Just based on my observations today, 95% of cyclists give the rest of us a bad name.
I haven't seen so many people rushing past red lights since I last visited Hamburg's Reeperbahn.
@neil and do you blame all drivers for all the ones running red lights, playing with their phones, eating, earbuds in, and so on? Collective punishment only seems to apply to cyclists and minorities.
@mjr I'm not interested in whataboutery. I had a lovely ride (flat tyre aside), and just noted the approach of my fellow cyclists.
@neil Meg, red lights are car infrastructure. I don’t stop at them when I’m walking or riding if it’s safe not to. If the roads weren’t choked with two-ton kill boxes they wouldn’t need to exist.
> red lights are car infrastructure.
They are in a cycle lane, with a picture of a bike on them.
@neil (Also, sorry; I’m in an impatient mood with cars tonight. See most recent toot…)
@Charles I can understand that.
Thanks to drivers, I feel a lot less safe cycling from home to the station where I live, than I do around London (at least, the routes that I take).
A combination of more cycle lanes, and generally slower speeds.
Today, it was a pleasant ride from Paddington through Hyde Park, Green Park, St James Park, and then - the bit I like the least - around Parliament square / Westminster abbey.
@neil because it's often safer to do that than wait, because there's very little time between the bike green and car green and the latter like to accelerate off to prove... Something.
If our infrastructure were better, fewer people would cycle like dicks.
I don't really get it.
Sure, I appreciate that stopping and starting is a pain.
But speeding through a red light at a crossing *with people on it*? Why?!
Cycling while browsing one's phone, straight through a red light into a junction, then swerving to miss hitting the side of a bus. Why?!
@neil I don’t know if the effect is the same in UK but I have distinct impression lockdown broke something in an awful lot of people. Complete disregard for the basic rules of living in society to an extent that considering the effect of your actions on other people has become a quaint idea. It’s as if half of society reverted to being 15 year old assholes.
@neil Because they don't care. You could apply that to a LOT
@neil and yes, fuck the phone-while-on-bike people.
The ones that get me swearing the most are people who stop so far forward they can't see the lights
Then they're in my way when it's green and I do want to go
@neil On days when I bother to count, I usually see equal numbers of bikes and cars jumping red lights. Guess which is likely to do more damage when it hits someone.
