Cycling UK Forum

I was driving at night recently and encountered a bike rider (I won't dignify him by calling him a cyclist) riding towards me, on my side of the road, with no lights on! Words fail me.

But actions didn't and hopefully the rider survived.

same happened to me tonight

i was taxiing mum & dad from a party at 11.45 and at 50 mph on an A road, spotted him at the last 1/2 second.
no lights, dark clothes, no reflectors in the pedals or elsewhere, just saw the red paint on the frame tubes when under 10 metres away..

after dropping off M&D i went out of my way top speak to him, he was going another 20 miles (away from my direction) and i offered him a lift home, but he didn't want it.

it was a friendly enough exchange, and i'd be back there now with a back light or high viz as a gift, only there's several routes he could take so i have no chance of finding him

i really hope he doesn't make the local newspaper on monday

what really baflfles me about this is the riding on the wrong side of the road.
Do they have a death wish?
- AS

sorry, i've just re-read this. my near miss was riding on the right side of the road.

if they are all but invisible, it makes no difference if you hit them in the front or the back, surely?

indeed if they're riding on the wrong side, they may be able to judge which motorists are wobbly and unpredictable and ride into the hedge.

but the one i encountered, had he removed the reflectors? it wasn't (if i can be a judge on such a brief chat) a self built bike, but seemed to be a pretty standard MTB from halfords or some such place..i can understand that lights go flat or get stolen, but to wear dark clothes and having removed ones reflectors seems like suicide on an A road on a night like this.

I nearly hit a guy on a bike with no lights on, who was on the wrong side of the road, yesterday. He just appeared from behind a parked van, was narrowly missed by me and continued to meander down the wrong side of the road with his knees stuck out like a chav. But they're all over the place here. Coventry is a student city and bikes are a cheap way to get around

Hugabearfreak, it was very considerate of you to offer to go out of your way to make sure the guy was ok. I know I wouldn't have been thinking anything so nice! Part of me thinks they're some of the idiots that give cyclists a bad name.

The words 'tar' 'all' and 'brush' spring to mind.

What I really find quite weird about this behaviour is that some of us(small number that we are)on here have had the same experience, myself included, so I can only conclude that it is happening all over the country.
That being the case and these incidents not being isolated, the police must see this going on too,so why don't they issue fixed penalties and instructions to walk home if only for the lunatic's safety if nothing else.
Its the poor motorists I feel sorry for who hits one of these camaflaged morons, not a pleasent experience I'll bet.

Where are the police?

reohn2 wrote:The words 'tar' 'all' and 'brush' spring to mind.

Where are the police?

Filling in paperwork or hiding to avoid filing in paperwork, or, like my brother and father, retired and pleased to be out of it.

I go to work and cycle down a dark unlit cyclepath for about 1/4 mile. I have the Smart Halogen Twin lights to flood-lit the path and some cyclist's coming in the opposite direction don't have lights on.

Some have them cheap leds which show the colour Green or Amber. Why Green.

I often see cyclist's, some old enough to know better. That have no lights on at all.

I have seen the Police pulled up a few cyclists without lights on.

nobby wrote:

reohn2 wrote:The words 'tar' 'all' and 'brush' spring to mind.

Where are the police?

Filling in paperwork or hiding to avoid filing in paperwork, or, like my brother and father, retired and pleased to be out of it.

Exactly!
That seems to be our problem and I know I keep banging on about this but the lack of a serious and prolific policing is definately what we are short of in the UK, despite government assurances that police numbers are on the increase and crime on the decrease which personally I doubt.
Crime IMO is on the increase though reported crime isn't,and as you say individual police offices are hiding/not getting involved in booking criminals because of increased paperwork it seems to me too.
I even read an article about a South African policeman who emigrated to the UK and was working as a policeman in Nottingham (I think).This dilligent and consciencious officer was actually told to book less criminals as he was booking too many and making other officers on the force look like they weren't pulling their weight!!!!!!!!!!

Personally I have little faith in the police at all due to five incidents in the last three years (two of which were cycling related) all which could have been solved quite quickly with a modicum intelegence and a bit of footwork but IMO the police weren't interested in tracking down the perpertraters,why is anyones guess but I suspect paperwork and the crimes not being a big enough to rate on the the police's graph schedules being the real reasons.
'fingers' 'holes' and 'dykes' are other words that spring to mind as are 'entropy''slide' and 'sh1thole britain'

I think that because minor crimes go unpunished - riding without lights, parking on footpaths, graffitti, driving with a mobile phone in use, loud exhausts,and the like - then offenders learn that the law can be ignored.
Several years back there was a lot of talk about zero tolerance policing: tackle the small crimes and offenders will be deterred from committing the big crimes, but it never took off. As I recall, a couple of places set off down that path, a senior police officer implementing it, up North I think, had his reputation ruined and nothing much happened.

I've been around near 60 years and the country has changed. I can't see it changing back, and it wasn't all better 'before' so we need to find new ways of living with what we have. Not everybody out there is a nasty chav. There are some lovely folk and you tend to meet them on a bike. Geographically, it is still 'a green and pleasant land'.

A couple of weeks ago I came across a paper boy doing his morning round, by bike, without any lights. I was turning right onto a main road - both roads unlit. He was approaching from my left. The only reason I saw him was that he was momenteraly caught in the headlights of a car in the distance. The lights picked up the bag over his shoulder.

He'd no lights, and no obvious reflectors. Also his clothes were dark. The bag wasn't particularly reflective, with no reflective strips, but at least was a bright yellow and shiny.

I don't know how old he was, but if I had a child cycling in the dark, I'd make sure they looked like a christmas tree.

Just in passing, I think that pedal and/or ankle reflectors are particularly good in areas with lots of confusing lights (or when it is raining and each droplet of rain becomes a small light) - the up-down motion really stands out. At other times, any light will do.

Also a few weeks ago, I was waiting at another junction, in the dark, waiting to turn right. The only vehicle approaching was a cycle with one of those super-duper bright off-road lights. Obviously necessary for him as it was an unlit road. It struck me how odd it seemed as it approached, as it was different from what I'd normally see - there was a momentary confusion, was it a motorcycle much further away? Obviously, if in doubt, wait and see, so that might be an added safety feature in terms of being seen, and not just something to see by.

nobby wrote:I think that because minor crimes go unpunished - riding without lights, parking on footpaths, graffitti, driving with a mobile phone in use, loud exhausts,and the like - then offenders learn that the law can be ignored.
Several years back there was a lot of talk about zero tolerance policing: tackle the small crimes and offenders will be deterred from committing the big crimes, but it never took off. As I recall, a couple of places set off down that path, a senior police officer implementing it, up North I think, had his reputation ruined and nothing much happened.

I've been around near 60 years and the country has changed. I can't see it changing back, and it wasn't all better 'before' so we need to find new ways of living with what we have. Not everybody out there is a nasty chav. There are some lovely folk and you tend to meet them on a bike. Geographically, it is still 'a green and pleasant land'.

I do realise that it isn't all doom and gloom but the lawless are on the increase and the effectiveness of the police is on the decline,if i could see a reversal of that situation then it would give me some heart.
The senior police officer mentioned (it was somewhere on Tyneside I think) as I recall was given nothing but praise by local people and I remember thinking when he was sacked,why,why people not want law and order or are we so inherently bad that we preferre an element of lawlessness, or do the people running the show prefere it that way(?) after all capitalism needs to make a profit somehow and anti criminal devices are good business maybe,I really don't know.I do know that every person I speak to would prefere a crime free country but is getting the opposite.

Finally(before I throw this rope I have about neck over a suitable rafter )there are some incredibly decent people out there,infact the majority i would confidently say,but (and there always is one)the bad guys are on the increase and they are because they can be,from litter droppers through the scale to child molesters/murderers etc,if the police were better, then the crime would be less. Its a simple equation,or to put it another way if you or I were without scruples then the only thing that would stop us offending would be the chances of being caught and if and when being punished accordingly.
There is currently little chance of either should we embark on a criminal lifestyle.

[quote="reohn2"][
The senior police officer mentioned (it was somewhere on Tyneside I think) as I recall was given nothing but praise by local people and I remember thinking when he was sacked,why,why people not want law and order or are we so inherently bad that we preferre an element of lawlessness, or do the people running the show prefere it that way(?) after all capitalism needs to make a profit somehow and anti criminal devices are good business maybe,I really don't know.I do know that every person I speak to would prefere a crime free country but is getting the opposite.
/quote]

I have a vague memory that he became one of the first elected mayors somewhere - Leeds, perhaps?
There is a theory that government keeps the 'normal' folk in control by allowing goblins to frighten them. Sometimes the goblins get beyond control and government gets frightened as well; then they rein them in.
Goblins in my life span have ranged from teddy boys through to trades union too powerful and irish and islamic terrorists. Some of them have been 'real' but rarely have they actually been a threat to me or mine.
I suspect that because we choose to be cyclists we don't fit the 'normal' parameters anyway and so we spend time criticising. and challenging the norms.

nobby wrote:[I suspect that because we choose to be cyclists we don't fit the 'normal' parameters anyway and so we spend time criticising. and challenging the norms.

What is normal I wonder?

I don't regard crime as something we should have to expect,however normal it becomes.
Though I expect cycling to be normal, however criminal it becomes.