Your rants here.

whyamihere

We all get thoroughly annoyed with some of the idiots on the roads at times. Share your stories and rants here. Thanks to Attica for the idea.

helz

I'm happy to say my daily commute has been completely hassle-free over the last few weeks and I've just been really enjoying it, so no rants from me today!

Wobbly Wider

Not really a rant about idiots on the road but more about pedestrians I suppose.

Why is that everytime I go down the cycle path on Cable Street (near Canary Wharf, junction with Butcher Row), some really clever chav has to have smashed a bottle all over the path?!!!! Probably something to do with the very grubby looking club 'Red' just around the corner. Keep thinking about getting fater/thinner tyres but will be sticking to marathon plus for the time being.

Does this wind up any other CW commuters? I know where I'd like to smash those bottles...
Sorry, rant over, I'm calm again.

saveswalking

Wobbly Wider wrote:

Not really a rant about idiots on the road but more about pedestrians I suppose.

Why is that everytime I go down the cycle path on Cable Street (near Canary Wharf, junction with Butcher Row), some really clever chav has to have smashed a bottle all over the path?!!!! Probably something to do with the very grubby looking club 'Red' just around the corner. Keep thinking about getting fater/thinner tyres but will be sticking to marathon plus for the time being.

Does this wind up any other CW commuters? I know where I'd like to smash those bottles...
Sorry, rant over, I'm calm again.

Thats the cycle path/route that was dug up for ages isn't it ? I avoid using it now after several close encounters with pedestrians (walking out in front of you) and I've had a kick to my leg and back wheel by some little sh!t. I find the main road (A13) safer

sw

Wobbly Wider

Yep, it's the Forth Bridge of cycle paths, they're starting to dig it all up again! You do get some interesting characters to negotiate but I'm not a big fan of A13 or lower Thames Street, they're pretty frantic...

Gussio

If we post all our angst in here, there will be nothing left for the remainder of the forum

toslow

kin dogs thats my rant , or should i say dog owners . There are some great recreational cycle trails down he in cornwall . My daughter who is 8 loves her bike so we regularly ride the pentewan trail . the trail should be renamed ' THE DOG SH*T SLALOM' i'ts every where , when you come across a dog owner on this ' cycle trail ' all you get is huffs and puffs and mutters about ' bl**dy bikes ,know matter how polite you are or how notice you give of your presents.

toslow

I know my previous rant was not relevant to this commuting part of the forum but i feel better now.
But my commuting rant is this . I don't know about your neck of the woods but in the st austell area they have been putting central islands in stretches of road namely a place called Highstreet and reducing the speed limits . sounds like a good move doesn't it . Till you get mr/mrs impatient who cant wait two seconds forcing there way through between you and island . Pedals have clipped kerb a couple of times. ''Take the lane i hear you say .'' your having a laugh there usually to preocupied texting someone or rolling a ciggy while they steering with there knees. Slowing traffic down is a good thing but would rather see cycle lanes everywhere to keep me away from these mad mad people.

AndyManc

toslow wrote:

they have been putting central islands in stretches of road namely a place called Highstreet and reducing the speed limits . sounds like a good move doesn't it . Till you get mr/mrs impatient who cant wait two seconds forcing there way through between you and island ..

Have you contacted your local council telling them that their traffic calming designs have put your ( and other cyclists ) safety at risk?

Where I live the council have placed a short section of cycle only track in parallel with the islands, it doesn't work but at least they have recognised that there is a safety issue.

It's worth chasing them up to see what crap they come out with :?

karl j

Not one to rant too much generally, but the 'kin BM,..., er, "prestige German" car, or rather, the dkhd driving it too fast to stop at the white line of a T-junction last evening. Yes, of course, as everyone knows, it's so much better to just stop half the car length out into the main carriageway and expect everyone else to stop for you. And then swear at the passing cyclist (me) who goes around without stopping.

Re. the post above (cycle track parallel to a pinch-point) , we have one and they don't get cleaned by the roadsweepers. When i complained to the council i was told the drivers aren't insured to get out and use a dustpan & brush...

SmellTheGlove

School bus driver accelerates from behind me to about 40 (diesel death rattle rings serious alarm bells) to race me to a light-controlled junction where I know the lights are about to go red.

Obviously not wanting to stop at the all-too predictable red (by this time red for a couple of seconds at least) after this frankly incontinent manouevre s/he proceeds to hang a left regardless into the moving traffic. Must have been a proud moment.

JoeSoap76

Glass. Kids. Glass and kids!!!

One of the parks on my commute through Glasgow (and also signposted as part of Route 75 on the National Cycle Network) runs past a school. There are always kids hanging about in the park - which I have no problem with whatsoever. But those kids always seem to have glass bottles with them which, more often than not, end up smashed on the cycle path.

I call the council about it every so often and (usually a few weeks later) they eventually come and sweep it. It stays glass-free for a day, two at most, and then the fun starts again.

But I've just noticed that Glasgow City Council are advertising a famlily cycle through the park as part of Bike Week.. tomorrow at 7pm. So I call the council (using the number under 'CYCLING' in their contact list) and explain that the park is a bit of a tyre-hazard at the moment. After being bounced around a couple more departments - each time going through the same explanation (glass + family cycling event = bad) - I've just been told that they'll 'try' to get something organised.

Ah well - I did my best... :roll:

----
EDIT:

I take it back. They may not give a crap when you report dangerous taxi-drivers and it may take them a fortnight to sweep the glass up when it's just me that's having to avoid it... but the mention of an organised event had them ringing me back and promising to have the glass swept up tomorrow.

MadammeMarie

Wobbly Wider wrote:

Why is that everytime I go down the cycle path on Cable Street (near Canary Wharf, junction with Butcher Row), some really clever chav has to have smashed a bottle all over the path?!!!! Probably something to do with the very grubby looking club 'Red' just around the corner. Keep thinking about getting fater/thinner tyres but will be sticking to marathon plus for the time being.

Does this wind up any other CW commuters? I know where I'd like to smash those bottles...
Sorry, rant over, I'm calm again.

CW commuter here with the same rant!! The place should be called "Chavland"! I would make those bastards eat the kin glass! :evil: :x

MadammeMarie

Cycling up Cable Street (towards City) last week, about to reach the junction that's right before Shadwell station, when a car turns right onto my path. I hit it, not too hard b/c neither me or the retarded behind the wheel were going fast. I did check the car's indicators, but said retarded asshole thinks they are part of the car's decoration, so he doesn't use them. My knee hurt a bit afterwards, but I was pretty shaken. Never had had an encounter like that; always considered myself lucky.

It's quite annoying that, being Cable Street a pretty good lane (a bit bumpy, though), it has so many problems for cyclists. And now there's a car wash there, and cars are using the lane for parking!!!n :x

dondare

Last year I contacted "fillthathole" about some very nasty potholes in Barnet which I have to ride wide to avoid, endangering me and annoying drivers. They've still not been repaired, don't Councils have a legal obligation to repair unsafe roads once they've been reported?

Chewy Cheeks

DonDare

see below

http://www.barnet.gov.uk/corporate-plan ... -safe.html

and the Barnet Coporate objective re safer streets.

If you want to have some results you could quote this story to

Mike Freestone Director of Envionment and Transport

for instance

biondino

This is a very very minor rant, but you slow to a halt for someone waiting to cross at a zebra crossing and they say "no, after you". But I've already lost all my momentum for you, let ME be the decent one here!!

AndyManc

biondino wrote:

This is a very very minor rant, but you slow to a halt for someone waiting to cross at a zebra crossing and they say "no, after you". But I've already lost all my momentum for you, let ME be the decent one here!!

, just get off your bike take them by their hand and walk them across whilst slapping them across the back of their head .

don_don

This blatant attempt at streamlining the forum has got me extremely angry :evil:

If I have a rant I want the whole forum to know about it, not for it to get lost on here :evil: :evil:

So my rants are going in a new thread where they belong, rant, rant, rant :evil: :evil: :evil:

Rant over

dirk_van_gently

A rant about ranting,

cue Mr Angry "I'll throw the phone down" :P

downfader

I have had several rants, a few of which can be seen in my blog (which isnt that cycle based, its just a ramble really)... but its interesting to see I suffer the same problems as many of you guys!

Ref the glass in cycle lanes. There is a local bridge near me on my commute into work. Every monday morning you can garantee there is broken glass down it (its the main route for drunks walking home from the nightclubs - they take the bottles out the clubs and pubs with them and smash them in the gutters, but mostly in the cycle lanes)

Prams being pushed into cycle lanes or the side of a road without the mother/father looking

Ref DonDare's post about holes not being filled in: Medina road is a local road that I initially reported to the council when I was 19 and first started cycling to work. I'm 31 now. Says a lot for a speedy service, and I and a few others I know have reported it several times in the last couple of years. I cycled down it towards work on monday morning after having had 2 weeks holiday and saw the roadworks signs. You can imagine my elation turning to anger as I realised that it was a cable tv company that had put the signs there - nothing to do with the potholes. :roll:

Saw a police car stopped and parked on a cycle lane about 2 weeks back actually, come to think of it. :?

Does anyone have problems with drivers thinking that your arm being extended in signal actually means "I'm letting you go first, mate". So many times I've been in the process of going turning with me arm extended only to find a driver whizz out of a junction with his hand up and thanking me. :x

Another rant: THIS, THIS, and THIS The last one with the most bizarre ideaology behind it:

Green people might argue that cyclists deserve a tax break because they aren't polluting the environment, but cyclists burn energy similarly to cars: their increased demand for food isn't great for the environment

pottssteve

I used to think the cycle path on Brighton/Hove seafront was bad ("Daddy, what does that bicycle sign painted on the pavement mean" "Well, love, that means walk slowly, eating your chips, preferably in a row 4 abreast"), until I moved to Hong Kong. Bugger me, the local population are a classy combination of blind, gormless and sh1tting selfish... :x

secretsam

I'd like to rant that this rant forum has stopped all the high quality ranting on this site, which was a very therapeutic way of preventing me ranting :evil:

Bassjunkieuk

just thought I'd post on here to get it off my chest......I've been posted at a site I can normally get a nice long ride to (croydon to docklands, so about 12 miles each way!) and have to use my car as I'm needed to be "mobile" to go to other sites around town!

Not only does this mean I'm not getting my normal cycle commute but I'm also having to tackle the lovely traffic that I hate so much! I sat there on the highway last night, trying to get along to a meeting at London Bridge and watched as about 30 or 40 cyclist whizzed past me sitting there.........all the while I knew I should be out there on my bike! Having said this the weather was lovely yesterday and being in traffic did give me plenty of time to admire the "scenery" so it wasn't all bad

downfader

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

just thought I'd post on here to get it off my chest......I've been posted at a site I can normally get a nice long ride to (croydon to docklands, so about 12 miles each way!) and have to use my car as I'm needed to be "mobile" to go to other sites around town!

Not only does this mean I'm not getting my normal cycle commute but I'm also having to tackle the lovely traffic that I hate so much! I sat there on the highway last night, trying to get along to a meeting at London Bridge and watched as about 30 or 40 cyclist whizzed past me sitting there.........all the while I knew I should be out there on my bike! Having said this the weather was lovely yesterday and being in traffic did give me plenty of time to admire the "scenery" so it wasn't all bad

My Brother now says the same. He's been driving 10 years now but has just bought a bike 2 months back (due to the cost of fuel and maintenance on his car). After about the first 2 weeks we had to go somewhere and pick up some shopping and got stuck in traffic. We waite for about 20 minutes in the stand still, just watching all the people on bikes whizz off. I remember his exact words being "this sucks, cars suck" (and he loves cars)

Bassjunkieuk

I know this isn't a rant, but more of an update on my previous post!

Feel a bit better now.......went out for a 20 mile ride after getting in from work :-) Should me me going until at least the weekend - I'm hoping to get a 40+ miler in then!! ONLY 2 DAYS LEFT!!

dirk_van_gently

Apologies, this is almost an Anti-rant.
Couple of months ago had a bit of a contre tant with a big lorry passing too close, tooo close!.
I got the reg and company, went to their website, and complained.
I received a reply that it would be "Looked into" and 2 months passed, nothing.
Last week got a letter from the Head Office, profuse apologies, "our drivers drive to the highest standard" etc Yawn !
Driver was a contractor from an agency not an employee, and I thought here comes the cop out.
Then to my surprise they wrote that they would no longer be using that drivers services.
So don't just Rant, Act, do it, eventually the message may just get through.

Emilia

My rant is against cycle lanes in general. I always feel about ten times more likely to be killed riding in one as I would riding down the centre of the road, where I can at least be seen.

The one on Upper Richmond Road is the worst. Cars are very good at staying out of a cycle lane... until they need to turn left (splat!), or undertake another car that's pulled over to turn right (splat!), or pull over to let an ambulance past (splat!), or park up while their passenger dashes into a shop (splat!).

Oh, and while we're on the subject, who was the bugger who turned out into the bus lane in Wandsworth the other day (necessitating emergency stops by two cyclists), drove for a few seconds, then braked suddenly (two more emergency stops) and turned back in again?

We are not amused.

biondino

Hi Emilia - are you local? I live on Upper Richmond Road, near the Dover House Road turn-off, and I guess I am used to the danger spots you mention, but I haven't had that much trouble. Maybe it's just in comparison to commuting into Soho most days - plenty of spots on that route are a lot dodgier!

biondino

Also (and I am aware I've started to do the devil's advocate thing) they have widened the Upper Richmond Road cycle lanes significantly which I guess is worth applauding, although of course you're right, it's a fat lot of good when cars ignore it regardless.

Beeblebrox

Underused as this thread is, I've on for you...

I was driving (shock horror, I know) when I cam upon a narrow road which had been appropriated as a nice wide running track for a considerable number of people. Unsigned, (as far as I know) unregulated and a danger to the runners as well as other traffic. Judging by the number of vehicles stuck behind runners they hadn't considered applying for a road closure/putting up warning signs on any of the possible roads that they were using. They did have marshals at corners and were wearing some kind of hi-vis 'uniform', but other than that didn't seem to be under much control.

I nearly stopped and gave them a lecture on highway law, but instead just sped away home. I'm not entirely sure on my facts but I believe as Pedestrians they shouldn't be blocking the passage of vehicles on an open road - it's just dangerous for us both.