Monday 20 April 2009

I Need In Built CCTV!

I swear in the name of God, or whatever supernatural being there is out there looking over us, that cyclists on London roads have it in for me!

Can I first start with a much needed outburst (anyone under the age of 16 please look away now). Bollocks, Shit, twat is, fuck!!!
That's better... I just needed to get out some stress!

I swear, on the way home from work tonight, I could quite easily, and purely accidentally in manners which would not have been my fault, have knocked about 6 of the mad fuckers off their bikes! Trouble is, everyone by default thinks it's my 'bad driving'. Which is why I need somehow to mount my camcorder onto the dashboard of my car so it can record what the mad people do!

I won't go on, but I'll point out a few things that have happened:
  1. I've had some bikes undertake me while I have been slowing down to turn left into a road, whilst indicating, so had I turned and not looked I'd have hit them. I mean, why would you undertake a car that was indicating to turn right into a road? Suicide mission.
  2. I've had a bike overtake me by driving in a right turning lane (hence I could have assumed he was turning right and carried on driving and I would have hit him) pulling away at traffic lights, only to cut across 2 lanes of forward moving cars on his left, to move three lanes over to be next to the kerb.
  3. Coincidentally this idiot ran a red light at pedestrian traffic lights and nearly hit some poor guy crossing the road.
  4. Then I had some idiot creep up between me and a bus on my left, the bus was indicating to pull out right, so I had stopped to let him out, the bike decided he wanted to try and squeeze through, then was almost squashed against my car by the bus.
  5. At one point I couldn't move as I was surrounded by about 5 sodding bikes and couldn' t move, being overtook, undertook, they were swerving all over the road, even coming off from the pavement. It was that bad, stopping wasn't an option as one of them probably would have gone into the back of my car. It was literally like close your eyes and hope for the best... they were nearly crashing into each other for christ's sake.

The worst thing is, I've been here before... had one of them gone into my car, or if I hadn't been able to stop, then it all would have been my fault. The were even swinging in and out of moving cars right in front of a police bike, and they done nothing!

That's not safe practice or even following the highway code... yet the police do nothing. You might think, well if they want to drive like that, like idiots and stuff then it's their lives they are putting on the line. Trouble is, I know from personal experience the fact is this:

  • As a driver, it's you that the fault lies with, because they view it that you should have been able to avoid the situation. No matter what they do, the 'professionals' view it that you should be able to expect and predict them to do the unexpected. Fact is, to a large extent, maybe you can, but some things are unexpected, and how the hell can you judge and predict what 5 of the fuckers are doing all at once, and before you know it, there is another one to contend with. But alas, the injury is greater to them if there is impact, hence lies the sympathy card.
  • Also, it's fucking distressing to be in any sort of collision like that, it knocks your confidence makes you feel terrible, and after some nutter turned into the back of my car I'm now paranoid about the thought of the same thing happening again, and how you really can't predict what they will do, no matter how much you try.
  • Thirdly, the blame lies with you. They may tell you that it's 50 50, but it is always deemed that you could have avoided the situation, so therefore you are the one more responsible. Therefore you end up with some nutter cyclist, who drives like a moron on LSD claiming some bumped up injury claim off of your insurance, for which you have to foot the bill for. Coincidentally if it was the cyclist's fault and the police take their heads out of their arse and come to that conclusion, cyclists aren't insured anyway, so you end up paying out on your insurance to fix the damage to your car anyway, and you still are traumatised from the event!
  • And, if you are at fault, then the liklihood is you get points on your licence and a fine, or you can attend a 'driver improvement course' which I might add, you have to pay for!

So honestly, what do you do? They are a menace and hazard. I might add however I don't have a problem with all cyclists. The ones that follow the highway code and drive in a safe manner which doesn't pose a danger or obstruction to drivers on the road, I have no objection with, and have upmost respect for. I do however have a problem with cyclists which do the things stated above. Honestly, I have no problem if you want to drive like a nut and kill yourselves, fact is it'll just be more of you dangerous people off the road, but it never ends there for the drivers, we end up paying and get screwed hand over fist in the long run. And no, it's not fair.

A few questions:

Why is it that if a car jumps a red light they get fined or ticketed or arrested, but if a cyclist does it there is no penalty?

Why do cars pay road tax and cyclists don't contribute when the quality of the road surface is more important for them as they swerve dips and pot holes and things when cars can ride straight on through?

Why do they have no insurance? Surely for their own safety and piece of mind as well as that of other drivers on the road in event of damage or accident, surely the same insurance rules should apply? I mean, who repairs the damage if one of them scratches the side of your car whilst creeping up between you and the kerb or you and the bus?

Fact is this country just isn't designed for cycles on the roads. Well London certainly isn't as much as that knob head former mayor Ken Livingstone tried to portray. We're not living in Holland where there is ample space and consideration for cycles, this country and this city is simply too big to cope with cycles on the roads!

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