I used to regularly drive the back road from St Ives to Penzance when I went diving in the area. We would stay in St Ives, but depending on the wind direction, would often be on a boat out of Penzance or Lamorna. There was always an idiot who would drive 5 yards off my rear end on twisty narrow roads with nasty unforgiving cornish hedges. I felt like stopping and asking them if they wanted to get in the boot. Bearing in mind my back seat was flat to enable four scuba tanks and two weight belts in the back, jammimg on the brakes was likely to have them shift. Not good.
I have a hearing problem - especially when I don't use my hearing aids. They whizz through shopping malls - hell's grannies and grandads. They should have to take a test, be insured and licensed and the same goes for cyclists. The mobility juggernauts should have number plates and the cyclists should have their licence number on their helmet.
Same goes for horses and riders IMHO. ( there's a whole new thread waiting for those )
Horses have been using the roads a lot longer than motor vehicles!
This is very true, but cars have to have insurance and be certified as roadworthy and the drivers have to pay road tax be over 17 and have to pass a test before taking a car on the road. Horses and their riders do not. Cars have to be on roads, horses do not. All I'm saying that many, NOT ALL riders, AND drivers show little consideration for fellow road users. A friend of mine had over £1,000 worth of damage done to his parked car when a horse backed into it and basically sat on the bonnet. The rider said " It was spooked" but refused to accept any responsibility to pay for the damage.
I'd love to be reading that claim. Please supply details of the incident. A horse sat on my bonnet!
He didn't claim on his insurance to save his no claims discount. So he was over £1,000 out of pocket and the rider just shrugged her shoulders and trotted off.
As a former horserider/driver I'd expect to pay for damage caused by me/my horse ... same as I would if my dog did damage or my goats got out and munched through someone's orchard.
Also as a former horserider/driver I would say part of the problem with drivers and horses is that we now have a generation of people who have no knowledge of how horses behave ... they really don't understand that driving close up behind a horse and revving the engine or making air-brakes make that loud wooshing noise is likely to cause a dangerous situation ... even a farmer didn't understand that starting up a muckspreader which threw manure over the hedge and onto me and my horse was a dangerous thing to do. All those things have happened to me.
The Highway Code contains quite clear guidance on how to drive when near horses, but how many driving instructors impress the possible dangers on their students? I find that motor cyclists are often the most sensible drivers around horses ... maybe they understand just how vulnerable the road users are when not protected by a metal box and air bags.
I'm all in favour of horse-riders having insurance ... even of them having to take instruction on how to ride on the public highway ... but will that encourage other road users to behave in a safe manner around them? I doubt it. I slow down to a crawl near horses, I don't rev my engine or sound my horn and if a horse coming towards me looks in the slightest bit nervous I stop and turn off my engine and leave it to the rider to deal with safely and wait until they're well past me before I start the engine again. It usually takes no more than 30 seconds ... but most drivers are in such a hurry.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Horse-riders are encouraged by the British Horse Society to take a road proficiency test ti improve their own safety on the road. Car drivers, especially in the country, need to be aware that they share the roads with other people entitled to use them too and who pay for the roads thru their taxes and rates and so on.
It is not unusual to meet a horse and they are known to be easily spooked unless army or police trained so a little courtesy, consideration and common sense from either side is to be encouraged.
Cyclists also have a proficiency test which I think should be made obligatory so they are more sensible on roads and also keep off pavements. Over here we often come across whole groups of them out on club rides and races. Can't tell you how tempting it is just to plough right thru them, if only to wipe out their ghastly shorts and shirts.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
We used to encounter a lot of horses on the roads in Northumberland - not so many around here, because the roads are narrow and clogged with traffic.
Thoughtless road users come in all guises though - drivers, cyclists, pedestrians AND horse riders. Awareness of the needs of others is the key, not who's paid what, or who's used the roads for longest.
And there's not been a "road tax" since 1937. Car tax is based on emissions and isn't used to repair the roads - it goes into the general exchequer. I don't pay car tax for my 998cc Toyota IQ, but I still pay for the upkeep of the roads through my taxes.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
Generally here the drivers aren't too bad with the horses - of which there are many. The only horse riders I have an issue with as a rule are the ones that ride in pairs shouting at each other as they go, with three or 4 yappy dogs running round the horses' feet who are totally ignored and entirely out of control in any sort of emergency (such as meeting a dog walker whose dog doesn't like little yappy dogs).
Cyclists on the other hand insist on riding down the main road, which is a dangerous road with lots of blind summits, even though there is a dedicated cycle path running parallel to it. And the worst incidents of horse spooking I've witnessed (apart from the one involving a hornet) have been MAMILs speeding past horses on narrow lanes with no sort of warning to the horse rider they were approaching and no attempt to slow down at all.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Posts
Horses and their riders do not.
Cars have to be on roads, horses do not.
All I'm saying that many, NOT ALL riders, AND drivers show little consideration for fellow road users.
A friend of mine had over £1,000 worth of damage done to his parked car when a horse backed into it and basically sat on the bonnet. The rider said " It was spooked" but refused to accept any responsibility to pay for the damage.
Please supply details of the incident.
A horse sat on my bonnet!
As a former horserider/driver I'd expect to pay for damage caused by me/my horse ... same as I would if my dog did damage or my goats got out and munched through someone's orchard.
Also as a former horserider/driver I would say part of the problem with drivers and horses is that we now have a generation of people who have no knowledge of how horses behave ... they really don't understand that driving close up behind a horse and revving the engine or making air-brakes make that loud wooshing noise is likely to cause a dangerous situation ... even a farmer didn't understand that starting up a muckspreader which threw manure over the hedge and onto me and my horse was a dangerous thing to do. All those things have happened to me.
The Highway Code contains quite clear guidance on how to drive when near horses, but how many driving instructors impress the possible dangers on their students? I find that motor cyclists are often the most sensible drivers around horses ... maybe they understand just how vulnerable the road users are when not protected by a metal box and air bags.
I'm all in favour of horse-riders having insurance ... even of them having to take instruction on how to ride on the public highway ... but will that encourage other road users to behave in a safe manner around them? I doubt it. I slow down to a crawl near horses, I don't rev my engine or sound my horn and if a horse coming towards me looks in the slightest bit nervous I stop and turn off my engine and leave it to the rider to deal with safely and wait until they're well past me before I start the engine again. It usually takes no more than 30 seconds ... but most drivers are in such a hurry.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
It is not unusual to meet a horse and they are known to be easily spooked unless army or police trained so a little courtesy, consideration and common sense from either side is to be encouraged.
Cyclists also have a proficiency test which I think should be made obligatory so they are more sensible on roads and also keep off pavements. Over here we often come across whole groups of them out on club rides and races. Can't tell you how tempting it is just to plough right thru them, if only to wipe out their ghastly shorts and shirts.
Frank.
Thoughtless road users come in all guises though - drivers, cyclists, pedestrians AND horse riders. Awareness of the needs of others is the key, not who's paid what, or who's used the roads for longest.
And there's not been a "road tax" since 1937. Car tax is based on emissions and isn't used to repair the roads - it goes into the general exchequer. I don't pay car tax for my 998cc Toyota IQ, but I still pay for the upkeep of the roads through my taxes.
Cyclists on the other hand insist on riding down the main road, which is a dangerous road with lots of blind summits, even though there is a dedicated cycle path running parallel to it. And the worst incidents of horse spooking I've witnessed (apart from the one involving a hornet) have been MAMILs speeding past horses on narrow lanes with no sort of warning to the horse rider they were approaching and no attempt to slow down at all.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”