Back in the saddle

I spent quite a lot of last week looking out of the window in the office, noting how the daylight hours are creeping back. Over the weekend I decided that it was definitely time to start cycling to work again, so long as the weather wasn't too miserable.

This morning the weather played along and I'm happy to say I'm back in the saddle!

I haven't ridden the road bike for a while, all my recent outings have been on the shopper which isn't built for speed! Getting back on the road bike felt a bit strange, I guess like getting into a racing car after driving a bus. It felt super light and responsive, and the riding position felt very aggressive - bum high in the air and arms outstretched! A little pressure on the pedals and it was as eager to go as I was. About 10 minutes later I realised how out of shape I was and slowed down to a more manageable speed.

It felt good to be my own master again, no more trains to depend on! At the same time I'm reminded about the trade off, which is dealing with the generally low quality of driving the Berkshire seems to suffer from.

Two incidents this morning. Firstly a woman in a 4x4 decided to overtake on a left bend and then cut the corner, unfortunately for me she cut the corner at the same time as overtaking, causing me to swerve violently to avoid the back of her Toyota as she cut past. She got stuck in traffic shortly after and I realised that she was on the phone perhaps explaining her idiotic driving. Its fairly common for drivers to cut this particular corner and I remembered that I usually cycle in the primary position around it. A few months out of the saddle and I'd forgotten.

Here's the location in Google Streetview;
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The second incident was in Reading. Again it was a vehicle (this time a black taxi) overtaking and cutting in, again forcing me to swerve to avoid its rear end.

View Larger Map

I was stopped at the lights and the taxi was behind me. You can see the two lanes at the lights, I was waiting at these lights in the primary position. After the lights the road has four narrow lanes (I use the leftmost lane). The lanes are only just wide enough for a car so I always ride the primary position to encourage overtaking vehicles to use their own lane and not try and squeeze past. When the lights changed the taxi immediately overtook and pulled back into the left hand lane, but hadn't quite cleared me before pulling in. Luckily as I was riding the primary position I have lots of room to me left, and have to swerve hard to avoid the back of the taxi as it cut in.

I guess I'll have to get used to the idiots again. I'll try our some of my other routes, I have to admit that the route I took this morning does seem to have the highest number of bad driving incidents and was the route I took the least last year. It is however the shortest and fastest route.

Lets hope the police recognise careless driving for the crime it is

As a voter in the upcoming Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner I am interested in the views and priorities of all candidates. Luckily I live in an area of Berkshire which has relatively low levels of crime. As a daily commuter by bicycle my major concern is road policing. I frequently witness careless or dangerous driving and believe that the police do not place a high enough priority on this area. Cycling in Berkshire is very popular and is only going to increase in popularity in the coming years.

Examples of careless/dangerous driving I experience regularly are;

1. Vehicles pulling out in front of me. I can only speculate at some of the reasons for this, but I suspect that they could be because the driver;

• failed to look at all,
• looked but failed to see me,
• looked and saw me but made an error of judgement,
• looked and saw me but decided to pull out anyway despite it being obvious that doing so wasn't safe,

The first two are known in cycling circles as SMIDSY (sorry mate I didn't see you), the last two are known as SMIDCAY (sorry mate I don't care about you) or SMIDGAF (sorry mate I don't give a f***).

2. Inappropriate overtaking. The highway code is clear on overtaking yet I experience dangerous overtaking on a daily basis, examples of this are;

• overtaking when there isn't room, eg the road is narrow, which usually results in the vehicle squeezing past dangerously close,
• overtaking when there is oncoming traffic, causing the the vehicle to swerve in front of me,
• overtaking on blind corners or blind summits
• failing to give enough room when overtaking (rule 212)
• overtaking simply because the they are following a vehicle in front, which has overtaken
• overtaking when the road ahead isn't clear, for example at the approach to a junction or standing traffic
• overtaking and then turning left (known as left-hooking)

3. Aggressive and intimidating driving. Some people appear to think that because I am riding a bicycle I am less important than they are. Here are some things that have happened to me this year whilst commuting.

• Driver of a pick up truck beeping horn and yelling "get the f*** out of the way" then overtaking dangerously within 6 inches of me, causing oncoming traffic to swerve to avoid him, whilst he spat at me and yelled "c**t".
• Driver pulling along side me and yelling "get off the road" before speeding away. When I caught up with him in traffic seconds later I asked him why he was so angry and politely asked him to drive with more consideration and respect for other road users. He answered that I "should cycle on the pavement, out of my way, roads are for cars". When I pointed out that cycling on the footway was illegal he said "if you want to be on the road, get a car".
• Driver of a school minibus (St Edwards Prep school, http://www.stedwards.org.uk) with several children in followed me down the Kings Road bus/cycle/taxi lane in Reading continously sounding his horn. The bus lane is just wide enough for a bus, it is not wide enough for a bus to safely overtake a bicyle. I ride the primary position since an incident last year where I was forced off the road by a bus overtaking and clipping my elbow as it passed. The minibus driver even continued to sound his horn and yell abuse as I stopped at a red light for a pedestrian crossing.

Cyclists are extremely vulnerable road users and it doesn't need a severe collision or high speed to cause serious injury or death. If a vehicle overtakes me and hits me with its wing mirror, then its likely I'll end up in hospital or worse. This was brought home on my commute this morning when I cycled past an accident scene at Winnersh roundabout with several emergency vehicles in attendance and a cyclist lying in the road with blankets coving him/her. I hope whoever it was is OK, but it looked very serious.

It seems to me that there is a tendancy for collisions due to careless/dangerous driving to be labelled 'accidents' which has the connotation that it was 'by chance' and perhaps unpreventable. Far from it, such driving is a crime and the criminals need to be persued by the justice system.