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National educate a driver!

Not sure if anyone else thinks the title might be good idea?

I am so p"£sed off with car drivers and vans including buses and caravans and.......................

The list goes on. I am loving cycling at the moment and have to use so busy roads to get to work and so foreth. if I can I will always try and get off them and onto some country roads but it isnt always possible.

So the Idea is............................................ we all right emails to our local radio stations asking them to educate Drivers in the local area about how to pass cyclists and some handy hints on what goes through the cyclists mind when over a tonne of metal passes you at what can only be called close quarters some times.

I have nearly been knocked off 3 times today! Once a guy towing a caravan was so close the wind was causeing me to wobble. I gave the driver the hand gesture and shouted something like get the fu"k over but I bet he did not even see me .
I am really safety orientated and always have a high vis jacket over my ruck sack and its a largish yellow blob on the round to try and miss.
Am i barking up a tree that will never be worth iot? Can we get something done? Am I the only one who gets this?

Some drivers a greart and give louds of room so nots forget the praise for good drivers.


Anyone in on this?

Comments

  • jonEjonE Posts: 1,113
    If you educate only one,it is a good thing.
    Did watch one total muppet today.Cyclist and car both waiting at a mini roundabout,bike sets off and the car then cuts across in front of the rider to turn left.Bejeebus compulsory brain test for all drivers,effing close call.
  • i wish this thread will get more traffic and more responses blinkybaz as this is a subject i hold very close to my heart
    i find it depressing that although i loving cycling i cannot enjoy it and i get home most days thanking my stars for being alive
    there are some drivers out there that are total idiots and in some kind of competition to see how close they can get while overtaking you, how close they can push you to (tick as appropriate): gutter holes, glass, potholes, parked cars etc) and ultimately do so at the narrowest point of the road a few yards before a red light or road humb that will slow them down anyway
    my personnal mission is to bring the conversation around cyclicts everytime i am in a black cab and pinpoint how vulnerable we are and how dangerous they can be; i find cabdrivers aggressive, dismisssive and with a sense of superiority like they own the streets and everyone else is second class citizen when it comes to using them
    i really hope there will be more exposure in the media, more advertising, more programs, more awareness, more talk if anyone knows of any campaigns that we can take part and organise ourselves pls drop the link
    at the same time and to be fair though i wish some cyclists will stop moving around like drunk little packman figures making random and non-anticipatied maneuvers entangering themselves and others and giving the rest of us a bad name
  • Good idea - why don't you (or 220) draft a letter or PR article that we can all just e-mail to local papers/radio/TV? The easier the idea is to be carried out the more will do it.

    I went for a ride with a mate over the weekend, we were spinning along two abreast at 20mph - not illegal to my knowledge??? We were on a straight road when a plonker comes up behind beeping his horn. He then overtakes too close giving us loads of hand guestures. We had a short conversation - if you know what I mean at which point he carried on his merry way having been delayed by about 5 secs behind us.

    Then later the same ride almost exactly the same happens apart from this time the driver didn't even have to slow down as the road was completely clear - still beeped his horn agressively with hand guestures.

    I like most of you drive a far amount - I do 40,000ish miles a year a just fail to understand the mentality of these plonkers...
  • MowfMowf Posts: 272
    I think people just don't process just how vulnerable we are on our bikes. They see us as something in their way, and don't think about the consequences of what would happen if a ton of metal hits 11st of flesh. Or how much damage can be caused falling off a bike at 20mph.

    Maybe we need one of those 'think bike' campaigns that motorcyclists get.
  • Maybe every single driver should have a compulsory 60mins on a bike and see what it feels like. Same as every one else, each ride i do i get at least one idiot that want to demonstrate that it can overtake me with his/her car 6 inches from my bike (when the other lane is empty and have plenty of room. Or like a couple of weeks ago, a van overtook me to stop 20 yards later to turn right and had to wait for gap in incoming traffic and I had to unclip. Shame we can't carry a loaded gun when riding...
    JC
  • risris Posts: 1,002
    [heresy]
    maybe we should also think about being more considerate traffic as well. by this i don't mean the usual (and for most of us, inaccurate accusations) of stopping at red lights, bombing on the pavement etc. any proper cyclist doesn't bother with childish antics like that.

    as slower moving road fodder we can sometimes unwittingingly 'collect' traffic behind us, particularly if it is a narrow road with oncoming or a large vehicle behind us. nothing to stop us nipping into a layby or side road and letting them past.
    i did it this morning to let a bus that was stuck behind me past and was surprised how much traffic i'd collected, and given how many cars there were how little time i lost on my commute.

    nothing wrong with 2 abreast either, but when i'm out with others and hear a car coming i try to get in single file until they are past. think of it like a mini-interval session.
    [/heresy]
  • To be honest, I dont see the point, I have ridden motorbikes for 14yrs on the road, bicycles for longer, driven hundreds of thousands of miles in cars. Nothing changes. Anyone on two wheels, motorised or not, is not considered important.

    The one factor you can guarantee, is that, somewhere in your journey, however you take it, car, bike, bicycle, there will be some tw-t acting selfishly, either through inappropriate speed, inattention, or over inflated self-importance or any combination of the three.

    Most of those people who behave like that would mentally switch off at any kind of attempt at education, as they most likely feel they are one of the most competent drivers on the road.

    People will always be selfish, aggressive and drive badly, they will not look for cyclists, or motorbikes, or runners, they will smoke and talk on their phones at the same time.

    I think all you can do is ride and drive defensively. roads can be particularly terrifying places for new cyclists who are not assertive enough. I would argue it would be more appropriate to teach defensive cycling rather than educate drivers.

    I am a very aggressive cyclist on road, i believe if you dont - for example - block your lane (by riding in the middle of the lane) as you come up to a roundabout to turn right, people will try and squeeze past you, or overtake you and then turn left, if you take up that space, then there is no way they can try, they may swear at the selfish cyclist but i would rather have the air blue than the road red with my blood. But then i have had my fair share of people hurling abuse at me, which always makes me laugh, though i dont doubt one day i will probably get my head kicked in for it! we have to teach cyclists to be assertive and not afraid, the less assertive you are on a bicycle, the more likely drivers are to encroach on your road space, and unfortunately, the less assertive cyclists are the least experienced and the most easily intimidated, so allow this to happen.

    bit of a rambling post, sorry!!
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