Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Along the same vein as WRGTL thread series, I thought I'd post a top ten of thing I find amusing, annoying, or pleasant about my commute.

So here is my first Top Ten - Things that P!ss me off when commuting.

• 1. Pot-holed roads. Why doesn't each respective council get their arse into gear and fix pot-holes? I've just destroyed a rim due to a pot hole I hit whilst commuting to work. 5am and tired eyes don't work well together.
  2. Street Sweepers. Do they really exist? I've heard of them, think I may have even spotted one on a foggy morn', but they never seem to be where we most need them.....on the damn M5.
  3. Drivers not stopping at red lights. This !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !!'s me to tears, basically because all I ever hear from car drivers when they are complaining about cyclists is how WE don't stop at red lights. LOOK IN THE MIRROR MORON.
  4. Cyclists not stopping at red lights. Read the above point then try to argue.
  5. Drivers failing to indicate, 'specially at roundabouts. Right-hand turners are bad, but those going left really !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !! me. I go to all the trouble to stop, and they turn left leaving me sitting there like a bumb on a log.
  6. Close passers. Let's see how close we can get to the cyclist in our car. 12" good enough? Give me a break. Move over please.
  7. Horn-blowers. Had one of these today, which is what prompted this thread (along with point #10). A big break down lane. Plenty of room, but still this scrubber in a VP Commodore felt the need to blast her horn as she past with-in 2 feet of me. Scared the be-jesus outa me, I tell ya. I sooooo wish I could have caught up to her again.
  8. Cyclists with no helmet, on the wrong side of the road, at dusk, with no lights, and wearing all black outfits. Do you want to live? Is there any hint of common sense in that skull of yours?
  9. Impatient drivers, specifically P-Platers. Why cut me off to save yourself 5 seconds? Really, what do you gain? I get to mouth off, you look stupid. Who wins?
  
  
  And the winner is...........
  
  10. Dumb bimbo's in black Astra's too busy chatting on their mobile phone to bother stopping and looking at roundabouts. Was so close to being cleaned up today, it doesn't bear thinking about. Luckily I spotted her failing to stop in the nick of time, and managed to avoid a collision. Gave her a good gobful though. She quickly dropped the phone in a panic and then just stared at me as I swore as-nausium about her lack of driving skills.

My rant is over for the night. Maybe too many bourbons before posting, but who cares.

Take care out there people.

Kev.

I am off my bike this week because I buggered up my knee falling off so I can catch the bus to the train and train in or bus it in. I missed the train bus to decided to bus it in. The first major road was a parking lot. It took 15 minutes to go one block. We finally turned off that road and a couple of minutes later the road into the city was a parking lot. I told the bus driver I was going to bail and catch the train. I limped back to the train station and arrived at work 15 mins late which is 40 mins later than if I had ridden in by bike. How much do I wish I rode in this morning? I don't think I have 10 things that annoy me but here are a few:
1. cyclists at dusk, without lights, running red lights into turning traffic
2. peds on the shared path standing around listening to iPods
3. road works on the shared path
4. other cyclists following too close
5. most of all, on a nice sunny morning with the sun shining over the river as I ride in to work, I don't like it when my ride ends.

I hope you do a what you like about commuting next because I like more things about riding to work than not.

Kev: I've heard tale of people sending council's invoices for damage to cars because of pot holes. The council has a 'duty of care' to maintain the road. It'd be worth a shot to send them the invoice for your rim/wheel with a letter of explanation of why you're claiming damages. I'd do it.

Bikelanes that vanish right before you really need them.
Smokebox users (no way could they be described as drivers) who park halfway into the bikelane because they don't know where the gutter is. Coincidentally, the main one I spot on my commute is a black Astra, one day a barend might get too close...

Shaun

Mulger bill wrote:Bikelanes that vanish right before you really need them.

Oh yeah. Road throughput is determined by lanes through intersections. So the continuation of a bike lane through an intersection is the real measure of how much the transport people are serious about the bike lane.

My nightmare is people who drive up the breakdown lane whilst trying to merge onto the freeway. I am in the lane, they are looking in their mirror at the traffic behind them, ... And they pull a lot of gravel and rubbish into the lane. I do wish the transport people would put in some ripple strips to prevent that behaviour.

I nearly got cleaned up by a Kev #8 tonight on the way home, while I was walking home from the bus stop, on the footpath. I heard this big gravel scrunch as the guy pulled up in front of me with a look on his face. I managed a "Where are your lights?! ...... (AT))$^_*$&ing moron ! The cretin was on a K-Mart special, and wearing a super-duper K-Mart special helmet, so he wouldn't have been worth suing for the expense involved in fixing my shoulder again if he'd cleaned me up.

gdt wrote:

Mulger bill wrote: ... And they pull a lot of gravel and rubbish into the lane. I do wish the transport people would put in some ripple strips to prevent that behaviour.

Then you'd have to ride over those ripple-strips.

What we need is Police to enforce the road rules in situations like that. Then people will start talking about how they were booked for merging from a break-down/cycle lane and their friends would be far less likely to do it. It'd be easy 'collars' for the police, too.

Quite a few people at work cycle from the local train station to work (about 1.5-2km's) and just wear their work clothes, which means a high-vis. workshirt. These people hardly cop any crap from smart arse motorists as they just look like normal people going about an honest days work while the wife has the car to take the kids to school. Truth is a couple of them have been done for drink driving. Anyway, while I wear proper cycling gear, I cop abuse from the same smart arse motorists.

Commuting does have its benefits though, as a ride past a bakery early in the morning, or a pizza shop later at night, brings with it some wonderful aroma's.
Now winter is here, I get to discuss the merits of cycling tights vs. normal tights with the office girls, and have struck up friendships with people who didn't even say hello to me beforehand, just because they also ride bikes.

So its not all bad news.

Potholes just killed two wheels with a pothole. If only I stayed on the shoulder for another 10 meters.