Yellow vests v Har-vests

[CropleyWasGod]

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Many (though not all - some are too concerned about the extra weight) cyclists carry some cash with them when they go on long rides. If personal economic benefit is your main concern then why not mug a couple not too far into the course, before they've had a chance to spend it on a coffee stop?

In this light, what you call 'disruption' may be viewed as 'a steady stream of opportunities for personal gain'.

Those high-end bikes could fetch a bit on EBay.

I'm not sure what the market in used Lycra is like, though.

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[snooky]

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It sounds like your marketing needs a bit more zip. I generally look on Booking.com so maybe something to consider. If you offer a free cooked breakfast, I'm confident that you'll get a guest one year.

Yer on Beefster

My house is the one with the tacks outside.

[--------]

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I don't think roads should be closed for cycle rides at all, so no argument from me there.

I do generally spend money in Peebles when I do a sportive from there.

What's the event you refer to - is it this?

As for cyclists riding too close to you on cycle paths, got to side with the cyclists there. It's great fun to 'buzz' old folks like yourself. I often unclip and kick their walking sticks away from them too. Conversely, when I'm out walking myself and a nearby cyclist is dressed offensively garishly, I hit him with my stick.

No idea - can't get the link to work.

I have no problem with cyclists and even if I were a lot younger I wouldn't cycle around North Lanarkshire - the way some drivers behave towards folks on bikes I'm surprised there aren't fatalities. My problem starts when someone decides to bring large numbers (sometimes very large numbers) into one area for an 'event' - that's when life gets very difficult for the locals. And it doesn't commend cycling or cyclists to them. It just causes frustration and gives people hostile to cyclists an excuse for sounding off. And annoys folks like me who believe it or not might just be won over.

It's not helped when the event's advertised as 'for charity' - I'm afraid I take that as a handy way of deflecting criticism or complaint. After all, it's for charity - how dare anyone voice anything negative at all. There MUST be ways of benefitting the charity without clogging up the roads and streets?

It's not a 'cycle path', btw. The signs clearly indicate that it's a walkway and cycle path - pedestrians have rights on it as well as cyclists, but far too many of the cyclists behave towards the walkers in exactly the same way as they complain motorists behave towards them. Recklessly, inconsiderately, and dangerously.

And it's not all about cyclists.

The first experience I had of this sort of thing (DOWN WITH THIS SORT OF THING! ) was over 30 years ago in Edinburgh, involving one of the early Edinburgh marathons. The race was billed as starting around 11.00am. I was heading for East Lothian - I was helping out a colleague there, and was due at my destination at 10.30. I left the house in the west of Edinburgh just after 8.00am; I got to Jock's Lodge at about 8.30 to find the roads coned off and no way through. There was no one there but me and a polis who absolutely refused move a couple of cones to allow me across from the Meadowbank side to the Portobello side.

Half past eight on a Sunday morning - nobody around, and he threatens to arrest me - for obstruction! This was long before the days of the bypass. I finally got where I was going, very late. In that instance the 'rights' of the 'athletics community' over-rode everyone else's, apparently.

And please bear in mind that 'fun runs for cyclists' are only one category of 'community event' that closes roads and makes life intermittently unpleasant in NL - we also have those nice men and women 'walking' with their flute bands and accordion bands and so on through the summer months ...

I think I'm just TOTALLY PEE'D OFF by parades or rallies in any shape or form taking place on the on the public highway.

Folks who want to have a rally or a fun day should hire a freakin stadium.

[snooky]

I was driving in the town last night in darkness and passed cyclists on the road with no lights at 3 different locations (from Colinton Road to George IV Bridge).
It would (of course ) be my fault had any of these Evel Knievels been hit.

[speedy_gonzales]

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I was driving in the town last night in darkness and passed cyclists on the road with no lights at 3 different locations (from Colinton Road to George IV Bridge).
It would (of course ) be my fault had any of these Evel Knievels been hit.

The exact same as if it were pedestrians walking in the road. You can't argue the rights & wrongs of unlit cycling with a dead cyclist, mental I know!

[snooky]

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The exact same as if it were pedestrians walking in the road. You can't argue the rights & wrongs of unlit cycling with a dead cyclist, mental I know!

TBH, I'm not sure of what you're angle is, SG.
However, I do agree that pedestrians with no front or rear lights do present a problem.

[speedy_gonzales]

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TBH, I'm not sure of what you're angle is, SG.
However, I do agree that pedestrians with no front or rear lights do present a problem.

No angle, cyclists when on the road, by law must have lights when low or no natural daylight exists.
Ninja cyclists are not as prevalent as most people think but where they do exist they pose a hazard to themselves and other road users.
However, and this is what you may consider to be an angle but I'm genuinely not at the wind up; many road users don't have lights when they should (you'll notice a lot of cars with illegal/MOT failing lighting soon with the shortening days) but that doesn't make it OK to hit them. If I was driving and hit a car that had no lights do you think I'd be blame free?

[Moulin Yarns]

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The exact same as if it were pedestrians walking in the road. You can't argue the rights & wrongs of unlit cycling with a dead cyclist, mental I know!

As it approaches winter and the dark nights I worry for my neighbours who walk to the pub a mile away with no pavement or street lights. They wear dark clothes no torches and walk on the wrong side of the road.

Mental.

[lapsedhibee]

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It's not a 'cycle path', btw. The signs clearly indicate that it's a walkway and cycle path

Quite so. Just used 'cycle path' as shorthand, to distinguish from 'road'. They're a bit of a melee in Edinburgh, tbh. I only really cycle on 'em very early in the morning, when dogwalkers seem to be universally top-of-the-range dogs-always-under-perfect-control types. Any other time of day the paths are just playgrounds for loose dogs, or blocked by stationary groups of auld wifies chatting away or young wifies with buggies chatting away. Prefer to take my chances with car drivers on real roads (and I'd say drivers are improving year by year in their attitudes to cyclists' rights to be on their roads which they've paid road tax for).

I'll sign your petition to stop unnecessary road closures. And you can add in closing the QFC for two days for pedestrians to take selfies on it.

[snooky]

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No angle, cyclists when on the road, by law must have lights when low or no natural daylight exists.
Ninja cyclists are not as prevalent as most people think but where they do exist they pose a hazard to themselves and other road users.
However, and this is what you may consider to be an angle but I'm genuinely not at the wind up; many road users don't have lights when they should (you'll notice a lot of cars with illegal/MOT failing lighting soon with the shortening days) but that doesn't make it OK to hit them. If I was driving and hit a car that had no lights do you think I'd be blame free?

I totally agree with you on this one, SG. The one-eyed vehicles on the road drive me nuts.
They seem to be oblivious to the dangers they cause all road users and pedestrians. I hefty fine should be imposed if it can be proved that it wasn't a bulb failure on that day/night.

[snooky]

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As it approaches winter and the dark nights I worry for my neighbours who walk to the pub a mile away with no pavement or street lights. They wear dark clothes no torches and walk on the wrong side of the road.

Mental.

It always scares me how many road & footway users are oblivious to how vulnerable they are.
Whether walking, cycling or driving I am constantly on the look out for situations of potential danger.
The drivers using phones, cyclists looking down a their feet and pedestians gazing into space. These people all think that the rest of the world will just avoid them, and they will - but when two of these space cadets meet...BANG!

[--------]

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Quite so. Just used 'cycle path' as shorthand, to distinguish from 'road'. They're a bit of a melee in Edinburgh, tbh. I only really cycle on 'em very early in the morning, when dogwalkers seem to be universally top-of-the-range dogs-always-under-perfect-control types. Any other time of day the paths are just playgrounds for loose dogs, or blocked by stationary groups of auld wifies chatting away or young wifies with buggies chatting away. Prefer to take my chances with car drivers on real roads (and I'd say drivers are improving year by year in their attitudes to cyclists' rights to be on their roads which they've paid road tax for).

I'll sign your petition to stop unnecessary road closures. And you can add in closing the QFC for two days for pedestrians to take selfies on it.

Absolutely!

I believe that 'taking selfies' has become a major cause of death in certain parts of the world. This seems to me to be the merciful operation of Providence in removing these folk from a world they aren't adapted to - or maybe just natural selection taking them out of the human gene pool?

My old doggie wasn't top of the range - she was a Border Collie of great character, which meant she was more intelligent by far than most of the humans she met in her all-too-short lifetime. But I can assure you she was under my control at all times. (Well, most of the time, tbh - she was a sucker for burgers and bacon sandwiches and would go off like a cruise missile if she caught their scent. Nobody's perfect.)

This isn't about 'cyclists' or 'drivers' or 'pedestrians' - it's about badly-planned and badly-timed 'fun events' and people who, whatever they're doing, lack any sense of consideration or empathy for other people.

I'm going to come clean now and admit that one of the problems with the pedestrian/cycle track at Caldercruix is that it stops at the western end of the village and only starts again towards the eastern end - because some of the residents objected to having it running along the back of their gardens. Given that one stretch of the track that does run behind some folks' gardens has become a night-time haunt for teenagers doing what teenagers do in the dark (mostly illegal, much of it insanitary, and the rest entirely immoral) with all the accompanying noise and disturbance and sense of threat that involves, one can understand the residents' concerns. BUT supposing one took the sensible option and organised the fun day I'm thinking off to take place on the track and off the roads, you still have the problem of what to do with literally thousands of cyclists from age 3 to 93, clubs, families, groups of friends, a typical mix of the Scottish population, when they reach the village and have to travel that 600-800 yards along the village streets.

Someone in the Planning Department probably thought, "Ach, it'll be OK. What could possibly go wrong?"

Not that I really believe in the existence of North Lanarkshire's Planning Department. I reckon they're in the same file as mermaids, the mothman, the chupacabra and the Loch Ness Monster.

[snooky]

Almost skelped next to my abode by a cyclist with no lights, dressed in a black hoodie, whooring down the footpath. He flew past right in front of me - luckily I was two full steps short of being mincemeat.

[CropleyWasGod]

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Almost skelped next to my abode by a cyclist with no lights, dressed in a black hoodie, whooring down the footpath. He flew past right in front of me - luckily I was two full steps short of being mincemeat.

That's awful.

A lot of people paid a lot of money for that, and the wee scrote couldn't do his job right.........



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[snooky]

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That's awful.

A lot of people paid a lot of money for that, and the wee scrote couldn't do his job right.........



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Or you could have said....
'Wow, that could have been me , but unfortunately I don't cycle down your way"

[snooky]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...tland-41282001
Both sides of the coin in this article. Fair dos, except I still haven't received one penny from the "millions of pounds" these events have brought into the local economy. In fact, they cause quite a bit of disruption to my everyday life. However, I suppose they're having lots of fun. Who really cares about the misery they cause to the hoi polloi.

[ano hibby]

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...tland-41282001
Both sides of the coin in this article. Fair dos, except I still haven't received one penny from the "millions of pounds" these events have brought into the local economy. In fact, they cause quite a bit of disruption to my everyday life. However, I suppose they're having lots of fun. Who really cares about the misery they cause to the hoi polloi.

Reasonably balanced article thanks.

I did Tour of the Borders as well as the PoppyScotland race yesterday. The PoppyScotland event started & finished in Prestonpans. It was an open road event unlike Tour of Borders which was closed road. From a cyclists perspective both were excellent mainly due to quality of routes and the stunning scenery on offer on both routes as well as favourable weather. We have so much to show off in our countryside.

I can't personally claim to have put money into either local economy but I did see and hear plenty people talk of staying locally in hotels night before both events. Plenty of eg English cycling groups taking part at both events. Also PoppyScotland have raised £36k on way to their target of £50k.

Hope the balance can be struck between showing off countryside, hosting these events and keeping locals happy.
Could never prove it by stats but willing to wager that there are as many daft cyclists as there are daft drivers as % of total.

[Beefster]

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I did Tour of the Borders as well as the PoppyScotland race yesterday.

I did the PoppyScotland yesterday too. Probably enjoyed it more than Tour o' the Borders. Hope you enjoyed!

[snooky]

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Reasonably balanced article thanks.

I did Tour of the Borders as well as the PoppyScotland race yesterday. The PoppyScotland event started & finished in Prestonpans. It was an open road event unlike Tour of Borders which was closed road. From a cyclists perspective both were excellent mainly due to quality of routes and the stunning scenery on offer on both routes as well as favourable weather. We have so much to show off in our countryside.

I can't personally claim to have put money into either local economy but I did see and hear plenty people talk of staying locally in hotels night before both events. Plenty of eg English cycling groups taking part at both events. Also PoppyScotland have raised £36k on way to their target of £50k.

Hope the balance can be struck between showing off countryside, hosting these events and keeping locals happy.
Could never prove it by stats but willing to wager that there are as many daft cyclists as there are daft drivers as % of total.

Nice, but I don't own a hotel.

[Beefster]

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Nice, but I don't own a hotel.

Probably only because you can’t get out of your house on a daily basis because of the ****ing cyclists.

[lapsedhibee]

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Nice, but I don't own a hotel.

And hotels in your locality don't pay rates?

[snooky]

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And hotels in your locality don't pay rates?

Yes, and oddly enough their rates are the same whether the cyclists stay or not.

[CropleyWasGod]

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And hotels in your locality don't pay rates?

It's not just about rates, of course.

Take Innerleithen as an example in point. Were it not for the cycling facilities there, the local economy would be so much poorer.

Businesses that currently thrive might not be there. Hence no rates.... no VAT.... no direct taxes.

People currently employed might not be so. Hence less tax and NI...less Council Tax.. less spending power...more drain on the public purse.

All of which says to me that, cyclist or not, there is a financial benefit to all of us.

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[snooky]

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It's not just about rates, of course.

Take Innerleithen as an example in point. Were it not for the cycling facilities there, the local economy would be so much poorer.

Businesses that currently thrive might not be there. Hence no rates.... no VAT.... no direct taxes.

People currently employed might not be so. Hence less tax and NI...less Council Tax.. less spending power...more drain on the public purse.

All of which says to me that, cyclist or not, there is a financial benefit to all of us.

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I really shouldn't get into discussions with people who can blow me out the water with facts.

[ano hibby]

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I did the PoppyScotland yesterday too. Probably enjoyed it more than Tour o' the Borders. Hope you enjoyed!

I enjoyed it but definitely at limits of my endurance (middle route).

It's an odd one but cycling for 5 hours you'd expect to lose weight but the combination of chocolate coated honeycomb, flapjack, caffeinated gels, malt loaf, toast & jam & energy bar meant I put on a few pounds!!