Road Hogs

[Seeker911]

Our training ride yesterday, we rode tempo avg. 36km/h. and yes it was nerve-racking for me to take the pick, I was proud that we had enough space and still rode single file

 

Shooo 36 km/h no wonder everyone was single file. They were all out of breath and struggling to maintain pace

[TNT1]

Yup. There was a letter from a motorist in The Star addressing a column written by my brother in the lead-in to the 94.7 some years back, saying how he wanted to just drive over cyclists doing this at robots.

 

That kind of attitude would want to drive over a cyclist that stops and unclips at the robot/stop street as well. ****, they try and drive over me when I'm on my motorbike and I dare stop at a stop street. It's the most dangerous thing you can do on the roads these days, in a car, on a motorbike, on a bicycle, stop at a stop sign, stop at a red light, and obey the speed limit, the rest of the motorists will be baying for your blood.

 

Nevermind when you go the extra mile and wait for it to be safe and overtake a slower vehicle (bicycles included) or try and stay in your own lane when turning. Ah, you get the drift. Your average motorist would kill anyone in their way. Cyclists just get it the worst cause we're easy targets. Yeah, we do a lot of stupid things, and break the law, but the fact is, even if all cyclists obeyed all the road laws, the overwhelming attitude of **** everyone that isn't me the the motorists display would remain.

[Tumbleweed]

That kind of attitude would want to drive over a cyclist that stops and unclips at the robot/stop street as well. ****, they try and drive over me when I'm on my motorbike and I dare stop at a stop street. It's the most dangerous thing you can do on the roads these days, in a car, on a motorbike, on a bicycle, stop at a stop sign, stop at a red light, and obey the speed limit, the rest of the motorists will be baying for your blood.

 

Nevermind when you go the extra mile and wait for it to be safe and overtake a slower vehicle (bicycles included) or try and stay in your own lane when turning. Ah, you get the drift. Your average motorist would kill anyone in their way. Cyclists just get it the worst cause we're easy targets. Yeah, we do a lot of stupid things, and break the law, but the fact is, even if all cyclists obeyed all the road laws, the overwhelming attitude of **** everyone that isn't me the the motorists display would remain.

 

What appalled me recently was seeing motorists try stop motorcyclists pulling into the centre of the road to prevent them getting down the centre of the two-laned N12 near the Atlas Road off-ramp. The attitude is, like, well, if I ain't going anywhere neither are you.

[Eldron]

So the the fact that I propose that a group takes up an entire lane is wrong yet you say it is OK not to Stop at Stop Street!! bmmmmm......

 

Lets look at the logic - blocking an entire lane creates a situation where your selfish actions impact on other road users. Rolling through a stop street at a few km/h doesn't.

 

It's about creating a better road experience for everyone not having little finger pointing hissy fits about legality.

 

Get it?

[Eldron]

Careful now, Popeye will call you 1 a disgrace 2 stupid and 3 brain-dead?

 

If thats his opinion then he is entitled to it. I won't take offense.

 

Personally I don't see how stopping, uncleating, recleating and pulling off or stopping, pulling up the hand brake, engaging first gear then pulling off is any safer than a slow roll through.

 

Engaging brain will save infinitely more lives than just obeying the laws.

[Brakkies Sport Fotos]

Feniks... Justify that you can ride the whole one lane.

 

You are not even allowd to ride on the other side of the white line in races, but here you shoot the motorist, instead of shooting bthat fat guy on the other side of the white line.

 

Sien jy dan niks verkeerd oor hoe hierdie mense ry?

[Brakkies Sport Fotos]

Feniks, I read a later post.

 

You take on a motor car, lorrie, and see who win.

 

But , I guess only than you will realize what you did... or maybe you wont even knows what happened.

 

 

 

eish... I now see that this is not even at the picture anymore, it seems they now have rolled over a robot, red / green.... who cares, we are cyclist and color do not matter

Edited March 4, 2011 by popeye

[Tankman]

Personally I don't see how stopping, uncleating, recleating and pulling off or stopping, pulling up the hand brake, engaging first gear then pulling off is any safer than a slow roll through.

 

Slow is exactly where the sh*t hits the fan and that is why the law brings you to a complete stop at a stop street or robot.

Your slow might be 10km/h, my slow might be 35km/h and speedfreeks slow might be 99km/h

 

Nice to see we are having the red robot thread all over again!

[Wannabe]

Stop at stop signs and red lights? Not likely with a 36km/h average...

I know those roads quite well. You get one or two stop streets going out of town, after that it is kilometers of open road. Quite easy to get your avg up, and keeping it there.

[Tubehunter]

Most of you are losing the plot here. Remove all the emotion and it's a simple thing. As the cyclist you are the one who is at the mercy of the motorist, whether he, you or both are behaving like a chop. The more valid point is that all the frustration in the world is not worth endangering someone's life whether they are rightfully or wrongfully on a piece of road. There is just no way to justify taking someone's life because you are being inconvenienced. Yet this is the reality.

 

As someone who has commuted for over 10 years there are certain places I will not stop. These are a variety of traffic lights and stop streets. The only reason is safety. (Amazing that some will read this as me saying I recklessly roll through intersections at pace, simply because I haven't stated that I don't.) My closest encounters have been along these stretches where impatient motorists and taxis have almost taken me out from behind\side on trying to race by or squeeze into traffic on the left so they can push in further down the lane. My experience has made me acutely aware of the signs to watch out for when I get into these zones. Things such as a group of taxis or buses. Hooting from other drivers, or cars haphazardly spread across lanes almost trying to jockey for position.

 

Yes I will obey all the laws where it is safe to do so. In problem areas I make sure I get a little gap on the traffic to ensure I'm through the 'hotspot' before the full flow of traffic gets there too, which is when I am at most risk. (Hotspots being things such as road narrowing, no shoulder for a section or stretches where motorists have a significantly higher difference in speed)

 

Is it really that hard to be sensible out on the roads????

Edited March 4, 2011 by Tubehunter

[Eldron]

Slow is exactly where the sh*t hits the fan and that is why the law brings you to a complete stop at a stop street or robot.

Your slow might be 10km/h, my slow might be 35km/h and speedfreeks slow might be 99km/h

 

Nice to see we are having the red robot thread all over again!

 

If you read the post before that you would have seen the word "few" and that's what I meant - if you really want a number I'd say under 10kph is fine.

 

My point is that the laws don't make us safe - our brains make us safe.

 

In the UK stop streets have largely been replaced by traffic circles - people slow down to use them without stopping and their road mortality rate is way lower than ours - it's in the attitude not the law.

[Garfield2010]

Why dont we from a partnership, buy a huge farm close to joburg and tar a 20km cycle loop on it and ask R20 enrty fee...............??

[Brakkies Sport Fotos]

Government moet Bicycle licences terug bring, en jy moet dit as 'n fixed item op jou raam he te alle tye

 

Jou ID Nr word daarop gesit jy k@k en betaal as jy nie die reels volg.

 

As jy nie 'n lisensie aanhet (soos 'n nommerplaat by 'n motor), vat hulle jou fiets tot jy bewys toon, betaal jou boete,kry jou fiets, of dit wat oor is nadat dit uit die fiets skud kom.

 

So as jou carbon seatpost daar 'n yster seatpost word, jou probleem, jy het oortree

 

Julle eien die teerpad, maar betaal nie lisensie geld vir jou fiets

[DaLoCo]

Government moet Bicycle licences terug bring, en jy moet dit as 'n fixed item op jou raam he te alle tye

 

Jou ID Nr word daarop gesit jy k@k en betaal as jy nie die reels volg.

 

As jy nie 'n lisensie aanhet (soos 'n nommerplaat by 'n motor), vat hulle jou fiets tot jy bewys toon, betaal jou boete,kry jou fiets, of dit wat oor is nadat dit uit die fiets skud kom.

 

So as jou carbon seatpost daar 'n yster seatpost word, jou probleem, jy het oortree

 

Julle eien die teerpad, maar betaal nie lisensie geld vir jou fiets

 

The problem is not bicycle licences...unless of course it adds a measure of artificial intelligence.

 

But we all know artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity

[doris]

Why dont we from a partnership, buy a huge farm close to joburg and tar a 20km cycle loop on it and ask R20 enrty fee...............??

 

we have Kayalami - just need toi tweak the hours there and add massive lights

[Eldron]

Why dont we from a partnership, buy a huge farm close to joburg and tar a 20km cycle loop on it and ask R20 enrty fee...............??

 

It already exists in the form of Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve!

 

Entry is more than R20 but you get 60km of hilly roads with 1 stop street, all one way traffic and a speed limit of 50kph. The game on view is a bonus.

 

I spend a lot of time there and at Kyalami - carless paradise rocks! That way I get to put in quality training without having to worry about the dodgy drivers/riders/cyclists/pedestrians on our roads.

 

The ride to work this morning was a stark reminder of the stupity that is the South African road user....