Do you drive as well as cycle?

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
irc
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Joined: 3 Dec 2008, 2:22pm
Location: glasgow

Re: Do you drive as well as cycle?

Post by irc »

I have a motorbike licence though I've not driven motorbikes for years.

I have a car licence and a car. At work I drive cars, minibuses, and various sizes of vans up to 8 or 9 tonnes.
bravetana
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Joined: 6 Nov 2013, 7:26pm

Re: Do you drive as well as cycle?

Post by bravetana »

I also drive as well as cycle but I now live in fear for my life on london roads 10 cyclists killed this year so far. if this happenened on a building site HSE would shut it down if an electrical appliance did this it would be banned if a breed of dog did this it would also be banned so why are cyclists lorry fodder! the only solution to this is a simple one remove lorries off the road in london between 6am-7pm mon-fri any deliveries can be done by smaller vans and at out of peek hours there are train stations for freight but this wont happen because we dont matter.our safety is lower than businesses needs.until somebody important is killed on london roads we will remain lorry fodder unfortunately.
Postboxer
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Re: Do you drive as well as cycle?

Post by Postboxer »

Somehow my tired head read the heading as 'Do you drive as well as you cycle?'

I have been thinking when people ask when critical point is going to have an effect in reducing accidents, part of me thinks maybe non-cyclists won't get any better but all the people new to cycling will drive better because of it and therefore slightly lower the accident rate.
binsted
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Re: Do you drive as well as cycle?

Post by binsted »

Postboxer wrote: part of me thinks maybe non-cyclists won't get any better but all the people new to cycling will drive better because of it and therefore slightly lower the accident rate.


That is a belief I have held for some time.
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Si
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Re: Do you drive as well as cycle?

Post by Si »

and also, all of those kids who are now doing bikeability.....many may give up cycling when they get to car age, but hopefully some will remember why the cyclist is riding in primary and not be so keen to give them a hard time about it.
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PaulCumbria
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Location: Kendal

Re: Do you drive as well as cycle?

Post by PaulCumbria »

I walk.
I cycle.
I used to motorcycle.
I drive a car.
I skipper a passenger vessel.
Of the above, I miss one, despise another and love the remaining three.
I'm sure you can guess which is which...
Ugly
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Joined: 14 Jul 2009, 8:34am

Re: Do you drive as well as cycle?

Post by Ugly »

Bike: club riding, racing, touring since 1962, on solo and tandem bikes and solo trike. Used to commute by bike, now retired.
Car: since 1965, cars small and big, fast and faster, motor caravans, towed caravans, current cars: land rover series used as a runaround, green laneing and trials, Jap 4x4 used as caravan tug and all other trips.
I like cycles and cycling I also like cars and driving
chrisc
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Joined: 2 Sep 2011, 6:34pm
Location: Farnborough, Hants.

Re: Do you drive as well as cycle?

Post by chrisc »

Walked since I was 1.
Ridden a bike since I was 7, including tandems and my little sister's trike.
Driven a car since I was 17 (Jeez ! That's 50+ years driving !)
Got motorcycle licence at 20.
Got HGV licence at 58.
Probably never ride a motorcycle again.
Have to keep driving cars or cycling as no public transport nearby.

Household (of 3) has 3 cars and 5.5 bikes. Cars don't get used much really. One is definitely superfluous, but I like it.

CC (aged 68)
Tourer : 2010 Giant CRS City 4.0
Other : 1963 Denton retro (now back in the loft!)
thirdcrank
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Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: Do you drive as well as cycle?

Post by thirdcrank »

chrisc wrote: ... Household (of 3) has 3 cars and 5.5 bikes. ...


Is the 0.5 a unicycle, a part share in a bike or something else? :?
blackbike
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Joined: 11 Jul 2009, 3:21pm

Re: Do you drive as well as cycle?

Post by blackbike »

I cycle about 10,000 miles per year and drive about 3,000.

My car can be unused for weeks. It has moss growing out of the edges of the sunroof, and cobwebs between the wing mirror and door which survive my sedate drives to friends and relatives in various parts of England.
MikeF
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Location: On the borders of the four South East Counties

Re: Do you drive as well as cycle?

Post by MikeF »

binsted wrote:Probably not 4x4s but I would like a separate test for the large horse boxes driven on car licenses.

You can't drive large horse boxes with a car licence. Category C1 for over 3.5 tonnes.
"It takes a genius to spot the obvious" - my old physics master.
I don't peddle bikes.
Mike Sales
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Re: Do you drive as well as cycle?

Post by Mike Sales »

Do I drive as well as I cycle? Probably not, I've been cycling for fifty years but only driving for five. I do try hard and I am still very conscious of the kinetic energy in a car at speed. I am sure that I am a better driver for having been a cyclist. I don't want to be the sort of driver I resent when I am on my bike.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
chrisc
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Joined: 2 Sep 2011, 6:34pm
Location: Farnborough, Hants.

Re: Do you drive as well as cycle?

Post by chrisc »

thirdcrank wrote

Is the 0.5 a unicycle, a part share in a bike or something else? :?


Sorry; nothing as exotic as a unicycle ! Just a bike with bits missing (my elderly Denton in t' loft).
Tourer : 2010 Giant CRS City 4.0
Other : 1963 Denton retro (now back in the loft!)
niggle
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Joined: 11 Mar 2009, 10:29pm
Location: Cornwall, near England

Re: Do you drive as well as cycle?

Post by niggle »

MikeF wrote:
binsted wrote:Probably not 4x4s but I would like a separate test for the large horse boxes driven on car licenses.

You can't drive large horse boxes with a car licence. Category C1 for over 3.5 tonnes.

Cat C1 = 3.5 to 7.5 tonnes: I have this entitlement (plus C1E, D1and D1E) on my license starting when I passed my car test in 1989, yet I have only taken car and bike tests. I think this was changed in the 1990s.
Mistik-ka
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Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Re: Do you drive as well as cycle?

Post by Mistik-ka »

Growing up in rural Saskatchewan, Canada, a bicycle was a necessity for each child when they reached the Age of Maturity (6 years :) ) and started school. Every time one of us headed off to school a 'new' (elderly, battered, but bigger) bike was acquired for the eldest child and all the old bikes were handed down (along with outgrown clothes) to the sibling below. Once we had bicycles it was a point of honour not to walk anywhere — not even across the yard to the barn or to the outhouse in back.

I've ridden bicycles ever since.

There was no special licensing to ride a motorcycle when I came Of Age (16 years :D ) but a regular driver's license was required, so I learned to drive a car and then rode motorcycles for the next 10 years … until car drove past a stop sign and took my motorcycle out from under me. I realized that the bumper would have neatly amputated my wife's leg below the knee if she'd been on behind me, and once the bike had been repaired I sold it.

Shortly after that we moved to a smallholding a few miles from the city. In the complete absence of public transport a car is pretty much a necessity, though not one that has ever given me much pleasure.

I drove a 30 passenger school bus for four years to finance my way through university.

The university degree was in physiotherapy, and I've spent the last 22 years working in the Intensive Care Unit that handles all the severe trauma cases for the community. I commute by bicycle until the Canadian winter brings all that to an end. (It was minus 21º C. when I got up this morning :( .)

For the past couple of decades Mrs. M. and I have taken vacations in Britain every two or three years — until the last time always on foot. (London to Edinburgh via Wales :roll: was our most ambitious undertaking.) We think foot-speed is even better that bike-speed for seeing the world … but in our mid-sixties we are finding that feet get a bit tired :( .

Two years ago we commissioned a tandem bicycle to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary :D :D :D . (Should'a done it 20 years earlier!) We put 2,000 miles on it this year, including 800 on holiday in England :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: . With a trailer hitched on behind we use it for all our shopping and most of our trips about town. We only filled the gas tank in the Volvo once this summer :mrgreen: .

My lifetime driving experience taught me a few things: two wheels are more pleasurable than four; it's wise to walk, ride, drive, live thoughtfully and with care; it really doesn't matter who was in the right when you're the one lying on the tarmac.
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