Beginning to HATE Fridays

DBK

I've started not looking forward to Fridays. I, like everyone else I'm sure, used to love Fridays as you know it's the beginning of the weekend. But lately, I hate to see it approach.
The reason been is that I drive a moped to work. Now, over the last couple of months, I've seen 4 bike crashes, been in 2 and they all happened on Friday between 8.30am and 9.00am. The last one only happened last Friday morning and I think I was lucky I wasn't the one hit by the vehicle. My brain said to me at the lights "hold back a bit DBK, take your time" "ok, brain". Then the bike in front of me got hit by someone doing a U-turn without indicating. But what I'm really trying to ask is what the hell is going on on Friday mornings? Is it that people are so focused on the weekend that their concentration is a low point, or probably out on a Thursday night to begin the weekend early?

p.pete

Try getting to work early on a Friday? you'd probably miss more of the people likely to have fuzzy heads from the night before...

magpie

Post thursday night booze up - still drunk. Like pete says, go in for 8 and you'll miss all the 'tie askew in Leeson St' ****.

Beruthiel

the thing to keep in your head when driving a bike is that all other types of drivers never see bikes, I've even had people cross the road in front of me and not see me, have hit two people because of this, perhaps bikers need neon lights....

DBK

So, it seems to be a combination of things. People don't see bikes most of the time and on Fridays they're usually a bit fuzzy from the night before, so that vision factor drops from "sometime see bikes" to "don't see bikes". The early work start thing I'm going to do this week to see how much better it is.

garthv

The majority of car drivers on the road these days dont even look for bikes, let alone mopeds. Bikers have to watch eveybody on the road,not just who's in front of them. Just keep your wits about you and remeber the fact that car drivers are idiots;)

Sleepy

Well, this Friday, half the country are going to have fuzzy heads

I used to cycle to work but had to give it up for fear I'd be killed by one of the silly biatches driving 4x4 jeeps on school runs. They seem to think that just because they're driving a tank, they don't need to give a damn about the rules of the road or other road-users' safety.

magpie

remeber the fact that car drivers are idiots

I'd extend that to pedestrians, cyclists, moped-riders, and well, everyone.

Always assume everyone else is a halfwit, its the only way to avoid accidents.

DBK

Sleepy wrote:

Well, this Friday, half the country are going to have fuzzy heads

I used to cycle to work but had to give it up for fear I'd be killed by one of the silly biatches driving 4x4 jeeps on school runs. They seem to think that just because they're driving a tank, they don't need to give a damn about the rules of the road or other road-users' safety.

Funny you should mention that as one of the crashes I was in was with one of those aul wans bringing their kids to school. She made an illegal turn and ran into me, then tried to say it was my fault. When I said she made an illegal turn she said that was irrelevant as she put on her indicator ????

Beruthiel

it should be illegal to drive your kid to school if they live under a mile from the place!
lazy feckers

magpie

This, of course, is the reason why so many kids are fat fools these days.

What's wrong with the old fashioned walk/bike/bus approach. OK, I can understand why parenst wouldn't want their kids to cycle, but I can only assume the lack of walking/bussing is down to Media Paedo-frenzy.

Back in ye olden days we just got a stern lecture about not talking to strangers and not getting into anyones car and using the safe cross code and off we went with our schoolbags.

seamus

Friday mornings, everyone's in good form, not really concentrating, they're thinking about how they're going to take a half-day from work, go home to bed for a nap, and get up and go out on the piss.

I like Friday mornings because there's *always* less traffic. I'm quite convinced that this country is the laziest shower of bastards - we take Fridays off, or take half days, and make every excuse to take days off either side of Bank holidays.

I'm dragging this off-topic, but case in point - this morning, I made Lucan to Harcourt street in 21 minutes. Because there was little to no traffic. Wait till you see Friday morning, there'll be no traffic because everyone will have taken off today and friday to give themselves a 5-day weekend.

Funnily enough, this morning I didn't have to make any emergency manouvers to avoid anyone doing anything stupid. That's a first. Although maybe I've just gotten used to compensating for other people's idiocy.

Sleepy

While I agree with the sentiment that kids should walk to school if it's within walking distance, my main problem is the use of what are essentially modified military vehicles for doing a school run.

Jeeps and 4x4's should be banned for anything other than reasonable usage (e.g. towing boats, horseboxes etc.)

stevenmu

Well as a car driver I hate mopeds on the road, proper motorbikes aren't too bad but at least half of moped drivers haven't a clue how to behave on the road. I regularly get mopeds driving right up behind me. I've had groups of mopeds come up behind me and then they split and both over and under take before pulling back just in front of me and slamming on the brakes when they see the car ahead that was making me go slowish in the first place. I've had mopeds be in a lane beside me and pull into my lane without looking forcing me to either break and pull over or hit them. I've nearly hit loads of mopeds driving up the wrong side of the road to pass traffic. DBK, when you say the car doing a u-turn hit the bike, are you sure the bike flying up the centre of the road and hit the car when it pulled out ? Moped drivers seem to think they have a god given right to drive where and when they want without paying any regard to the rules of the road or other drivers. For some reason drivers of proper motorbikes at least seem to realise they're driving a motorised vehicle and generally apply some kind of common sense to what they do, why can't moped drivers ?


(probably a little bit of an unfair generalisation but not too much)

seamus

Sleepy wrote:

Jeeps and 4x4's should be banned for anything other than reasonable usage (e.g. towing boats, horseboxes etc.)

Not banned, just taxed to the high heavens if insured for Class 1 driving (or whichever class is Personal/Social).

DBK

stevenmu wrote:

Well as a car driver I hate mopeds on the road, proper motorbikes aren't too bad but at least half of moped drivers haven't a clue how to behave on the road. I regularly get mopeds driving right up behind me. I've had groups of mopeds come up behind me and then they split and both over and under take before pulling back just in front of me and slamming on the brakes when they see the car ahead that was making me go slowish in the first place. I've had mopeds be in a lane beside me and pull into my lane without looking forcing me to either break and pull over or hit them. I've nearly hit loads of mopeds driving up the wrong side of the road to pass traffic. DBK, when you say the car doing a u-turn hit the bike, are you sure the bike flying up the centre of the road and hit the car when it pulled out ? Moped drivers seem to think they have a god given right to drive where and when they want without paying any regard to the rules of the road or other drivers. For some reason drivers of proper motorbikes at least seem to realise they're driving a motorised vehicle and generally apply some kind of common sense to what they do, why can't moped drivers ?


(probably a little bit of an unfair generalisation but not too much)

I think for most of it, you're spot on. I only bought a moped as I wouldn't bring my car into the carpark that is called Dublin City Centre. I tend to only overtake stopped traffic if it's safe, no oncoming traffic, and I NEVER drive in the cycle-lane like I see most moped users doing in. That really pisses me off. I'm 100% sure that the car wasn't turning first, they were pissed off that they were suck in traffic and thought they'd go back the way they came and pulled out without checking their mirrors.

magpie

I saw an interesting programme where they were talking about the design of cars, and how it can be modified to reduce fatalities if they strike a pedestrian. These changes are now coming in (see the new SEATs for example) and involve a lower profile, bonnet 'cushion' area etc.

Of course in the trials the 4x4s were by far the worst things to get hit by, as they have the most 'aggressive' front end.

However, the programme did highlight another issue, which is that the reason why a lot of people have a problem with 4x4s is because of the people driving them who are predominantly very well off, so that anti 4x4 sentiments do have an element of class bias!

Not sure if I agree, but it was good to see a programme examining the facts stating that we shouldn't allow our bias to affect rational decisions.

seamus

magpie wrote:

However, the programme did highlight another issue, which is that the reason why a lot of people have a problem with 4x4s is because of the people driving them who are predominantly very well off, so that anti 4x4 sentiments do have an element of class bias!

Not sure if I agree, but it was good to see a programme examining the facts stating that we shouldn't allow our bias to affect rational decisions.

At the same time there are also a lot of studies that show that "SUV" drivers are less cautious, less considerate, and generally suffer from safety delusions from the size of the vehicle - making them more dangerous for other road users.

A culture of begrudgery definitely exists though. Particularly in this country, anyone who's better off is always a "stuck-up wanker" or a "feckin arsehole".

Garibaldi

Stuck up ****? What does that say about the hordes of knackers in their 05 Pajeros, then?
In my experience (11 years a-biking), moped riders are absolutely crazy and seem to have no concern for rules of the road (what're they?), other road users (obstacles to zip in, out and around), or personal safety.
In some European countries, mopeds are pretty much classed as bicycles and can be ridden by an unlicensed rider in the cycle lane. If such lanes were actually designed, as opposed to just thrown onto any oul stretch of road/pavement, accidents involving peds could be cut dramatically. Of course, there's always the Irish rebel belief that we don't have to give the law the time of day, so it seems unlikely that Irish ped riders would actually use these lanes if they existed. (A generalisation, but ye all know what I mean.)
Having said all that, one of the funniest things I ever saw was a moped, on the bend where D'Olier Street meets Pearse Street (the place where all the busses park at the side of Trinity), who had, moments before, cut me up, mid-turn, running straight into the back of a parked City Imp bus. His ped exploded in a shower of plastic as he stuck to the back of the bus in a cartoon stylee. He was totally fine, by the way, apart from a few bruises, but I think he learned a valuable lesson that day. Hmm....maybe all ped riders should be forcibly crashed into a bus as part of any new compulsory basic training programme.....
Bottom line: mopeds seem to be what BMX/mountain bikes were over the past ten years, and they seem to be ridden with as much care (again with the generalisations, but a lot of the good riders shouldn't be let off too easily either due to the whole "fashion accessory" idea of a bike that means they don't wear decent protective gear). Until something is done to educate *all* road users (driving test, schmiving test), ain't nothing gonna change (for the better) regarding accident stats.

stevenmu

DBK wrote:

I think for most of it, you're spot on. I only bought a moped as I wouldn't bring my car into the carpark that is called Dublin City Centre. I tend to only overtake stopped traffic if it's safe, no oncoming traffic, and I NEVER drive in the cycle-lane like I see most moped users doing in. That really pisses me off. I'm 100% sure that the car wasn't turning first, they were pissed off that they were suck in traffic and thought they'd go back the way they came and pulled out without checking their mirrors.

That sounds about right, in my rant on mopeds I forgot that there are plenty of bad drivers in cars too, but that's a rant for another day.

Slutmonkey57b

You know what doctors call bikers, don't you?

Donors.

Sarky

Just remember how much more dangerous those gits on mopeds would be if they or their parents could have afforded a Honda Civic.

You get morons driving every type of vehicle.

WhiteWashMan

i really dont understand the attitude of some people on bikes sometimes.
i can understand that they have the right to use the road and all that other good stuff, and they are equal to a car etc etc, but at the end of the day, some people who ride bikes (and this goes for car drivers too), feel that just because they are in 'the right' with regards the rules of the road, they dont have to take notice of other road users.

now let me explain.

lets take the OP's example of someone pulling out and getting hit by someone doing an illegal u-turn.
why wasnt the bike rider more careful?

ok, you can say that the car driver was in the wrong, but you have to remember one thing. the car driver isnt dead...

if youre on a bike, and you get hit, then forget it. it doesnt matter if you are in the wrong, or the right. it doesnt matter if your wife and kids get a great selltment because some other prck in a car did something wrong, the fact is, you got hit, and you got killed.
so, why do some bike riders, go out of their way to flaunt their righteous use of the road by ignoring other users. usre they arent breaking any rules, but if they arent making sure that others wont hit them, then thats their problem as far as im concerned.
bike drivers need to drive defensively, assume that every other road user is a moron, and that they will probably try and swerve into them.
driving any other way is stupid as far as im concerned.

of course, there are just stupid bike drivers out there. i hit a bike rider a few years ago that was over-taking me as i turned left at crossroads, using a feeder light.
he threatened to sue me until i told him he was breaking the law by running a red light, and he hoped on his bike and sped off. fúckwit.

Kêrmêttê

magpie wrote:

I'd extend that to pedestrians, cyclists, moped-riders, and well, everyone.

Always assume everyone else is a halfwit, its the only way to avoid accidents.

I fully agree with this!!

[InsertHandle]

I drive a car and seen as how the NRA have decided to put them lovely steel cables down the middle of our motorways I'm glad i don't have to rely on a leather jacket to keep me safe

Click here if your at all unsure of what i mean

rymus

Yeah, saw those lovely cables on the mallow road the other day. Certainly wouldnt want to hit them at 60mph. It'd be like butter on a cheese grater.

I hadn't been on my bike in ages since I started working full time (and got a company vehicle). Used to go out on it for an hour or two the odd weekend and noticed I completely lost my nerve for leaning into corners & so on. Anyway, went out on it today after about a month and a half break and was quite amazed at how blind the motorists are. I must have selectively forgotten about that bit of riding a bike. Makes me wonder too how they'd miss me seeing as my bike is about as big as a nissan micra

I may still replace my standard horn with one of those air horns that are becoming more commonplace for riders of big bikes. That and a headlight modulator and maybe some signal flares. Anything to get the attention of the idiots out there. I see the boy racers still fly right up behind bikers and change lanes at the last second. I wonder if that'll ever get old? ****.

Garibaldi

In fairness, hitting *any* piece of roadside furniture is going to be bad news for a biker. I'd still rather have the cheesecutter barriers than a hedge. I've seen numerous accidents on the N4 and N7 since christmas where cars were very effectively stopped from crossing into the oncoming carriageway, avoiding a far worse accident. Of course, the problem is that these barriers haven't been repaired since (I travel both those roads bi-monthly and daily, respectively), so they're totally useless now.
WhiteWashMan most definitely has a point about riders not exercising due care. Even though I'm told I ride like I'm straight out of traffic school :rolleyes: I still have near-death experiences just about every single day, so you have to wonder how the suicidally blind riders survive at all. They really should do more track days to get it all out of their systems.
Well, we all know (don't we?) that the driving test is deeply flawed and outdated and that there's more to realistic traffic policing than handing out speeding tickets, but it'd take a couple of generations, at least, before any change in the status quo got through to Irish drivers (of all vehicles). If lowering speed limits is the best the govt can do to improve road safety, then it's time for a change.

Regards,

Enda Kenny