Jeremy Clarkson on a bike

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Comments

  • mm1
    mm1 Posts: 1,063
    Clarkson on a bike is still a braying public school bufoon. No idea why anyone would watch his wretched TV show.
  • team47b
    team47b Posts: 6,425
    littledove44 wrote:
    I think I read that South Africa have a law that you must leave 1.5m clear when overtaking a bike.

    Sounds sensible to me.

    1.5m in Portugal too, about time it was adopted in all parts of europe :D
    my isetta is a 300cc bike
  • oblongomaculatus
    oblongomaculatus Posts: 616
    team47b wrote:
    littledove44 wrote:
    I think I read that South Africa have a law that you must leave 1.5m clear when overtaking a bike.

    Sounds sensible to me.

    1.5m in Portugal too, about time it was adopted in all parts of europe :D

    Pointless to introduce such a law in the UK. It would be totally ignored by motorists and police alike.
  • Dick-Dastardly
    Dick-Dastardly Posts: 4
    The police? Who are they? This is what police in London look like these days:

    new-speed-cameras-60967-1.jpg
  • GiantMike
    GiantMike Posts: 3,139
    Dick-Dastardly wrote:
    The police? Who are they? This is what police in London look like these days:

    new-speed-cameras-60967-1.jpg
    There's no way that camera is going to stitch you up with false evidence or make out it saw you breaking the law and email its local MP. Why replace the biased lying local bobby with an impartial camera? As a tax-payer, I demand the right to have a copper make up false allegations against me.

    Oh, and Jeremy Clarkson really should be killed by a speeding car. Not because I particularly dislike him, it's just the best irony I can think of.
  • rolf_f
    rolf_f Posts: 16,015
    The final point was quite a good one for the audience - ie that the more cyclists there are, the less other cars there are on the road. Pointing out that cyclists actually reduce congestion is a really good line as it highlights the benefit for the driver (which is far more persuasive than anything relating to not actively killing cyclists by not giving them space!).

    A car driver will get cross if he gets held up for 10 seconds by a cyclist before overtaking and driving forward to the back of the next queue of traffic. He may see a car up ahead pull out and curse that, had the cyclist not been in his way, he could have been ahead of that car up the road. But of course he doesn't realise that one day he will be the car pulling out and that he will only manage to pull out quickly because there was a cyclist back up the road briefling holding back another driver.
    Faster than a tent.......
  • oblongomaculatus
    oblongomaculatus Posts: 616
    As far as making a point, assertive cycling, taking the lane or whatever you call it is concerned, drivers will always get annoyed at being held up, but you can take it too far. A few weeks ago, cycling along a quiet suburban street in Cambridge, made narrower by (legally) parked cars, my attention was drawn to a cyclist going the opposite way. It was hard to miss him. He was doing a fair speed, 15mph plus, and was in the centre of his side of the road, with a car close behind him, apparently trying to pass. Fair enough, but he was riding with his right arm out, not to indicate a turn, but in a "you shall not pass" way, while shouting - actually, bellowing - "NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! " continually. Technically, he was right, there wasn't enough room for the car to pass safely, but all he really did was give the driver a chance to tell everyone about this "idiot cyclist" who held him up so aggressively. And how stressed must the guy on the bike have been to behave like that?
  • team47b
    team47b Posts: 6,425
    oblongomaculatus wrote:
    team47b wrote:
    littledove44 wrote:
    I think I read that South Africa have a law that you must leave 1.5m clear when overtaking a bike.

    Sounds sensible to me.

    1.5m in Portugal too, about time it was adopted in all parts of europe :D

    Pointless to introduce such a law in the UK. It would be totally ignored by motorists and police alike.

    in Portugal the police are just fund raisers, albeit armed with credit card machines and guns type of fundraisers :D

    they have even introduced a new law which ensures that motorists use the correct lane on a roundabout and bicycles can use any lane regardless of exit and have PRIORITY over cars, look forward to seeing this in action at a roundabout that doesn't have a police presence :D
    my isetta is a 300cc bike
  • CiB
    CiB Posts: 6,098
    oblongomaculatus wrote:
    And how stressed must the guy on the bike have been to behave like that?
    Good question - how stressed was he? Maybe his wife had just left him, or something else quite bad had got to him. It's a pity he can't be a perfect gent and in a constant zen-like state of calm, like the rest of us. And if he can't, he should stay inside until he is.

    HTH.
  • secretsam
    secretsam Posts: 5,120
    Well, I thought it was funny, although not as funny as it could have been.

    I think people are assuming that TG is a factual programme - it's totally NOT!!
    It's just a hill. Get over it.
  • graham.
    graham. Posts: 862
    I did love the "I did a skid!" followed by a clipless moment. :lol:
    My Flickr Pics
  • proto
    proto Posts: 1,483
    You are right, it is not, but plenty of people think it is, which is the worrying thing.

    Clarkson and his two chums had, and still have, the opportunity to do a huge amount for road saftey. Just ten minutes of factual reporting on the dangers facing cyclists and how they could be minimised, and the impact (ouch) would be significant, but they chose not to. A big fail in my opinion, and I didn't think that section of the programme was funny, so a double fail.

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