I'm going to have a rant!

A quick poll-

I've made a few t-shirts that have a heart on them, and in the middle of the heart in girly handwriting (with hearts for the tops of "i"'s and everytthing)
they say "Dear Pedestrian, if you step out in front of me I'll break your face. XoXo, Ms Attack"

Is this in poor taste, or is it funny?

i guess "if you can read this you are too close" is a bit less confrontational?
but i think
"FUCK OFF OR I KILL"
in big letters is easier to read and just as informative

What sort of emoticon is that?

Did Will chastise you for noticing emoticons, as well?

I personally don't like them, either, but my sense of irony is far too obscure to survive for five seconds without them. In e-mails, I usually try to avoid them as far as possible and rarely use them; however, I find them useful in a forum like this where remarks are often short and bereft of context.

refrigerator

Well the merits of correct grammar, punctuation etc is all good but as I always say 'everything in moderation'. No harm in making sure you produce understandable writing, but sometimes it can go too far.
I work for a major exam board - writing, developing exams from GCSE's to 'A' levels, diplomas BTEC etc, yet once you've sat in a meeting and listened to people discuss/argue whether it should be 'explain briefly or briefly explain' you soon come to the conclusion 'yes good grammar' is needed but honestly some people take it too seriously ... hence im a firm believer in the plain English campain, I don't see the problem with English as long as the person is trying to make themselves clear, but I hate lazy English which unfortunately forums can be a breeding place for.

Ok drunk writings over...in'it :D 1111!!!!

Hello Nhatt,

A quick poll-

I've made a few t-shirts that have a heart on them, and in the middle of the heart in girly handwriting (with hearts for the tops of "i"'s and everytthing)
they say "Dear Pedestrian, if you step out in front of me I'll break your face. XoXo, Ms Attack"

Is this in poor taste, or is it funny?

I personally think that it is in poor taste and don't think that it's funny. I don't think it would come across as ironic to the vast majority of people (allusions to violence simply don't help).

We have nothing to gain from victimising pedestrians, especially in a city like London, which probably has higher levels of walking than just about anywhere. We should make common cause with pedestrians and discourage the sort of riding that can lead to situations like this (not difficult).

As users of the superior mode of transport, we should anticipate high levels of pedestrian interaction where many people are walking. We should cycle in the primary position where appropriate, i.e. well away from the kerb, adjust our speed to prevailing conditions, and *always *observe 'sail before steam'.

If you want to make a T-shirt about pedestrian-cyclist interaction, why not try something like this:

'Dear pedestrian, please listen and look. Cyclists aren't as noisy as cars, which is a good thing, but it can catch you out.'

Be positive, and you will get the message across much more easily.

refrigerator

If you believe they put a man on the moon ...

Be positive, and you will get the message across much more easily.

Fuckin' hippies..

;)

Fuckin' hippies..

;)

There is only one hippy. :)

If it is they can't read it, so it doesn't matter.

Blind People read Braille.

A quick poll- Is this in poor taste, or is it funny?

Funny

Whilst pedalling merrily along Victoria Street a few ( a fair few now I think about it, even before the arrival of CCTV: yes I am an old git) of summers back when a DFD (Daft Fucking Driver), did the classic pull out from the kerb without looking or signalling.
I was "pinched" between the DFD and a bus. I managed to stop by rubbing shoulders with the bus.
I was not a happy bunny.
I leaned into his drivers window and expressed my displeasure, in reasonable an reasoned terms, as I believe in starting off nice (you can then get nasty without being made to look a cnut if the opposition springs a surprise apology).
The reply was "If you ride a bike you deserve all you get".
To my credit (and surprise) I didn't lamp the twat. Instead I pointed to his left and said "will that Police officer agree with you?" As he looked to his left for the (non existant) Plod I removed his ignition key and pedalled off towards Parliment Square.
I heard some kind of comotion behind me , but being a careful cyclist I concentrated on the road ahead.
The keys found themselves on the grass in front of Big Ben.
I never found out what happened to the DFD.

Toodle pip.

^^^good stuff^^^

I don't know if I agree with you, oliver.

I"ve tried being nice and explaining to people that they need to look first, or that using the zebra crossing that's only a few metres away would be alot safer for everyone, but that generaly gets me ignored, and occationaly gets me sworn at.

I'm a polite person by nature, but I feel like screaming at a person that steps out in front of me might be rude, but in the long run maybe it will make a bigger impact and they won't do it again.

Besides that, I wear a PAC bag and so most people won't be reading my t-shirt when I'm on the road, mostly when I'm not on my bike for whatever reason. Call it a conversation starter.

As a by the way, the best speech i've ever heard given to a pedestrian was by my mate Bambi in New York. This woman steps out in front of him and he just barely manages to not hit her, partly by putting his arm out and grabbing her.
once stoppeed he looks deeply into her eyes and says "Look, I'll make you a deal. You don't step into traffic without looking, I won't go onto the sidewalk and start randomly punching people. OK?"

We should make common cause with pedestrians and discourage the sort of riding that can lead to situations like this (not difficult).

I disagree, it is difficult. I'm still nursing an injured shoulder from hitting a pedestrian who walked out without looking from between two parked buses. 6 weeks ago.

Hello Nhatt,

I personally think that it is in poor taste and don't think that it's funny. I don't think it would come across as ironic to the vast majority of people (allusions to violence simply don't help).

We have nothing to gain from victimising pedestrians, especially in a city like London, which probably has higher levels of walking than just about anywhere. We should make common cause with pedestrians and discourage the sort of riding that can lead to situations like this (not difficult)

....

If you want to make a T-shirt about pedestrian-cyclist interaction, why not try something like this:

'Dear pedestrian, please listen and look. Cyclists aren't as noisy as cars, which is a good thing, but it can catch you out.'

Be positive, and you will get the message across much more easily.

absolute bull shit, and another good reason not to join campaigning groups.

Nhat i will take a shirt.

I don't know if I agree with you, oliver.

I"ve tried being nice and explaining to people that they need to look first, or that using the zebra crossing that's only a few metres away would be alot safer for everyone, but that generaly gets me ignored, and occationaly gets me sworn at.

It is very difficult to be assertive in traffic. Most people are in a hurry and unreceptive. In many cases, you will simply not be able to speak to someone in a reasoned way, so just move on--another time. No need to regret that every time--there's only so much you can do when speaking to perfect strangers.

But it's not impossible. I would personally never take the approach of telling people what to do. That will always get their goat. First you need to find a way to take the pressure off a situation--that takes just basic assertiveness skills. What your mate Bambi did may well have worked in that particular situation--depends on how the woman felt afterwards. Assertiveness means 'You're OK, I'm OK'. It's the best way, really, even if someone has made a mistake.

Sometimes a person will be/become receptive. Then calmly explain that it is an unfortunate consequence of the obsession with motor traffic that many people only listen out for engine noise, but that the number of cyclists is increasing, so that it's much more important to look out. At the same time, don't take the attitude that pedestrians need to get out of the way of cyclists. As a matter of fact, in many areas of London where there is huge pedestrian activity, we are effectively guests in a shared-use environment, and the only reason why we get an illusion of priority for vehicular traffic is because traffic engineering has prejudiced the environment against pedestrians (e.g., guard railing, narrow footways). It is not a good idea for us to project attitudes of motor dominance by proxy.

Remember that most people feel extremely threatened in traffic. They don't understand how it moves, and all they may ever have practised is the dash to the Tube station to attempt to get out of Central London as quickly as possible. They often readily accept a status as victims in traffic.

They may be full of anti-cyclist prejudice--many people generalise about, and apply stereotypes to, classes of road user. For instance, a lot of people on here and other cycling forums complain about 'pedestrians' as if they were all the same. This is not a helpful attitude.

As all people make mistakes, traffic should be an environment in which people can make mistakes without getting into (serious) conflict or suffer injury. As cyclists, we can make a major contribution to making 'traffic' more forgiving of mistakes. We travel at speeds that are far more controllable than those of motorised vehicles, we have much better vision, we are not caged in tin boxes and are actually quite approachable, we can interact better socially, we're not noisy, we don't cause as much fear and displacement, etc. In view of all these superior aspects of cycling, we can well afford to give a bit and show everybody why cycling should be the default non-walking mode of transport. It's called 'assertive cycling'.

This is one of the main aims of the National Standard for Cycle Training/Bikeability, by the way, as cycling in urban environments is essentially a social skill. Have you had cycle training? If you get trained, I guarantee you that you will have far fewer problems with pedestrians stepping off the kerb. (I'm certain that you're an excellent cyclist, by the way, don't get me wrong. It's just that everybody can benefit from cycle training, even the most experienced. I certainly learned a lot, and I'm fairly experienced.)

This probably all sounds very theoretical but it works in practice as has been experienced for a long time by people who cycle assertively.

I'm a polite person by nature, but I feel like screaming at a person that steps out in front of me might be rude, but in the long run maybe it will make a bigger impact and they won't do it again.

They will only be further intimidated by 'traffic' and it's definitely not a good idea. You may put yourself at further risk in this way and you're also not being assertive. It takes much more strength to be calm and polite than to be rude in a pressurised situation.

It is actually not in our interest at all to stop pedestrians from following their desire lines. There is a very pervasive culture in this country of 'road safety', which has mostly aimed at scaring pedestrians and cyclists off the streets to allow for the passage of motor traffic. This has created an illusion of safety in the statistics, but in practice has created a culture of fear. The last thing we want to do as cyclists is to propagate that sort of fear. Responsible shared use is always possible.

Besides that, I wear a PAC bag and so most people won't be reading my t-shirt when I'm on the road, mostly when I'm not on my bike for whatever reason. Call it a conversation starter.

I'm sure it can work given a person with the right sense of humour! I just think that the allusion to violence is very likely to get misunderstood.

absolute bull shit,

Do try to give it some time before judging so harshly. There may be more to it than you realise at first.

and another good reason not to join campaigning groups.

Everybody's loss.

every cyclists gain if we corden the cattle behind fences with armed gaurds. the death penalty for jay walking i say

every cyclists gain if we corden the cattle behind fences with armed gaurds. the death penalty for jay walking i say

I agree that people shouldn't jaywalk. At least without looking first. But I also think cyclists should stop at red lights and zebra crossings (and not ride on the pavement).

i dissagree i think every one should get out of my way.

but i don't care to argue about it.

i dissagree i think every one should get out of my way.

but i don't care to argue about it.

fair enough.

Great ranting everyone. Keep it up - especially asm and Nhatt's t-shirt idea.

I fall over too much friggin wet weather and ice and metal grates hidden in puddles and oil and avoiding cars which are cutting corners and illegally parked vans and I want to kill kill kill everyone - yyeyyearaargh!!!!

I agree that people shouldn't jaywalk. At least without looking first. But I also think cyclists should stop at red lights and zebra crossings (and not ride on the pavement).

i think people should jaywalk and cyclist should jump lights at thier own peril and ride the pavement if necessary. people just need to open their eyes, wake the fuck up and use some common sense.

point in case, riding to work yesterday, little old lady run out in to the middle of moving traffic on kingsland rd that i had turned into and then realised she was caught like a rabbit in the headlights between traffic both ways and me. she just froze right in front of me. lucky i guess cos if she had moved i would have bowled her over and possibly hurt her or fallen in front of a car. stupid ped.

I think if you made all peds cyclists for a week they would be more careful crossing the street. when i first started working in London's famous London I had several near misses with bikes (as a ped), purely through not expecting them and not being used to such volumes of traffic.

If someone walks out infront of you without looking you can hardly be blamed if you knock them down. Unless of course you happen to be wearing a t-shirt advertizing the fact.