At last I'm a Real Cyclist!

David Hansen

On Wed, 21 May 2008 14:00:02 +0100 someone who may be Mark
<i@getlotsofspamthankstoplus.net> wrote this:-

>For example yesterday, where I used to
>ride closer to the kerb and had drivers overtake too close, I got a
>driver following me with his bumper less than 6 inches from my back
>wheel whilst revving his engine. I'm afraid this brought out my
>stubborn streak and I kept him there rather than pull in to let him
>past when safe.

Quite right too. The secondary position should only be adopted if it
will not increase danger. That condition was not met in your case.
Had the driver dropped back and stopped revving his engine then it
would have been time to re-evaluate.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54

naked_draughtsman

On Wed, 21 May 2008 07:06:56 +0000, Ian Smith wrote:
> And all this occurs within three miles of my previous substantially
> trouble-free commute. Sometimes, for an easy life I cycle from work
> to where I used to work then on to home from there - it's 60% further,
> but it's much less troublesome.

I do the same since being hit by a bus in town on the 1.5 mile route to
work.

The routes I now do are much better. (un)fortunately it seems that the
longer your route the better it gets - I'm up to 20 miles now!

peter

Paul Luton

Paul Boyd wrote:

>
> I'm glad to have escaped Bristol. The general standard of driving there
> is appalling - very aggressive and no-one gives a stuff about any other
> road user, no matter what type.
>
Hmm - whenever I go home from London to Bristol I am appalled by the
driving. They don't seem to expect to use the brake. That said my worst
experience locally is to be signalling right on the right side of the
lane and for someone to accelerate and overtake on the wrong side of the
road. Happens about once in two years. Lucky I hear them coming.

Paul

--
CTC Right to Ride Rep. for Richmond upon Thames

Terry Duckmanton

Mark wrote:
<snip>
>
> Narrow roads and near schools seem to be the worst places and,
> unfortunately, there are a lot of those on my way to work :-(
>
<snip>

I work in a school in the SE and have an 11 mile commute mostly along
narrow country roads and ending in a secondary school in a Surrey
village. The narrow roads are awkward because there is no room, but
somehow the traffic seems to manage. The problem areas are the
approaches to the school ("I have a Chelsea Tractor so I go first you
git-on-a-bike") and the built-up area at the beginning of the commute
where people are negotiating road junctions and roundabouts. I have now
been knocked off twice by drivers not seeing me at the same bl**dy
roundabout. The only good thing about all this is the speed with which I
have managed to upgrade from a Dawes Audax to a Pinarello Sestriere.

Terry

Adam Lea

"Mark" <i@getlotsofspamthankstoplus.net> wrote in message
news:gr68345rd7qbmgcqom729t2ofpj7rrkr1g@4ax.com...
> I'm afraid this brought out my
> stubborn streak and I kept him there rather than pull in to let him
> past when safe.
>

Hmm not sure I would have done that myself. I would rather pull in where
safe and let the bastard pass and thus be well away from me, rather than
fuel his anger even more by deliberatly holding him up.

Kevin Dublin

Hah, you're not a real cyclist until you wake up in the ambulance
wondering who your are and what day it is.

Kevin

Steve C

Kevin Dublin wrote:
> Hah, you're not a real cyclist until you wake up in the ambulance
> wondering who your are and what day it is.
>
> Kevin

Almost did that 15 years ago - rode into the side of a house whilst on
holiday in Belgium (long story involving an ice cream van). Broken nose
in two places and blood everywhere! They have great casulty departments
in Belgium.

Colin McKenzie

naked_draughtsman wrote:
> On Wed, 21 May 2008 07:06:56 +0000, Ian Smith wrote:
>>And all this occurs within three miles of my previous substantially
>>trouble-free commute. Sometimes, for an easy life I cycle from work
>>to where I used to work then on to home from there - it's 60% further,
>>but it's much less troublesome.
>
> I do the same since being hit by a bus in town on the 1.5 mile route to
> work.
> The routes I now do are much better. (un)fortunately it seems that the
> longer your route the better it gets - I'm up to 20 miles now!

My theory, fwiw, is that there are roads on which drivers don't expect
to get held up by cyclists, and will do anything not to be. On other
apparently similar roads, they expect delay and are more relaxed and
less aggressive as a result.

Generally busier roads are in the first category, regardless of their
width or speed limit. The effect may also be connected with drivers'
terror of being seen to hold up other drivers.

Colin McKenzie

--
No-one has ever proved that cycle helmets make cycling any safer at
the population level, and anyway cycling is about as safe per mile as
walking.
Make an informed choice - visit www.cyclehelmets.org.

Martin

Colin McKenzie wrote:


> My theory, fwiw, is that there are roads on which drivers don't expect
> to get held up by cyclists, and will do anything not to be. On other
> apparently similar roads, they expect delay and are more relaxed and
> less aggressive as a result.
>
> Generally busier roads are in the first category, regardless of their
> width or speed limit. The effect may also be connected with drivers'
> terror of being seen to hold up other drivers.

I get the impression the most aggressive drivers are those that don't
have a queue behind them. Some of the worst bits of driving are when
there is no one else around. e.g. a few year ago when I was on a dual
carriage way with two lanes going in my direction, some idiot decided I
was in his way, yet we were the only two vehicles in sight.

I also find drivers more aggressive on weekend mornings than weekday
mornings.

Martin.

Ian Smith

On Wed, 21 May 2008, Colin McKenzie <news@proof-read.co.uk> wrote:
> naked_draughtsman wrote:
> > On Wed, 21 May 2008 07:06:56 +0000, Ian Smith wrote:
> >>
> >> And all this occurs within three miles of my previous
> >> substantially trouble-free commute. Sometimes, for an easy life
> >> I cycle from work to where I used to work then on to home from
> >> there - it's 60% further, but it's much less troublesome.
> >
> > I do the same since being hit by a bus in town on the 1.5 mile
> > route to work.
>
> My theory, fwiw, is that there are roads on which drivers don't
> expect to get held up by cyclists, and will do anything not to be.
> On other apparently similar roads, they expect delay and are more
> relaxed and less aggressive as a result.

I think this is right - my old (good) route was on country roads
between two smallish towns. No-one could have expected to blast down
it - they are almost bound to meet a horse or pedestrians in teh road
or something slow-moving. My new route goes from a junction of the
M25 along an A-road to a junction with the dual-carriageway A3 and on
into a larger town.

I'm convinced some drivers 'cut the corner' from A3 to M25 (or vice
versa) and get irate when their 'cleverness' doesn't work and they
find themselves behind a 12mph bicycle when they could have been doing
70 on the trunk roads.

Others seem to have the mindset that once they get out of the town
they'll be on the A3 and properly on their way - forgetting the
stretch of narrow and busy A-road. They get irate when they can't hit
motorway speeds as soon as they are out of the town.

> The effect may also be connected with drivers' terror of being seen
> to hold up other drivers.

That too - the road is busy enough that if anyone slows for a bike
they will immediately accumulate a line behind them. That seems to be
absolutely taboo.

regards, Ian SMith
--
|\ /| no .sig
|o o|
|/ \|

Roos Eisma

Colin McKenzie <news@proof-read.co.uk> writes:

>My theory, fwiw, is that there are roads on which drivers don't expect
>to get held up by cyclists, and will do anything not to be. On other
>apparently similar roads, they expect delay and are more relaxed and
>less aggressive as a result.

I've also found that if drivers have to take a diversion onto a slower
road they are more impatient. Earlier this year the bigger faster road
parallel to my commute was closed, and traffic diverted. The road I
commute on is fairly wide, 30mph, a through route but with parked cars,
busses, and a school with lollipop men. Around 9am it does move but with
the additional diverted traffic we were basically in a queue with
everybody moving at the speed of the slowest vehicle (usually a bus).

Normally I have very few problems, but that week I suddenly was being
overtaken by cars that then needed to brake sharply when meeting the end
of the queue in front of me and things like that.

Maybe these were people from further away, who would normally arrive along
the dual carriage way, and then travel along the closed road at 50mph on
the way through to somewhere else, and having to do this city stretch
didn't really fit in with that.

Roos

Dave Larrington

In news:48348eb3$0$58078$c5fe31e7@reader.usenet4all.se,
Steve C <sc99cs@googlemail.com> tweaked the Babbage-Engine to tell us:
> Dave Larrington wrote:
>> In news:48333d83$0$58080$c5fe31e7@reader.usenet4all.se,
>> Steve C <sc99cs@googlemail.com> tweaked the Babbage-Engine to tell
>> us:
>>> naked_draughtsman wrote:
>>>
>>>> Maybe you live in an area where car drivers are slightly more
>>>> tolerant of cyclists <g>
>>>>
>>>> peter
>>> I live in the sticks (Telford, Shropshire) and to be fair most
>>> motorists are really considerate, although we have our fair share of
>>> cretins as well...
>>
>> The evidence suggest that many of your cretins are gainfully
>> employed by the local ecilop...
>>
>
> That's the place as made famous by Daniel Cadden...

And PC Mark Milton:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/...ire/4669594.stm

--
Dave Larrington
<http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk>
Ernesto, give me that Kit-Kat, or I will kill you.

lardyninja

I think I now count myself as a real cyclist.

This morning as I was overtaking a rather fit girl, instead of [1]
checking out her @rse I was checking her rear wheel to try to find where
the strange noise was coming from. [2]

Also I disarmed a booby trap. There is a narrow gate allowing cyclists
access from the French embassy to the Hyde Park cycle lanes. Someone had
wedged a large stick in the side sticking out into the cycle path in
order (I guess) to catch in the spokes of an unsuspecting cyclist.

But I was disappointed I missed this by a couple of hours:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/ne...icle3965065.ece

LN


[1] Well, alright, maybe not "instead of" ;-)

[2] It was slightly buckled and was rubbing against the brakes.

Mark

On Wed, 21 May 2008 20:01:46 +0100, Terry Duckmanton
<terry@duckmanton.notthisbit.eu> wrote:

>Mark wrote:
><snip>
>>
>> Narrow roads and near schools seem to be the worst places and,
>> unfortunately, there are a lot of those on my way to work :-(
>>
><snip>
>
>I work in a school in the SE and have an 11 mile commute mostly along
>narrow country roads and ending in a secondary school in a Surrey
>village. The narrow roads are awkward because there is no room, but
>somehow the traffic seems to manage. The problem areas are the
>approaches to the school ("I have a Chelsea Tractor so I go first you
>git-on-a-bike") and the built-up area at the beginning of the commute
>where people are negotiating road junctions and roundabouts. I have now
>been knocked off twice by drivers not seeing me at the same bl**dy
>roundabout. The only good thing about all this is the speed with which I
>have managed to upgrade from a Dawes Audax to a Pinarello Sestriere.

I've still got a cheap hybrid - obviously I haven't been hit enough
;-)

--
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