Longer suffering readers of this blog will have have noticed there isn’t much infrastructure in our local town for anyone who isn’t driving a car, but just occasionally the council makes a token gesture towards helping unimportant people pedestrians and cyclists and last year they very kindly gave the peasants a build-out, a slightly wider section of pavement by a road crossing. It is very handy because it does slow traffic down a fraction and if you’re driving out of one of the side roads, you can see the 48 tonne trucks coming before they hit you. You can also imagine the excitement amongst pedestrians at having a section of pavement wide enough to push a pushchair on without having to use the road.
However, the build-out is at the end of a gradual right hand curve. So when I’m cycling up the hill, I can see the build out, but the car following me can’t.
This means I have a choice: stay by the side of the road until the last minute and hope one of the cars rushing to the next set of lights will then let me pull out, to or signal early and follow the same line as other vehicles. I tried the first approach and if the driver of the Mercedes that passed me is reading this, I’d like the end of my handlebars back. Thanks. You’ll probably find it wedged into the mobile phone you were using.
Cars do seem to notice us a bit more when we follow the line of traffic, possibly because they realise we won’t just get out of the way. Trouble is, every now and again Mercedes Man (or, for some odd reason, Fiat Woman) gets stroppy and starts leaning on their horn.
In the end I decided it would be better -especially when I was taking small boys to Kindergarten- to go through the traffic calmed old centre (speed limit 7km/h) and back downhill to drop the boys off. It means a steep hill and driving three sides of a square, but at least the commuters are going the other way.
Except for Porsche** Man who decided that this was the perfect short cut this morning and took exception to the presence of a bicycle (and pedestrians, schoolchildren, etc) on a road that clearly belonged to him and him alone.
*With apologies to disgruntled for nicking her post title.
**My spell checker doesn’t recognise ‘Porsche’ but does recommend ‘Poacher’ or ‘Persecute’ as alternatives.
4 comments
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January 15, 2012 at 9:18 am
Zweiradler
Sounds like a case of “good intentions gone wrong”. Sometimes new infrastructure is designed so badly that the road is then more dangerous than before. I’m glad that Mercedes Man didn’t run you over.
Nico
January 19, 2012 at 6:49 pm
Andy in Germany
Hehe. Thanks. It is ridiculous. It would have been possible to make a (short cycle way through some of the buildouts or at least to paint hatching on the road so drivers can see that there’s an obstacle ahead. Ah, well…
January 24, 2012 at 10:53 pm
Iain Robinson
I think you have the spellchecker of the future. “Persecute” sounds about right. It’s painful to read of the dangerous choices faced by cyclists every day, but you write so well and with such a humourous style that I can’t help chuckling!
January 28, 2012 at 12:39 am
Andy in Germany
Thanks, I think. Actually it’s not so bad here: the times I get carved up are only in the blog because they’re rare enough to make me jump: probably any cyclist in London would wonder what I’m fussing about.