Is it time to start calling out bad cyclists?

This is starting to annoy me. Cruising down Railton Road on the way home this evening - not particularly quickly, not particularly slowly either - am overtaken by another cyclist, who then cuts sharply across my path, forcing me to slow to avoid a collision. He carries on in the same direction, he wasn't turning off the road.

Same thing happened last week on Croxted Road (different guy). Am I missing something?

Yes. There is a chip on your shoulder. You should eat it. Then have a cup of tea, relax, and forget about the cyclists that irritate you.

Last night, about 8:45pm, heading east on the spice route.

Waiting at the lights on the Theobalds Road/Greys Inn junction, in the middle of the ASL, as I'm going to head straight on to Clerkenwell Road.

A motorbike is on the right of the ASL, right up against the island with the traffic light/crossing on it. Again it's a fair assumption he is going straight, or turning right.

Just before the lights go green, a guy on a new Langster, wearing a check shirt, squeezes down the right of the motorbike, even though there is no space. At that moment the lights go green, he cuts up the motorbike, which is just moving off, possibly touches it (not sure), then carries on further to the left, cuts me up, and ends up going left up Rosebury Avenue.

What the fuck are you on? If you find yourself in the wrong place at the junction, wait behind the motorbike, and safely move to the left when you can, or get in the right fucking lane in the first place.

Then just a couple of hundred meters further, I'm stopped at the junction with Farringdon Road. There is a car at the junction, there is no ASL, there is about a foot between the curb and the car, and there is a cyclist sitting just in front of the stop line, so I obviously decide just to wait behind the car, rather than putting myself in it's blind spot, or jumping the lights.

As I wait there another guy on some fixed gear, and also with a check shirt, decides he doesn't want to wait, forces his way between me and and the car, if I hadn't moved out of the way (he was already half way through), he would have just clipped me. He then squeezes down the side of the car, between the cyclist in front and the car (if it had gone green in that moment he could easily have been hit), and the RLJs. I catch him within about 10 seconds of the lights going green.

Seriously, what's the fucking point. Why put yourself at risk like that, for almost no gain...

The fact that some drivers have swapped their tin boxes for bikes does not mean that they have left their bad attitude/road sense in said tin boxes.
I think that what we are seeing is the expression of car driving attitude transfered onto two wheels.
Hopefully they will learn before the weather drives them back into their tin cans.

My theory is that it's non-drivers who don't have the skills to ride safely. Not enough experience with realtime spatial problem solving and prediction. No awareness of the risks. How else do you explain nodders going up the inside of turning lorries & busses every day?

People in general are selfish, ignorant and clueless. they care about no one other than themselves, or those who they feel a duty to socially or genetically, everyone else can go jump in their minds.

They were like that before they took up a particular mode of transport and they will remain that way long after they have.

Car driver attitude: "Must get to front/stay in front of/ beat them to" etc.
Coupled with no appreciation of the dangers associated with riding a bike from having been insulated in a tin box
Equals: "nodders going up the inside of turning lorries & busses every day"

As much as I'm happy to see the increase in cyclists this week, it's cyclists that cause me the greatest fear and I'll continue to stay at the back/sit in traffic like a car/stay left where advisable and let them roll by. Saying all that, I'm now trying to convince a woman in my office that being 50+ is not a barrier to taking up cycling for the first time!

Sheeeeiiiiite!!! Close call.
Looks like it may be this bike:
http://prollyisnotprobably.com/2011/04/death-spray-custom-fish-otoro-track/

Excellent detective work!

My theory is that it's non-drivers who don't have the skills to ride safely. Not enough experience with realtime spatial problem solving and prediction. No awareness of the risks. How else do you explain nodders going up the inside of turning lorries & busses every day?

Have a friend who's a driver and a cyclist who's terrible for just riding wherever he wants to go without ever looking around himself - through red lights, changing lane etc, nary as much as a shoulder check. Seen people screech to a halt blasting their horns to avoid hitting him and he's not even noticed.

He's never taken kindly to my advice because I can't drive and thus don't know the road like he does :s

My theory is that it's non-drivers who don't have the skills to ride safely. Not enough experience with realtime spatial problem solving and prediction. No awareness of the risks. How else do you explain nodders going up the inside of turning lorries & busses every day?

I have to agree - a lot of folks I see on the road so obviously haven't driven round London in a car, lorry or motorbike (or have passed a driving test). If they had they wouldn't do half the dumb-ass shit I see on the roads everyday!

My theory is that it's non-drivers who don't have the skills to ride safely. Not enough experience with realtime spatial problem solving and prediction. No awareness of the risks. How else do you explain nodders going up the inside of turning lorries & busses every day?

I have to agree - a lot of folks I see on the road so obviously haven't driven round London in a car, lorry or motorbike (or have passed a driving test). If they had they wouldn't do half the dumb-ass shit I see on the roads everyday!

I'm not disagreeing with you both but to a degree being able to drive has nothing/little to do with it. I think having driven (anywhere and not just in London) does help but you can easily learn how to read the road and be aware of the potential hazards without ever having driven.

I think my cycling before I began driving helped me with my driving and vice versa. I just think, as others have said, some of them are total twats and will never learn and others could benefit from a fair bit of cycle training.

That or shooting.

When I taught people to drive, it was usually easier to teach people who cycled regularly as they were more aware of the way the road works, although the same went for people who had ridden motorcycles or unicorns etc..

There is no scientific correlation between a person's tendency towards selfish behaviour and their preference for a certain method of transport.* Everything else speculation.

*- except for the fucking unicorn riders.

^ I no rite, always going round tooting their fucking horns

But my pet theory..
I was thinking less of selfish behavior and more of putting themselves at risk through failing to identify hazards.

Is the sparkles that fuck me off. Fucking sparkles. This is all they are good for...

posh food thread >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Edit: dicks

Alright which one of you is this?

near collision fenchurch street.mpg - YouTube

wow what an utter cunt. If you slow the video down the guy looks like someone i see from time to time around east, a few times at LMNH, deffo a forumenger.

I bet hes the kind of wanker who spends shitloads of money on his sweet fixie (is that a Corima 4-spoke on the front?) then rides around like a cunt, hating on people riding beat up mtbs in fluro gear because they are 'nodders' while he is way better than them because he spouts ill-informed shit on some wanky bike forum and spent loads of money on his bike. Fuck him and those like him.

hating on people riding beat up mtbs in fluro gear because they are 'nodders' while he is way better than them because he spouts ill-informed shit on some wanky bike forum and spent loads of money on his bike. Fuck him and those like him.

Could be someone off here but you'll have to narrow it down a bit.

Twats undertaking me at speed as I pull off from stationary as the lights change: one of these days you're going to knock me over. Getting a bit sick of that.

Is it time to stop calling out bad cyclists?

Olie!

There, I called out a bad cyclist