Peds!

kowalski Someone's gonna get hurt on that new cycle lane outside Farringdon.

Aw, yeah. That one's awful. It's like the commuters have just come out of their pods, blinking and confused by all of the light around them before they wander across your path.

I've taken to nipping round behind them and whispering "careful, now".

natureboy I can always tell when I'm in a relatively good mood when I start singing while I cycle. Famous tunes with bad made up words usually, one of my favourites is 'bumpy road, take me home, to the place, etc...'

You'll often hear "In the summer time when the weather is fine.. la la laa laa laa" coming from me..

Usually when I'm soaked to the skin in a torrential downpour.

hippy [quote]natureboy I can always tell when I'm in a relatively good mood when I start singing while I cycle. Famous tunes with bad made up words usually, one of my favourites is 'bumpy road, take me home, to the place, etc...'

You'll often hear "In the summer time when the weather is fine.. la la laa laa laa" coming from me..
[/quote]

you'll a banjo player in a trailer to pull that off i reckon :-)

Nah, I sing the Shaggy version..

I think the best policy is to give pedestrians the degree of care we would hope motorist would give us. Expect them to fuck up, because chances are one of them will. In certain situations it is not intuitive for them to look for bikes, even though they should. Stopped traffic is one of them. I am actually not sure if it is against the law to split a lane between stopped cars, but it is not the safest thing I do (and I do it all the time) and it does increase the chance of hitting peds who don’t expect a bike to be buzzing between the cars.

Having said that, I refuse to take responsibility when a ped causes an accident (as in this case), and if it is a young guy who is being negligent (or who decides to play chicken with me) I have no qualms about coming so close that my handlebars graze at his shirt. Not safe, but a lot of fun to do.

bring back the Tufty Club!

I broke a Ladies arm once...rather she broke her arm on me.

Tufty club? elaborate please,
a near ped elimination club? sounds interesting.................

I never hit a ped.. but I do give them a gentle slap when they just do a "lemming" in front of me and don't even seem me until my hand brushes their neck... Or I just pass in front of them and wave my hand REALLY close to their face. Guaranteed jolt of fear.

mr_tom [quote]kowalski Someone's gonna get hurt on that new cycle lane outside Farringdon.

Aw, yeah. That one's awful. It's like the commuters have just come out of their pods, blinking and confused by all of the light around them before they wander across your path. [/quote]

Not that it helps really, but they haven't even painted it green. The peds are clearly aware that something's changed cos they never used to swarm quite so witlessly before. I think they should be shepherded from their offices to the tube - literally. Get an old geezer with a canny whistle, and a couple of shit-hot border collies on the job.

socialamnesia Tufty club? elaborate please,
a near ped elimination club? sounds interesting.................

Tufty and his animal pals were the puppets that taught a generation of kids how to cross the road..

as was David Prowse (formerly the body of Darth Vader, but not the voice) being the "Green Cross Code" man

we need them all back, badly

heh... look both ways or you'll be feeling a presence pretty sharpish.

RPM [quote]socialamnesia Tufty club? elaborate please,
a near ped elimination club? sounds interesting.................

Tufty and his animal pals were the puppets that taught a generation of kids how to cross the road..

as was David Prowse (formerly the body of Darth Vader, but not the voice) being the "Green Cross Code" man

we need them all back, badly[/quote]

I really, really wish they had used David Prowse as the voice as well. How cool would it have been if Darth Vader had a broad west country accent?

he did do it. but they dubbed james earl jones in during the edit, ole prowsey was a bit miffed at the time apparently

winston bring back the Tufty Club!

For the others out there going WTF?
http://www.scarysquirrel.org/tufty/tuftyclub/

I broke a Ladies arm once...rather she broke her arm on me.

Rough s3x is not without risk.

one thing i often encounter is that peds always look the bloody wrong way. i'm a skinny cyclist on a skinny bike but i have BRIGHT COLOURS you can see from yards away, but they assume i'm not a car and step out onto the bloody road looking down the other side for opposite traffic, usually in a hesitant manner (run? cross slowly or GO BACK?) and in the end they almost always hit right in my path i have to swerve and shout "WATCH IT!!!" right in their ears.

i consider myself very lucky not to have hit anyone at all.

another thing i really hate is when they cross the road at lights they start crossing before they reach the actual crossing. i was at the lights once and this bitch walked out almost straight into my left i had to roll back to avoid her and lost my balance falling over to the left with my left foot clipped in. made me look a right idiot with that cabbie laughing behind me.

Did you club his face with your D-lock and then take her fingers off with your chain?
(Someone was telling me about the film Hostel today..)

RPM he did do it. but they dubbed james earl jones in during the edit, ole prowsey was a bit miffed at the time apparently

"no but yeah but I'm yer faaather innit ya bugger"

hippy Did you club his face with your D-lock and then take her fingers off with your chain?
(Someone was telling me about the film Hostel today..)

Not the sort of film I'd expect to like, but I found it quite good.

hippy Did you club his face with your D-lock and then take her fingers off with your chain?
(Someone was telling me about the film Hostel today..)

hahaha

now i find a reason to watch it. and all those shitty "horror" films.
maybe i should make a chainring trilogy as a parody to SAW with my filmmaker friend.

I nearly hit a Dominoe's Pizza delivery man today. He just stepped out in the middle of the road then stopped when he saw me! I shouted at him but I don't think he even understood because he was foreign. And a ped nearly got hit by a car on the way home too.

I think electric fences on the pavements are in order.

i quite like dodging pedestrians, who's with me!?

Dodgeming them, yeah.. gets boring wiping the blood off the bike though (now you know why I like red bikes)

slamm [quote]RPM he did do it. but they dubbed james earl jones in during the edit, ole prowsey was a bit miffed at the time apparently

"no but yeah but I'm yer faaather innit ya bugger"[/quote]

Awesome.

......with fucking pedestrians walking out in front of me without fucking looking! Last night, I was riding down Tooley St. I was going gently in the cycle lane as there was a bit of traffic around. I approached one of the many sets of traffic lights, which for a change was green, and was about to pass the back of a bus which was gently accelerating when I was forced to stop. Forced by the fuckwit ped. who walked straight out with zero observation or warning. I braked hard but still ran into him. Luckily, as stated, I was rolling gently along otherwise I would have totally t-boned him. Why am I so fucked off? 1) this shit seems to be happening more often 2) ped. gambols on blissfully unaware of a potentially quite nasty RTA 3) When I shout WTF at the guy all the other peds. nearby look at me like I committed genocide with a sawn off uni-pack.
Rant over, thankyou... FE

As I'm quite aware of my surroundings as a 'human' this fucks me off also. I just in to them and look them in the eye.

I think people are in a rush to get knowwhere fast and and look in the process, same with drivers. Speeding up to traffic lights - smart!