License and insurance for cyclists on the road.

eagle eye

I'm a cyclist myself just to clarify before I start.
Today I was driving on a primary road with a 100 km speed limit. I was driving around a long bend on the road doing about 80-85 kmph when suddenly right in front of me were three cyclists spread right across the side of the road I was driving on. They were going the same direction. I had to jam on the breaks and just avoided a collision with two if them
This got me thinking about things. Unfortunately there are plenty of bad cyclists out there who don't seem to care for anybody else but themselves, there are plenty of drivers like that too.
Anyways I think it's about time that there were standard rules of the road for cyclists much like for drivers. I think all cyclists should have to take a theory test and do a cycling test before being allowed to drive on public roads.
I'm now also of the opinion that it should be mandatory for all cyclists to have at least third party insurance.

Tzardine

What about kids? How do we license them?

Chips Lovell

Cyclists should have been riding two abreast. However, they could legally have been three abreast if one was overtaking the other two.

As a driver, you should drive at a speed appropriate to the conditions and expect to encounter slower moving traffic such as cyclists. If you had to brake hard to avoid a collision, it sounds like you were taking the bend too fast.

To be completely honest, it sounds like you made a mistake but you want to blame cyclists for it.

07Lapierre

eagle eye wrote: »

I'm a cyclist myself just to clarify before I start.
Today I was driving on a primary road with a 100 km speed limit. I was driving around a long bend on the road doing about 80-85 kmph when suddenly right in front of me were three cyclists spread right across the side of the road I was driving on. They were going the same direction. I had to jam on the breaks and just avoided a collision with two if them
This got me thinking about things. Unfortunately there are plenty of bad cyclists out there who don't seem to care for anybody else but themselves, there are plenty of drivers like that too.
Anyways I think it's about time that there were standard rules of the road for cyclists much like for drivers. I think all cyclists should have to take a theory test and do a cycling test before being allowed to drive on public roads.
I'm now also of the opinion that it should be mandatory for all cyclists to have at least third party insurance.

You could slow down when approaching bends? How would cyclists having a license, insurance etc. have changed the situation that you describe?

ford2600

eagle eye wrote: »

I'm a cyclist myself just to clarify before I start.
.

BIG RED FLAG

fat bloke

First of all, well done on the brakes, you should be and were able to stop within the distance you could see ahead.
But.
There could have been anything around that corner. A felled tree, a horse, a broken down car, a tractor... Any of those things would have required you to stop and avoid running into them. You can't insure against such things, I can can only drive appropriately and defensively and courteously.

If there had been one cyclist there hugging the ditch, you'd have zoomed by him/her without a touch of brakes and probably barely registered their presence, and maybe we'd have a close -pass complaint thread on our hands instead.

cdaly_

eagle eye wrote: »

Anyways I think it's about time that there were standard rules of the road for cyclists much like for drivers.

There are...

Thoie

I'm not a cyclist, but I don't think this is workable. You should always drive within the limits of your vision, which for most of us humans means "slower around corners" as we don't have x-ray vision. If you were travelling at 80kph, and rear ended a car travelling at 30kph as you rounded that corner, the other car's insurance probably wouldn't come into play either.