Too many commuters?

londonbairn

On my way home today, I saw an abundance of commuters (ones I don't normally see regularly) cycling mostly in hi viz on shiney new bikes (cycle scheme?). The problem was there were so many that some of them were cycling rather dangerously, to the point where I actually slowed my pace down as I was afraid to overtake any of them as they were randomnly swinging out of the "gutter" onto oncoming traffic. I nearly witnessed multiple accidents todays between cars and cyclists, and cyclists together. Many of them were RLJing, some of them dangerously at busy junctions..

I actually felt unsafe for part of Uxbridge Road as a result. I don't mean too sound snobby, but with the inevitable increase in people commuting, I wish there were some basics being taught...

Anyone else feel the same today?

Cafewanda

As much as I'm happy to see more cyclists on the road (just not when I'm out and about :twisted: ), I do think some sort of 'proficiency' course should be mandatory before being allowed on the road.

Hopefully some of them will be steered towards cycle training.

andy83

the joys of not living in London, Im lucky if I see one a day. Saw a clip on the news this morning with a reporter outside buckingham palace and the amount of cyclists going past was a joke. didnt look enjoyable

londonbairn

Also today was probably the worst show of peds crossing without looking. Within 200 yards of cycling from work I had 3 near hits. Need to avoid going through Oxford Street too, it's really really bad coming home.

prj45

londonbairn wrote:

Need to avoid going through Oxford Street too, it's really really bad coming home.

I sometimes do Oxford Street. Every time I do it I vow not to do it again, but I still do it about once a month.

As for the plebby cyclists, just slow down around them.

One thing us cyclists do complain about a lot is cars passing us too close, but I see many a cyclist passing way too close to their fellow cyclists (of course, I never get passed myself, ahem!).

cjcp

Know what you mean. Basic proficiency i.e. looking behind you (the equivalent of mirror-signal-manoeuvre) would be useful.

Rode westbound down Oxford St once. Never again. Absolutely mental road.

londonbairn

prj45 wrote:

londonbairn wrote:

Need to avoid going through Oxford Street too, it's really really bad coming home.

I sometimes do Oxford Street. Every time I do it I vow not to do it again, but I still do it about once a month.

As for the plebby cyclists, just slow down around them.

One thing us cyclists do complain about a lot is cars passing us too close, but I see many a cyclist passing way too close to their fellow cyclists (of course, I never get passed myself, ahem!).

Today on multiple occasions there were cyclists spread across one lane in Uxbridge Street, annoying drivers and people who wanted to pass.

meanredspider

If you want excitement, cycling into the centre of Cambridge on a sunny spring morning just before the 9am lectures start - a literal wall of bicycles coming in the other direction ridden often by folk who have hardly ridden a bicycle before. One hell of a game of "Chicken" :roll: 8)

gbsahne001

Think I saw 2 cyclists today, passed the time of day at a RL before proceeding on my merry way.

meanredspider

gbsahne wrote:

Think I saw 2 cyclists today, passed the time of day at a RL before proceeding on my merry way.

I often see none in 30 miles.

gbsahne001

meanredspider wrote:

gbsahne wrote:

Think I saw 2 cyclists today, passed the time of day at a RL before proceeding on my merry way.

I often see none in 30 miles.

Can sometimes almost get into double figures but im on the extended commute this week: 33 miles instead of the 27, and the most direct route is via the country roads, which was very pleasant. Might even become a habit now that its light

suzyb

meanredspider wrote:

gbsahne wrote:

Think I saw 2 cyclists today, passed the time of day at a RL before proceeding on my merry way.

I often see none in 30 miles.

Do you even see any people that far north

I think instead of proper training every London cyclist should be taken out into the country and made to cycle around the roads there for a day. Then they'll learn to pay attention to what they're doing with vehicles flying by at 60mph. Because the slow(er) London traffic is the only reason I can think for anyone not taking some care whilst cycling on the road.

Mind you in saying that, I did see a RLJer last week go through a red light to turn onto a dual carrigeway. So not every country cyclist is overly concerned with personal safety.

meanredspider

suzyb wrote:

Do you even see any people that far north

it's sometimes hard to tell

CdrJake

Whatever happened to the cycling proficiency test? I remember vividly taking my test at the age of 10 with the local village policeman along with my cousin and 4 other local children.

We had all the usual, stopping and starting, figure of eight, junctions and right turns and basic bike maintence ending with a 15 minute test before being presented with certificates and a sew on badge (which I still have!)

It was all basic common sense cycling, something which a lot seem to have forgotten.

itboffin

CdrJake wrote:

Whatever happened to the cycling proficiency test? I remember vividly taking my test at the age of 10 with the local village policeman along with my cousin and 4 other local children.

We had all the usual, stopping and starting, figure of eight, junctions and right turns and basic bike maintence ending with a 15 minute test before being presented with certificates and a sew on badge (which I still have!)

It was all basic common sense cycling, something which a lot seem to have forgotten.

+1 Well said that man

Tiz amazing so many people have such little regard for their own lives, still more cyclist IS a good thing, more live ones IS even better!

amnezia

londonbairn wrote:

On my way home today, I saw an abundance of commuters (ones I don't normally see regularly) cycling mostly in hi viz on shiney new bikes (cycle scheme?). The problem was there were so many that some of them were cycling rather dangerously, to the point where I actually slowed my pace down as I was afraid to overtake any of them as they were randomnly swinging out of the "gutter" onto oncoming traffic. I nearly witnessed multiple accidents todays between cars and cyclists, and cyclists together. Many of them were RLJing, some of them dangerously at busy junctions..

I actually felt unsafe for part of Uxbridge Road as a result. I don't mean too sound snobby, but with the inevitable increase in people commuting, I wish there were some basics being taught...

Anyone else feel the same today?

No..

Firstly, you're confusing two different problems. The problem is not the number of cyclists, its the level of cycling ability. I'm not sure how long you've been commuting, but we see the same thing happen every year. Whenever the weather picks up you get whole new waves of inexperienced cyclists, some of them will be fair weather cyclists and pack it in after a few months but some of them will grow to love it and become full time cycle commuters.

New cyclists should be given the same courtesy as learner drivers, give them plenty of space, be aware that they may do unpredictable things and remember at one point this was you.

I thinks its great to see more cyclists on the road, i look forward to seeing even more.

WesternWay

You need to travel at a different time. I get into Bank at 7am and generally barely see anyone before Old Street, and then only a small number.

Holloway Road on the way home can be a bit busier sometimes :-)

londonbairn

WesternWay wrote:

You need to travel at a different time. I get into Bank at 7am and generally barely see anyone before Old Street, and then only a small number.

Holloway Road on the way home can be a bit busier sometimes :-)

Mornings are perfect as I leave early too. It's the trip home which is an absolute nightmare at times, especially when the weather picks up

Canny Jock

CdrJake wrote:

Whatever happened to the cycling proficiency test? I remember vividly taking my test at the age of 10 with the local village policeman along with my cousin and 4 other local children.

We had all the usual, stopping and starting, figure of eight, junctions and right turns and basic bike maintence ending with a 15 minute test before being presented with certificates and a sew on badge (which I still have!)

It was all basic common sense cycling, something which a lot seem to have forgotten.

We weren't allowed to cycle to school unless we'd done it. It meant you were one of the big kids when you rode in!

I think it's good there are more people on bikes - certainly saw more this morning than at any other time this year. Yes, some of them are a bit wobbly and could do with more road sense, hopefully they'll learn.

rolf_f

I think new cyclists who are existing drivers are probably mostly OK - the scary ones will be the people who don't drive at all. This is the sort of thing that if so much money hadn't been frittered away on crap, we could have had free road cycle training for adults.

My only problem with the spring is that there will be about 3 or 4 extra cyclists coming in several times a week and potentially occupying the rack my lock is attached to and one of the two showers spread between 4 floors we have! There'll not be many more on the roads and I'll whoosh past them gracefully

WesternWay

CdrJake wrote:

Whatever happened to the cycling proficiency test? I remember vividly taking my test at the age of 10 with the local village policeman along with my cousin and 4 other local children.

We had all the usual, stopping and starting, figure of eight, junctions and right turns and basic bike maintence ending with a 15 minute test before being presented with certificates and a sew on badge (which I still have!)

It was all basic common sense cycling, something which a lot seem to have forgotten.

When I did mine, the guy giving out the badges said "now, with this badge, if you ride in front of a lorry, just hold out the badge and the lorry won't run you over"

I wish I hadn't lost the badge.

wgwarburton

Hi,

Every wobbly cyclist makes you safer.

Cheers,

W.

the other me

I don't so much mind them being on the roads (honest!) but am finding it harder and harder to get a bike space on the train!

if people are going to be encouraged to cycle more - which can only be a good thing - it would be useful if encouragement were also given to companies to provide the facilities to support this.

Paul E

I did some bike training when I first got a moped many years ago now and did 4 months of training to the point where I could have gone for my bike licence if I had have been old enough.

The upside though is that all the looks I learnt are still ingrained and so is my road positioning and learning to make the move positive when changing lanes so car driver have no doubt what I am doing.

HamishD

amnezia wrote:

I thinks its great to see more cyclists on the road, i look forward to seeing even more.

I like this.

FrankM

I agree.

Reading some of the comments on this thread, you'd be forgiven for thinking you were on a forum for drivers complaining about cyclists generally. Get over it - if you have to go that bit slower to safely navigate all the riders who are less experienced than you then just go that bit slower.

kelsen

It's great to see more cyclists, but not great to see an increase in bad cycling. Inexperience is forgivable, inconsiderate is not.

londonbairn

I'm not complaining at all about the increase in cyclists, it's a great thing to see.

What I would like, as have many others, is some sort of basic understanding of cycling on a road.

I think if you were in my situation last night where I had multiple instances of people veering out without looking and having to make split second decisions (do I brake hard, do I look round quickly to see if I can go wider) you would feel the same. It's identical as a motorist if someone suddenly cuts in front of you and you have to make a quick evasive maneovure. You would be angry 8)

White Horse

The worrying thing for me is that the majority of them will be motorists so they have been taught the laws of the road and road-sense, positioning, what signs mean etc,etc. Yet when they get on a bike they seem to ignore it all.

Is this a side-effect of the lazy journalism that is "cyclists don't obey the rules of the road" meaning that the idiots that read it think they don't have to?

DonDaddyD

londonbairn wrote:

On my way home today, I saw an abundance of commuters (ones I don't normally see regularly) cycling mostly in hi viz on shiney new bikes (cycle scheme?). The problem was there were so many that some of them were cycling rather dangerously, to the point where I actually slowed my pace down as I was afraid to overtake any of them as they were randomnly swinging out of the "gutter" onto oncoming traffic. I nearly witnessed multiple accidents todays between cars and cyclists, and cyclists together. Many of them were RLJing, some of them dangerously at busy junctions..

I actually felt unsafe for part of Uxbridge Road as a result. I don't mean too sound snobby, but with the inevitable increase in people commuting, I wish there were some basics being taught...

Anyone else feel the same today?

+1

I've tried to raise this many many times here and normally get shouted down. Either accused of making things worse with SCR or needing to MTFU when not.

Fact is I rarely SCR anymore for safety reasons and I prefer leaving home at 9am to get to work for 10am (as oppose to leaving at 8am and getting to work for 9am) because there are less cyclist and congestion and I generally feel safer.

The majority of cyclists aren't bad or dangerous but a mistake made by one can injure many and that can make things worse for everyone. For that alone I'm all for some sort of proficiency test or enforcement of road safety on cyclists.

fnegroni

Well, last night I had one of the 'racers' taking part to the 10 mile TT in Twyford left hooking me at a junction, shouting "give me some space will ya?".

To which I replied in a constructive manner: he was so slow, he could hardly pull away from me on my hybrid...

So, what do we do with road races taking part on the open road?

I used to have a powerful sportscar: when I wanted to race, I took it on race tracks: yes it's expensive, but I wouldn't endanger anyone else. Why is it deemed acceptable for cyclists to race on the open road?

I am not talking about sportive events: there you can slow down at a junction and give way. This was a 10 mile TT: on the public road at 6.30 PM without marshals? Stupid in my books.

I am against it: you want to race, do it on a closed circuit. You are on the public road, don't put anyone in danger. Knob!