.

 

You think that cyclists should have to pay more tax because they COULD commute carelessly?

As a society we want to encourage cycling, not put up barriers, the more cyclists the better for everyone. I say that cyclists should be given a partial refund on the VED for 1 motor vehicle.

[RootsBooster 24]

Owning a majority of motor vehicles will incur VED. Almost all will require paying for a MOT or PSV and the preparation required to pass this along with registration and insurance. (There is a disproportionate amount of duty on road fuel too compared to your breakfast or lunch). Cyclists are required to comply with none of this, despite sharing the same roads and being just as capable of commuting carelessly or causing accidents. That isn't my idea of proportionate.

 

What exactly would you like them to pay for, to even things out?

 

(By the way, most food tends to have less harmful exhaust gasses, if we're getting proportional)

[Berberis 10]

Could we have some action on cyclists using the footpaths or jumping red lights/going through pedestrian crossings too please.

[Flexo 10]

I say that cyclists should be given a partial refund on the VED for 1 motor vehicle.

 

What a good idea!

 

Albeit rather unworkable in practice. But you still benefit from reduced fuel costs, improved fitness and a more pleasurable way to travel, so chin up!

[soopah 17]

Could we have some action on cyclists using the footpaths or jumping red lights/going through pedestrian crossings too please.

 

I would genuinely like to see this. These are the folks who give the rest of us a bad name.

 

However, I'd like to also see more action for drivers doing the same.

Neither side are blameless.

[Santo 10]

Could we have some action on cyclists using the footpaths or jumping red lights/going through pedestrian crossings too please.

 

Why not start a thread about that? Include your ideas of how to enforce this.

 

Since there is no number plate on a bike I'm pretty sure the only way is if they are caught red handed by a police officer. What makes you think they wouldn't have a word with them now if they saw such behaviour?

Edited September 19, 2016 by Santo

[Berberis 10]

I would genuinely like to see this. These are the folks who give the rest of us a bad name.

 

However, I'd like to also see more action for drivers doing the same.

Neither side are blameless.

 

I dont believe there are many motorists who drive on the footpaths to get round traffic lights and there is already lots of measures used to catch cars etc that jump red lights.

 

I drive through sheffield every day and I have watched many cyclist as I drove. More often than not I see them ride through red lights. It seems to be that it's pretty uncommon to see a cyclist waiting at a set of traffic lights. Maybe its the fair weather cyclists that are to blame, I'm not sure? Its also only my personal opinion and I assume many others will disagree, however I have never had a car drive at me on a pedestrian crossing shouting for me to get out of there way. I have had the same experience with a cyclist, who, if he had given me a second more time to think, would have felt my boot.

 

---------- Post added 19-09-2016 at 15:25 ----------

 

Why not start a thread about that? Include your ideas of how to enforce this.

 

There have been many threads discussing this on there and all end up in a slagging match. Those who were willing to compromise are drowned out by the militant cyclists who seem to think we should all be kissing their behinds for doing us all such a good service.