What's the obsession middle aged lads have with cycling?

Baron de Charlus wrote: »

Nobody is arguing with you about that though.

The evidence suggests otherwise.


Some people get very, very animated when confronted with the reality of the very real harm done by motorists on the road every day. They get especially upset when their obsession/fetish for 'fixing' cyclists/cycling is contrasted with the blind eye they turn every day to motorists breaking speed limits, using their phones while driving, drink/drug driving and more.

_Dara_ wrote: »

Former avid cyclist here. Not using lights on a bike in the appropriate weather or lighting conditions is indefensible and needs to be punished. I live in Dublin now but grew up rurally and cyclists without lights were absolutely a hazard. In twilight and at night, you could barely see them until the last minute and I have a father who is an incredibly careful driver. Even he nearly got caught out a few times.

I would never have dreamt of using my bike in twilight, dusk or at night without working lights. Hell, even on dull winter’s days, I’d use them.

Cars with broken lights are pretty rare to see but cyclists without lights are quite common. I don’t know if high vis garments are necessary but lights absolutely are.

You are doing yourself no favours here.

You see, that's the thing - cars with broken lights are not in the slightest bit rare, but it is fascinating to see that you seem to see all these invisible cyclists with no lights but you don't notice the many, many motorists with broken lights.



I see two or three vehicles with one or two broken brake lights on every car or bike journey. I sometimes let them know about it, with generally positive or neutral responses. On winter evenings for dark commutes, I see one or two newish cars (usually bigger, fancier cars/SUVs) just about every day with no rear lights at all, because they don't know how their DRLs work. It's not in the slightest bit unusual to see this.


If you wanted to do a quantitative comparison to cyclists with no lights, I would agree that there is probably a larger number of unlit cyclists around than motorists with broken lights. But if you're looking for thinks to punish, I'd wonder about why you would focus on the relatively minor issue of broken lights and not look at obvious offences, like speeding. The RSA find that three or four motorists out of five break speed limits in their speed surveys. Speeding is one of the major causes of deaths on our road, unlike unlit cyclists. So if you're looking for things to punish, which would you choose?

dense wrote: »

But I encourage them to wear it because if we were to be in an accident and we weren't wearing Hi Viz I'd be feeling guilty that it could have been prevented had we been wearing Hi Viz.

That's pretty much my same logic in wearing a helmet, despite how uncomfortable they get in hot weather like this. In recent years, the ability to mount a camera is another good reason.

P_1 wrote: »

Dayglo yellow is a very bad choice of colour to be so ubiquitous. It just doesnt stand out. Contrasting colours with a reflective strip or a reflective pattern are much more effective.

It certainly doesn't stand out against foliage in much of the country, something the Drivers Defence League seem to have failed to notice when they published this picture.






I generally go for red jerseys if I can find them when I'm stocking up from the Aldi or Lidl specials bin .