This guy was not awake...

[slofox]

Last Saturday morning. Stopped at lights. There's three lanes here. Right hand lane is for turning right. Centre lane for going straight ahead. Left hand lane for either straight ahead or turning left.

I am in the centre lane, going straight through. About four cars back. The right hand lane is also about four cars deep. Nothing in the left lane.

As I watch a dude comes pootling up the left lane on his bike, looking left down the intersection. He seems oblivious to the red light. I just knew he wasn't aware of that red. Sure enough, he just continues his pootle straight through the red light, across the intersection and rides on straight ahead. By now I had my fingers in my ears awaiting the BOOM when some hoon hit him. Fortunately, nothing was coming, much to my relief.

I don't think even then he was aware he had run the red. He sure as hell was NOT awake to his situation that morning...

[Blackshear]

Doesn't matter how everyone else gets up in the morning, YOU have to make up for their lack of concentration.

He could have just been a right tosser.

[vgcspares]

an oncoming van did a right hand turn in front of me (he didn't look in my direction) and as he swung across my bows I saw he had a newspaper across his kness and was looking down at it

obviously he didn't know I was there, what surprised me was that he knew the turn was

[Waxxa]

it's one thing for 'general Joe' to run red lights but what gets me mad are the professional drivers who run red lights, cabbies, trucks, buses...

...oh, and whats with scooter riders thinking they are exempt from stopping at red lights?

[EnzoYug]

...
(cut)
...oh, and whats with scooter riders thinking they are exempt from stopping at red lights?

Yeah. I've been seeing that a lot in the mornings. Scooters and bicycles not stopping for reds.

As a cyclist I can understand, especially in inner-city stop / start traffic. But scooters on suburban roads and arterial routes? They need a good bollocking.

[vgcspares]

pardon me for asking, but as you're a cyclist - what are your grounds for believing you're exempt from any road rules (even the more important ones like not goinmg through a red light) ?

[grbaker]

This morning... I'm riding along a 70kph zoned straight piece of road, in abnormally light traffic doing 75, coming up to a T juction where I'm going straight through.

Car monkeyboy comes up to the GiveWay sign at the T juction, looks me straight in the eyes and decides to go for it. Cos I could see the white of his eyes some braking on my part was invovled to avoid the obvious (thankyou WMCC for the new brake pads).

To piss me off he then sits there doing 60kph and thus got passed. Completely unnessecary and completely normal occurance out the Hutt.

[Harvd]

I did the opposite. In my car and come up to a traffic light controlled intersection and i gently come to a stop...on a green... i couldnt figure out why the peiople at the intersection stared at me and the peoiple behind me tooted.



im not a morning person

[Hiflyer]

Yeah. I've been seeing that a lot in the mornings. Scooters and bicycles not stopping for reds.

As a cyclist I can understand, especially in inner-city stop / start traffic. But scooters on suburban roads and arterial routes? They need a good bollocking.

Sooo what you're saying is you are exempt from road rules in the city?
hmm

Cyclists are all like "Oohh look at me I'm a road user too!!!" but then when it comes to stopping for a red light or pedestrian crossing all of a sudden you're a pedestrian?


Get real.

[MarkH]

He sure as hell was NOT awake to his situation that morning

Not really a good state to be in when riding a motorcycle - being all vulnerable and all.

[EnzoYug]

Sooo what you're saying is you are exempt from road rules in the city?
hmm

Cyclists are all like "Oohh look at me I'm a road user too!!!" but then when it comes to stopping for a red light or pedestrian crossing all of a sudden you're a pedestrian?


Get real.

Nope. Just saying that they can behave in exactly the same manner as a pedestrian. ie: if needed they can get the fuck off the road, very quickly without killing people.

Doesn't make it right, doesn't make them good people - but what I am saying is that they're LESS likely to die in zero-movement traffic on queen street - than on say, great south road at rush hour.

Scooters can't stop like a bicycle can. They can't get out of the way of traffic. They can't mount curbs at speed and they most certainly can't power out of the way of a car about to t-bone them on Great south road.

[Hiflyer]

Nope. Just saying that they can behave in exactly the same manner as a pedestrian.

Like a pedestrian with wheels?

The speed limit for anything other than walking is 7km/h on the footpath anyway

[bogan]

Nope. Just saying that they can behave in exactly the same manner as a pedestrian. ie: if needed they can get the fuck off the road, very quickly without killing people.

....

Scooters can't stop like a bicycle can. They can't get out of the way of traffic. They can't mount curbs at speed and they most certainly can't power out of the way of a car about to t-bone them on Great south road.

what type of bicycle you talking bout, my bicycle handles brakes, and accelerates even worse than a scooter, and id much rather mount a footpath on a scooter than pushbike, bigger sidewall tyres you see!

Also, technically anything can use the footpath, as long as its in a safe manner, there legislation being proposed to have the speed restricted at 10kmhr, too many scooter posties i think.

Like a pedestrian with wheels?

The speed limit for anything other than walking is 7km/h on the footpath anyway

I thort it was ten, or gonna be shortly

[EnzoYug]

what type of bicycle you talking bout, my bicycle handles brakes, and accelerates even worse than a scooter, and id much rather mount a footpath on a scooter than pushbike, bigger sidewall tyres you see!

Also, technically anything can use the footpath, as long as its in a safe manner, there legislation being proposed to have the speed restricted at 10kmhr, too many scooter posties i think.



I thort it was ten, or gonna be shortly

Dollar for dollar a pushbike should brake and handle MUCH better than any scooter. Less mass = less to stop. Less mass = less to turn. Higher riding position that most scooters as well = more visibility.

But it's horses for courses, pushbikes come in all shapes and sizes and yes - some shouldn't be on the road at all.

[bogan]

Dollar for dollar a pushbike should brake and handle MUCH better than any scooter. Less mass = less to stop. Less mass = less to turn. Higher riding position that most scooters as well = more visibility.

But it's horses for courses, pushbikes come in all shapes and sizes and yes - some shouldn't be on the road at all.

Not quite sure what you mean dollar for dollar, pushies are generally much cheaper than scoots.
dont confuse light weight with good stopping ability, it could end in tears or worse. I was once following a truck and trailer unit on my pushie, he out braked and i only just managed to stop in time, from a following distance of bout 10m at 50kmhr I might add, stopping ability is down to the tyres, the compound used, and surface area to a lesser degree, road bikes generally have extremely thin tyres, with hard compound rubber to reduce the rolling friction.