Getting flashed at!!
 

When I drove to Margaret River a few months ago I was driving along the road when a few cars suddenly started flashing at me!?
My parents were with me at the time and I even stopped and got out the car to have a look, I thought something was wrong with the car! I was a few hundred yards up the road that I noticed a hidden speed camera!! How kind of the drivers to warn me in advance!
Got flashed at again today, and further up the road was a hidden speed camera. Truly sporting I feel!:D

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

There was a guy in the US arrested a while back for flashing his lights so as to warn other motorists of speed cameras. He just fought his case and won - on the grounds that it was his own personal right to communicate with others how he wished, and what messages to give them!!

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

I have witnessed that here, the UK, France and the US. It does help a lot. Here there is such a high chance of being trapped that I only go 10 k over as any higher the fines start to get very bad. Touch wood I still have no convictions.

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

is that a good or bad thing? I mean speeding cameras are partly designed to reduce the incidence of speeding and accidents. If drivers forewarn other drivers of speeding cameras I think that tends to encourage some drivers to continue to speed. As an avid cyclist living in australia there is already too many reckless petrol heads in this country as is.

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

Do any cyclists respect the Highway Code?

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

Well if only I could reach the speed limit with all the traffic on my commute. I would never cycle in Sydney as the locals seem to have an awareness of a kangaroo looking at headlights.

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

For years I've struggled to find the page in the Highway Code that allows cyclists to scratch the side of a car as the weave in and out to get to the front of a queue, or allows them to creep through red lights, or to cut straight across mini roundabouts, or to hold up a queue of traffic at the lights because they've gathered 'en masse' at the front and can't pull away at a decent speed because they're all bumping in to each other!

And there is definitely no page that says you have to wear those stupid lycra shorts and shirts. GET OFF AND WALK!!!

Steve. (Rant over)

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

Funny cos I never found in the highway code where it says that motorists can jump red lights, drive without lights at night, drive with full fog lights in broad daylight, drive without MOT, insurance, or licence, break the speed limit, overtake in no overtaking zones, drive without courtesy to other road users, drive whilst under the influence of alcohol, drugs or whilst using a mobile phone, and take unneccesary risks with other people's lives.

I've also often wondered why motorists insist on driving so close to cyclists that they actually brush them with their wing mirrors, and then complain that their cars get scratched.

I don't think you can tar all cyclists with the same brush, just like you can't tar all motorists with the same brush.

By the way, my cycle to work would be quicker if I didn't get held up by cars. Go figure.

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

I know, that one baffles me as well!

But it still doesn't explain the Lycra! :D

did not see too many cyclists in the queue at the post office last time i was shelling out nearly £200 for road tax.

:rolleyes:

Yet they still want more space on the roads our road tax pays for!

And for what.......to wear Lycra!

Steve
:D

I'm a cyclist and I pay 'road tax'. (Doesn't really take too much working out does it.)

Of course the number of non-motoring cyclists (who therefore don't pay road tax) is far outweiged by the number of motorists who evade road tax every year. In 2002 in the UK over 800,00 motorists avoided paying road tax - £200m - how about having a dig at these people, eh?

Incidentally, the roads are funded by all tax payers - not just motorists. Your 'road tax' is actually a vehicle excise duty - it is a licence to use a vehicle on a public road, but the money to fund the upkeep and development of roads does not come from VED - it comes from the public purse - tax payers money, motorists and non-motorists alike.

As regards the lycra, all I'll ask you is why the England rugby team aren't playing in jeans and home-knitted pullovers tonight?

Don't worry, they'll probably put them back on after they win!

Steve :D

Hiddenpaw - great response to the ignorant rubbish from Stevie and Welshboy. steve - bit insecure about people wearing lycra are we? - that's your issue mate - probably a childhood thing. If you're capable of thinking about it for a second or two it might occur to that lycra is quite a functional material for road cyclists.

Yes, it gives us motorists something to laugh at in traffic jams!!

Steve :D

checking out their arses, are we perhaps

on yer bike

:rolleyes:

Come on, tell me that this isn't a funny sight.....

hmmm indeed. proves what was previously my assertion. btw, just on the quiet b/n you and me, you got anymore pics like that?

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

I can remember that happening all the time when we lived in WA.
I guess it's just standard.

Here they don't do it I think. Here they flash when your headlights broken or something.

Give me a fit cyclist in lycra showing off sexy, toned legs and a tight arse over a fat motorist with his gut wedged between his seat belt and trousers any day :D

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

Well said Steve.

Or how about when they come charging across zebra or pelican crossings when you are half way across with your kids.

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

Yes, it's most frightening when a car does that!

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

I dont see how someone flashing at you can encourage you to speed, getting flashed at should make you slow down and keep a look out, as you dont know the reason for the flash in the first place.

One of the main reasons for flashing/getting flashed where I live (small country lanes) is that there is a horse and rider round the next blind bend.

I had a flame war with many people on this forum when I admitted to having a radar detector in my car (legal in UK), if you have one of these you would never speed as they are constantly going off for traffic lights, automatic doors and sometimes for speed cameras. Statistics show that radar detectors reduce accidents by slowing people down. (I got rid of it as it will be illegal in Aus btw I dont speed)

People flashing you also slow you down, so the speed camera has done its job in a roundabout fashion.

Keep flashing.:D

Phil.

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

Listen, mate, we follow the road signs! I've seen how you lot read signs............


Steve :D

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

or how about those pedesatrians who come charging across the road, stepping right out in front of you, as if the cycle lane is an extension of the footpath??

Or those drivers who happily park in the cycle lane as if it's not part of the road??

You can't knock cyclists until you've tried it and realised how close they come to death on a daily basis - at the hands of automobiles and pedestrians!

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

Bus lanes, cycle lanes, pavements and footpaths.......how much more of the road do you lot want! If a car is 6 times wider than a bike and we can carry 6 times the number of passengers, then it's obvious that we need 6 times the room! If you want to play with your bike, go to the park!

Steve :D

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

For many, a bicycle is a mode of transport not a toy. You possibly don't understand this given that your comments indicate that you don't ride a bike.

I don't condone any cyclist who rides the footpath. What I will say, however, it is hardly surprising that some cyclists do choose the footpath given the way motorists treat them when they use the road.

If you widened your narrow view point, you might actually see that cyclists who choose to make their journey without the use of the car are actually helping to make the environment a better place for you and your children to enjoy. What you also obviously don't realise is that one more cyclist often means one less car on the road - and less traffic congestion for you.

Half the journeys you make by car are probably completely uneccesary, and I really don't believe you always carry 6 passengers with you. And besides, what makes you think your journey by car is more improtant than someone else's journey by bike? Cyclists have a right to get from A to B just like motorists do. Your comments come across as suggesting that a motorist is a superior human being to a cyclist. Why is that?

You really should get out more and do some exercise.

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

Steve, You and your pictures are excellent, loved the ones that came up after the match.I am at work in the morning can you pleeeaase put some pictures of the boys landing at heathrow for those of us who will not see it????
:)

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

I remember as a child in NZ that everyone seemed to FLASH the car lights to warn that a traffic cop was hidden up a head on a main road with a speed gun.

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

You are perfectly right, you do make a useful contribution to the environment, I can't argue with that. As you are nearer to the road than the pedestrians, you are breathing in all our exhust fumes and making the world a better place. I spew it out and you breathe it in! Now that's what I call recycling!

Steve :D

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

And when you ride on the pavement, look how you treat the pedestrians! Poor bloke only went out for some curry powder!

Steve :D

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

LOL...if you really believe the only people who suffer the effect of exhaust fumes are cyclists you are sadly naive :D

Come to Melbourne! Look at the layer of brown traffic smog that hangs over the city and the bay.....whether you're cycling, walking, enjoying the sunshine at the beach, sitting in your own back garden or even sitting in your car, you are breathing in polluted air.

No wonder that one in 4 kids here has asthma.

Unless you have your car vents permanently closed and are wearing breathing apparatus, you'll find you're taking in the same dirty air from traffic as someone walking outside.

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

Do you or your bloke wear a mask HP? I used to when i rode in London and it was a great help....You could blow your nose at the end of the day and it did'nt come out black ;)

On the subject of traffic....one thing that i REALLY hated about oz was the lack of provision for pedestrians in some areas. Sometimes it was a case of either driving to k-mart, or dodging cars on your way there, ala USA.

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

This is true. When first arrived in Oz and carless, we took to walking to places. Was trying to get to a certain place a major Brisbane touristy place, we were 300M away but could find no discernible safe way of crossing the road with a pushchair as no paths at roadside and no lights for pedestrians at busy roundabout. Asked a bus driver who advsied that we wouldn't be able to cross and to get on the next bus! Now happy owner of car.

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

I've always wondered about this...
A lot of places here in Aus, well Brisbane anyway, do not have footpaths outside houses etc, as your probably well aware of , so you are forced to walk on peoples, houses grass.. but what if you are in a wheelchair, or you are pushing a pram.. ie you can not push over the grass and need a flat surface, You are forced to walk, wheel on the road.. What if a car hits you.. can you sue the council for not providing pavements??. You pay your rates - in my opinion they have a duty of care to maintain streets which includes providing footpaths for pedestrians.

I sometimes wonder what the hell do they do with the rates. certainly not on street lights, or pavements, or cutting the council grass bit of land.. ie one metre away from kerb side.

cheers

P.S Although not a cyclist myself.. my cousin was.. notice I said "Was". He was killed by a car ploughing into him last year (in the UK) whilst he was out cycling (it was his means of transport) . The idiot driving the car was at fault which was proven at the inquest.

Re: Getting flashed at!!
 

On a similar note to the rates......(sorry to be going wayy off of thread here :)), somthing that may interest you Ceri, as a boat owner. I was listening to brisbane 4bc radio the other day and they were talking about boat licences and registration. They were saying the QLD gov take about £180 million a year in boat registration, and of that only 4 million is spent on boat ramps, and 1 million on dredging. Apparently there is major concern amongst "boaties" as to where their cash is going.....