The Dumb Cyclists and Pedestrians thread...

[twizzle]

On the way howm last night I woundup assisting a young woman who had just bought a second hand bike. ...

Assisted? Drilled some holes in her skull to allow for additional oxygen, did you?

Reminds me of the housemate (girl) of a guy at work years ago, drove her car for a week with the oil warning light on before it seized, then got upset with him for pointing out it was a dumb thing to do. Common sense sometimes isn't common.

[jules21]

Reminds me of the housemate (girl) of a guy at work years ago, drove her car for a week with the oil warning light on before it seized, then got upset with him for pointing out it was a dumb thing to do. Common sense sometimes isn't common.

to be fair, those lights should be more prominent. you can often tell when an engineer has designed something - a dim red light with an oil can does not scream "stop the car" unless you understand the consequences of low oil pressure. i assume you mean he told her it was dumb after the motor seized.

[twizzle]

Reminds me of the housemate (girl) of a guy at work years ago, drove her car for a week with the oil warning light on before it seized, then got upset with him for pointing out it was a dumb thing to do. Common sense sometimes isn't common.

to be fair, those lights should be more prominent. you can often tell when an engineer has designed something - a dim red light with an oil can does not scream "stop the car" unless you understand the consequences of low oil pressure. i assume you mean he told her it was dumb after the motor seized.

Yes, he asked her if the light had been on, and she said "only for the last week". She had NO IDEA of what it was for. Then got upset and told him, "You can't speak to me like that, I have a degree!"

[jules21]

"You can't speak to me like that, I have a degree!"

woah! i didn't know that. obviously she's more intelligent than everyone else

[human909]

I say apparently as she was in too much of hurry for most of what I was offering

[uncle arthur]

"You can't speak to me like that, I have a degree!"

Reply - yes - a degree more stupidity than others it seems.....

Reply - yet you're clearly not qualified to own or operate that vehicle.....

Reply - and I have an overcoat, but I'm clearly not a doctor.....

[ColinOldnCranky]

Reminds me of the housemate (girl) of a guy at work years ago, drove her car for a week with the oil warning light on before it seized, then got upset with him for pointing out it was a dumb thing to do. Common sense sometimes isn't common.

to be fair, those lights should be more prominent. you can often tell when an engineer has designed something - a dim red light with an oil can does not scream "stop the car" unless you understand the consequences of low oil pressure. i assume you mean he told her it was dumb after the motor seized.

My boat had an alarm that would go off if anything critical was amiss. A real screamer it was too.

And yes, she does have a degree of ignorance at least. Though I can't preach to much as there are many things that I am ignorant of and I probably fail to take actions that I should as a result. While someone of my generation would likely have realised the significance of the oil light, this sort of basic training is not passed down as it was in "the good old days". My daughter is quite chuffed that she has changed her own tyre as so many of her own friends would be lost.

[Adstar]

Okay - a bike rider (on some sort of flat-bar bike) in long shorts and baggy singlet top, precariously balancing with the left arm on the top of the left handle-bar a quite enormous looking esky! I couldn't determine if it had a full load of beer in it.

Unbelievable!

I saw the same thing in Canberra yesterday except bike was kid-sized mtb, clown was wearing a skateboard helmet and was riding the wrong way down an on road bike lane! I think it was a European beer!

[jules21]

oops. i share some blame in this. we both apologised to each other. close one..

[fatdudeonabike]

This is nowhere near as bad as some of the things I read in this thread - but as a cyclist, I get more angry now at dumb cyclists now than I did as a driver. My experience as a driver tells me that all cyclists are tarred with the same brush - inconsiderate cyclists make us all look bad.
Driving up a busy 2 lane road in Canberra (Gungahlin Drive for locals) this afternoon... the road should be 3 lanes, and the 2 lanes they have arent wide enough. Traffic flow sucks. It's an 80km/hr road, but traffic rarely gets much above 60km/hr at that time of day.
It was worse than usual today. Traffic was being backed up because... a really, really slow cyclist was taking up one of the lanes doing no more than 25 km/h in this 80 km/hr zone.
"He's entitled to a lane" I hear you say - and I know this. He's absolutely entitled to a lane.
But its one of the little things that give us all a bad wrap when someone is so inconsiderate to do this.

Why?

Because there was a bike path about 5 metres to his left.
Technically its a shared bike/pedestrian path - but this path is in the middle of nowhere. I sometimes see a guy walking his dog along it early in the morning - but aside from that, I literally dont remember ever seeing a single other pedestrian on that path in the 18 months that I've lived out here.
I know that legally he's not doing anything wrong, nor is it particularly idiotic - it just made me really angry though that crap traffic flow is made that much worse because of one inconsiderate buffoon who thinks he's Mark Cavendish is too good for the bike lines when people much, much faster than him are happy to use it.

Edit: Is he actually entitled to this lane? After writing this post, I think I remember reading somewhere that you arent allowed to ride on the road where a bike path is provided. Did I make that up?

[skull]

Isn't riding on Gungahlin drive a bit of a deathwish anyway?

[DavidS]

fatdudeonabike, I would say he would be entitled to the lane. He is on a bicycle, which is a road vehicle, and the alternate lane is a shared path by the sound of it. That said, and I tend to ride at about 25-30KMh, I would either go on the shared path, keep well left on the road or find an alternate route. Holding up heaps of cars is not the reason I ride a bike. I had an idiot last year beep me when I was claiming a lane, it was one of 2 short (about 100m each) sections on my ride where I claim the lane because of a narrow section of road (both are tram stops). This is fine for a couple of hundred metres, but for a long stretch of road it is inconsiderate. There comes a time when the fact you have the right to take the lane does not mean you should.

DS

[Mulger bill]

Well said Dave, it's about give and take.

Even tho' sometimes it seems like you give them an inch and they take two yards...

[jules21]

[jules21]

this guy went off-tap when i rode around him, while he crossed in front of me. he kept insisting i should have warned him by sounding my bell. i couldn't believe this and had to watch the video later to see if it was worse than i thought it was at the time, but i don't think so.

[gretaboy]

this guy went off-tap when i rode around him, while he crossed in front of me. he kept insisting i should have warned him by sounding my bell. i couldn't believe this and had to watch the video later to see if it was worse than i thought it was at the time, but i don't think so.

Obviously a high flyer this guy...expects everyone to bend to his will. From my perspective he didnt even look to see if anything was coming before he simply started to cross the street. Your comments about it is his duty to check before crossing were spot on.

[jasonc]

this guy went off-tap when i rode around him, while he crossed in front of me. he kept insisting i should have warned him by sounding my bell. i couldn't believe this and had to watch the video later to see if it was worse than i thought it was at the time, but i don't think so.

I've got a warning device. really good for "people" like than from about 1m away.

[jules21]

Obviously a high flyer this guy...expects everyone to bend to his will.

he sounded like a whiney bizjtch to me

I've got a warning device. really good for "people" like than from about 1m away.

i thought i was doing the right thing by not making a big deal of it and gently riding around him. some people just need to play the victim in every circumstance.

[jasonc]

I've got a warning device. really good for "people" like than from about 1m away.

i thought i was doing the right thing by not making a big deal of it and gently riding around him. some people just need to play the victim in every circumstance.

you did the right thing, the airzound would be for next time. this guy would be a creature of habit and go through there at the same time daily

[blkmcs]

...
i thought i was doing the right thing by not making a big deal of it and gently riding around him. some people just need to play the victim in every circumstance.

The guy was clearly in the wrong, but even so in those circumstances I would always give a little ring on the bell, I feel safer if I know the pedestrian is aware of my presence.

[jules21]

The guy was clearly in the wrong, but even so in those circumstances I would always give a little ring on the bell, I feel safer if I know the pedestrian is aware of my presence.

if you look carefully, he was walking alongside the cars, then he slowly veers out across the road. i do have and use a bell to warn pedestrians, but i tend not to in circumstances where i'm unsure of what they're about to do. instead, i'm usually concentrating on what i'm going to do to avoid them. i'm not saying that's correct, it's a habit i've fallen into.

[uncle arthur]

Next time ride up quietly behind him, then yell "BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE"........ That way he can't say you didn't warn him.

Although he looks like a bit of a fat cat, and he might have a heart attack, in which case don't be running your camera

[Mulger bill]

I prefer the huge "OHHHHHH CAAAAARP!!!" type of inarticulate scream. Horns and bells are so impersonal...

[csy75]

this rider insisted on riding in the middle of 3 lanes for about 2-3 km even before i filmed this in peak hour.

I spotted him well back in the middle lane 3 minutes before this. not safe riding, i always take the safer descent on parriwi road. i always capture more on my moto than the bicycle even though i film on both, why is that?

[uncle arthur]

Long time reader, 1st time poster in this thread....

if you are or know the cyclist riding out of Balham Rd opposite Bunnings Acacia Ridge around 5pm ish today, looking resplendent in your Queensland Rail kit, then you/they are lucky as much as stupid. Turning right across two lanes from outside the left lane is arrogant, dangerous and illegal, added to only by your inability to signal. Any other driver than a cyclist would have run you over at your own stupid fault. You are just lucky I thought to give you a lead off and some extra lane space as I left the line, assuming by your actions you were going straight ahead. Next time when it's a truck I hope you live.