Things cyclists should know … POV driver who's incapable of cycling

Expect them to go out of favour now that HMRC are treating crew cabs as passenger cars for benefit-in-kind purposes.

The vehicles themselves may well be more dangerous, but you can't really make generalisations about their drivers. All road cyclists are smug know-it-alls, fixie skidders jump reds, burly men on old MTBs only cycle on the pavement...

Not sure if trolling, but anecdotes =! evidence.

The vehicles themselves may well be more dangerous, but you can't really make generalisations about their drivers.

I said it's my direct experience after three years working with the vehicle owners. Backed up by some research:

Imperial College London found 4x4 drivers were four times more likely to use mobile phones than other drivers, while a third more shunned seat belts.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5107708.stm

It's that old "risk compensation" again, these vehicle drivers are higher and often better protected, so they take more silly risks.

you are absolutely right about avoiding stereotyping people.

Except pick up truck drivers, and skip truck drivers

Scientists who studied drivers using motorways found those in 4x4s were more likely to sit with just one hand on the top of the wheel as they race along.
They concluded that because the drivers are in a larger taller vehicle, they believe they are safer - and so are more inclined to take risks.

Published in the journal Transportation Research F, was conducted by researchers from the Opus behavioural sciences laboratory in Wellington, New Zealand.

The other thing with the rear tinted window is, if parked near a junction the vehicle effectively obscures the whole side road, you can't see what's coming and you can't see through the window so it reduces the time to react to an emerging vehicle.

I was riding through Surrey on a narrow country lane. I was descending quite fast but in no way over the speed limit. There were too many bends in the road to get up a real pace.

I went round one of those bends and was presented with the sight of two four wheel drive vehiles in a Mexican stand off. No way could they both move. No way was either going to move off the road for the other. I braked and came to a halt without hitting the nearer car. I unclipped and waited. The drivers sat there for a while and then both got out and started screaming at each other.

Screaming at each other in such broad South African accents that they might have been speaking Afrikaans.

Blow me, I thought to myself, how stereotypical is that. Two South Africans driving 4x4s in Surrey and both acting as though they own the road.

I picked my bike up, walked past them and rode on.

I cycled down that lane a few months later and they had gone, which surprised me.

you are absolutely right about avoiding stereotyping people.

Except pick up truck drivers, and skip truck drivers, and Volvo drivers, and Addison Lee drivers, and white van drivers, and HGV drivers, and bus drivers, and BMW drivers

Realistically, there are not many vehicles about whose drivers we don't make assumptions, and that's before we've even seen the driver and started on the gender/race/age/class stereotypes

I said...

So which is it, 4x4s or SUVs or pickups? Most pickups aren't four-wheel-drive so would they be part of that study?

My point was that you should avoid making stereotypes, evidenced or not.

My neighbour has a Navarra pickup and he's an utter bastard. He also has an Audi!

yes, she does, but she appears to have an assumption that owning a car makes her more important than someone on a bike, as far as I can tell

You really get that from what she's written?

Yes he does, because

you are absolutely right about avoiding stereotyping people.

Except pick up truck drivers, and skip truck drivers

Stereotyping people is fun, it means you always have someone to argue with, even when you are on your own.

So which is it, 4x4s or SUVs or pickups? Most pickups aren't four-wheel-drive so would they be part of that study?

My point was that you should avoid making stereotypes, evidenced or not.

If there's evidence then it's not really a stereotype, it's simply stating a fact, there is evidence these vehicles are more dangerous for people both inside and outside, and the research is that the higher and better protected drivers are the more risks they take, naturally that applies to pick ups and 4x4s.

Also, after speaking to plenty of these drivers I can say my own direct personal experience is that the rate of unpleasant and aggressive people is far higher than for other cars. You can say you disagree but you can't really argue against my own experience!

My neighbour has a Navarra pickup and he's an utter bastard. He also has an Audi!

They are massively popular on council estates, for some reason. Usually parked outside a beat-up house with a dead washing ,machine in the front garden.

My dad's got a pick up, I accept your point completely.

Grrrrr! The council estate is across the road! He is a millionaire plumber..

My dad's got a pick up, I accept your point completely.

I'm confident your dad lives a life of blameless bourgeois domesticity. Lots of (other) pickup drivers are dolts and bounders and utter cads.

If there's evidence then it's not really a stereotype, it's simply stating a fact, there is evidence these vehicles are more dangerous for people both inside and outside, and the research is that the higher and better protected drivers are the more risks they take, naturally that applies to pick ups and 4x4s.

Also, after speaking to plenty of these drivers I can say my own direct personal experience is that the rate of unpleasant and aggressive people is far higher than for other cars. You can say you disagree but you can't really argue against my own experience!

Amazing.
you win the internet.

He's a twat.

Amazing.
you win the internet.

I work in car insurance, I speak with fifty random drivers a day and have done for three years, that's a lot of drivers and enough to form an opinion, I think. One that quite a few colleagues share.

A stereotype isn't necessarily incorrect. Saying 'anecdotally this' is okay, but we should all try not to act on our anecdotes or discriminate because of them; give people the benefit of the doubt - I'm sorry if I misinterpreted your post.

give people the benefit of the doubt

not in traffic. I only have 1 life.

I was riding through Surrey on a narrow country lane. I was descending quite fast but in no way over the speed limit. There were too many bends in the road to get up a real pace.

I went round one of those bends and was presented with the sight of two four wheel drive vehiles in a Mexican stand off. No way could they both move. No way was either going to move off the road for the other. I braked and came to a halt without hitting the nearer car. I unclipped and waited. The drivers sat there for a while and then both got out and started screaming at each other.

Screaming at each other in such broad South African accents that they might have been speaking Afrikaans.

Blow me, I thought to myself, how stereotypical is that. Two South Africans driving 4x4s in Surrey and both acting as though they own the road.

I picked my bike up, walked past them and rode on.

I cycled down that lane a few months later and they had gone, which surprised me.

We'd have kept at for longer, but we had to get home for our tea.

not in traffic. I only have 1 life.

Cycle defensively around everyone, not just around those who you assume to be more dangerous.

Perhaps I should've said 'give yourself the benefit of the doubt'.

^good point.

Cycle defensively around everyone, not just around those who you assume to be more dangerous.

Perhaps I should've said 'give yourself the benefit of the doubt'.

I assume everybody is a wanker based on various stereotypes.

I work in car insurance, I speak with fifty random drivers a day and have done for three years, that's a lot of drivers and enough to form an opinion, I think. One that quite a few colleagues share.

I apologise, this clearly disproves whatever point it was I was making. Like I said, you win the internet.