Motorists vs Cyclists.... again

[ChrisF]

10 minutes ago, RobynE 🚵‍♀️ said:

Me too, Chris. I had a medium to well done chop while I was driving today. 

Headed to Fourways Mall I looked up Cedar Road and saw traffic was backed up way past the hospital. So I decided to take the back roads through Kengies/Fourways Gardens. An oomie in an older model (maar nogsteeds puik) Hilux was behind me as I turned off Cedar. Oomie looked like the type who you might find with a nice (nogsteeds puik) 90s Jurgens, spending retirement years in caravan parks across Southern Africa, throwing bird seed down while voetsekking monkeys. 

My first clue that oomie was a braai item was when I realised I could continually see oomie’s facial features in my rear view mirror. 

Oomie nearly rear-ended me twice, because oomie was watching me only, and not the road ahead. So, when I had to brake fairly abruptly for a recycler suddenly pushing his cart off the kerb into the road (and there was an oncoming car, so I couldn’t veer) I just about saw oomie’s teeth. I raised my hand to apologise to oomie as I thought my actions had been a bit sudden. A few hundred metres on I saw oomie’s nose hairs because oomie didn’t realise there was a speed bump that I was slowing down for. Oomie wasn’t slowing down. Oomie ramped the speed bump and his nudge bar nearly landed on my roof rack. 

On turning the corner towards Fourways Gardens, I noticed someone was reversing off the pavement. I slowed down. Oomie wanted to overtake me, but, oncoming traffic, so oomie elected to re-acquaint his nudge bar with my roof rack. At the circle, there were two cars already in the circle to my right, so I yielded. Oomie thought a Hilux/Jimny union was a good idea but thankfully changed his mind at the last second. 

I watched oomie’s ear hairs for a good long while until we got to the lights at Leroy Merlin. I was in the straight ahead lane and the lights changed to orange as I got to within 10m of them. I stopped. Oomie swung around and flew past me on the right (turning lane) with the revs of his Hilux sounding good and strong, but continued on straight, veering left out the way of an oncoming car turning right on the orange. I watched oomie head up the Fourways Mall ramp and turn into the parkade. 

So oomie also needed to go to the mall - not to a hospital or toilet as I may have thought based on his driving behaviour. 

If oomie can’t look ahead and see (or care about) recycling trolleys, speed bumps, reversing white cars and orange traffic lights, then I doubt oomie would see (or care about) a cyclist. 

Maybe oomie did need the toilet. But even so, oomie was a proper mutton chop today. 

 

Just for the record 

 

Die omie het nie meer n mooi Hilux nie ... sê maar net

[Guest Mike Dewing]

18 hours ago, Robbie Stewart said:

I murdered an expensive and fairly new set of headphones recently in a moment of internet frustration at constant connection failure. Hindsight is a bastard for not being foresight sometimes. 

That 3 iron off the tee must've been agony.

I studied design about 20 years ago and the lecture always said the attention and frustration levels are never shorter than when sat in front of a computer with the internet not loading.. 🤣🤣🤣

I actually had a good round after that.. iron off the tee changes the game completely.. have to be more technical than just bombing driver off the tee if it ain’t a par three 🤣🤣

[Chris_Mugs]

Reddit post

Maybe an interesting other side of the coin. I'm fairly new, only 3 weeks into the whole cycling thing and I've done about 200km now, made a promise to basically follow the rules of the road. Stop at reds, stop at stop signs or at least slow balance the wheels long enough to check for cars or pedestrians etc. 

My most recent ride took me home around the Sea Point Prominade and I do see a lot of cyclists who skip reds and I don't know. Kinda sucks especially with all that's been happening in the community the last couple of weeks (not that I'm saying any of it is deserved based on a single reddit post ofcourse). One of the reddit comments said we're "road mosquitoes which was pretty funny but I guess it's kinda interesting reading through this thread and then coming across something like this.

Both sides just need to be more mindful at the end I guess.

[Andreas_187]

There's nothing more satisfying than seeing a huge coach coming down Chappies, towards Noordhoek, doing 15km/h with 35 cars all backed up behind it. Funnily enough I never hear them screaming and honking 

[vanniri]

From a car review (latest Volvo) in Sunday Times, the reviewer applauded the self driving functionalities of the car since most South Africans "multi-task" behind the steering wheel these days.

Multi-task se gat man

[wolver]

Got threatened by a driver wielding a baseball bat on Beach Road in Sea Point yesterday afternoon. No other cars around, two lanes, just riding along.... honestly still can't work out what I possibly could have done to trigger him, so just going to assume it was jealousy over my well defined calves 🤷‍♂️

[StripesOfYellow]

On 8/9/2025 at 11:57 PM, Chris_Mugs said:

Reddit post

Maybe an interesting other side of the coin. I'm fairly new, only 3 weeks into the whole cycling thing and I've done about 200km now, made a promise to basically follow the rules of the road. Stop at reds, stop at stop signs or at least slow balance the wheels long enough to check for cars or pedestrians etc. 

My most recent ride took me home around the Sea Point Prominade and I do see a lot of cyclists who skip reds and I don't know. Kinda sucks especially with all that's been happening in the community the last couple of weeks (not that I'm saying any of it is deserved based on a single reddit post ofcourse). One of the reddit comments said we're "road mosquitoes which was pretty funny but I guess it's kinda interesting reading through this thread and then coming across something like this.

Both sides just need to be more mindful at the end I guess.

I've seen that post, and genuinely struggle to understand the comments. I don't see how the cyclists even did anything wrong in that instance. Alas the post has been deleted, so don't think other people will be able to see the video anymore.

[The Ouzo]

19 hours ago, vanniri said:

From a car review (latest Volvo) in Sunday Times, the reviewer applauded the self driving functionalities of the car since most South Africans "multi-task" behind the steering wheel these days.

Multi-task se gat man

Volvo also have cyclist detection as part of their collision mitigation system. Not sure how well it works.

I also recall reading of a system that would alert you to oncoming cyclist should you be parked and about to open your door.

 

But from my experience in the industry, most south africans wanted all or the majority of these systems turned off before taking their new cars.

[Danger Dassie]

For the most part imo, bad road behaviour transfers from our attitude behind the wheel. 

[dexterdent]

I decided it was time to try my 3km commute to work on my bicycle again this morning. Nearly got taken out by a Beyers Security bakkie turning right across Roeland Street into Hope without looking. Like in, he ended up stopping 3cm away from my leg after I jumped away. Two other motorists stopped to ask if I was fine. I probably shared the road peacefully with >100 others this morning.

Rules / Laws are not going to fix this - most of the people that cause these accidents are either horrible drivers technically, or they are ignorant of the laws. The only way to fix this is proper consequences for actions. We just need a few of the very guilty people to spend some very public time behind bars for the news to spread. Killing someone by opening your car door indiscriminately, turning right across a lane without looking, or tailgating a cyclist without proper following distance (or many of the others ways drivers kill cyclists) should be so scary to any driver that the actions are just not possible anymore.

[Mamil]

2 hours ago, dexterdent said:

I decided it was time to try my 3km commute to work on my bicycle again this morning. Nearly got taken out by a Beyers Security bakkie turning right across Roeland Street into Hope without looking. Like in, he ended up stopping 3cm away from my leg after I jumped away. Two other motorists stopped to ask if I was fine. I probably shared the road peacefully with >100 others this morning.

Rules / Laws are not going to fix this - most of the people that cause these accidents are either horrible drivers technically, or they are ignorant of the laws. The only way to fix this is proper consequences for actions. We just need a few of the very guilty people to spend some very public time behind bars for the news to spread. Killing someone by opening your car door indiscriminately, turning right across a lane without looking, or tailgating a cyclist without proper following distance (or many of the others ways drivers kill cyclists) should be so scary to any driver that the actions are just not possible anymore.

We don't prosecute a plethora of other crimes so I don' think that's going to happen much as I agree that it should.

I hope it doesn't stop you commuting. The other route to change is that more people are out on bikes. It really is so much better to ride the threekm to work (mine is about 2km). Participate in the intersecting routines of other people - it's a kind of village clockwork

[Spirog]

And, we need to ensure that we are visible. Bright colours and flashing lights front and rear.

I'm still amazed at the number of cyclists heading out towards Chappies in the early morning wearing dark kit and without lights.

We can never condone the awful driving on our roads, but we really need to accept some responsibility for making ourselves seen!

[Mamil]

39 minutes ago, Spirog said:

And, we need to ensure that we are visible. Bright colours and flashing lights front and rear.

I'm still amazed at the number of cyclists heading out towards Chappies in the early morning wearing dark kit and without lights.

We can never condone the awful driving on our roads, but we really need to accept some responsibility for making ourselves seen!

I'm not sure about this bright colours - lights for sure, crucially important and I do like the reflective strips on my Ciovita socks and jacket but whether my jersey is black or red seems to me almost irrelevant. It's been debated many times on here on the hub but the "He was wearing dark clothing so I didn't see him" .... wears thin to my ears

[Spirog]

14 minutes ago, Mamil said:

I'm not sure about this bright colours - lights for sure, crucially important and I do like the reflective strips on my Ciovita socks and jacket but whether my jersey is black or red seems to me almost irrelevant. It's been debated many times on here on the hub but the "He was wearing dark clothing so I didn't see him" .... wears thin to my ears

We need to do whatever we can to improve our odds. Flashing lights, bright colours are things we can control. Dumb, distracted, aggressive drivers we can't change...

SMIDSY - (sorry mate I didn't see you) - is a real issue around the world - here's some science-  Intro3 understanding the SMIDSY | Science Of Being Seen

[Shebeen]

28 minutes ago, Mamil said:

I'm not sure about this bright colours - lights for sure, crucially important and I do like the reflective strips on my Ciovita socks and jacket but whether my jersey is black or red seems to me almost irrelevant. It's been debated many times on here on the hub but the "He was wearing dark clothing so I didn't see him" .... wears thin to my ears

clearly the message isn't getting through then.

 

it's fine eventually Rapha and Le Col and Pas Normal will bring out stuff that looks fashionable and can be seen by motorists. Until then, look cool when you get taken out.

[Robbie Stewart]

can we please ban the moegoes who cycle in the dark with flashing lights on their bars? That is possibly the most asshole-thing a cyclist can do in my opinion.