Most annoying cyclist activities

Okay, i cycle. I try to give us much space to my “cousins” that cycle too and from work and appreciate it is a bit of a battle out there. But some cyclists really are stupid and let the team down.

This morning, Glasgow City centre, 2 lane one way road, parking either side. I’m in the inside lane, spot a parking space on the left, indicate well ahead, pull in, no hard braking etc etc. Crazy woman cyclist clearly trying to squeeze up the inside even though the street wasn’t busy didn’t spot the brake lights, indicator or indeed car moving, and cycles into the back of my car. Then starts to blame me. No wonder many car drivers think cyclists are a bunch of ( insert appropriate word here).

Not dieing when you hit them, having to reverse over them is a pain.

Apart from that, hiding in the gutter, not looking, trying to die by putting themselves in stupid places and riding the wrong way down 1 way streets/across junctions.

Speaking as a cycling commuter – using “Lezyne” rear red lights. Bloody blinding. Complete irritation.

….and they don’t even pay road tax!! 👿

Just in case i’ll add a 😉

Let the team down? It’s just people on bikes just as its people in cars, the odd one or two are dicks

Mr Woppit – Member

Using “Lezyne” rear red lights. Bloody blinding. Complete irritation

😀

Okay, I drive. I try to give space to my “cousins” that drive too and from work and appreciate it is a bit of a battle out there. But some motorists really are stupid and let the team down.

Last night, on the way out of town, hugely wide road, parking either side. I’m just moving along at speed, preparing to climb a hill, straight road, no erratic movements etc etc. Crazy man motorist pulls out in front of me to turn in the road even though the street wasn’t busy didn’t spot me, my trailer, or anything, and drives right in my path. Shot me a dirty look as if it’s my fault. No wonder many bike riders thing motorists are a bunch of (insert appropriate word here).

Okay, I drive. I try to give space to my “cousins” that drive too and from work and appreciate it is a bit of a battle out there. But some motorists really are stupid and let the team down.

Last night, on the way out of town, hugely wide road, parking either side. I’m just moving along at speed, preparing to climb a hill, straight road, no erratic movements etc etc. Crazy man motorist pulls out in front of me to turn in the road even though the street wasn’t busy didn’t spot me, my trailer, or anything, and drives right in my path. Shot me a dirty look as if it’s my fault. No wonder many bike riders thing motorists are a bunch of (insert appropriate word here)

X 1,000,000

Good job we don’t come on here and list every stupid thing a motorist does. Would get very boring indeed. Although maybe not as boring as the OP’s post.

You’re happily pushing up a hill near Skipton when some arsehole cyclist whizzing the other way asks if you’re OK and need any help.

If you’re on here, sorry… 😳

I have to cross a road to access another cycle path. Most mornings while crossing the road at the traffic lights, even when the green man is flashing we regularly get large peletons racing through the red lights. Even the guy on the moped setting the pace for the group doesn’t stop….that tends to annoy me …just a little!! 🙂

“Lezyne” rear red lights. Bloody blinding

From directly behind. From other angles, mostly invisible. Great piece of kit, not.

People assuming that when I’m on my bike I’m somehow a different version of me who is suddenly more like every other human being on a bike than myself…
– and by extension is therefore definitely a law-breaking, angry, road-tax-avoiding, deliberately-getting-in-the-way git who is deserving of every last bit of existential anger, prejudice and passive aggression that can be mustered and flung in my general direction…

ie: people making sweeping, ignorant, tribal generalisations 😀

I’m in the inside lane, spot a parking space on the left, indicate well ahead, pull in without looking to see if it’s safe to do so first, no hard braking etc etc.

FTFY.

In motorcycling parlance it’s called a “lifesaver”, that last shoulder-check before you turn. Those little flashy lights on your car don’t give you carte blanche to swing a ton of metal about and expect other people to get out of your way.

Sure, she was stupid to attempt to pass and probably inattentive in missing your indicators or missing your intentions. But you still should have seen her.

Good job we don’t come on here and list every stupid thing a motorist does. Would get very boring indeed. Although maybe not as boring as the OP’s post.

this

Plus – a moments inattention/poor decision from a “crazy cyclist” will normally result in, what – a small dent in the back of your car? – as a worst case scenario. What are the potential consequences of the same from a motorist?

Assuming (in a devil’s advocate sort of way) she’s some way back though, what’s he supposed to do? She doesn’t have a god given right to carry on regardless in the cycle lane.

I saw all sorts of dicks yesterday on bikes, really dreadful. Worst was a bloke who assumed that his half arsed roadie-signals (despite being on a hybrid) entitled him to do whatever he wanted: hand by hip pointing… swings across the road. Great.

Speaking as a cycling commuter – using “Lezyne” rear red lights. Bloody blinding. Complete irritation.

I’ve changed location at work and now come across many more cyclists. Driving to work I have noticed is the cyclists that have a bright light attached to their helmet are much more noticeable than those who just have them on their bike regardless of how hi-viz everyone else is wearing. I often spot them from much further away than the other cyclists so they do work.

Cyclist annoyance. The cyclist that insists on coming up your inside doing a little dance along the kerb because there is not enough room to pass safely, just to get in front of you. The majority of the time they then end up placing them self in a much more dangerous position when they are stuck in front of you but unable to squeeze past the car in front so are now wedged between cars and railings.

Sure, she was stupid to attempt to pass

At least he wasn’t driving a bus.

But you still should have seen her.

He probably did – but once he’d overtaken her, completely forgot she was there…

Dicks drive cars, dicks ride bikes. C’est la vie.

But the difference is if you are a dick on a bike you are just a dick on a bike. But if you are a dick in a car you are causing congestion, polution and wheilding a deadly weapon. So being a dick in a car is infinitely more antisocial than being a dick on a bike.

Assuming (in a devil’s advocate sort of way) she’s some way back though, what’s he supposed to do?

Wait for her to pass if he can’t complete the manoeuvre in time? If she’s “some way back” that shouldn’t be hard, takes me a couple of seconds to parallel-park.

I get this all the time with other motorists when I’m trying to park outside my house. I’ll always wait for them to either stop or pass (because, y’know, that’s what I was told to do on my driving lessons) rather than trying to park whilst near to moving traffic. You can’t just assume that someone else has seen you or knows what you’re doing.

She doesn’t have a god given right to carry on regardless in the cycle lane.

What cycle lane?

What god?

BOSH! STRAIGHT in there… 😉 😀

Yes your courier bag is waaaay cool, but you obviously don’t know there’s another strap to stop it swinging round, otherwise you wouldn’t loose control like that and swerve out in front of me while I’m having a driving lesson

Get a rucksack, tosser

Mr Woppit – Member
What god?
BOSH! STRAIGHT in there…

😀
“What god?” You can choose Woppers; that’s the magic of it

Not having the right gear on a ride eg no tools, patches etc etc. Also fat men in white lycra – That’s not right, nobody needs to see vast buttocks barely concealed. And not having brakes because they aren’t hip enough (this seems to be a certain bits of London thing).

Sitting in the gutter then madly diving into the middle of the road to avoid a drain cover, without any awareness of your surroundings. Then dive back into the gutter. It’s like they’ve assessed their risks and decided they’re not unsafe enough

When I have to stop with other traffic to let someone cycle across a pedestrian crossing and up onto the pavement. Pees me right off

Yes your courier bag is waaaay cool, but you obviously don’t know there’s another strap to stop it swinging round, otherwise you wouldn’t loose control like that and swerve out in front of me while I’m having a driving lesson

Get a rucksack, tosser
you may only be a learner but you’ve already figured out the most important rule for driving in the UK – anyone who forces you to pay attention or stops you “making progress” for 0.1 sec must be treated as a tosser & an annoyance, rather than a fellow human being who deserves respect & consideration. You’ll go far. 😀

Crossing junctions on a red light. Turning left is no problem if it doesn’t take the rider into traffic.

Flashing lights, especially fronts, if there is not also a fixed light. A solitary flashing light is harder to keep track of on a moving object (think: watching people move under strobe lights). I don’t want to have to devote my entire attention to somebody on a bicycle, as there are countless other obstacles/hazards/pedestrians/road users I need to also be mindful of.

Lights which are too bright. I want to see you, not be blinded/distracted by a squillion candle’s worth of LEDs. And if it’s also flashing…

Being difficult to see. Even just wearing a reflective sash will make a person on a bicycle stand out.

Going too slowly. Maybe put a bit of effort into contributing to the flow of the traffic.

Going too fast on cycle paths or shared-use routes. Also, let people know that you are approaching from behind- if you don’t think they are aware of you, slow down. People get flustered; be considerate.

Using the road/bus lane when there is a dedicated, tarmac’d cycle path.

Changing lanes/direction without signalling or changing lanes just because you’re signalling (failure to look over shoulder).

Crossing slip roads. Cross it perpendicular to traffic when it is safe to do so; don’t ride along the entrance/exit at 15mph, or even 30mph, when the surrounding traffic could be going up to 70mph.

As has already been pointed out, people do stupid things when driving/riding, and there are some plain awful drivers/riders who probably shouldn’t be out there. We all make mistakes, but it’s good practice to be considerate of other road users and do as much as possible to keep traffic moving safely.

Classic STW

Cougar. Wait for her to pass. You mean wait for her to undertake a bunch of cars travelling along a road then try to squeeze inside a car that turned in to a parking place. Glad she didn’t damage my shiney car, that would have been really inconvenient.

Using the road/bus lane when there is a dedicated, tarmac’d cycle path.

You were doing so well until this moment.

I dont get what the OP did wrong, it doesnt state whether he was moving or not though. If he was stationary, would he still have been in the wrong?

Zilog wasn’t trying pass him actually. Instructor had seen him move the bag back across his shoulder once already and said to look out for him, I backed right off, bloke on bike looked over his shoulder which caused the bag to flop under his arm again, which caused the handlebars to move making him swerve. I was probs 10m behind him at the time

So thanks 😀

Regarding the OP’s scenario and filtering. Everyone who filters on two wheels please pay attention.

You don’t overtake on the left.

You especially don’t overtake on the left when there’s somewhere the overtakee could pull left into.

You especially especially don’t overtake on the left when there’s somewhere the overtakee could pull into, and they are clearly indicating that they are actually going to do so.

That said, not sure this actually was a case of attempted filtering, or day dreaming and smashing into a slower moving object.

Killing a million people worldwide every year.

Oh no hang on, that’s drivers, sorry.

get a grip. Things cyclists get up to are on the absolute vast majority, mildly annoying. if you want to get annoyed about something get annoying about the absolute and with no exaggeration whatsoever, about the massive and almost universally accepted and unchallenged trail of death and misery that drivers leave in their wake. And I say this as someone who really likes cars.

Stupid people drive cars and the exact same stupid people ride bikes. The only difference is that when they’re on their bikes they annoy people slightly, when they’re in their cars they destroy a massive amounts of peoples lives both directly and indirectly.

Lights which are too bright. I want to see you, not be blinded/distracted by a squillion candle’s worth of LEDs. And if it’s also flashing…
…
Being difficult to see.

Herein lies the problem. As a cyclist, how do you know which of these categories you fall into? Do you set up your bike, park it up against a bush and then view it from a slightly crouching position 20 yards away so see if you’re dazzling people? Or do you think “better put some lights on” and think no more of it?

Moreover, if a driver went “you’re a bit bright / hard to see there, mate,” would you reply “oh, thanks, I didn’t realise” or would you be shouting out his registration plate on a YouTube video?”

You mean wait for her to undertake a bunch of cars travelling along a road then try to squeeze inside a car that turned in to a parking place.

As opposed to “run her over”? No, you’re absolutely right, I see my error now, mow the bitch down. It’s perfectly acceptable to run cyclists over so long as you think they’re somewhere they shouldn’t be.

At risk of repetition….
Not smiling/nodding/acknowledging other cyclists people when you’re out for an evening’s potter along the bridleway.
If you want to be miserable, take up fishing or become a goth.

A lot of motorists seem to have this attitude to peds as well as bikes.

I get this all the time with other motorists when I’m trying to park outside my house. I’ll always wait for them to either stop or pass (because, y’know, that’s what I was told to do on my driving lessons) rather than trying to park whilst near to moving traffic

yeah I do this too, normally bung it in reverse aswell to make it extra obvious what I’m about to do, the car behind normally pulls up 6″ from my rear bumper 🙄

What samuri said.

Undertaking.