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There. I've said it. I hate cyclists. Maybe some are safe but it seem to be a tiny minority.
Today, near where I live (there is a dual carriageway outside) I saw 4 people in less than 5 minutes cycle the wrong way up the dual carriageway.
I used to live beside a once-way street. Half way up was a Christian Brothers School. When the school day ended every day up to a hundred kids would cycle the wrong way down the street. I don't know how many times I saw cars swerving to miss a clump of cyclists tearing towards them the wrong way down the street. God help any driver or pedestrian who got in the cyclists' way.
Some months ago I saw a cyclist mow down someone who was crossing O'Connell Street. They had the right of way. All the cars were stopped. But some nob end on a bike whizzed through the cars and send a young man who had been crossing, flying through the air. Luckily the kid was just shaken. But was the cyclist apologetic? Like f*ck he was. When the young man, still shaking, headed down North Earl Street, the f*cker got on his bike and cycled after him screaming "you broke my mirror, you f*cking bastard!" and proceeded to ride at him, shouting "you'll f*cking pay to get a new one, you c*nt!" Before he had a chance to attack the young man he had knocked down, who at this stage looked terrified, a garda saw him and ran towards them. So the cyclist cycled on down O'Connell Street at high speed on the footpath, barely missing people.
I had my own bad experience two years ago. It was lashing rain and a cyclist was knocked down and injured when they ran a red light. All the traffic was stopped. I was in a taxi. The taximan inched over to the kerb to let me out. As I always do I checked the wing mirror for any cyclists cycling along the kerb, and there was none. The car was only a couple of inches from the kerb so it would have been physically impossible for a cycling to pass kerb-side. The driver had also put on his hazard lights. So I opened the door, only to find a cyclist smah into it at high speed. The f*cking eejit was cycling on the footpath between people so there was no way I could have seen him. Cycling on footpaths is banned for a very good reason - because it is dangerous. I ended up badly concussed with a cut arm. The cyclist, as they do, began screaming how I was in the wrong. Luckily one of the gardai heading to the accident ahead was coming behind the taxi and saw the accident. He arrested the cyclist for some traffic offence - I forget what the name of it was. I was too busy dealing with a cut arm and ripped suit to pay much attention - leading the cyclist, as they so often to, to cry "victimisation". The taxi driver had a wrecked car door. I spent the next six hours in casualty. The cyclist somehow had only a sprained wrist. (He was lucky neither I nor the taximan got near him or he would have had a lot worse wrong with him.) But instead of admitting that he was in the wrong he demanded the guard arrest me and the taxi driver for damaging his wheel.
Last week a friend of mine saw an old woman in Ranelagh knocked down by a cyclist who having knocked her down got up, on his bike and cycled away, leaving her on the ground.
(Actually that reminds me: I once saw two cyclists try to cycle at speed THROUGH the Swan centre - a shopping centre - in Rathmines!)
At this point it is rare to find a cyclist in Dublin who actually stops at red lights, who doesn't cycle through pedestrians when they have right of way, who doesn't cut corners, and cycle on footpaths.
We need to get tough on these maniacs.
The rules should be simple.
ALL cyclists should be required to be ensured.
EVERY cyclist who cycles on a footpath should have their bicycle confiscated.
ALL cyclists should be required to have done a course on same use of the roads, and be required to be licenced.
Cyclists always complain about how unfair other road users are to them. The truth is simple: the biggest cause of cycling accidents, and the biggest cause of cycling accidents, are cyclists themselves.* They need to wise up.
* [size=7]By the way, one of my college friends was herself killed in a cycling accident when she was hit by a car on O'Connell Bridge. She was the cause of the accident when she tried to cycle through a red light and straight through the quays, stupidly thinking she could outride traffic crossing the bridge to go down D'Olier Street.[/size]
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