Cyclists Down - Kalk Bay?

[dylankeyter]

 

 

Need to share my experience on Main road this morning

 

Driving along in my car minding my own business and I pass the 1st cyclist pedaling like crazy on his MTB. Stopped at the amber robot just leaving Fish Hoek and he pulls up a couple of minutes later.  We make eye contact he smiles I smile and away we go' date=' that section towards Kalk Bay is full of pot holes and can be really dangerous so I ride behind him giving the MTB dude more than enough space, he indicates with his hand thank you which I thought was really a nice thing to do.  We pull up at the next robot and he indicates to me that I should go which I do, I look in my mirror and I see another 2 cyclists closing in on him, I arrive at the stop and go on main road and there are about 10 cars in front of me. The two guys on the road bike wind there way between the cars parked and the onto the opposit side of the road to make there way to the front of the que, (Why only they will know) Never the less I look for the MTB guy and he is patiently waiting behind the car behind me. Time to go and it's hell for leather for to 2 road cyclist who are now 3 cars ahead of me. We get to the Muizenburg robot and again its red NO problem for them its all steam ahead in race mode. I catch up to them open my window and politely say, "come on guys its really not necessary to run the red light, it is things like this that give cyclists a bad name" 1st guys says, do me a favor and F... Off, the other guys says if I know what is good for me I should f off before he kicks my car in. I could not believe what I was hearing and was gob smacked, I tried to look for some identification on the bikes so I could take this matter further but nothing.

 

I told them who I was and where they could find me, the one guy said great let me just finish my training and he will come to the shop and sort me out personally. Sadly the chicken sh*t never arrived

 

My question, is this the norm the way cyclists speak to motorists? This is the 1st time I have been in such a situation and as a cyclist and running a very sucessful cycling club, I was horrified and I could have ridden over him I was so angry If this is the way cyclist talk to motorist I sadly don't want to be part of the cycling thingy anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[/quote']

 

I am very sorry to hear of your incident this morning Skye, it is very upsetting. Unfortunately, many cyclists act impulsively and do not take responsibility for their actions and remain adamant that they are always right. These kind of cyclists are giving cyclists a terrible name. I think this matter needs to be dealt with further, this kind of attitude among certain cyclists needs to be rectified. Were the two cyclists in club kit/ identifiable?

 

[Tumbleweed]

skye, i will ask hagar to drop off his baseball bat on his next trip to the visdorpie. he normally saves it for use on vaalies, but i'm sure he'll make an exception!

[Mak-daddy]

This is just sad.If that was me and somebody was to talk to me in that manner i wouldnt think twice to F*#K him up even if he was built like the "Rock".If it is true that two cyclist were knocked then i hope its these idiots and hope they learned a good leason.

[Icycling]

Ok I live in a dream world - or cycled / driven in Europe to often!

 

 

 

But Skype, isn't what you did the legally correct thing and thus were an example to the motorist behind you? If I recall most if not all of that road has a solid barrier line and thus it is illegal to overtake another vehicle on a solid line (yes in this country a cyclist is classified as a vehicle). By the way been completely legal you should also indicate to overtake a cyclist and do it in the other lane / other side of the road! A cyclist has the right to ride anywhere up to the white line - but their is a 2nd law in RSA which says vehicles should stay as far left as possible on all roads in SA and thus cyclist tend to ride on the left side and not in the middle of the lane unless the road is very bad (pot holes - too narrow) and then I urge all cyclist to use the lane. I do not think many motorist would willing mow over a cyclist provided they have seen you so once you have 1 car behind you pretty safe to move further from the side of the road. The stretch of road from Fishhoek to Miuzenburg is a perfect example where it is not that safe for a motorist to pass a cyclist and with a SE a cyclist can almost do the recommended speed limit on that road without to much effort - the recommended speed limit on that road I believe is 40km/h.

 

 

 

Now on the other hand if motorist were to also obey the rule of staying left then I am sure a lot of road rage which I feel is unnecessary taken out on cyclist on road with 60km/h speed limits or less would be avoided. Imagine the fast lane on the freeways in this country were only used for passing and not for driving in when the traffic is free flowing! Keep left pass right how much less road rage their would be on the roads! If only motorist were as considerate to fellow motorist as cyclist are considerate to motorist by staying left! This normally even means a motorist can overtake a cyclist on solid barrier line which is technically illegal!

 

 

 

I urge all cyclist to drive properly when in their cars thus setting an example to fellow motorist esp. when it comes to overtaking cyclist and blocking the fast lane on the freeways which may cause another motorist road rage which is then taken out on a cyclist at a latter stage.

 

 

 

Finally speed limits change depending on the road you on but the law stay as far left as possible is on all roads - if a motorist is speeding it is not another motorists job to do speed control by sitting in the fast lane at 120km/h their are law enforcement officers and static cameras for that. Right now even more so as Xmas is coming up - please allow the traffic officers their Xmas bonuses!

 

 

 

Yup my dream world I know!

[pedal]

I must give a big thumbs up to ALL vehicles I have encountered on the road, in this year of training... (bar one sod... but he doesn't count, as too many good ones made me 'forget' him)

As two ladies out training most days, during lunch times, we have only had a few 'toots... which I took as warning signs, (becareful type ones).... the taxis' have been wonderful, truck drivers even more wonderful, to the extent that we have phoned certain companies to praise the drivers, and of course 99.8 % of friendly drivers out there get our vote of confidence.....

Yes we do jump certain red robo's, but only if our safety is not on the line, for the reason of trying to get going with a long line of cars is sometimes more dangerous, but not even a look of disgust from any driver, as i am sure they know we took care. (Never jump a 4 way cross robo though)

 

Thank you Cape Town and surrounding area drivers...

Skye, you did the right thing, and it is a pity they did not have the decency to come in and see you.  I feel very bad if I do something wrong and would have stopped to sort out with you.

 

Hopefully you will give a toot if you see us on the road. (Curves Ladies)

[butafly]

sometimes its just not worth the agro to confont blatent red robot jumpers. as A McClean admitted on this site a few months ago the Cyclelab jhb mid week training group jump red traffic lights if its safe.

btw imho, taxis drivers show more respect to cyclists than any other form of public / company transport. AND THOSE DAMM FAIRCAPE DAIRY TRUCKS ARE GOING TO KILL SOMEONE ON MALANSHOOGTE 

 

[Pocketbikes]

Skye, I feel for you. Whether they were right or wrong, to reply with those words (at a female nogal) is blatant disrespect. I have a paintball gun I can post to you for a while. I really would've lost my cool. I am the tiniest person you've met... with a temper of a pitbull. I am sure they wouldn.t have had such hard words if it was a big guy in the car. They are like criminlas, they pick on the weak and unarmed...

[GoLefty!!]

I have regulary ridden up to fellow cyclists who have jumped a red light.

The verbal abuse they level is outof the top draw.

Everything from the K word to JMSP to death threats.

If this is indicative of the SA ccling community then we are a racist, selfrighteous, ignorant bunch who deserve the abuse other road uses level at us.

Sad realist is there are a great many who obey the rules of the road and we have to suffer the same fate as the c**ts who feel they are above the law.

[Willehond]

I have regulary ridden up to fellow cyclists who have jumped a red light.

The verbal abuse they level is outof the top draw.

Everything from the K word to JMSP to death threats.

If this is indicative of the SA ccling community then we are a racist' date=' selfrighteous, ignorant bunch who deserve the abuse other road uses level at us.

Sad realist is there are a great many who obey the rules of the road and we have to suffer the same fate as the c**ts who feel they are above the law.

[/quote']

 

Unfortunately my opinion is that most cyclists are indeed incredibly self-righteous a%$holes.  Especially the ones who see themselves as 'special'.  If I wasn't a cyclist myself and aware of the dangers, I would have been anti-cyclist.

 

I honestly don't think we deserve any respect from motorists the way we ignore the road laws.  I have taken abuse from my own buddies for questioning their habits, but hey, that's the SA way: Me, myself and I.

 

Willehond2008-10-19 15:32:25

[Tumbleweed]

I have taken abuse from my own buddies for questioning their habits' date=' but hey, that's the SA way: Me, myself and I.

 

[/quote']

too true, and too sad. holy roller2008-10-19 21:21:54

[slowpoke]

*hijack (???) on*

 

Werner (the biker mentioned earlier) had a 7 hour op yesterday on his back and arm. currently in ICU. please can we all think positive thoughts his way.

 

*hijack off*