Bad vibes

lightfoot
lightfoot Posts: 12
edited October 2009 in Commuting chat
Does anyone else get the impression that other road users and especially pedestrians are jumping on the ‘lycra louts’ bandwagon? I get the feeling that there’s a growing anti-cyclist vibe on the road these days – maybe it’s a London thing…maybe I’m just paranoid….?

Comments

  • Wallace1492
    Wallace1492 Posts: 3,707
    It is just London, all fine here in Glasgow, well except for silly firework season :shock:
    "Encyclopaedia is a fetish for very small bicycles"
  • Onan
    Onan Posts: 321
    No worse than usual. I see less cyclists on the road here in stoke than I do in other cities, (but lots on the pavement), which I think makes drivers even less aware/courteous. Every time I go out, I get the distinct impression people are trying to kill me.

    Today I was overtaken aggressively at about 25 mph by someone who immediately turned left accross my path. That's frankly homicidal (but I know, not unusual).
    Drink poison. Wrestle snakes.
  • Oddjob62
    Oddjob62 Posts: 1,056
    Not noticed any difference personally (London also).
    As yet unnamed (Dolan Seta)
    Joelle (Focus Expert SRAM)
  • BentMikey
    BentMikey Posts: 4,895
    I think it's possible there's a little more nowadays, but then there are also far more cyclists out and about nowadays.
  • Stuey01
    Stuey01 Posts: 1,273
    I think there has been a fair bit of negative press in the media recently (James Martin et al) but I haven't personally noticed it translate into any different behaviour than usual on the roads.
    Not climber, not sprinter, not rouleur
  • SmellTheGlove
    SmellTheGlove Posts: 697
    Nothing really negative to report here lately. On local streets motorists definitely aren't thrilled sitting in traffic jams caused by simultaneous gas and water main works in the area (likely to continue for about the next year) so I do my utmost not to wind them up. Keeps it all sweet.
    "Consider the grebe..."
  • rich_e
    rich_e Posts: 389
    The trouble is, I think you already put yourself in a negative mind set the second you set foot in a car in London. It's just not a good place to drive, I don't understand why people do it.
  • tomclark21
    tomclark21 Posts: 17
    I'm not feeling a whole lot of love in the midlands either, especially in traffic jams. It seems to insense people behind the wheel that a peice of metal propelled by a person can overtake them. I get the impression they think cyclists should wait in the same line of traffic. Me thinks not!!!!!!!
  • BentMikey
    BentMikey Posts: 4,895
    I was walking in London yesterday, when a lovely Maserati came past. We beat it from the Royal Albert Hall to Knightsbridge, LOL.
  • SmellTheGlove
    SmellTheGlove Posts: 697
    There's this thing with Maserati owners - a friend just came back from holiday in Malta where the national speed limit is something like 70kph, and the roads are in any case no good for more than about 50 but there are Masers everywhere.
    Gorgeous cars for the most part but... insane.
    "Consider the grebe..."
  • Flasheart
    Flasheart Posts: 1,278
    Happens down here too.
    Last night some silly old b**ger stepped on to the road in front of me, I missed him by about a foot. He yelled abusivly at me so being the Zen-like person I am I went back and got in his face.
    He said you almost hit me. I said "you stepped out into the road in front of me without looking"
    He then went on to say he hated all cyclist blah blah blah.
    I told him he should think himself lucky cos next time he does it to me I may be driving my car. See if he gets off with a near miss like he did then if he steps in front of a car at 40mph.
    The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle. ...Stapp’s Ironical Paradox Law
    FCN3
    http://img87.yfrog.com/img87/336/mycubeb.jpg
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  • lightfoot
    lightfoot Posts: 12
    Thanks all - glad to hear I'm not just totally paranoid! Take care out there.
  • northstar
    northstar Posts: 407
    Not sure if it is mean't but there was some appalling driving around Oxshott today.
    Training is like fighting with a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired.
  • cee
    cee Posts: 4,553
    over the last couple of months, I reckon I have noticed drivers being much more polite to me than in the past. dont get me wrong....some folk pass too close and all the other general complaints that cyclists have against motorists.....

    I can either put this down to:
    a general change in driver attitudes in Edinburgh
    or
    to something I am doing differently.

    haven't really analysed any changes in attitude/behaviour on my part, but whatever it is it seems to be working....

    OR

    its coincidental that i haven't had run ins with muppets for a while
    Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I believe in the future of the human race.

    H.G. Wells.
  • colintrav
    colintrav Posts: 1,074
    lightfoot wrote:
    Does anyone else get the impression that other road users and especially pedestrians are jumping on the ‘lycra louts’ bandwagon? I get the feeling that there’s a growing anti-cyclist vibe on the road these days – maybe it’s a London thing…maybe I’m just paranoid….?


    The only thing that cracks me up is Sunday drivers those select bunch of brainless wonders .....

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