Invisible Cyclists

Cyclists...now there's one word that every driver cringes at.  When you meet a cyclist while out driving you cannot always prepare yourself for events they may or may not happen.  Each one is different and there seems to be no rules of the road for any of them.  When I was at school we had to take a cycling proficiency test before we were allowed to ride our bike to school but now-a-days there seems to be none of that and even the adults are awful road users.

They seem to use the paths as well as the roads and you cannot say whether they will stick to one or the other.  Just yesterday I saw a person on a bike nearly take out some pedestrians who were waiting to cross the road and all because he didn't want to use his breaks and stop before the traffic coming in the other direction got to him.

None of them appear to have lights or working brakes on their bikes anymore and as for fluorescent jackets/vests, I think these lovely items have gone extinct.  There used to be an advert on the TV with a tune that you could never get out of your head -

Dark means danger, so get yourself seen
At night, make it white,
In the dark make it light,
But get yourself seen.

Take a brush to your bike,
Use some tape if you like,
But get yourself seen.

Make it big,
Make it bold,
Make it bright!

To be sure that you’re seen
Keep your lights bright and clean,
But get yourself seen.

Whether working for a living or just riding for your pleasure
Let the world see your life is something that you treasure
And get yourself seen,

Make it big,
Make it bold,
Make it bright,
And get yourself seen!

I think they should start running that add again.  The cyclists don't seem to care and the drivers are always to blame.

Most of them don't know what a turning hand signal is and you just have to predict if they are going to take a turn or not.  Also when approaching a stop light at a junction, roundabout or crossing the red light doesn't appear to apply to them and they just carry on through.  This brings up a good question:  Are all cyclist colour blind?

Then there's the professional cyclists and people cycling as a group.  Just because you are in a group or race doesn't mean that you can ride side by side and take up all of the road, unless you have a police escort that is.  And come to mention it, whenever these cyclists are doing something wrong there's never a policeman around to put them straight.  But that's another sore subject.