My friend who was boasting about red light jumping on facebook
Recently posted that the morning after his birthday he had to go to a cycling re-education course at 7am because he'd been caught...red light jumping.

Made me laugh, anyway.
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 9:12, 1 reply)

Pffft.
Thing is, judging by previous responses to my views on cycling, and, indeed - there's a guy at my work who holds similar I've just given short shrift and had to correct - they genuinely think they should be above the law because car drivers are bastards.

However, the moment you plow through a herd of school children on the tube platform just because a fat man behind you is walking erraticly, people get uppity.

One law for them, one for us.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 9:25, closed)

The majority of city cyclists are twats, who treat the Highway Code as something for other people.
I speak as a cyclist AND motorist.
(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Wed 4 Aug 2010, 9:29, closed)

This I have to agree with
I commute regularly by bike in Central London (on a six inch travel freeride bike, natch!) and it pisses me off no end when a flipflop wearing moron on a fixie barge past me at traffic lights because they think the highway code doesn't apply to them.

Sure enough, once the lights have changed you catch them up in no time because they've run out of gear and you have to find a way past before repeating the same thing at the next set of lights.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Wed 4 Aug 2010, 9:39, closed)

Verrrry much this.
There's a guy I see most mornings who wears LINEN. LINEN. and he does exactly what you describe. Well, excuse me for not wanting to get crushed under a bus at the big crossroads at Mile End.
( Devil_In_Tights the *real* DiT!, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 14:16, closed)

I think Douglas Adams said it best in the Long Dark Teatime of the Soul
He stepped out on to the street, where a passing eagle swooped out of the sky at him, nearly forcing him into the path of a cyclist, who cursed and swore at him from a moral high ground that cyclists alone seem able to inhabit.

I have no problem with car drivers - they tend to stop at traffic lights and zebra crossings. Cyclists, on the other hand, seem to think that because they're "doing their bit for the environment" that absolves them from paying any consideration to pedestrians (or "lemmings" as they call us) whatsoever. I dread the short-term effect that the "Boris bikes" are going to have on the capital but I am vaguely hopeful that eventually cycling will become normalised (and therefore regulated) like it is in Amsterdam with proper cycle lanes and cycle traffic lights that they *have* to obey. Actually, the one good thing about the new bikes is that they're all numbered, so if you spot someone jumping a red light or knocking you over on one, you can report the fucker.
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 9:45, closed)

You should look before you step into the road anyway, even if you can't hear a car. It is good practice.
(Pete_G, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 9:49, closed)

Actually, on a green man one SHOULD step into the road, as that is exactly what the green man is there for.
Of course, if there's a cyclist hopping the lights, then it's the cyclist's fault as they shouldn't have hopped.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 9:51, closed)

Er, yeah I know
Last time I got knocked down by a cyclist I was on a fucking pedestrian crossing on a green man and they couldn't be arsed to stop at the red light.
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 9:54, closed)

Cyclists with dogs are particularly annoying.
Combo of twat, bike, lead and mobile shit machine is fucking dangerous.
(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Wed 4 Aug 2010, 10:08, closed)

"Cyclists with dogs are particularly annoying. Combo of twat, bike, lead and mobile shit machine is fucking dangerous."
That's from Shakespeare, isn't it?
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 10:09, closed)

Yeah, some cunt sucker like that.
"Voltaire."
(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Wed 4 Aug 2010, 10:18, closed)

From his very famous piece called
"Cycling through Lewisham at five-thirty on a week day".
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Wed 4 Aug 2010, 10:29, closed)

...whilst dodging tramps and dog shit.

(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Wed 4 Aug 2010, 10:44, closed)

Actually, some crossings are fucking ridiculous
and so big, that as a cyclist, if you go through a green, it can turn red and give the people waiting to cross a green man before you're through.
Once happened to me - i go through a crossing on green, and this woman and child steps out right in front of me and i nearly hit them. She shouted at me, and i had to point out to her that it was green for me when i went through, and she should be teaching her son the correct way to cross a road - to always look left and right.
(badgers43, Thu 5 Aug 2010, 13:43, closed)