War on Britain's Roads

CommyAdam

I'm sure i'm not the only one who watched the 'war on britain's roads' program tonight....whilst i know most of it was concerned with 'interactions' between (road) cyclists on the roads and mostly in communiting situations but it put me in mind of an accident i witnessed a while ago at Stainburn (no names or dates mentioned as i dont know what action resulted from it) at the top of the red runs where a rider starting his run and a motorcyclist collided, luckily no one was seriously hurt but it could've been so much worse.

Any thoughts on the interaction between cars and bikes? i know it doesn't occur as often in mountain biking but there are the occasional times, and also now i think of it styles like trials and street riding probably do 'interact' with cars quite often actually...

Constructive thoughts and stories welcome....

p.s not looking for a whitewash either way, just interested.

The Northern Monkey

I think the speccy twat will only stop being a twat when he eventually gets punched in the face.

Terrible programme imo.

CommyAdam

yeah, i think a lot of commuting groups were very unhappy with it, said it would only infuriate situations....

i was just wondering if either as a driver or a rider people had encountered similar situations... luckily alot of the trail centres i ride at are far enough away from any roads for that to occur and i dont commute to work or the like...

Briggo

It's going to add more fuel to the already burning blaze on the opinions against cyclists in general.

I wanted to punch all those cyclists at the end watching that and I wouldn't blame anyone who did.

Stu Coops

The Northern Monkey wrote:

I think the speccy fool will only stop being a fool when he eventually gets punched in the face.

Terrible programme imo.

100% agree with you what an absolute W****R he is what give us all a bad name, spoiling for a row with anybody and hopefully he will meet the lunatic who kicks the shite out of him. :evil: :evil:

Newfish

I was really looking forward to this but what a disappointment. Of all the people they could have got the young guy deserves to be smacked. He's antagonistic and rude.

Found this interesting review which I think sums it up quite well.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/9722102/The-War-on-Britains-Roads-review.html

The only bit I found very interesting was the work Cynthia had done to help improve lorry/cyclist safety.

However the whole program was poorly edited together I thought, and served only to add fuel to the fire. As a cyclist and a van driver I feIt could be objective, but all the programme did for me was highlight how dangerous cycling can be and how stupidly some people from all walks of life can behave when irritated.

Very poor effort from the BBC imho.

CommyAdam

Yeah, i think for me the only thing it confirmed, if we can believe its an honest portrayal of the situation on Britain's roads, is that i wont be commuting through London any time soon....particularly not on my full susser haha...

The courier bike races seemed absolutely terrifying.... i dont mind pushing myself on a bigger gap jump or railing a berm faster and higher than before...and i suppose both involve the possibility of injury...but it seemed like your ability to live or die would be in someone elses hands in those sort of 'races'....

rockmonkeysc

I used to ride motorbikes around Bristol every day. When I was learning to ride I was taught by my instructor to make myself as visible as possible and anticipate other people not seeing me or doing stupid things. I also learnt to make eye contact with drivers in their mirrors before overtaking. I very rarely see cyclists doing any of this in the city, it's not surprising they get cut up and get in to accidents. They need to accept that drivers are incompetent and learn to deal with it rather than just get angry when it goes wrong.
More education is needed for both drivers & cyclists.

DodgeT

Stu Coops wrote:

The Northern Monkey wrote:

I think the speccy fool will only stop being a fool when he eventually gets punched in the face.

Terrible programme imo.

100% agree with you what an absolute W****R he is what give us all a bad name, spoiling for a row with anybody and hopefully he will meet the lunatic who kicks the shite out of him. :evil: :evil:

Agree, but to be fair, you'd want to punch him as soon as you looked at the fool anyway. Complete and utter knob. I'd of liked to see him in the situation with the guys outside the pub.
One of them made me laugh, he was shouting at the driver, then when he got out and ran at him, shat himself and kept crying "sorry, sorry"

Only valid point for me was at the end, when it was said that instead of the roads being a competitive place, it should be a co-operative place. There just seems to be far too much aggression from (some) riders on the road.

The Rookie

It wasn't as bad as I had expected I guess......

The speccy git and the vigilante are both idiots who are making things worse, the Solicitor was very reasonable as was the Scottish guy who had a genuine reason to complain.

It was balanced in showing some cyclists acting like bele ends - not least that (rather old footage now) courier race that frankly I find abhorrent.

Alex's Mum was so dignified compared to spotty geek - Respect.

The Bike copper was interesting but rarely seemed to have anything to do with the alleged topic of the program!

bails87

DodgeT wrote:

One of them made me laugh, he was shouting at the driver, then when he got out and ran at him, shat himself and kept crying "sorry, sorry"

I've seen that full video. The cyclist is turning right at a roundabout. The driver doesn't like waiting behind him so beeps his horn, then overtakes around the roundabout and cuts up the cyclist to take the same exit. IIRC the passenger is already shouting and gesturing at the cyclist simply because he was in the road.

The car drives off, then stops to let the passenger out. It's the passenger who then runs down the road and grabs the cyclist by the throat while threatening him. I think defusing the situation by saying sorry is better than getting punched/kicked/stabbed.

I was punched by a driver a while back. He caught up with me, beeped his horn (I was just riding along, doing nothing that would antagonise a sane person). He then overtook way too close over the blind crest of a bridge. When a car appeared coming towards us he didn't brake, instead he just moved over, I moved over as far as I could, but as my tyres were about to scrape the kerb I had nowhere left to go so got on the brakes. As I did he continued moving over. He hit me with his car. He thought I'd kicked his car, so he proceeded to chase after me, when I stopped on the pavement to let him past he knocked me over and punched me in the head 7 or 8 times. Saying 'sorry' and not meaning it would have been better than that. But yeah, that sounds f*cking hilarious :roll:

DodgeT

Not sure if its the same one I saw as there was only a little bit. All I saw was the cyclist shouting at the driver, then the driver ran at him etc...
Reason I said it made me laugh was, on face of it, he reacted shouting towards the driver, then when the driver got aggressive back, got all panicky. So surely, if you havent got the balls for a confrontation, don't start / continue one. Just get on with your day and ignore it.

DodgeT

The Beginner wrote:

It wasn't as bad as I had expected I guess......

The speccy git and the vigilante are both idiots who are making things worse, the Solicitor was very reasonable as was the Scottish guy who had a genuine reason to complain.

It was balanced in showing some cyclists acting like bele ends - not least that (rather old footage now) courier race that frankly I find abhorrent.

Alex's Mum was so dignified compared to spotty geek - Respect.

The Bike copper was interesting but rarely seemed to have anything to do with the alleged topic of the program!

Was pretty scary that bit.

BlueAdvocate

This is all fine but what about the "walkers" who walk the wrong way up the bike trails at Hurstwood.

I've almost took 2 out (me ploughing into them is going to hurt), stopped for numerous.

Had a couple on Cragg Quarry as well.

The Rookie

Not really anything to do with the program though - the hint being it was war on ROADS!

spongtastic

DodgeT wrote:

The Beginner wrote:

It wasn't as bad as I had expected I guess......

The speccy git and the vigilante are both idiots who are making things worse, the Solicitor was very reasonable as was the Scottish guy who had a genuine reason to complain.

It was balanced in showing some cyclists acting like bele ends - not least that (rather old footage now) courier race that frankly I find abhorrent.

Alex's Mum was so dignified compared to spotty geek - Respect.

The Bike copper was interesting but rarely seemed to have anything to do with the alleged topic of the program!

Was pretty scary that bit.

But to be honest how many times have people driving had a lorry pull out in front of them? I've had tankers cross roads in front of me when I'm doing 60mph.

It was all a bit cr*p really. You get twatwaffle drivers and you get twatwaffle cyclists.

cooldad

BlueAdvocate wrote:

This is all fine but what about the "walkers" who walk the wrong way up the bike trails at Hurstwood.

I've almost took 2 out (me ploughing into them is going to hurt), stopped for numerous.

Had a couple on Cragg Quarry as well.

One should be allowed to have a good walk anywhere.

mlgt

I didnt enjoy watching it, but what struck me the most was the mother who lost her daughter. The effort she went through to promote safe driving was a touch.

Jolly Swagman

That cyclist/lawyer that went down under the windmilling driver should be embarrassed. I would have thrown the memory card away in shame if I was him. Loved the way his mates stepped in to help as well.

tarbot18

Jolly Swagman wrote:

That cyclist/lawyer that went down under the windmilling driver should be embarrassed. I would have thrown the memory card away in shame if I was him. Loved the way his mates stepped in to help as well.

ye he was with a group of about 8 riders and they all stood back and did nothing !

Seriously why do car drivers naturally assume all bike riders are wimps and its ok to attack them!
I am a gentleman though i'd always let them have the first punch(due to my job mainly) then introduce them to my rather large fists :shock:

angry_bird

Jolly Swagman wrote:

That cyclist/lawyer that went down under the windmilling driver should be embarrassed. I would have thrown the memory card away in shame if I was him.

How much balance would you have had stood there with a bike between your legs then? Not like he could just ask the bloke to wait a moment while he stepped off :roll:

Jolly Swagman

Angry Bird wrote:

Jolly Swagman wrote:

That cyclist/lawyer that went down under the windmilling driver should be embarrassed. I would have thrown the memory card away in shame if I was him.

How much balance would you have had stood there with a bike between your legs then? Not like he could just ask the bloke to wait a moment while he stepped off :roll:

Tons. It came from a mile off. They had enough time to switch the camera on as they knew something was amiss with the car. Time enough to unclip and at least attempt to defend himself.

Briggo

Jolly Swagman wrote:

Angry Bird wrote:

Jolly Swagman wrote:

That cyclist/lawyer that went down under the windmilling driver should be embarrassed. I would have thrown the memory card away in shame if I was him.

How much balance would you have had stood there with a bike between your legs then? Not like he could just ask the bloke to wait a moment while he stepped off :roll:

Tons. It came from a mile off. They had enough time to switch the camera on as they knew something was amiss with the car. Time enough to unclip and at least attempt to defend himself.

I bet you would have ninja'd him in the face, ripped it off and shat down his neck.

Jolly Swagman

Briggo wrote:

Jolly Swagman wrote:

Angry Bird wrote:

Jolly Swagman wrote:

That cyclist/lawyer that went down under the windmilling driver should be embarrassed. I would have thrown the memory card away in shame if I was him.

How much balance would you have had stood there with a bike between your legs then? Not like he could just ask the bloke to wait a moment while he stepped off :roll:

Tons. It came from a mile off. They had enough time to switch the camera on as they knew something was amiss with the car. Time enough to unclip and at least attempt to defend himself.

I bet you would have ninja'd him in the face, ripped it off and shat down his neck.

I would have given him a very frosty stare I can tell you !

Stu Coops

I'd have beat the shite out of his fists with my face no messing.

The Rookie

Jolly Swagman wrote:

Tons. It came from a mile off. They had enough time to switch the camera on as they knew something was amiss with the car. Time enough to unclip and at least attempt to defend himself.

The Camera was running before the car even stopped you donut.....

shigllgetcha

The Beginner wrote:

Jolly Swagman wrote:

Tons. It came from a mile off. They had enough time to switch the camera on as they knew something was amiss with the car. Time enough to unclip and at least attempt to defend himself.

The Camera was running before the car even stopped you donut.....

The guy with the camera said he turned the camera on when the car slowed down.

The part where the cycle droid guy was on the road and two vans passed him on either side and one had a trailer and he confronted the one with the trailer. Should he have been cycling down the white line in the middle of the road in like that in the first place?

chez_m356

Briggo wrote:

I bet you would have ninja'd him in the face, ripped it off and shat down his neck.

hell yeah

Jolly Swagman

The Beginner wrote:

Jolly Swagman wrote:

Tons. It came from a mile off. They had enough time to switch the camera on as they knew something was amiss with the car. Time enough to unclip and at least attempt to defend himself.

The Camera was running before the car even stopped you donut.....

English obviously isn't your first language. Cormac, 44, "by this stage I decided it would be a good idea to turn on my helmet camera". Dry your eyes, wind your neck in, and get mummy to show you how to use iplayer before she puts you to bed and get to about 35'38" (that's 35 minutes 38 seconds). Night night.

Ghostt

It was an interesting watch, but obviously was edited in such a way to cause controversy with the speccy guy and the vigilante, and that cab driver who was a kn*b and flatly denied any wrong doing whilst they showed him doing it wrong.

I think the problem lies on both sides. Drivers, imo, aren't educated enough on how to deal with cyclists, and I imagine very few realise quite how massive the consequences of their actions could be. I've experienced cars passing close enough to touch many times. All it would take is a momentary lack of concentration from either me or the driver and I'm under his wheels. I find it very strange how differently drivers react with horses and cyclists. Whenever I see horses on the road, people always slow right down, and crawl past leaving plenty of space, yet don't offer cyclists the same luxury even though they're more vulnerable...

Not that cyclists are any better. Those couriers deserve everything that comes to them riding that way. Perhaps that's why they all ride fixies and no helmets, so if they do crash they won't be able to slow down and it'll be a swift ending. They're does seem to be an unfortunate element of being 'holier than thou' with a lot of cyclists, which only pi*ses off more drivers

cooldad

There are a lot more cyclists on the roads than horses though. Especially around London.