Nearly put this in the joke thread

[Jonm]

And as to who causes the damage to the roads, as well as life and limb,its the car that holds the record.

I basically agree with you. Just one point and sorry to nitpick. The road pavement is designed for goods vehicles. Cars do not come in to the design calculation. Note “pavement” in this context refers to the actual road construction, the bit you drive on not the bit you walk on.
https://www.standardsforhighways.co.uk/dmrb/search/257e5888-2bfd-492d-92d4-ecf7d40428b0page 6

Design traffic
The commercial vehicle loading over the design period of a pavement. It is expressed as the number of equivalent 80kN standard axles.

 

[stuart little]

Just off to get my pop corn but before I go can I add horses.

At his time of year, reindeer too! [couldn't find one, so this will have to do]. I did once see a camel grazing at the roadside in France.

 

[stuart little]

Buses don't generally puddle along at 15-20mph. Tractors doing 30mph generally have the courtesy to pull over and let the traffic past.

We get groups of 20-30 out regularly slowing down traffic on the a65....

I am a roadie myself but some do go out of there way to wind up drivers!

Tractor/agriculture vehicle drivers seem to be getting more & more bolshie in NOT pulling over, I've followed many for miles, passing plenty of pull-ins.

 

[paul-c]

borrowed from elsewhere


The bicycle is the slow death of the planet.

General Director of Euro Exim Bank Ltd. got economists thinking when he said:

“A cyclist is a disaster for the country’s economy: he does not buy cars and does not borrow money to buy. He does not pay for insurance policies. He does not buy fuel, does not pay for the necessary maintenance and repairs. He does not use paid parking. He does not cause serious accidents. He does not require multi-lane highways. He does not get fat.
Healthy people are neither needed nor useful for the economy. They don’t buy medicine. They do not go to hospitals or doctors. Nothing is added to the country’s GDP (gross domestic product).
On the contrary, every new McDonald’s restaurant creates at least 30 jobs: 10 cardiologists, 10 dentists, 10 dietary experts and nutritionists, and obviously, people who work at the restaurant itself.”

Choose carefully: cyclist or McDonald’s? It is worth considering.

P.S. Walking is even worse. Pedestrians don’t even buy bicycles.

i'll get my coat

 

[stuart little]

Absolutely agree.

The problem with car drivers, cyclists, motorcyclists, walkers... frankly everyone is... they're people; and, let's be honest - people are bl**dy awful.

OK, I'm being slightly tongue-in-cheek, but the reality is that just about any road user will have encountered the ignorant, the inept, the aggressive, the selfish, and the downright dangerous; regardless of the form of transport. The common denominator isn't the type of transport; it's people.

"There's none so queer as folk!"

 

[Spectric]

As for road tax, it doesn't exist,

I think you either don't have a car or are just lucky to get away with it, especially in London with that very efficient metropolitan police force.

Try this link if you don't believe road tax is still around Tax your vehicle

 

[sirocosm]

The "new rules" are not new at all. Cyclists always had the right to "take the lane" and pedestrians have priority at junctions the minute they step off the curb. It should rather read "old habits" and "new rules". I hope they enforce them. The UK is the only country I have lived in where pedestrians have to jump out of the way of cars speeding around corners at junctions. In most places the pedestrian has priority at junctions, if the street they are walking on does. Raised in Canada, we were taught never to cross in the middle of the street, as it was dangerous. Here it is almost impossible to cross safely at junctions.

It is about time that pedestrians and cyclists get what they pay for. Our "road tax" is not a road tax at all, it is an environmental tax, and it does not pay for the roads. The roads are mostly paid for by general taxation. So pedestrian and cyclists pay just as much for the roads as anyone and do far less damage, so they are subsidizing cars.

 

[Jonm]

The original newspaper article is about making road users aware of the new rules. It contains a simplification of the rules relating to pedestrians and vehicles turning.

This is the 2013 impression of the Highway Code.

https://www.broughtonschoolofmotoring.com/wp-content/uploads/Highway-Code-pdf.compressed.pdf
Rules for Pedestrians. Page 8, rule 8
At a junction. When crossing the road, look out for traffic turning into the road, especially from behind you. If you have started crossing and traffic wants to turn into the road, you have priority and they should give way (see Rule 170).

page 58 rule 170
watch out for pedestrians crossing a road into which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way

Plenty of scope for confusion here, pedestrian waits on footway, car starts to turn, pedestrian steps out. When is driver expected to decide that the pedestrian has “started to cross”.

My recollection is that even earlier versions of the code says that “motorists should give way to pedestrians “ not “must”.

The newspaper article is fairly sensible and is about road safety. Really cabinetman should have checked what the changes actually are before making a point about hard done by motorists.

Anyway at least I now know about the changes.

 

[Cabinetman]

The original newspaper article is about making road users aware of the new rules. It contains a simplification of the rules relating to pedestrians and vehicles turning.

This is the 2013 impression of the Highway Code.

https://www.broughtonschoolofmotoring.com/wp-content/uploads/Highway-Code-pdf.compressed.pdf
Rules for Pedestrians. Page 8, rule 8
At a junction. When crossing the road, look out for traffic turning into the road, especially from behind you. If you have started crossing and traffic wants to turn into the road, you have priority and they should give way (see Rule 170).

page 58 rule 170
watch out for pedestrians crossing a road into which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way

Plenty of scope for confusion here, pedestrian waits on footway, car starts to turn, pedestrian steps out. When is driver expected to decide that the pedestrian has “started to cross”.

My recollection is that even earlier versions of the code says that “motorists should give way to pedestrians “ not “must”.

The newspaper article is fairly sensible and is about road safety. Really cabinetman should have checked what the changes actually are before making a point about hard done by motorists.

Anyway at least I now know about the changes.

I fully understood what the changes are, and I still think with regard to cyclists that it’s a retrograde step and likely to not improve things.

 

[TKB]

….and I thought this was a woodworking forum? Happy Christmas shavings all

 

[Sandyn]

I'm a very keen cyclist. I have seen some dreadful cyclists, some great cyclists, some dreadful motorists, some great motorists some dreadful pedestrians and some great pedestrians. It's not the mode of transport, it's the people and the modern disease of not having respect for others no matter how they travel.
Also seen some dreadful dog owners and some lovely dog owners, but all the horse riders I have encountered have been respectful and very polite, but the horses tend to leave the biggest piles of sh@t behind.

 

[Jonm]

borrowed from elsewhere


The bicycle is the slow death of the planet.

General Director of Euro Exim Bank Ltd. got economists thinking when he said:

“A cyclist is a disaster for the country’s economy: he does not buy cars and does not borrow money to buy. He does not pay for insurance policies. He does not buy fuel, does not pay for the necessary maintenance and repairs. He does not use paid parking. He does not cause serious accidents. He does not require multi-lane highways. He does not get fat.
Healthy people are neither needed nor useful for the economy. They don’t buy medicine. They do not go to hospitals or doctors. Nothing is added to the country’s GDP (gross domestic product).
On the contrary, every new McDonald’s restaurant creates at least 30 jobs: 10 cardiologists, 10 dentists, 10 dietary experts and nutritionists, and obviously, people who work at the restaurant itself.”

Choose carefully: cyclist or McDonald’s? It is worth considering.

P.S. Walking is even worse. Pedestrians don’t even buy bicycles.

i'll get my coat

Cyclists also draw their pension for much longer.

 

[Sporky McGuffin]

Try this link if you don't believe road tax is still around Tax your vehicle

That's for taxing your vehicle, not for taxing your road.

 

[cmoops2]

Like many on here, I'm a keen cyclist and riding in the gutter us dangerous. I ride approx a meter out beyond the manhole covers, puddles etc.

However what does wind me up is the big chain gangs of riders who ride 2 abreast without any thought for the massive queue of drivers behind

Is that an electricity meter or a gas meter ?

 

[baldkev]

am sure no one would want to beat the queue jumper in Sainsbury's to death with a tin of beans

I hate que jumpers ( and christmas jumpers ) but i wouldnt beat one to death with a can of beans. You need something a bit heavier so you can get it done quickly and escape! Jack daniels bottles are pretty thick

 

[Fergie 307]

Be a shame to waste it if the bottle broke, Famous Grouse maybe, then little harm done.

 

[Cozzer]

....Separate cycle lines would be much better for all.

Our local council had the bright idea a few months ago to allow cyclists to ride on the pavement by widening it by about a yard.
It cost a small fortune, and the works took bloody weeks. They also lost a bus stop pull-in courtesy of the widening, so the bus now holds up more traffic because it has to stop on the carriageway.
Then then felt obliged to put up 14 metal signs - some duplicated, but at different heights! - with "really useful information" that a 5 year old could understand.
There were two main problems with the idea.
The bloody cyclists have used the pavement for years, and pedestrians have to get out of their way.
The second problem is my labrador. He hates bikes. Don't know why - he's never said.
The biker I confronted this morning was helmeted with forward and rear-facing cameras, lycra suit endorsed with some team or other, and was hammering it as though his life depended on it.
On the pavement!

He looked bloody ridiculous.

 

[TRITON]

borrowed from elsewhere


The bicycle is the slow death of the planet.

General Director of Euro Exim Bank Ltd. got economists thinking when he said:

“A cyclist is a disaster for the country’s economy: he does not buy cars and does not borrow money to buy. He does not pay for insurance policies. He does not buy fuel, does not pay for the necessary maintenance and repairs. He does not use paid parking. He does not cause serious accidents. He does not require multi-lane highways. He does not get fat.
Healthy people are neither needed nor useful for the economy. They don’t buy medicine. They do not go to hospitals or doctors. Nothing is added to the country’s GDP (gross domestic product).
On the contrary, every new McDonald’s restaurant creates at least 30 jobs: 10 cardiologists, 10 dentists, 10 dietary experts and nutritionists, and obviously, people who work at the restaurant itself.”

Choose carefully: cyclist or McDonald’s? It is worth considering.

P.S. Walking is even worse. Pedestrians don’t even buy bicycles.

i'll get my coat

I think thats mostly flawed and certainly doesn't take actual world matters into account.

Many cyclists are also car owners, and the sport of mountainbiking requires car/van transport to get from the city to the countryside. Many mtbers are riding because they are concerned with their health and wellbeing, and do so in order to keep themselves fit and healthy.
Bicycles are expensive items and in this crime ridden world require insurance to guard against financial loss.
Not all cyclists are practical people, just as not every homeowner is plumber, carpenter or stonemason, and require trained professionals to undertake such works for them, something I have experience in volunteering for a bicycle charity as bike mechanic, where many of the customers had neither the notion, nor experience to fix their bicycle themselves, even down to being capable of fixing a puncture. Some of the jobs of the modern bicycle require great knowledge and skill, in relation to building or truing spoked wheels, and in this modern era hydraulic brakes and expensive and elaborate suspension systems.

As to the rest, thats a mostly mercenary insight into what people should be in order to run a type of economy that favours a small number, and in fact we could label that small number as being parasitical in nature.

 

[doctor Bob]

Ok, one quick question, I get the lycra for top cyclists, I get it for fit fast amateurs and I get it for skinny people pretending to be good cyclists, but for people carrying 3 stone plus, toddling along at walking pace, why's that then?
Now I know it's none of my business, I know it makes no difference to me etc etc, but what is the mental process of thinking this tight fitting clothing is just the thing for me. Is it the equivalent of buying lee neilsen planes when you have just started woodworking?

 

[paulrbarnard]

I think you either don't have a car or are just lucky to get away with it, especially in London with that very efficient metropolitan police force.

Try this link if you don't believe road tax is still around Tax your vehicle

Oh I see now; you are talking about the vehicle excise tax. That's a tax based on the pollution created by the vehicle. It is tiered based on the amount of pollution different vehicle creates. I can see how some people could confuse this with Road Tax which was abolished in 1937. Some people are a little slow to catch up. Now there are proposals to have vehicle excise duty ring fenced to pay for the expansion of the "strategic road network", not pay for all roads just expansion of stategic ones... That was supposed to happen this year but I haven't seen anything about it for quite some time.

I think it would be very fair for all vehicles, regardless of type, to pay their full share towards their use. One study I saw showed that a typical family car would pay several thousand pounds more a year to fully cover the costs related to their use, all of which today is coming from general taxation paid by everyone even those who don't own a car. The same study showed that cyclist would receive a tax refund of several hunderd pounds. Bring it on I say. Too many motorists look at the vehicle excise tax and think that by paying it they are paying to use their cars. It is very far from the truth. Every motorist is heavily subsidised.

Don't get me started on people storing their private property in public places, I'm talking about parking, cars parked on public roads and even on the pedestrian pavement at the side of a road in far too many cases. Try putting a shed in the road outside your house and see what motorists will say about that blocking the roads but they completely ignore the chaos caused by parked vehicles.