If anyone needs help sobering up at any point have a read through the articles from news shoppers website over the last 2 years that a search of 'cyclist' brings back.

Oh, and you'd better have this one too: Pavement Cycling

Some of London's finest minds commenting on some stories too.

I saw some strange behaviour yesterday morning at the entrance to Rotherhithe Tunnel (travelling south to north). A cyclist had stopped just short of the tunnel entrance on the road - they are usually on the pavement at this point - presumably adjusting something on his bike. I went round him but would have stopped had there been any oncoming traffic. The white van behind me tooted the cyclist loudly and, after a while, from my rear view mirror I noticed that the cyclist was on the pavement travelling through the tunnel but the van was driving alongside him in what appeared to be a very menacing way. I was hoping the van would catch me up so I could take his number but he was clearly driving at the cyclist's speed, i.e. well below 20 mph - with a long queue building up behind him.
Don't understand some drivers' behaviour and I felt sorry for the cyclist who obviously failed to get off the road quickly enough for the van driver.

It has to be said that registration numbers make people accountable so if a car goes through the red light on London road outside Sainsburys while you are crossing with your toddler slowly, you have the option of reporting them. While the frequent daily transgressions of cyclists who are too lazy or self-important to stop are never brought to account.

I think the police should deploy water cannon just further down and give each law-breaking cyclist a cold wake-up. They need to get in some practice to prepare for any future riots.

I understand your frustration but to be fair I don't think many motorists are brought to account for red-light-jumping either. If registration was the magic bullet I think it would have happened by now...but then I've already made my feelings known on this and it probably isn't good for my BP to get involved again so soon (someone on here must have seen my very public, very loud and very long disagreement with a motorist on London Road last week)!

Actually just reporting a number plate isn't always that easy; the driver can deny being behind the wheel at the time, so you need a description as well. And that's assuming the car isn't one that's uninsured, etc, and no-one knows who the current owner is.

And as deplorable as light jumping cycists are, they don't kill or maim thousands of pedestrians every year.

much as I deplore the actions of red light jumpers and pavement cyclists, a little perspective please.

http://londonist.com/2011/10/amazing-esc...bridge.php (sorry - don't know how to make it a clickable link..)

I went past the aftermath yesterday morning (on the bus as the lurgy is keeping me off the bike) as i'm sure may other posters on here did too on their way to work form London Bridge. Amazingly, and thankfully, the cyclist escaped physically unharmed.

Thankfully she was okay. She raised a really good point, and one of the best pieces of advice I was given with regards to other road users.

When stopped at lights/junctions, get acknowledged eye contact with the driver so you know they ahve seen you, especially if you are turning right.

Excellent that that cyclist survived without serious injuries.

On another note, I was in Oxford Street this lunchtime and astonished to see a cyclist riding up the middle of the jam-packed pavement at a sedate 2mph. Can't have been easy to stay on.

The above link is just a typical cyclists' non sequitur. How can one put this? Let's just say that many of them are little bit sensitive to criticism. I wonder whether the real reason AMFM restarted this thread is that last time round he felt that the cyclists who chose to say that there wasn't really a problem came off worst. At least we can agree about that.

I'm not going to repeat everything. I just want to say that Borderpaul has the right idea. That's what we need - practical, creative thinking.

When I'm competing I have to display a race number on both my helmet and bike (I also have to display one on my back). One or more of these numbers is visible to the race photographer. No reason why that photographer shouldn't be a traffic camera instead.

I'd happily wear a "registration" number, but not sure how it would work in reality.

In Cambridge, a town where cyclists are more predominant than cars and compete with dim tourists in the medieval streets, all student cycles have to display a "registration number", which includes a letter to indicate the college and a number which indicates the year of registration, painted on the rear mudguard.

While this largely serves to return them to their owners when they are dredged out of the Cam, as wayfarers says , it could also be used to identify breaches of cycling etiquette.

Oh, and if any forumites is the owner of the brown and cream Puch Elegance, parked by HOP train station today, it gave me a big lump in my throat - it's identical to the one I used to own many moons ago (I know it's not the very same as it didn't have T19/82 on the mudguard!)

Hillsideresident - I didn't resurrect anything and your post makes absolutley no sense to me (I can't remember what I may have posted months ago and I don't have the time or the inclination to go searching).

I am not (and I don't think I ever have) condoning bad behaviour. If I appear overly sensitive it is because as a group, cyclists get pilloried on an all too regular basis and it has the effect of almost dehumanising us as a group which is grossly unfair. No other group of road (or pavement) users seems to attract the level of vitriol so regularly directed at cyclists. It is hardly surprising that we might be a bit touchy about it. By the act of categorisation as a menace or nuisance (and I don't resile from the fact that some cyclists don't help themselves) it means we get treated as "fair game" by idiot boy racers and impatient lorry and van drivers on the roads - this makes an already tense negotiation in traffic even more difficult.

oh, and don't presume to know my gender.

I see I have confused IWAF with AMFM - my apologies. The former is the one who restarted this thread, the latter the one who posted the irrelevant link. I am sick of "responsible" cyclists claiming for one reason or another that it is unreasonable for pedestrians to criticise cyclists who ride selfishly.

Am interested that you have a gender, AMFM. I presume you are some sort of French noun.

For clarity, I did not restart this thread, as is clear at the start of the thread. Admin responded to a flippant remark I made about cycling on a thread on another subject and decided to start this one him/herself.

Not sure what is irrelevant about AMFM's link. Admin has titled the thread 'Cyclists' and the link is related to cycling. All cycling related topics are surely welcome, including your own views on poor cycling behaviour and licensing.

Finally, I'd thought AMFM was a radio reference but who knows (cue Admin starting a radio thread since I've gone off-topic again)?

This is interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9PxKdspj...re=related

Interesting because it was filmed by a cyclist. And as you can see, he's got loads more. This is the kind of cyclist I respect. Not those who treat idiotic behaviour as a joke, or for whom any criticism at all is "not getting things in perspective".

But, hillsideresident, by putting 'responsible' in inverted commas, do you mean that there's no such thing as a responsible cyclist?

No responsible cyclist has any problem with pedestrians criticising cyclists who are riding selfishly, stupidly or dangerously. We'd probably join in since they give the rest of us a bad name. And the law-abiding cyclists are generally far less noticeable since we're out of your way. I spend a lot of time sitting at junctions at red lights with many other cyclists - the majority are not bouncing on/off pavements or ignoring traffic lights. There are, of course, idiots who do.

What we do have a 'problem' with is where pedestrians/drivers tar all of us with the same brush. Cyclists, as a group, seem to be far more vilified than almost any other road users. Since they cause least damage to people, property or road surfaces that seems unfair.

I don't assume all drivers are morons because one left-hooks me. I don't assume all pedestrians are idiots and call for them to wear high visibility because one steps out in front of me (on a red man).

There are good and bad road users in every group; and generally more good than bad otherwise our roads would be even more dangerous. Wayfarer's point, back up the thread, is the most relevant on here. Let's all stay safe - and promote the correct safety conscious behaviour by everyone who uses the roads (even those who only cross them)

Good youtube footage, if nothing else it highlights to other cyclists some obvious does and don'ts.

I did feel sorry for the No1 rated silly cyclist - yes he should have slowed down, or called out, but having been passed by two cyclists coming the other way the pedestrian should have been aware and looked - I'd put him in number 5/6 place.

For me there were a few contenders for the top spot but I would have awarded it to the muppet that tried to cycle between the bus and the security van - If either of the vehicles had moved whilst he was going through, he'd could have been in serious trouble.

No1 good cyclist was great advice, a simple hand signal will not only warn the roadusers behind you that you are slowing down, but that there is a potential hazzard coming up.

No1 rated silly cyclist is one of those bad cyclists who are a dangerous minority.
Here is the original from youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGO3bt6YPKo
With the comment by the poster: "I await your comments as this was the second time in a week that I knocked down a pedestrian"

Another cyclist comments on the video: You await our comments? Well, here's mine. I hope the Police look into this incident, because your actions are disgraceful. You give the rest of us cyclists a bad name. You're going too fast along the path and you gave no warning that you were going past the two people nor did you? attempt to slow down.

On your other videos you moan about car drivers going too fast past you, yet you do the same to more vulnerable people yourself. Calm down or get off the bike before someone gets injured.

No1 rated silly cyclist is not silly he is a deliberate menace to pedestrians for exactly the reasons outlined above.

Thank you for the context. He is indeed No1 Silly driver.