Mixed feelings...

[Elizabethsdad]

...about seeing another cyclist nearly taken out by a left hook from a car. Said car had just passed me a close and slightly intimidatingly (revving engine). The cyclist had passed me even closer through the gap between me and the kerb. If they had collided my witness statement might have said 'Two numpties who deserved each other'

[Phil Fouracre]

Yup, you can't fix stupid, whatever the mode of transport.

[scragglymonkeyman]

+1 Phil

[AlaninWales]

...about seeing another cyclist nearly taken out by a left hook from a car. Said car had just passed me a close and slightly intimidatingly (revving engine). The cyclist had passed me even closer through the gap between me and the kerb. If they had collided my witness statement might have said 'Two numpties who deserved each other'

I disagree. The penalty for not being a Very Good Cyclist should not be potential death or injury

[Elizabethsdad]

...about seeing another cyclist nearly taken out by a left hook from a car. Said car had just passed me a close and slightly intimidatingly (revving engine). The cyclist had passed me even closer through the gap between me and the kerb. If they had collided my witness statement might have said 'Two numpties who deserved each other'

I disagree. The penalty for not being a Very Good Cyclist should not be potential death or injury

I wouldn't have regarded it as a penalty as that requires deliberate intent. If a collision had occurred it would have been as a consequence - which is only to be expected for cases of poor road skills.

[TimP]

Yup, you can't fix stupid, whatever the mode of transport.

Darwin award fixes it eventually.

[AlaninWales]

I disagree. The penalty for not being a Very Good Cyclist should not be potential death or injury

I wouldn't have regarded it as a penalty as that requires deliberate intent. If a collision had occurred it would have been as a consequence - which is only to be expected for cases of poor road skills.

Expected consequence of not looking behind before manoevering for instance? Or riding no hands? https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sBrY96ibHiY#t=34 like here? Or expected consequence of having a broken transport system which puts motorised convenience before people's health and lives?

The other day a cyclist ambled from a side road in front of me (I was driving). Because I was paying attention, I saw what he was doing before he did so. I slowed and ensured I didn't collide with him: This is my responsibility as the one driving a tonne or so of metal around. He wasn't likely to kill someone if he collided due to his "poor road skills", had mine been equally poor, he'd possibly be dead. As I said, that should not be a consequence of "poor road skills", after all - it is 'as easy as riding a bike' isn't it?

[Flinders]

This week I was in Cambridge.
After two days there, I began to realise that people who rant on about cyclists jumping red lights (which rarely happens where I live, and when it does is mostly down to one poor chap who I understand has a health problem due to an accident some years ago) may not all be hallucinating or exaggerating.

At one point, on the so-called 'ring road' (which would be called 'a crazy and unsuitable network of narrow residential streets where parking is allowed in ridiculous places' anywhere else I've ever lived) at a T-junction (yep, a T-junction on a ring road) precisely one car got out turning right, because a string of cyclists just carried straight on past the junction regardless of the lights. I have never seen such a high proportion of completely incompetent, inconsiderate, and downright suicidal cyclists in my life. Where I used to cycle in central London in the 80s, many of them wouldn't have lasted a week.

A local cyclist said that some of the problem is down to students who haven't ridden a bike since they were a small kid deciding when they arrive in the city to travel by bike when they have no idea how to handle city traffic, and whose balancing and steering skills are rusty to non-existent. As it's the start of term, I imagine things are at their worst about now in that respect.

However, some of the worst offenders were a bit long in the tooth for students fresh from school. And I learned to ride in London as a student, and didn't go onto the roads until I'd learned how to steer in the park. Nor have I ever run a red light.
Many of the bikes you could hear coming because they were so desperate for lubrication too, poor things.

And yet they are supposed to be so clever in this place....