On 19/11/2011 21:55, Mrcheerful wrote:
SB wrote:
Today is Saturday and I have have been walking the streets of London
doing Xmas shopping along with thousands of others. But I live here;
most of the others are tourists. However London is very bad this year
- there are too many cyclists without lights, riding on the pavements,
and jumping the red lights. I used to be a keen cyclist having been
brought up with National Cycling Proficiency at school, and at least
reading the Highway Code. I WAS a keen cyclist - but now no more.

And now-a-days I am gob-smacked at the selfishness of modern cyclists.
This afternoon alone I have nearly been knocked over 5 times by
cyclists without lights jumping the red traffic lights - when they
have been green for me as a pedestrian. If I shout out after they just
miss knocking me over all I get told is "fcuk off!" Nice, This reduces
my sympathy for cyclists to zero.

But the latest outrage are the tourists on Borris Bikes. They don't
give a damn. They haven't a clue how to ride a bike properly, and
frequently ride the wrong way down a one way road if they are not also
on the pavement. Almost everyday I start to cross a one-way street
only to nearly collide with a Borris Bike being ridden the wrong way
along it - the direction from which I DO NOT expect anything to be
coming.

Just recently there have been two unfortunate deaths of cyclists in
London (there are probably many more every month), but it is very hard
to have any sympathy for them when it seems that the majority of
cyclists haven't any concern about mowing pedestrians down, going the
wrong way along one-way streets, cycling on pavements, cycling without
lights and wearing dark clothes (how stupid is that), and telling me
to "fcuk off" for being in their way.

SB..

They maim, disable and kill people on a regular basis, but it is nothing to
do with them, ever. It is all down to whoever they hit, never the cyclist.
On the tiny number of occasions they are caught the fines are derisory even
for deliberate running down of pedestrians, they don't even get a momentary
ban. Campaign to your MP to get them registered, trained, licenced,
insured, use legal machines and face prosecution and even banning for
breaking the laws. All wheeled road users should face the same laws and
penalties.

If they were registered then the camera systems could catch transgressors
and pedestrians could report them.


APPLAUSE


--
Dave - Cyclists VOR. "Many people barely recognise the bicycle as a
legitimate mode of transport; it is either a toy for children or a
vehicle fit only for the poor and/or strange," Dave Horton - Lancaster
University