Such an idiotic thing to say.
This is why. This is what happens when a cyclist is hit by a car.



Source: bianchista.blogspot.com/2009/09/open-letter-to-james-martin.html
(Captain Skippy pooed in a bag and left it on your doorstep, Sun 19 Feb 2012, 7:13, 2 replies)

If they're lucky
If they're not lucky, it's a casket. I've had 2 workmates who've lost the car v. bike matches, fortunately at relatively slow speeds. Both due to driver inattention ("I'd no idea a bike could travel that fast after I passed it and turned directly in front of it!").

One mate went from being a triathlete to being a gimp. The other had a hairline neck fracture that went undiagnosed for several days, she had to be medevac'd from a remote military site after the fracture worsened due to the rough transport ride.
( kila is reading clocks upside-down as usual, Sun 19 Feb 2012, 8:05, closed)

Yep.
Exactly this. And the situation isn't improved by dumbfuck morons who think that running someone off the road is a justifiable thing to do, simply because they consider them to be "in the way" or "not paying road tax" or whatever the lame excuse of the day is.

As a cyclist I understand that some drivers don't like cyclists (and vice versa) - hell, some people act on the road like they don't like anyone... but most people treat other people with respect. The difference is cyclists are human beings who aren't encased in a protective box. They don't have crumple zones, and getting the bodywork replaced is a whole lot harder.
(Captain Skippy pooed in a bag and left it on your doorstep, Sun 19 Feb 2012, 8:22, closed)

I'm trying to work out
what her point is?

Is this supposed to be an illustration of the dire and life ruining consequences of not treating cyclists like they own the road, as they all seem to expect?

So she faceplanted. I'm pretty sure I did something similar when I was 7, and fell out of a tree. What she really should have done is found something from the Internet, say a 17 tonne truck popping a cyclists head.

That'd get my attention.
(username failed moderation, Mon 20 Feb 2012, 9:07, closed)

As I read somewhere recently
Fast metal boxes and slow, wobbling dangerously-exposed humans can never happily co-exist.
(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Mon 20 Feb 2012, 12:51, closed)

I agree
cyclists are horribly vulnerable on roads. I ride a motorbike in the city, and am often doing the same sort of filtering and dodging around as they are, but at 3 x the speed. I am probably more wary of them than the average car driver.

But sometimes I just wonder what they're thinking. Sometimes they simply rely on the cars, buses and motorbikes around them to avoid hitting them.

Most of the time they're lucky. Sometimes they're not.
(username failed moderation, Mon 20 Feb 2012, 13:21, closed)

"Like they own the road..."
...is on the list of lame excuses for running someone over.

And if you think that excuse justifies injuring, or potentially killing someone then you're exactly the sort of cockwomble I'm referring to above. Its the judge, jury and executioner mentality. The sort that thinks its OK to run someone off the road because you perceive them to be doing something they really are not. Of course they don't "own" the road, nor do most people think like that... but they do own the right not to be run off it.

And for what its worth, I think cars and cyclists can peacefully co-exist. The vast majority of people are courteous and respectful to each other.
(Captain Skippy pooed in a bag and left it on your doorstep, Mon 20 Feb 2012, 14:56, closed)

Hmm. Calm down.
This doesn't need your shouty reinterpretation.

Some cyclists do behave like dicks. Some car drivers behave like dicks too. When the two meet, the cyclist invariably comes off worst.

Driving through central London, I'm often required to slow down / move / even PROTECT some stupid spandex wearing bastard who is switching from lane to lane without looking. Running someone 'off the road' isn't the right expression to describe some twit who has become a red smear along the middle of 4 lanes of traffic.
(username failed moderation, Mon 20 Feb 2012, 17:34, closed)

Did two different people write your replies?
I'll concede that riding through London is a mugs game... but then so is driving. Horrible sport. And you do get some idiots on bikes - though the damage they cause is more likely to be to themselves than to anyone else. The same cannot be said of the idiots who decide to drive instead.

But you equated being hit with a car (losing a front row of teeth and gaining a broken nose in the process) to falling a few feet out of a tree. Then you moved to being someone who goes out of their way to be especially nice to the poor beleaguered but rather unintelligent cyclist.

Why don't those poor dears just get a car?
(Captain Skippy pooed in a bag and left it on your doorstep, Wed 22 Feb 2012, 17:20, closed)

Hey, it's my road, I'll run whoever I want off of it

No...wait...




(just kidding, I'm not a Bristolian bus driver)
(teebie jeebie, Wed 22 Feb 2012, 14:23, closed)

Heh
Now that's funny. Context and satire. Username failed moderation could learn from you!
(Captain Skippy pooed in a bag and left it on your doorstep, Wed 22 Feb 2012, 17:25, closed)