Cyclists and zebra crossings - could you all stop please?

If the steet situation is such that peds can 'appear out of nowhere' then you should slow down when approaching a crossing. This is something you get taught to do when learning to drive a car and it applies on a bike as well.

If he had been a car and he had killed the pedsetrian it probably would have been no more than a 50 quid fine.

The street situation in always such that peds can appear out of nowhere. Maybe cars should be slowed down.

Bikes are a very small risk to pedestrians. Cars kill and maim.

He was in the wrong. End of story. But some people will always side with the pedestrians coz they think all cyclists are psycho speed-freaks

Must be joking! If cyclists slowed down every time they passed a wall (yes he launched himself onto this zebra crossing from behind a wall!) we'd never get anywhere!

"If the steet situation is such that peds can 'appear out of nowhere' then you should slow down when approaching a crossing. This is something you get taught to do when learning to drive a car and it applies on a bike as well."


Yer right there Crispy

I've just spent two weeks off work with a dislocated collarbone cos some car was in the bus lane in front of me, trying to turn right through two lanes of traffic

It was wet and I was speeding, he didn't move and I had to brake from 25mph and hit the road at that speed

He was in the wrong place and I should have realised it was wet and some car drivers ignore cyclists

It's fucking nagging right now, no football for six weeks, and on the bus to work

Sling on!

Totally agree with you on the second point.

Example one - Heading north towards borough from elephant. There is a crossing opposite the courthouse (looks like one anyway) which has zigzags and buslanes either side. Wide pavements and rather light pedestrian traffic. You can see pedestrians, if there are any, from about 300m away. If there are none nearby, I whizz on through at speed.

Example two - Atlantic road, just north of the junction with coldharbour lane. (this is the one in the OP) A busy shopping street. kids on scooters, parked cars, pedestrians everywhere. Anything can happen, so I slow right down before the crossing and do double-checks for pedestrians.

The way I see it, it's worth delaying my journey by 20 seconds to ensure my safety, the peds safety and good relationships between them and us.

Ouch! Braking distance is a lot longer when it's wet too

The car didn't even stop to help

I know that crossing....the main hazard there is woozily passing out from the fumes from the halal butchers!

I actually just realised I had my North and South mixed up - I was thinking of the one to the South, but the North one's well hairy too.

The way I cycle is so automatic I find it hard to analyse - but its pretty much common sense to slow down where there is a lot going on.

On the canals - I do see cyclists going far too fast especially under bridges. I've even been sworn at in the past for being in their way - when they were fucking haring it along and I was going at what was clearly a much more sensible speed.

I was at a red light on Saturday night coming back from Finsbury Park and there was a bloke behind me - also a cyclist. When the lights changed he shouted "Go!" at me.

I was so utterly flabbergasted at this that I went slower than I would have done normally.

Thank you for providing me to an answer to why some wanker cyclists won't stop. You sound exactly like one of them. Cunt.

And no, I don't stand there waiting for ages on the corner but I do like to see everything on both sides of the road slowing down before I set off, which I think is fair enough. In fact that's what you're ment to do. So things like this don't happen.

Incidently with the incident featured in the OP, I started crossing on the other side so the bike had plenty of time to slow for me. Did he? Did he fuck. It almost seemed like he speeded up and just clipped behind me. He might have known he wouldn't have hit me but when you're not a confident cyclist yourself it shakes you up.

I also totally agree with Crispy, who is a cyclist, when he says this about zebra crossings.

As he says, that's the law, you are meant to show increased caution when you are near a zebra crossing and if there is someone near you are meant to be aware that they could want to cross. Their part of the deal is that they exercise caution before crossing. Which you seem to have no repsect for anyway.

I mean what do you fucking want? All those tiresome pedestrians to never cross at zebra crossings and just fuck off?

You're sounding like some of the car drivers I've seen slating cyclists tbh. It's not pretty and I'm sure you'd be the first to have a go if a car driver did something wrong against you.

So, just to sum up, one one hand we've got Major Tom saying that pedestrians shouldn't wait at the crossing to make sure things are stopping, on the other we've got Nickster saying that they shouldn't walk straight out unless they know peeps are going to stop. So what should we do prey tell?

you can misquote me all you like - anyone with a brain can just just check back and see what i really said.

stop whinging.

Cyclists are not a significant danger. You might think I'm an incosiderate areshole, but I'm actually a very reasonable and safe cyclist.

I've run over exactly one pedestrain in the whole of my cycling life and that was nearly 30 years ago, and not at all my fault. He was kid - I was a kid - he was alright - i hurt my leg - his parents apologised.

But I've been attacked by lots of other road users - including motorists, pedestrians and cyclists. Arseholes come in all colours.

I also stop to let lots of people cross at zebra crossings - people who know how to use them - and realise that taking the piss out of cyclists is not a good game to play.

.
Actually this is getting ugly.

What, so I should stop whinging when a cyclist decides to completely ignore the fact that I've got right of way, when I've been careful to not just "come out of no-where"?

I'd be pissed if a car driver did it, why shouldn't I be pissed if a cyclist does it. What makes you so special?

And I haven't misquoted you, I think I summed up what you were saying earlier quite well!

Btw, I hope to get confident enough to be a cyclist this year. And I know the shit you guys have from cars and pedestrians who cross where they shouldn't. However, I will be stopping for pedestrians when they have right of way.

Ffs, why can't you just accept that some cyclists can do some cunty things?

What about cyclists who use a pedestrian crossing but don't dismount? And they still expect traffic to stop (even though they do not have right of way if they don't dismount)?

What about them? Eh? Eh?

And what's that, some macho threat?

I start a thread to say that something happened to me which made me feel intimdated when I had done nothing wrong, and until you came along it was pretty damn calm.

If you'd been belting along at an inappropriate speed for the conditions (wet, 25MPH, traffic) and rammed up the back of a bus in the bus lane would that have been OK?

Quickest test to see who's in the right is to substitute "driving" for "cycling".

"I was driving along, speeding even though it was wet, and someone had the gall to get off of a bus. I ran the blighter over, of course."

Don't you ever stop a minute to think about whether it might be your attitude to other road users that provokes these seemingly random attacks?

You miss the point entirely - the accident wasn't the fault of the obstruction in the bus lane, it was the fault of the cyclist. Unless the vehicle instantaneously teleported onto the road, why wasn't it possible to stop or avoid it?

If a car had rammed into the back of it in the same way, it would have been driven just as negligently as the cyclist was cycling.

Well I'm subject to these random attacks and I'm always considerate to other road users.
Other road users will always hate bikes regardless of how they're ridden(?) and it will always be like that in our car and speed obsessed society.

The crash that happened to me was both the fault of me and the car driver, he was stationary in the road

The car was trying to cut across a lane of traffic where there was no gap to cut in to

My fault was to think the car was going to move as it should not have been there, it would not have been there if I had of been a bus coming along

Just to clear it up

I agree cyclists should slow down around crossings or anywhere where they are likely to come into contact with peds

So why have you never started a thread entitled "Motorists and zebra crossings - could you all stop please?" - cos IME, car drivers and especially van drivers will often merrily pile across zebra crossings, despite it being obvious that a ped is waiting to cross - hell, this morning, I stopped in the pouring rain at a zebra and myself and the lady waiting to cross watched at least 4 cars drive merrily on by without even slowing.

I've had to tell my kids not to cross on zebras until they're sure that all the traffic has seen them and stopped - result, when they go to the local shops i.e. 1 minute away, it usually takes them 5 minutes cos they have to wait so long before anyone will stop for them.

"The car was trying to cut across a lane of traffic where there was no gap to cut in to"

If you could see that there was no gap for it to cut in to, then you could hardly imagine that it was going to move!

"My fault was to think the car was going to move as it should not have been there, it would not have been there if I had of been a bus coming along"

The bus would have hooted away and the car would have had to try to force its way into the other lane BUT the bus wouldn't have rammed into the back of the car unless the driver was a total prat.

You, however, managed to do just that.

QED......

Not as often as cyclists. In London, anyway. And I think the OP was about cyclists piling across whilst pedestrians were actually on the crossing.

I didn't manage to ram into the car, I had to brake hard, bringing me off my bike

Cars usually block the lane when they have a gap to move into

It was at right angles ACROSS the bus lane, blocking the traffic

Are you calling me names?