Calling out fellow cyclists for illegal or dangerous behavior

Duckjob

Effects wrote: »

I know a guy just like that. Goes through red lights and one way streets on his bike all the time. When in the car he beeps and does punishment passes to any cyclist that holds him up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z834x4Qk_pM

tommythecat

I called a lad out for cycling up the inside of a bus pulling into a stop in Rathmines one day. He was behind me by at least five seconds and I had pulled out to overtake the bus as it had indicated in loads of time and was already pulling into the kerb. This dope shoots up the inside and starts walloping the bus and has it out with the driver. I call him on being a clown and he’s only going to get himself killed and head on my way. He catches up with me at the next lights where we have another “discussion”. He then gives me the classic “sure you don’t even have a helmet on” I said “a helmet is not gonna save you if you keep cycling up the inside of busses”. And on my way.
I don’t bother anymore.

But I will say I agree about cyclists going through pedestrian crossings angers me the most. The crossing at baggot street bridge is a disgrace. Cyclists plowing through on the pedestrian green. I know it’s partly because the cycling green light is disgracefully short but it’s really bad form. Boils my piss every day.

I’m no saint either by the way.

Wishbone Ash

I was passing a couple of cyclists on the GDBR when one of them threw a gel wrapper on the road. I called him out on it in a friendly way as if he accidentally dropped it. He didn't respond but his buddy cycled up along side me and started to 'square up' to me asking what did I say, is it any of my business, what was I going to do about it? etc.

How fcuking hard is it to carry a gel wrapper? Stick it inside the leg of you shorts if it's going to get in the way in your rear pockets.

AulWan

Tenzor07 wrote: »

If you see something illegal and dangerous, report it to the authorities.

Very little point in trying to report anything when there is no way to identify the cyclist because they have no identifying marks.

07Lapierre

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

I was passing a couple of cyclists on the GDBR when one of them threw a gel wrapper on the road. I called him out on it in a friendly way as if he accidentally dropped it. He didn't respond but his buddy cycled up along side me and started to 'square up' to me asking what did I say, is it any of my business, what was I going to do about it? etc.

How fcuking hard is it to carry a gel wrapper? Stick it inside the leg of you shorts if it's going to get in the way in your rear pockets.

The fact they were using Gels on the GDBR says a lot! (its not a race)

marcos_94

Moflojo wrote: »

Anti-cyclist prejudice is borne out of driver frustration with being trapped in a totally dysfunctional transport system. Drivers have been sold the dream of freedom and speed, but find themselves stuck in their (toxic) boxes going nowhere - and paying a premium for the privilege.

Cyclists are an easy, soft target to vent their frustration at: Look at all these people who pay very little to cycle, but who manage to skip all the traffic queues - they must be cheating somehow, right?

what are you on about? Absolute drivel. I cycle to work Monday to Thursday and drive Fridays. I dont get frustrated at cyclists because im in traffic, I get frustrated when im driving through a junction and have to slam on the brakes because a cyclist decided it was "safe" for them to break the lights.

I personally have pointed out to cyclists while cycling myself that their behaviour is putting themselves and potentially others at risk. In particular are those who cycle through pedestrian lights....

hans aus dtschl

Ruraldweller56 wrote: »

I haven't. But I can't see the sense in using a busy dual carriageway when there's a purpose built cycling lane running parallel to it.

Just to give you the benefit of the doubt, most of the "purpose built cycling lanes" within 30km radius of me are unusable. I'd struggle to think of a single usable one.
They variously:
Cede right of way every few hundred metres
Require curb mount/dismount
End abruptly
Don't go where I would need to go
Have tactile pavement "blind bumps"
Have broken/unrideable surface
Are strewn with debris or vegetation and never cleaned
Are parked on
Are on the opposite side of the road
Have poles and other obstacles in the middle of them
Have "cyclist dismount" signs at regular intervals
Have so many ramps (at every private entrance) that it's like a pump track

OR are too narrow and:
Are heavily used by walkers/joggers/runners/prams/buggies/dog-walkers so I avoid conflict with them.

Again, to give you the benefit of the doubt, perhaps the one near you is actually one of the good ones. I suggest you give it a shot, and if it still seems like one of the good ones maybe let us know where it is!

Utter Consternation

hans aus dtschl wrote: »

Just to give you the benefit of the doubt, most of the "purpose built cycling lanes" within 30km radius of me are unusable. I'd struggle to think of a single usable one.
They variously:
Cede right of way every few hundred metres
Require curb mount/dismount
End abruptly
Don't go where I would need to go
Have tactile pavement "blind bumps"
Have broken/unrideable surface
Are strewn with debris or vegetation and never cleaned
Are parked on
Are on the opposite side of the road
Have poles and other obstacles in the middle of them

OR are too narrow and:
Are heavily used by walkers/joggers/runners/prams/buggies/dog-walkers so I avoid conflict with them.

Again, to give you the benefit of the doubt, perhaps the one near you is actually one of the good ones. I suggest you give it a shot, and if it still seems like one of the good ones maybe let us know where it is!

Some have slippery when wet manhole covers on them too, usually where there's bend in the track, just to keep you on your toes.

Seth Brundle

Effects wrote: »

Found this woman mildly amusing for 2 minutes. Think she's just a little touched.

Instagram crazy lady

Reminds me of Gemma O'D?

07Lapierre

Utter Consternation wrote: »

Some have slippery when wet manhole covers on them too, usually where there's bend in the track, just to keep you on your toes.

Here's 25 reasons why Cyclists dont use cycle lanes. For me, the No.1 reason not to use them is the Yield at each and every junction!


https://irishcycle.com/2015/11/05/images-25-reasons-why-cyclists-dont-use-cycle-lanes/

LeChienMefiant

Weepsie wrote: »

Wow. Cars in the bus lane don't bother her it seems

Have thought of reporting her to Gardai as she's been videoing my kids inadvertently while making her amateur Panorama documentaries. She's also had a go at me a few times. She has no concept of how traffic or ROTR work. Thinks cyclists are legally obliged to be in the left gutter and stay there for example.

Effects

LeChienMefiant wrote: »

Have thought of reporting her to Gardai as she's been videoing my kids inadvertently while making her amateur Panorama documentaries.

There's no law against that though.

She seems totally touched and has no grey area. It's just all cyclists are bad, no matter what. One of her most recent videos is of a guy who used the path for five metres or so, as he was getting around a vehicle blocking the road.

I only found her when a friend posted a video of someone she knows, who was filmed by this woman, while pushing her bike along the footpath on a one way street.

Rikand

Saw one on the way home from work yesterday alright. Cyclist out in full kit, I was waiting for a red light and he just breezed past. Without slowing down, does a quick shake of the head to check oncoming traffic in either direction and heads on through. Next junction 50 yards ahead, same thing only this time he turns right.

Its infuriating and gives so many law abiding cyclists a bad name. You'd look at the dress of him and think he should know better

Johnny Jukebox

Rikand wrote: »

Saw one on the way home from work yesterday alright. Cyclist out in full kit, I was waiting for a red light and he just breezed past. Without slowing down, does a quick shake of the head to check oncoming traffic in either direction and heads on through. Next junction 50 yards ahead, same thing only this time he turns right.

I'd guess he simply didn't want to bother unclipping....

Stark

oLoonatic wrote: »

Refreshing from the point of view, that the particular motorist doesn't tar everyone with the same brush and can recognize that its not all cyclists.

Reminds me of the time one of the women in the office did something stupid and I turned around to one of my co-workers and told her women like that gave all the women in the office a bad name. Would you believe she told me where to go **** myself? I would have thought that with all the usual sexist comments, she would have thought it was refreshing that I wasn't tarring all women with the same brush. I guess like cyclists, some people just need to know their place.

(May not have happened, but I imagine if it did, the go **** myself reaction would be the most likely scenario).

magicbastarder

Weepsie wrote: »

Again it doesn't. It gives him a bad name. It's a mindset that also needs to change.

while my reaction (and one i'll wholeheartedly justify) is one of 'piss off, the behaviour of another cyclist has nothing to do with me'; the behaviour of another cyclist *will* tarnish me in the minds of many people out there. granted, they're probably mouthbreathers who think that reading the daily mail makes them someone who supports journalism, but the attitude is there.

Moflojo

magicbastarder wrote: »

while my reaction (and one i'll wholeheartedly justify) is one of 'piss off, the behaviour of another cyclist has nothing to do with me'; the behaviour of another cyclist *will* tarnish me in the minds of many people out there. granted, they're probably mouthbreathers who think that reading the daily mail makes them someone who supports journalism, but the attitude is there.

Take a look at the internalised oppression social justice concept. It's extremely relevant to this entire thread, and the mindset underlying it.

LeChienMefiant

Effects wrote: »

There's no law against that though.

There's no law against that, but it's enough for me to want her stopped. She's breaching GDPR with gay abandon, but that's civil law as far as I know. She's harassing people, but not necessarily any individual.

Stark

Effects wrote: »

Found this woman mildly amusing for 2 minutes. Think she's just a little touched.

Instagram crazy lady

That video perfectly sums up what's wrong with attitudes in this country.
Inadequate road infrastructure for buses and cyclists. What's there is made unusable/dangerous by the overabundance of private cars blocking up the bus lanes because they've run out of space in their own lanes. And yet it's a couple of cyclists committing a trivial infraction while trying to make their way through the dangerous mess that are the great scourge.

Duckjob

Stark wrote: »

That video perfectly sums up what's wrong with attitudes in this country.
Inadequate road infrastructure for buses and cyclists. What's there is made unusable/dangerous by the overabundance of private cars blocking up the bus lanes because they've run out of space in their own lanes. And yet it's a couple of cyclists committing a trivial infraction while trying to make their way through the dangerous mess that are the great scourge.

You applied cold hard logic and analysis to the situation. Never do that


I noticed in that video not a word from that good lady about the several cars that sit blocking up the yellow box and snarling up the whole junction, nor the other cards merrily toddling up the bus lane.

Stark

"They shouldn't be allowed do that. It's illegal". What does she think the word "illegal" means exactly??

marcos_94

Effects wrote: »

Found this woman mildly amusing for 2 minutes. Think she's just a little touched.

Instagram crazy lady

What a sad woman. Even her other instagrams of parked cars and the likes. Am I right in saying its not illegal to cycle on the path?

Stark

It is illegal except for cases where it's a designed shared path. But I think the point here is that the most minor infraction of the law you could think of is being used as another stick to beat cyclists with. No mention of course of why the cyclist in question was diverted off the road onto the path.

I remember doing a course on bullying in the workplace before and one of the topics that came up was the tactic of overly stringent enforcement of rules and policies for the purposes of bullying. As in the bully may technically be in the right in that the person being bullied did something that was against the written rules but it's the practice of unfairly taking one person and picking them apart for every single infraction, regardless of circumstances or severity that makes it bullying. Similar thing going on here.

Duckjob

Agree. I don't agree in general with cycling on footpaths, but I wouldn't condemn it in circumstances where it's born out of a genuine safety concern, and there's plenty of reasons and situations in Dublin for cyclists to have concern for their safety. I don't think people like this lady appreciate just how hostile being on a bike in a car-choked Irish city can be.

I also think it's stupid not to differentiate between somebody carelessly racing between people on a footpath at 35kph and someone creeping for a short while on the footpath at near walking speed where they can stop almost instantly.

cdaly_

magicbastarder wrote: »

last time i ended up saying anything to a cyclist he ended up standing in the middle of the road, challenging me to a bout in which i suspect the queensberry rules did not apply.

I think I met him once or twice when I called out "Red light asshole!".

Interestingly, the same fella once lectured me for riding too far out in the lane (he was hugging the kerb or the car doors). The then proceeded to run a red light and start riding on the footpath...

Ray Palmer

If you want to get abuse tell somebody they are doing something illegal or dangerous.
I shouted at a guy about to break a red light as he didn't understand that it meant the light was green for the other road traffic. He could easily have been hit if he continued. He started arguing that I shouldn't have shout to warn him he was going to get hit by a car.

Chips Lovell

You're not the police. Lecturing other road users rarely ends well in my experience.

punisher5112

Chips Lovell wrote: »

You're not the police. Lecturing other road users rarely ends well in my experience.

Well it didn't end well for the taxi driver that had a go at me..

Never seen someone jump back in their car so fast before in my life....

Boxed the head off him but only after he hit me 1st

ted1

Ruraldweller56 wrote: »

What about cyclists who don't bother using the cycling lanes? There's a road near me with a cycling lane running close by. I seldom see any cyclists using it.

What about them?

mrcheez

If I'm driving I don't lecture other drivers that are idiots (unless they directly affect me)

If I'm cycling I don't lecture other cyclists that are idiots (unless they directly affect me)

If I'm walking I don't lecture other pedestrians that are idiots (unless they directly affect me) ... these tend to be the group that are most at fault btw... I blame smartphones and wireless earbuds.


Let them do whatever they want and if they get into an accident that's what the Darwin Awards are for