Cycling etiquette in ED

[Penguin68]

Following a ?near miss? when a cyclist suddenly turned across my path (I was in a car) without signalling I have been noting cyclist behaviour in and around ED over the last fortnight. During that time 1 (one) cyclist only (middle aged man, for the record) signalled a turn (in fact two, I was following him as he turned left and then almost immediately right). All the others who did manoeuvre whilst I was driving (and walking) turned either off or into the road I was on without any sort of signal.

As a driver I signal not because I am required to, but because it is the best way I can make my intentions clear to other road users (drivers, cyclists, pedestrians). This is for my own (and their) safety.

When I started to ride a bicycle (as an older child) I was not allowed by my parents to use even the little local streets (in the late ?50s almost traffic free) until I was a sufficiently competent cyclist to steer one handed (left or right) whilst signalling. I remember that it wasn?t easy, but I did master it.

Whilst I am well aware that cycling in London is a hazardous occupation, and cyclists are disproportionately likely to suffer serious injury in accidents (and that many of these are caused by errors and unthinking stupidity of other road users) I find it difficult to understand why, in that case, cyclists shouldn?t take the best precautions they can (e.g. by signalling their manoeuvres) to alert other road users (most of whom will crush them and walk away injury free in an accident) about their intentions. Surely it cannot be that they can?t steer one handed ? a skill I mastered (and I am Mr Clumsy) at six?

Nor can I understand why cyclists locally still insist on riding at dusk or at night without lights, or whilst wearing dark clothes without reflectors (I can recall being stopped, not in London, and in the late 1950s, by a local bobby when I was riding my bike without a light attached ? and that was at mid-day when I wouldn?t anyway have it lit!)

As a driver, I watch out for cyclists ? I wish (most) of them, particularly locally in ED and SE London where I drive most, would also watch out for themselves.

[Administrator]

Moving this to the Lounge, there are already a few other cycling threads and they only tend to get personal despite the best intentions of the original poster.

[Jeremy]

Not this again... christ on a bike..

[Horsebox]

Another cycling thread...

*Awaits Loz and Lady D to rinse and repeat ad nauseam.

[Lowlander]

10 print "As a driver, I can't believe that pedestrians and cyclists..."

20 print "As a pedestrian, I can't believe that car drivers and cyclists..."

30 print "As a cyclist, I can't believe that car drivers and pedestrians..."

40 goto (10)

RUN

[Jeremy]

while (edf.IsActive)

{

foreach (RoadUserType roadUser in allRoadUsers)

{

Console.WriteLine(roadUser.GenerateGenericArgumentText());

}

}

 

[Otta]

Jeremy Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> christ on a bike..

I just had a mental image of Jesus on the cross on a bike. You'd have no bloody idea which way he was going to turn.

[Jeremy]

He'd probably find it pretty hard to pedal, too. I wouldn't fancy being nailed to a cross, personally.

Still... he did it for all of us, I suppose. Unlike the bloody car drivers who only care about themselves.

[StraferJack]

i've thought about this long and hard - and I'm STILL no wiser as to why there are brackets around the 10 in lowlander's post

;-)

[StraferJack]

starting a new thread isn't helpful really, but to be fair to penguin, I thought the post was reasonably well balanced as these things go

[Jeremy]

StraferJack Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I'm STILL no wiser as to why there are brackets around

> the 10 in lowlander's post

Yeah... it's a new one to me too

[henryb]

It's EDF Basic.

[Jeremy]

I've moved onto EDF.net

[StraferJack]

I've compiled the EDF but now when I look at it it's just a string of binary (opinions)

[Loz]

Horsebox Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Another cycling thread...

>

> *Awaits Loz and Lady D to rinse and repeat ad

> nauseam.

He he...

[El Pibe]

StraferJack Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I've compiled the EDF but now when I look at it

> it's just a string of binary (opinions)

bravo!

*insert obligatory pun about silicon chips on shoulders*

[ianr]

I sometimes think of it as a collection of overflow buckets.

[Robert Poste's Child]

Not so much lounged as pushed onto the hard shoulder and had its wheels taken off.

[Seabag]

All that's need is a spit-froth from DaveR, and it's got legs to go

[maxxi]

StraferJack Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I've compiled the EDF but now when I look at it

> it's just a string of binary (opinions)

No it isn't.

[StraferJack]

01010110 01100101 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101111 01100100

[El Pibe]

I'm so sad

[pre]

for b in str.split(" "):

print unichr(int(b,2))

[/pre]

v

e

r

y

g

o

o

d

[StraferJack]

Just as I knew you would. I couldn't but random ones and zeroes for that reason

[El Pibe]

I'd have gone with:

1101111 1101000 100000 1111001 1100101 1110011 100000 1101001 1110100 100000 1101001 1110011

[StraferJack]

Pantomime season is with us