shrill histrionics aside
the numbers would tend to suggest that the actual danger posed by cyclists is hugely at odds with the perceived danger. Cars users kill and maim far more, doing equally stupid things, yet people who drive never seem to generalise this to 'all drivers are cunts'.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 10:53, 2 replies)

I understand flying is still the safest form of transport, but it doesn't stop a lot of people being afraid of it.
Likewise, two rings don't make runt and all that.

You don't, however, get many car drivers who will try to claim that they drive a car for the benefit of anyone other than themselves, or try to justify breaking the law, with the possible exception of the wife's waters breaking/speeding story.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 10:56, closed)

Actually
Flying is only the safest form of travel if you calculate by distance travelled.
If you calculate by the number of journeys vs the amount of accidents, then train travel is the safest.





As you were
(EvilMeister, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 14:04, closed)

from personal experience
I've never been knocked down by a car, but I've been knocked down by unrepentant cyclists twice, despite being on crossings at the time. Living in a city I don't have much to fear from motorists because they really don't have the space to get up any speed but cyclists remain a daily hazard.
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 11:07, closed)

Selfish dicks will remain thus in any mode of transport. If a cyclist knocks you down at a crossing, I suspect they'd have committed an arrrestable offence - in which case, you'd be perfectly within your rights to detain them. A 700 quid fine and whatever they have to give you in personal injury compo might go some way towards improving their manners.

Certainly wouldn't hurt to have mandatory bike number plates, provided they don't actually cost any more than the materials warrant. Might even reduce bike theft, if it matched a number stamped on the frame, so a win all round...
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 11:21, closed)

^What she said^

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 11:27, closed)

I'm all for number plates, registration etc.
Or even just some proper organisation - as I said above, I have no problems with Amsterdam which has proper cycle lanes, because I know that cyclists there will stop at crossings and obey the rules laid out for them. It's just my experience of cyclists in London that have dimmed my view of them because as Vagabond says above, they really do seem to think they should be above the law.
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 11:28, closed)