"You're a road user, and you just ran a red light!"

**samgab** · 5th March 2009, 00:43

Originally Posted by Hitcher

"Esprit d'escalier" I believe is the phrase you seek.

I thought that meant being drunk on a moving set of stairs?

**samgab** · 5th March 2009, 00:48

Originally Posted by ManDownUnder

Hypocrites unite! (Especially the cute ones... and bring a camera...)

I agree! Oh, and also: Dyslexics of the World untie!

**jrandom** · 5th March 2009, 06:24

Originally Posted by coffeejunkie

What the hell were you doing on a pushbike?

Riding to work. At the moment, Her Majesty's Gubmint says I'm only allowed to ride my motor bicycle on racetracks, so pedals it is.

Originally Posted by McJim

Well done jrandom - keep up the good work and maybe one day you too will own an entire Campagnolo groupset

Only if it happens to be hanging off a second-hand frame that I'm about to strip and fit out with SRAM.

**Squid69** · 5th March 2009, 06:31

Originally Posted by discotex

I bet you ride two abreast too. You're a bad BAD man!

(have you not thought what effect you are having on the reputation of cyclists?)

I like it better when they line up 3 abreast in front of my bulbars...
I get more points that way!

**vtec** · 7th March 2009, 00:12

The way I look at it is this. Riding a pushbike your take your life in your hands, but you also put it in the hands of all other road users and pedestrians to some extent. And as far as following the rules goes, NOBODY sees or reacts to bicycles like they are road users. NOBODY gives way to bicycles, hell even going along a road with no intersections you are just as likely to get nailed by a car coming out of a driveway or a pedestrian stepping out. The trick is that you learn to expect it. Now forgive me for being a lawbreaker, but the way I see it is, that because nobody follows the rules in regards to bicycles, you thereby become exempt from those rules, as they do sweet jack fuck all to protect you. The only protection you get comes from having good reactions, good pre-emption of people trying to kill you, and good bicycle skills, and good prediction of traffic light phases. I will keep using the wrong side of the road, and I've run 1000 red lights, and I will run 1000 more. I've never had a ticket on a bicycle. Why? Because I'm invisible, and as long as I'm invisible I will keep breaking every rule necessary to conserve energy, go faster, and keep me safe.

Living in Melbourne last year... that city is loaded with people who love to tell other people what they are doing "wrong", they toot each other in their cars constantly, had old ladies tell me I was a lawbreaker for cycling along the footpath at walking pace. Had people toot me for holding onto cars for a tow (this is one of those times when you become visible to other road users and even pedestrians heaven forbid) I've also had a few try to knock me off my bike for holding on to vehicles, haha, keep trying.

I would think JRandom is going to lose A LOT of that "two abreast" weight in very short order with the k's he's doing at the moment.

P.S. This is the perspective of someone who has spent far too much time on and destroyed far too many bicycles through wear and tear. 2 years worth of bicycle couriering will do that. Not to mention the wrinkles it's put on my face.

**EatOrBeEaten** · 7th March 2009, 00:17

Feckin' cycle couriers...

**Morcs** · 7th March 2009, 08:30

Originally Posted by jrandom

This morning, I was, for the first time, subjected to the practical effects of the let's-moralise-at-perfect-strangers philosophy.

Perhaps because I'm much less forbidding-looking in bright lycra on a Trek than I am behind a dark visor on a GSX1400?

It was both deeply ridiculous and mildly irritating.

To the splutteringly indignant ZZR250 rider who felt it necessary to attempt to converse with me on the subject of red lights and how one shouldn't conserve momentum through them, I hereby dedicate the rest of my day's illegal maneuvers.

Given his somewhat apoplectic reaction to a cyclist blowing through an empty stoplight-controlled pedestrian crossing (no, it wasn't an actual road intersection), I suspect that some of my later downtown antics would have left him in need of actual medical attention.

Motorcyclists (particularly those of the learner/restricted licence variety, for some reason) can be such self-righteous twats. My resolve to never behave like that has been well strengthened.

Peace out, y'all!

Well I get pissed off too at the cyclist running red lights. They set of about 4 seconds before the green. They should have number plates and pay rego.
Im not funding there special rails n shit when they beat me off the lights

**jrandom** · 7th March 2009, 08:39

Originally Posted by Morcs

They set of about 4 seconds before the green.

After a while, when you ride the same routes around a city, you memorise traffic light phases. Good eh!

Originally Posted by Morcs

They should have number plates and pay rego.

Will you also put number plates and rego stickers on running shoes and skateboards?

Me, I'd like to see pedestrians forced to undergo licence testing before they're allowed out of their front doors.