Cyclists V motorists Vpedestrians part 638

Don't shoot the messenger!

I cannot believe what I have just seen. I had a walk over to the war museum to see if there was anything going on (I got James mail this morning, but was just wondering), as I'm coming out of the park, by Notre Dame school, I hear screeching brakes by the lights at the Cathedral. Two women, together I think, on bikes crossing St Georges rd from Lambeth rd, they have both jumped the lights, one has carried on and the other has stopped and backtracked to the lights that they were leaving, lots of hooting and the traffic kind of consatinaed (sp),a motorcycle cop follows the girl that has gone on, a man and woman walking along and man shouts out "you could have been killed there" to the lady still at the lights, lights change and 2nd lady rides over the crossing, stops, and shouts out pointing as she shouts, "why don't you mind your own business" and very heated argument ensues, man replies "mind my own business? you could have been killed there and I would've seen it", raffic cop now wants a word with 2nd lady, she is pointing back to the pedestrian man seemingly complaining about him, I walked off.
I am shaking here, I simply cannot believe what I have just seen!
I'm not taking any kind of sides in the debate and generally agree with what Edward Woodward says on the matter, ie: good and bad in all cases, I think I have just seen the bad side of cyclists, WOW.

To add, it takes me ages to edit, I think rather than jump the lights, it looks like they have crossed on amber, maybe.

Meanwhile, on London Bridge...

Come on Jules, I'm not out to start another war, just saying what I saw, it shook me a bit.

Jules62 wrote:

Meanwhile, on London Bridge...

Very tragic. Apparently the cyclist clipped the bridge’s central reservation, causing him to fall into the path of an oncoming car.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/cyclist-killed-in-london-bridge-collision-after-clipping-central-reservation-in-tragic-accident-9644761.html

Passing a light at amber is still contrary to the Road Traffic Act unless it was not possible to stop safely.

I have seen a similar incident where a cyclist was then stopped by a traffic policeman. He said "but it was amber" and the look on his face when the policeman reached for his notebook owing to his admission...

I think, on reflection, they must have jumped the lights as the St Georges road traffic had started moving.
Again, on reflection, my title on this thread could have been better, seeing as I didn't want to start a war. :)

More irresponsible road use spotted last night on Tower Bridge Road.

A bus was stopped at the bus stop outside Tesco on the northbound carriageway of TBR. As it went to pull away from the bus stop (slowly, as you can imagine a bus pulls away), the lights at the pedestrian crossing turned amber. There is probably 10 metres from the bus stop to the lights - the bus was travelling at approx 5mph and could comfortably have stopped, but continued through the lights. It was pulling away so slowly that by the time it jumped the lights, they were red, and the green man was on display.

Not quite as extreme an example, but shows that all sorts ignore traffic signals and that more enforcement and education is needed at all levels.

Guy's street wrote:

More irresponsible road use spotted last night on Tower Bridge Road.
A bus was stopped at the bus stop outside Tesco on the northbound carriageway of TBR. As it went to pull away from the bus stop (slowly, as you can imagine a bus pulls away), the lights at the pedestrian crossing turned amber. There is probably 10 metres from the bus stop to the lights - the bus was travelling at approx 5mph and could comfortably have stopped, but continued through the lights. It was pulling away so slowly that by the time it jumped the lights, they were red, and the green man was on display.

Not quite as extreme an example, but shows that all sorts ignore traffic signals and that more enforcement and education is needed at all levels.

In such cases, if details of the bus are taken, I am pretty sure action can be taken to hold the driver accountable for this retrospectively? The drive is not just putting at risk lives of pedestrians etc, but also his passengers.

Tonight coming up The Cut I stopped for people at the zebra crossing, followed by several bikes but three cars went sailing thru. The people crossing stood there dithering in the most annoying way and I wanted to yell "just bleeding cross already" but I managed to contain myself and instead slightly pushed my bike sideways which brought the next car to a stop and finally the people crossed.

No comment on the whole debate here (though all the bikes stopped when no cars did, but I think that was a fluke), I just felt the need to vent.