Cyclists Should Pay Registration!

Okay this is the perspective of someone who both drives and rides- and I have commuted to work in both ways, and live in San Francisco a very pro-cyclist city.

First of all the problem: yes, there are bicycle jerks. I have seen them myself- I have seen them while riding myself. I have seen cyclist blow through red lights, I have seen cyclist go berserk because they think some car has cut them off, I have seen them do everything.

Personally, I think police should nail them. Not the cyclists who 'roll' through stop signs- and yes this is equivocating- but a cyclist rolling through at 2 miles an hour is not a threat- a cyclist blowing through at 20 miles per hour can cause accidents and injure pedestrians. I am all for enforcement.

But registration wouldn't accomplish it. Motorists wouldn't be able to see a tiny plaque and it wouldn't make it any easier to catch them.

To catch them you need dedicated motorcycle and police cops- and that is expensive. I find the scofflaws irritating also- they give every good cyclist a bad name- but in these days of dwindling police resources- is that in our top 10 priorities?

Legitimate concern- but I don't agree that your solution will help anything.

 

"We" don't polute and "we" keep fit. Yes car drivers shoud absolutely give cyclists priority in cities, it works out too. I live in the NL, where the bikes very much out number cars and cars still get around.

WHy do you assume cars shoud have priority?

PS - I only shave when riding in a pack; it's not for earodynamics as most people assume

 

It's a small minority. Perhaps we should ban cars because most people speed? Or the minority who drnk drive? I know someone who's father was killed by a drink driver... so lets ban cars eh?

This thread is irrational.

 

Btw, I said my best friend's husband was killed in a cycling accident 2 months ago and my other friend, whom I was out with on Friday night, lost his son in a hit and run 2 weeks before Christmas. I don't really see how that is a cause for you to rubbish a family tragedy.

Regarding the post about cyclists keeping fit, you're not fit when you're dead.

That shows cyclists increase in number during recessions and I have to say I have noticed myself that there are many more cyclists on the road here because of the cost of petrol. People here don't take to the cycling lightly. It's a high risk activity in rain and the kind of weather we have here.

Holland is not a reflection of what cyclists contend with elsewhere. It's part of Dutch culture because it is practical, Holland being so flat. In Scotland, everything is built on a hill and you'd need legs of steel to even attempt it.

You stick your head in the sand though and call realists irrational. It's a growing problem and when problems expand, regulation always appears by necessity.

 

Where did I say cars should have priority?

 

You would surely never be trusted with scissors.

 

Then what on Earth are you complaining about?

What are you actually saying?

In fact, why are you even in this thread?

Seriously...

If you don't want cars to have a higher priority than bicycles, I bet you want them on the same level...



I've never heard of a car being run over by a bicycle with death as a consequence...

Get a (1) a grip on yourself, Viv -- and (2) oil up those Scottish legs of yours, but (3) above all: stop whining. Thanks...

Geeeeeeeeez.

 

I think bicyclist should use the sidewalk when they can, I think my children would be safer using the sidewalk then riding in traffic

 

No. Its not a small minority. Its a trail on a two lane road where the speed is 40 mph. And when the cyclist run---100's take over the lane and cars inch along touching their butts at 10 mph.

The cyclists don't care that they have made the road unusable for cars. Or that the road was made for cars. They are arrogant---assuming that we should worship them. Yet they pollute the road.

 

I wonder how long it's going to take before you register that I don't respond to your posts.

 

Odd...pollute is the word that sprang to mind for me as well.

I am all for reducing pollution, but cycling is never going to be practical for most people. In this country, it's completely mad. You can't use a bike for 8 months of the year because the weather is prohibitive. No one can say it's anything like a valid alternative, so I don't know why they are throwing so much money at it when it's never going to be more than an unregulated, irresponsible minority leisure pursuit which is making roads and sidewalks more and more dangerous to use.

 

Viv, don't take this the wrong way, but your family tragedy makes no difference to this discussion. You should have not brought anecdotal "evidence" into this, if you aren't prepared to have someone challenge it.

Like I saud, my friends father is no reason to ban cars, and your family cyclists are no reason to change cycling laws. We, they could be a reason to change the laws for cars and car drivers, who should be far more careful on the roads.

 

Your entire stance and opinion suggests that you believe cyclists are second class road users and should not be on the roads. Don't act inoccent.,

 

At 15-30kph?

Get a grip!

 

Way to go painting everyone with the same brush!!! Keep on the great work.

 

You are being irrational, Jan is quite correct. Car drivers assumption that they "own" the road is BS, they do not.

 

I do not own a car, I cycle everywhere, so indeed is it very possible. Sun, rain, snow. Clearly it's more hilly in Scotland, but that does not give car drivers to speed around corners they cannot see around, which they do.

Cyclists should have far more priority, car drivers less.

 

I haven't said car drivers assume they own the road they pay road tax for and which cyclists use freely, so I am not required to defend a point I did not make.

 

Yes, it's clear you have no interest in how your activities affect others. I mistook you for a different kind of person.

5 of the 6 serious accidents did not involve a car. Are you getting that? You should not be on the same road as cars or people, but even when you are completely alone you are still taking your life in your hands.

 

You are being irrational, take a step back. I ride each and every day. I've ridden in the UK, Australia, all over mainland Europe. I'm not a dick when I ride, I consider my own well being. Do not project your feelings onto this; they are irrational and it shows.

We cyclists do not want your "protection", we are prepared to look after ourselves on roads that we have a right to be on.

Car drivers need to be harshly punished for hitting other (environmentally friendly) road users. Car drivers polute the air for pedestrians and cyclists, they are the ones who need to get out of everyone elses way, not the other wat around.

Again, please stop projecting your own family circumstances onto others, we do not want it.

 

Where I am--its more of a sport then a "non-polluting" form of transportation. Most avid cyclists drive to work and gripe just like the rest of us when someone acts like a jerk on the road..

 

When you have 100's creating the problem, on the same road on the same day, several days a week---that is a lot of brush.

 

You've 12,000 gun related homicides per year in the USA - ban guns? How many skiiing related deaths, car related deaths? Do you want me to go on?

 

I'm not asking to ban bikes. I could do without the arrogance that may end up costing lives.

And by the way---cyclists are second class road users. They can't keep up to speed, gnarl traffic and are a hazard to themselves and to others. But the thing that really makes them pollution is the arrogant attitude because they think they are so special.

 

Holding a different opinion from yours is different from being irrational. Now why don't you consider the possibility that you are irrational in riding a bike when it's clearly unsafe to do so. You haven't been able to answer a single rational point put to you about road safety, not how you know what speed you're doing nor anything else. Don't think it's going unnoticed.

You may not be a dick when you ride. The man I mentioned before was never a dick. He was the most cautious and capable of men. I suppose you are bullet proof though. Rules don't apply, they only apply to other road users who must move out of your way like serfs while you take your big green high road through. Good luck with that.

How do you have a right to be on the road? Do you pay for it? I do. Do you pass a road safety test and receive your official "I know the rules of the road and am unlikely to be a risk to other road users" pass? I did. Is your bicycle required to pass a road safety test and be certificated? My vehicle is. If you don't want our protection it's neither here nor there. You're a risk to other road users and you should be regulated to the same extent as everyone else on the road. What makes you think you are different and able to do what you want when the rest of us are legally required to know what we're doing?

Car drivers are punished for hitting cyclists. Cyclists need to be subject to the same rules.

Pollution from cars is being reduced every day and no doubt will soon disappear completely. How will you justify spending the taxpayers money on totally impractical cycling schemes then? How will you justify disrupting traffic then?

It's you who is attempting to derail by implying that is happening. Just respond to the points in a rational way and stop avoiding the reality of it. Cycling is dangerous and you are unprotected even if you are wearing a helmet.