Cyclists, when some of your people insist on running red lights at speed with people crossing then you will NEVER get the good will you need to make the country a better place.
Fix yourselves.
That's all.
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11 comments:
Behave yourselves or we'll run you down, it that it?
I've had this argument trotted out by people who've watched me obey traffic law for the whole of my ride[1] as the "reason" that they cut me up. Should busses and trucks run cars off the road "because" most of them can't be bothered to obey the speed limit? Can pedestrians take a baseball bat to car windows because you a lot of them can't be bothered not to block crossings when waiting in traffic? Or because so many cars choose to block the pavement by inconsiderate parking?
[1] I don't want to hit a pedestrian or end up under a car through not obeying the lights and signs any more than you do, believe me.
Motorists, when some of your people insist on running red lights at speed with people crossing, and killing them, then you will NEVER get the good will you need to make the country a better place.
Fix yourselves.
That's all.
i) Not 'our' people
ii) Red lights or pedestrian crossings?
iii) 'A better place'?!
I'm not convinced you've thought this statement through.
Felix
i spent some time cycling around amsterdam recently and was suprised at how strong the social enforcement of cycling rules are -point being- if there are adequate facilities social pressure can work to enforce behaviour but without an adequate system being provided there will always be a fuzzy boundary where neccasary survival behaviour ends and antisocial cycling begins.
This actually annoys many cyclists too, along with those who cycle on pavements.
say werd.
Interesting responses.
Anonymous wilfully misses the point. I'm talking about a single issue: cyclists running red lights.
Admin gets slightly warmer. The thing is, that cars running red lights can may occasionally face some sanction. Has this ever happened with bikes?
Felix doesn't get what I was getting at, that's fine. 1. Cyclists as a community. 2. Red lights. 3. Yes, more cycling by the un-Lycra-clad masses will make for a better place.
Donny nails it. I spent a year in Amsterdam and the Dutch are religious at obeying all kinds of road rules. And they are enforced. I've seen people fined by police, on bikes, for running lights and even using mobiles.
So where's the enforcement? Where's the peer pressure?
There's no sensible traffic enforcement applied to cars either these days - aside from the robotic kind that generates money from tickets, or the franchised parking patrols. Even if there's a police presence nearby, they ignore minor anti-social highway behaviour, more paperwork than it's worth.
I have in fact received a police fine for running a red light. OK, so I was stupid and should have noticed there was a police car that had snuck up behind me.. or maybe just not have jumped the red light.. but there is /some/ enforcement.
However this is Melbourne, Australia, where the traffic cops are somewhat renowned for their overzealousness.
They also fined me for not wearing a helmet. :/
The way I see it, much of the way various road users feel about each other is simply because we all secretly wish the road was for our sole use.
People speeding on motorways get annoyed because the cars in front don't let them go fast enough. The car in front curses at the tail gate-er for not letting them overtake at snail speed.
Cyclists wish pedestrians wouldn't wander into the road without looking, pedestrians wish cyclists would stop at crossings, drivers wish cyclists would get out of the their mirrors, cyclists wish busses wouldn't overtake them and then squeeze them onto the pavement, busses probably wish cyclists would pedal faster.
It's a kind of transport-ism. We all have to share the same road, yet we all claim some kind of superiority.
The more we talk about groups of people based on their chosen transport, the more we blame the wrong people. Ask a cyclist how many times a driver has hurled abuse at them because of what *another* cyclist did a moment ago!
At the risk of sounding like a hippy, we've got to learn to live with each other with some mutual respect. I'm really in favour of a 20mph speed limit in London, because that way all traffic will move at the same speed and we can perhaps all get off of our respective high-horses.
Maybe I'm missing something but I thought going through a red light was breaking the law?
If a car driver goes through red lights they are almost always caught and fined.
I wasn't aware that cyclists were exempt from this law. It's just because they are not registered they get away with it.
So what all you cyclists saying? You don't have to observe the road laws?
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