This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Ti spork for aeroz

Woke up in a fowl mood today. Shouted at a cyclist for trying to ride through me taking off from the lights, catching my tshirt on this handlebars, gave the finger to a truck who stopped in the hatchings at one crossing trying to bully his way through cyclists, called a cyclist a dick for RLJing right into a group of cyclists moving perpendicular through him.

Sorry world.

Chicken! #inb4schick.

Sat in a group of riders waiting for lights at Portland Pl. One lady decides she has had enough of waiting and rolls through, completely oblivious to the police car right next to her. I ask if they're gonna do some Policing as she rolls through a second set of lights just down the road. They proceed to flag her down. #justice #iamthebatman

#snitchesgetstitches

Did the same to a serial RJLer on CS3 last week. Told a HobbyBobby™ on his trike that this dude had was RLJing like a pro, and that he'd most likely do it again right in front of the two of us. He did, but HobbyBobby™ couldn't catch him because he wasn't prepared to run all the further reds that RLJer was blasting through. #csb #nojustice

Got punishment passed this am by a macho bellweapon on a fixy. Seemed to think I should be riding in the doorzone.

grr/10

I think you'll find the correct spelling is 'ficksy'.

Don't you dare let Skülly invade our inner circle by giving away our secrets.

Near passed by a large white van. Made it worse as I was between two islands going into a roundabout AND I was riding two abreast with my 9 yo son. Seriously?!

I rode my bicycle to my place of work

@MCamb

Near passed by a large white van. Made it worse as I was between two islands going into a roundabout AND I was riding two abreast with my 9 yo son. Seriously?!

I find this really frequent when riding with my son. I find I'm much more likely to respond angrily when riding with him, which is frightening for him.

Some bumpkin skipped every red between Q1 and Aldgate, when I pointed out that his actions made all cyclists look bad and just allowed drivers to compound stereotypes, he said 'there's nobody else around'. We were stationary at the time because of the heaving traffic going over Tower Bridge...

I agree, I didn't do anything for this reason.. Was quietly seething for at least a couple of minutes though.. the stress will probably kill me before an accident does.

his actions made all cyclists look bad

Do tell us more about this notion of shared responsibility.

I do find it sometimes annoys me too when I am waiting on the green box, which is left free for a change and somebody rolls through a red or kerb cycles, as in FFS, it's bad enough with driver aggro. Of course, that's not the cyclist's problem: Their only responsibility is to stick to the highway code, what I feel about their behaviour is irrelevant.

Back on the cycle, nearly got face hit by 29er rain splatters (please mudguard people), then a bell and squeaky front brake didn't exactly part the red sea of pedestrians on a Sustrans path. The cyclist behind me took the grass around them, come up to me and we had a joke about it.

Belfast, the friendly place. Usually :)

Sadly it does exist, at least from the point of view of the 'other' (i.e motorists).

Should we as cyclists do anything about it? Probably not, there are more important things to campaign on.

Ummmm people in cars think we're all cunts? Compounded by cunts?

Unfortunately, we do have a collective responsibility even if we don't want it. It has been shown that juries generally side with drivers partly because there is the perception that all cyclists ride on pavements, RLJ etc. Why shouldn't we do something about it? If I get knocked off my bike and the jury sides with the driver, at least I could say I have attempted to change the prejudice against all riders that's reinforced by the few. Plus it's nice to have a justified shout at somebody on the way to work, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on my High Horse.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/08/drivers-who-kill-remove-right-to-trial-by-jury-death-cyclists-pedestrians-justice

If I get knocked off my bike and the jury sides with the driver

You should sue all of the RLJers as co-defendants. I mean - they're to blame too, right.

I do not share your literal interpretation of the word 'shared' in this context.

Collective judgement and shared responsibility are pretty much the same thing to me, just seen from different angles.

I love it when we talk about shared responsibility as if it doesn't exist, then complain on this very same thread about taxi drivers and addison lee drivers as if they're one big homogenous group. You might not accept getting tarred with the same brush as a red light jumping bellend, but drivers really are doing it.

Us humans we like to group people into simple groups.

In my biased observations I note that some drivers really are statistically more likely to be plonkers. Old lady in a Micra: Usually OK. Big fat Audi chelsea tractor with personalized plate: Bellendry more likely, still not super likely but has a higher hazard score.

However, once people drag this observation bias into the court room (it's a cyclist or taxi driver so probably their fault) it really becomes a problem. And I don't know if they know they're biased even. Often biases are subconscious.

Drivers cannot expect to be respected until they apologise for killing Diana.

interesting this morning, 17degrees at 7am yet bucketing it down with rain and foggy- full lights on ,full water proofs on , sweat mode maximum :-/