Is it time to start calling out bad cyclists?

question is do cats need to wear helmets when riding a bike given they always land on their feet?

How about this, just throwing it out there. Quick off the cusp alternative.

We had 'what a cunt' stickers. I propose 'Are you next?' stickers/cards/flyers etc.

Give them out to these bad cyclists. They type in the url 'http://www.areyounext.com'.

Home page stats on deaths of cyclist in that classic blind spot. Bit of shock treatment, video? Also the video I saw recently on here actually showing how blind that blind spot is....etc...etc.

If someone handed me a card/flyer like that I would be curious. This community is more than capable of doing a good job of something like this.

CTUK have already done 10 top tips for cyclists cards and they do get handed out at events like Dr Bikes and during training.

Wrong audience.

I don't think it's so much the wrong audience as not a big enough one. But perhaps leaving CTUK's cards on every table of every bar in Shoreditch would be a better move than just handing the cards out to people who basically are already seeking such information.

Would the random stickering/flyering of people you see causing danger reach a big enough audience either? I guess it would be better targeted but relies on someone exhibiting their ineptitude in front of someone with a stock of stickers who has the time to deploy them.

I called a cyclist out today, it's the first time I haven't been told "mind your own business!". The lights were on red so jcgarcia & myself waited behind the stationary traffic whilst a girl on a bike skooted up the left as the lights changed to green oblivious to the already indicating left & pulling away taxi. Fortunately the taxi stopped as she wobbled through.

At the next set of lights she caught up with us, I turned around & simply told her that it's not a good idea to cut down the left of left turning vehicles, and that the taxi could have knocked her off her bike. I also (hopefully politely) stated that it is one of the reasons behind cyclists deaths. I got an "oh, thank you".

Not sure if it is going to change how she cycles too much, but I hope that I makes her think twice about doing the same thing again.

question is do cats need to wear helmets when riding a bike given they always land on their feet?

As an extension of the buttered toast/cat anti-gravity device, if you strap a cat to your head would it flip you the right way up if you were about to land on your head?

Stickers on the back of HGVs are good though.
There used to be some with 'Overtaker' on the right and 'Undertaker' on the left with a little graphic of a squashed cyclist IIRC.
I think there are much better/less confrontational ways to improve the safety of cyclists.

Talking of safety, 'flouro' is seen here as a mark of dorkytude or inability. Wearing hi viz during the day in London is a good idea and could save your life.

Not very cool though is it?

They should only hand the sticker supply out to people who have been freshly cycle-trained so they can bask in smuggery.

Will - I should have smileyed those urls - I was just trying to suggest some less stalkery ones!

^^ The way I look at it you can wear as much flouro as you like, but if you then proceed to ride like a total prick it looks pretty amusing. I often see a hi vis rider sitting in the kill zone or banging down a pavement / through a pedestrian crossing etc... As someone who tries to be visible to traffic by not being invisible, not hiding in blind spots, not doing things which other road users might not expect me to do and so on, I reserve the right not to dress like a bollard. I am especially annoyed by the ongoing rhetoric from the non cycling fraternity that not being dayglo is tantamount to riding irresponsibly. If you can't register an 11 stone bloke on a bike, on the road, in broad daylight you need to seriously reconsider your ability to control a motorised vehicle as a matter of absolute urgency.

*Don't mean "you" specifically absurdbird, I mean "you" as in "one".

Hi-vis is a state of mind. Poster pending.

High-vis can be less safe than black. It depends on what is behind you. If things behind you are light, then you are less visiable in high viz than in black.

Hi-vis is a state of mind. Poster pending.

I like that -and up to a point it's true.
Being in the right road position, not weaving in and out of parked cars/taking a predictable line not undertaking etc etc are more important than wearing high viz.
But wearing high viz doesn't hurt.

I don't always wear it but I do on wet grey days. It does no harm and having a bike for me is not a fashion statement.

Apart from cycling a lot in London (less than I used to due to local work) I also unfortunately have to drive a lot- moving tools and materials.
So from a driver's perspective in quickly moving heavy traffic cyclists need all the help they can get.

I nearly hit a guy on a bike on Monday evening, bad light, he jumped a red light didn't have lights, I came out of a side street missed him by less than a foot, I'd have seen him if he was wearing high viz.

I'm not saying that cyclists should wear high viz, or really that they Should do anything -part of what I love about cycling is the freedom, but continually mocking the wearing of safety equipment on a discussion about cyclists' safety is a bit silly IMO.

on blackfriars bridge this morning heading north, massive truck with trailer indicating turning left to turn onto embankment, a few cyclists already in front of it at the red light..

I stop behind it and leave a decent gap as you can see it's indicating to go left, about ten cyclists ride past me into the cycle lane to its left, can't get to the front as you could already see and just sit there, it starts turning left/trying to but still about another ten people who can actually see it turning/what is potentially about to happen cycle straight past me presumably just expecting it to stop/thinking well it's not gonna squash all of us or maybe just oblivious..

for what it's worth i felt bad for not telling the girl on the boris bike without a helmet who was last to cycle into the gap what could happen but i lost her on new bridge street - not because i want to be sanctimonious/preachy or becuase i think i haven't made stupid mistakes before cos i have but because she may well not have known what she was exposing herself to and she's someone's kid/girlfriend/wife/mam...

I'm sometimes in this situation and have only said something once. I used to try to close the gap but that's a tad difficult when you're a titch on a titch bike, so I stopped trying. Plus the obstinate ones only force their way through as if I'm not there, giving the driver attitude along the way.

I nearly hit a guy on a bike on Monday evening, bad light, he jumped a red light didn't have lights, I came out of a side street missed him by less than a foot, I'd have seen him if he was wearing high viz.

You would also have seen him if he had lights, which he's legally required to have.

But it wouldn't have happened in the first place if he'd waited at the red light like he's supposed to.

This is what wrongcog is getting at when he points out that wearing hi-vis doesn't help much if the wearer's riding style defaults to "bellmer"

the type of person who is climbing onto the curb and wriggling down the side of a bus on a rented Boris bike probably isn't the type of person who will take instruction very well. Just a thought.

Not to sound like a prick, but cycling in London is a complicated business; generally I find it's best to stay calm/alert, keep my head screwed on, avoid arguments and make sure that I am safe.
Whenever I have tried to point out unsafe cycling in the past, I've rarely got a positive (or even a non- "Piss off"/aggressive) response. So now I just leave it, unless what they did put me in danger..

Why You Hate Cyclists

                 **Partly because of jerks like me. But it’s mostly your own illogical mind.**

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2012/09/cyclists_are_annoying_why_you_think_they_re_a_menace_on_two_wheels_.html

Great article, thanks for that, and it reminded me to purchase Thinking Fast and Slow, which I have also now done.

Bonza.

[ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thinking-Fast-and-Slow-ebook/dp/B005MJFA2W"]Thinking, Fast and Slow eBook: Daniel Kahneman: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store[/ame]

^ fantastically interesting book... I recomended it in the reading thread recently. The writing is sometimes a little slow and I find the constant referrals to Amos a bit odd but broadly speaking an excellent book - wrt this thread there is an interesting section on our perception of risk.

Just bought a copy, at least some good has come from this thread, although I now hold you two responsible should it not live up to my unrealistic expectations.

Police were doing a blitz on RLJs at the junction of Southwark Bridge and Southwark St today. As a rule I don't jump reds myself so no problems I'm thinking. I pull up at the red light in front of a black cab turning left, I am intending on going straight ahead.

Of course I hadn't noticed that the cab is sitting in the advanced cycle box and consequently I'm in front of the forward stop line. The light drops to amber and I'm about to pull away when I get a police officer on the curb yelling at me to stop because he wants to speak with me.

He is telling me I am breaking the traffic rules which is a £30 fine and I'm trying to explain to him I need to be out in front of the left turning taxi to be seen instead of waiting in his blind spot. Meanwhile the traffic is now turning left and taxis and huge coaches are making the left turn around me whilst the officer stands on the curb lecturing me about the problems of bad cyclists. I was getting a bit panicky about the coach turning across me and the guy seemed to sense this because then he decides wave me on and not fine me 'this time'. I am still pretty worked up about the whole situation however.

I think it is ridiculous that I would need to stay back alongside a left turning vehicle when it is occupying the cycle box.

completely ignoring the taxi in the cycle box then? sounds about right.

I think it is ridiculous that I would need to stay back alongside a left turning vehicle when it is occupying the cycle box.

Two wrongs don't make a right. The taxi breaking the rules doesn't justify you doing it.

In any case, why go past the taxi at all, just sit behind it, and wait for it to turn left.

I got called out today and wanted to make sure I was in the wrong.

Riding in the primary position down Clerkenwell road in slow moving traffic behind a row of taxis as they approach a light. I slowly brake to a stop as I don't filter on the left. I had left enough space on the left for anybody who wanted to undertake (a damn sight more space than the gap between the curb and the line of traffic that was in any case converging).

Cue some guy cussing me out for apparently brake checking him as he swerves and overtakes me to filter up the left. I don't like being accused of causing an accident so when I caught up to him I apologised and tried to explain that I don't filter on the left and in any case there wasn't a gap big enough for my bike (pedal striking the curb if I'm on the yellow lines). He just shook his head and muttered that I shouldn't be on the road.

I felt that I was going slow enough and braking slow enough that he had to be tailgating or really barrelling it down to have to swerve to avoid me.

Police were doing a blitz on RLJs at the junction of Southwark Bridge and Southwark St today. As a rule I don't jump reds myself so no problems I'm thinking. I pull up at the red light in front of a black cab turning left, I am intending on going straight ahead.

Of course I hadn't noticed that the cab is sitting in the advanced cycle box and consequently I'm in front of the forward stop line. The light drops to amber and I'm about to pull away when I get a police officer on the curb yelling at me to stop because he wants to speak with me.

He is telling me I am breaking the traffic rules which is a £30 fine and I'm trying to explain to him I need to be out in front of the left turning taxi to be seen instead of waiting in his blind spot. Meanwhile the traffic is now turning left and taxis and huge coaches are making the left turn around me whilst the officer stands on the curb lecturing me about the problems of bad cyclists. I was getting a bit panicky about the coach turning across me and the guy seemed to sense this because then he decides wave me on and not fine me 'this time'. I am still pretty worked up about the whole situation however.

I think it is ridiculous that I would need to stay back alongside a left turning vehicle when it is occupying the cycle box.
Did you get the officer's name? We were told they would be pulling up ASL encroachers, not only cyclists who RLJ (by their definition).

Also in Southwark, they'll be targeting Bellenden Road soon.

I'd be interested to know whether they are in fact pulling up ASL encroachers at all...

Scrublord. He was in the wrong 100%

I got called out today and wanted to make sure I was in the wrong.
...

You weren't.
He was.

completely ignoring the taxi in the cycle box then? sounds about right.

standard. should've asked the policeman why he wasn't talking to the taxi.

on tuesday i saw the stupidest cyclist i've seen all year try to kill himself. it was at that point that he went a different way to me so i didn't talk to him but i tried to look visible appalled for the benefit of the driver who was his chosen medium of suicide (failed attempt).