Article in Telegraph about proposal to ban cyclists because they hog the road- shock horror...

[atoz]

Hi all

This gem has cropped up in the Telegraph and other sources

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/17/tour-de-yorkshire-routes-could-see-cyclists-banned-angry-motorists/

And of course the usual suspect..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5962837/Aggressive-cyclists-hog-roads-banned-Yorkshires-Tour-France-route.html

The Conservative North Yorkshire councillor in question who is quoted in these pieces claims that the behaviour of cyclists is the problem.

All they do is speed and it's not just two abreast - sometimes it's three or four on very narrow roads.

It is not good for motorists following them up a hill. When you do overtake them you get a rude gesture.

Basically, she would like us all to single out.

Certainly, on the narrow roads they should have signs up saying ‘Cyclists welcome - but in single file only

There are a whole load of problems with this article, which in reality could be classed as clickbait. But interestingly the councillor in question lives in a somewhat rural location in North Yorkshire near Ampleforth, nowhere near the Yorkshire Dales, which is where she claims the problems are. See http://democracy.northyorks.gov.uk/committees.aspx?interests=1&memberid=1061

It's all rather similar to a similar pronouncement some years ago by a councillor for Craven Council - see http://www.cravenherald.co.uk/news/10274323.Warning_issued_to_cyclists_over_Tour_de_France_route/ - guess what, another Conservative councillor.

it might be worth mentioning to some of our political representatives in rural areas just how much the Tour de Yorkshire, and before it the Tour de France Grand Depart bring to these areas in terms of money and marketing from tourism and other associated business. It's quite significant and not to be sniffed at- especially as with Brexit some of these areas are not going to have it easy in the future. When the amateur sportive for the Tour de Yorkshire was running through Otley this year I was sitting in a cafe watching the large numbers of cyclists going through the town. The cafe staff remarked on just how many cyclists there were. I commented that potentially that was a lot of coffees, paninis, and the like. He took it in good part, but I think the message was received and understood.

[Bez]

Ah, the trusty old "they go too fast and we get stuck behind them" paradox.

[Cunobelin]

We have a similar Lobby in the New Forest

One troupe even deny that the ubiquitous traffic jams through Lyndhurst exist and claim that there are no traffic problems caused by tye New Forest Show....
Yet put two bicycles on the road and the whole Forest comes to a standstill

[Stradageek]

I'd like to just put this idea out there for comment.

As a well known cyclist I get a lot of these complaints aimed at me and have to agree that some 'cyclists' do act very inconsiderately deliberately blocking motorists on country lanes or angering city commuters with dangerous or inconsiderate manoeuvres.

But having now met a few of these 'cyclists' I may have worked out what the issue is. These guys are not the expected eco-warrior terrorists, in fact in my experience they are exactly the opposite, they are simply aggressive car drivers spending a few hours on a bike. They cycle the way they will drive once they've loaded the bike into the boot of the car at the end of the ride.

I've seen the behaviour, I've taked to the riders and I've seen the Audi at the end of the ride - anyone else concur?

[Cugel]

Just ignore the fools. There's no such thing as bad publicity; responding to these Tory car-enclasped dinosaurs merely increases the amplitude and reach of their stupid grunts & roars.

Anyway, when I'm dictator they'll all be rounded up and confined to a large private club somewhere in Mayfair. The doors will be locked, though; and the phone lines cut. They will be allowed to write letters to The Torygraph however, albeit only they will "take" and read it.

They will be given as much port as they can drink (but none of the good stuff) to keep them otherwise quiescent.

Cugel

[Cugel]

I'd like to just put this idea out there for comment.

As a well known cyclist I get a lot of these complaints aimed at me and have to agree that some 'cyclists' do act very inconsiderately deliberately blocking motorists on country lanes or angering city commuters with dangerous or inconsiderate manoeuvres.

But having now met a few of these 'cyclists' I may have worked out what the issue is. These guys are not the expected eco-warrior terrorists, in fact in my experience they are exactly the opposite, they are simply aggressive car drivers spending a few hours on a bike. They cycle the way they will drive once they've loaded the bike into the boot of the car at the end of the ride.

I've seen the behaviour, I've taked to the riders and I've seen the Audi at the end of the ride - anyone else concur?

Yes!

Although it has to be admitted that a car (especially a geet big SUV) tends to amplify the crazed & aggressive solipsism of the car-eening poseurs. When cycling in FY fashion they are at least less inherently dangerous - except to themselves of course. (But their £300 helmet will save them).

Cugel

[Cyril Haearn]

Cyclists go too fast and hold up motons
Both are true
Plus One

[Cugel]

Cyclists go too fast and hold up motons
Both are true
Plus One

I'm slightly ashamed to admit that, when younger, I often raced past pottering motorists going down Lakeland and Dales descents. If I couldn't get past, I might gesticulate when behind them in the hope that they would see me in their mirror and get out of the way. (They never did).

Should I have obtained the services of a Tory councillor to fulminate somewhere about motorists going too slow and also too fast, as they later passed me too close going up the hill at the far side of the Dale?

Cugel

[Cyril Haearn]

Cyclists go too fast and hold up motons
Both are true
Plus One

I'm slightly ashamed to admit that, when younger, I often raced past pottering motorists going down Lakeland and Dales descents. If I couldn't get past, I might gesticulate when behind them in the hope that they would see me in their mirror and get out of the way. (They never did).

Should I have obtained the services of a Tory councillor to fulminate somewhere about motorists going too slow and also too fast, as they later passed me too close going up the hill at the far side of the Dale?

Cugel

Maybe you should have joined the Clarion

A hare and a tortoise raced each other on a meadow near Buxtehude
After 37 laps the hare expired
Since then such a race has never been held again

[atlas_shrugged]

I agree with their leader. The conservatives are truly the nasty party.

(A non voter for over 25 years and proud of it).

[ChrisButch]

I'm slightly ashamed to admit that, when younger, I often raced past pottering motorists going down Lakeland and Dales descents. If I couldn't get past, I might gesticulate when behind them in the hope that they would see me in their mirror and get out of the way. (They never did).

One of the incidental delights of cycling in the Alps, for a British cyclist, is the not particularly admirable sense of exultation you feel when cars indicate and wave you past on the straights when descending from a big col. (Many do).

[thirdcrank]

Déjà vu all over again.
This from 2013
Yorkshire TdF stages backlash starts
viewtopic.php?p=640914#p640914
And a prominent naysayer eventually had his come-uppance in the form of a positive breath test
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=89121&start=15

Not worth fretting over

[Cugel]

Cyclists go too fast and hold up motons
Both are true
Plus One

I'm slightly ashamed to admit that, when younger, I often raced past pottering motorists going down Lakeland and Dales descents. If I couldn't get past, I might gesticulate when behind them in the hope that they would see me in their mirror and get out of the way. (They never did).

Should I have obtained the services of a Tory councillor to fulminate somewhere about motorists going too slow and also too fast, as they later passed me too close going up the hill at the far side of the Dale?

Cugel

Maybe you should have joined the Clarion

A hare and a tortoise raced each other on a meadow near Buxtehude
After 37 laps the hare expired
Since then such a race has never been held again

There are loadsa Clarions, one for nearly every town of size in Blighty. I belongs to a club populated only by "the different". If you aren't different you can still join but you won't last one ride before going off either the back or in a huff. We have a few hares ... also sloths, old dogs, some donkeys and a polecat.

What team was that tortoise-racing hare in? Some encourage their members to win at any cost! Did the hare have "asthma"?

Cugel

[Cyril Haearn]

Sorry it was a hedgehog actually, he stationed his wife at one end of the furrow, he waited at the other end
The hare could not tell them apart and thought the hedgehog beat him every time

[Cugel]

Sorry it was a hedgehog actually, he stationed his wife at one end of the furrow, he waited at the other end
The hare could not tell them apart and thought the hedgehog beat him every time

It cannot be pleasant to be beaten with a hedgehog, not even for the hedgehog, unless it be a deader as found lying in the road and considered for lunch by passing cyclists with the bonk.

I have been beaten by a number of cats. In every contest, they win the prize of getting what they want whereas I end up with the runner-up prize of fetching it for them.

Cugel