Drivers and their problems

chrisonatrike wrote:

Sounds like car owners are now experiencing what cyclists in some urban places have had for years:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-64400336

It occurs to me there's likely more to that story. Those panels are a pain to remove. I suspect someone has the same car with front end damage they either can't afford to fix or don't want to report, and targeted an identical car to get the panels they needed.

Not like anyone in Westbury on Trim isn't short of a few quid for parking.

Argos74 wrote:

'I can't believe it's happened again': Owner's disbelief after BMW obliterates shop

The BTL comments made me chuckle.

Failed to negotiate this very slight bend in the road.

https://goo.gl/maps/ovcco7x4tKgrYfbz6

I have been seeing this a lot.

"...although for some parents, the approximately 20-minute walk is too much"

though I expect without some irony these "some parents" reaction is walk for 20mins ? I might as well leave the car at home...

Horsists are a tricky one for me. After all, bridle paths weren't built for cyclists! I'm a confirmed "poor man's nag" type now but I try to have some regard for horsists. Apart from anything else I've been told that recumbents are like kryptonite for them and are guaranteed to give them a bad trip. (Not tested - I've been careful to stop and dismount as soon as I've seen them to prove it's a human there not a tiger).

On the other hand it is also like balancing yourself atop an original mini (similar weight) but your vehicle can now get startled. It's that which gives me pause. So along with "cycling menace" we should consider the baseline rates of eg. horses getting spooked by dogs (or anything at all), people getting thrown / falling off and any other people injured when they run amok (likely very few but I've no idea).

He's not a Lib Dem - that face is nowhere near miserable enough. Needs training.

Our ex-Lib Dems now Ashfield Independents manage to look far more miserable than that when faced with a cycle track.

"residence of the uk"

The planet earth?

They should get rid of those entitled bus lanes.  Buses are just more traffic - and they keep stopping.  That's not helping congestion!  I mean - who's riding buses?  Borderline communists if you ask me, they should get a proper job, get a car and get ahead.

Update - some schools don't let you drive through the school playgrounds / surroundings?!  That's just creating traffic jams.  What if you live on the other side?  That needs sorted to stop teachers and children who have to drive consistently being late to school because of the traffic.

JustTryingToGetFromAtoB wrote:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/31/cant-make-this-stuff-up-... The epitome of idiocy and entitlement

Nom nom

Im suspecting Haverhill is much much more sleepy than Kiev in comparison.

Hopefully they bring it before the courts, like we have properly done in the past.  Although being a swan it might be able to claim it was under the jurisdiction of the monarch (as long as it stays mute)?

Maybe they were attracted by some bollards?

When are the police going to deal with the real criminals and stop picking on innocent people driving cars with no MOT, no insurance...?

Agreed! Lancashire Constabulary has wisely not fallen into this nit-picking time-wasting lefty woke trap! YL06 YYW was only 1 of 3 'No MOT' vehicles detected in the same minute on 28th January, and reported the same day. Proudly, LC has done nothing about any of them

Nah, was actually driving...touch wood, never had any incidents with them whilst cycling, more whilst driving...driving up arse etc, ridiculously bright headlights.

Grahamd wrote:

Awavey wrote:

"Call for yellow lines on dangerous street " https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/23268179.suffolk-call-yellow-lines-dangerous...

We had similar issues locally, I don't understand why planning permission doesn't include a requirement for building companies to provide their own parking for their builders.

Our local garage built an extension to their building/workshop which ate up all of their onsite customer parking (which includes the parking for vehicles that they are going to be working on but not right now).  But it's fine, because they can park them on all the neighbouring residential streets instead...  

festina wrote:

Not like anyone in Westbury on Trim isn't short of a few quid for parking.

If someone can't afford a quid to park, then I'm pretty confident they can't afford to maintain the car properly and shouldn't be driving.

That said, I don't think anyone moaning here is struggling to afford it. They are just peeved that a subsidy to their car entitlement is being removed.

'I can't believe it's happened again': Owner's disbelief after BMW obliterates shop

Those zany BMW guys, eh?

Clearly not "Europe" now anyway!

absolutely, some of us who ride bikes, may also ride horses. though some who ride horses also drive stupidly large 4x4s on country roads and struggle to make the connections with others on different modes of transport

last time I met a horse + rider on a single track road, I called out and the rider looked back at me and damn kicked the horse into a trott/canter as a result, and Im like ok well Ill just sit back here then as Im not going to try to get past you whilst you're doing that, its unsafe for me and you, 500metres later the horse gets a bit bored and wants to go back to plodding, and the rider eventually conceeds and waves me by.

As wtjs says though - the issue is that animals are erratic (yes - including people, will get there). Lots can't control their dogs. Horses are similar - least they might run away rather than towards you but they can be the weight of an old mini and can certainly get up to cyclist speeds eg. 25 - 30mph. Worse, they're predictably unpredictable - spook for all kinds of reasons.

Finally - there are problems with the animal on top of them! I'd hesitate to say those types are often on their high horse (probably most are kids on ponies? ) but they may not be sympathetic to cyclists. Especially if "my horse got spooked by one". I don't think horses get cycle training and something that moves quickly and quietly may just be too much for many of them.

I've ridden in my time. I learnt a lot about horses. Contrary to the press, they are pretty thick in general, and are simply a bunch of instincts, you ride by containing them and kicking them into a canter is like hitting a nerve bundle. Like with a dog, if you react, the horse will react, but they are spooked by wheelie bins, bin bags, bikes, cars, odd clothing, dogs, strange shapes, flappy things and so on.

While there are cyclists who need a slap, their biggest enemy is still the car driver as it is with pedestrians. Horse riders have done quite well in their battle for awareness, mainly because horses can inflict real damage on cars, so a good majority of drivers respond well to when they see horses - unfortunately I suspect most incidents are driving too fast down country lanes and not accounting for stopping distance when the victim is round a corner - meet a car, it gets dented; meet a horse, it gets put down.

My post was prompted by a Tweet by someone who did a "But cyclists" when a car had destroyed (and been destroyed by) a Sheffield stand when driving on the pavement, and then dug up the 2017 incident with the cyclist killing someone. It turned out they were petitioning to get cyclists banned from bridleways.

meet a horse, it gets put down

I recall a video linked on here in which riders are proceeding along the left side of the road, and the horse is hit hard by a speeding oncoming car which fails to round a left hand bend. I seem to remember, but I'm not sure, that the driver received the usual joke penalty but I can't remember the fate of the poor horse.

chrisonatrike wrote:

I don't think horses get cycle training and something that moves quickly and quietly may just be too much for many of them.

I doubt the horses in the new forest or dartmoor get cyclist training. But they seem completely indifferent to cyclists. So what are the horse people doing to theirs? Training them to be skittish, or breeding them to be skittish?

In some ways I suspect self-managed equids are a better bet.  They may be paying more attention to surroundings (not being eaten is a full-time job - or it was...) so pick you up before you're close enough to startle them.  Equally if I see loose horses I will be proceeding even more cautiously.

There are some atop a relatively local hill (imported up here to manage the grass) and they don't seem to worry about passing cyclists.

They're behind a fence though - so less danger of one scooting across your path.  (Haven't all these animals read the Highway Code?)

It's the unpowered quids I really worry about...

My evening commute involves army ranges that during the summer are populated with belted galloways, mostly cows and calves, to maintain the heath. The mothers are mostly chilled, but I try not to get between them and the young'un, but it's the little ones that don't get me as much. Last year I didn't see them much as there had been a big fire earlier in the year and that must have been where the fresh growth was. They stick in a couple of bulls in there for a few months. Don't see them much, I think I can hear them sometimes. I believe I saw one once doing his thing with one of the ladies on the access track, detoured, as I really didnt want to disturb, but this took me through the herd/harem, still concerning.

Though I understand, from a much watch OU programme (not as much as the one on rainbows), that when a cow is properly on heat other cows will attempt to mount it.

I do miss randomly switching over to OU stuff late at night.

I like a belted Galloway!  The mint humbug of bovines.  Presumably used because of their markings to avoid friendly fire incidents?