A bit of a difference from beer but cycling, I follow a lot of people on twitter who are cyclists and the problems between car drivers and cyclists are slowly getting worse. The vile tweets from some sick folk on running over cyclists or saying about deliberately aiming for them disgust me though, though a seemingly anonymous twitter account people think it is ok? It does make me feel physically ill.
To be honest it was a road accident on my bike and the attitude of other road users which caused me to hang up my cycle helmet.
I used to cycle from where I live to Cheshunt where I worked as a photographer at the time (years and years ago), mostly it was though the Lea Valley park but the end part was along Crossbrook Street which is a B road. I used to cycle along the pavement until there was a police crackdown in the area about this, despite the fact most of us cycled along slowly; we were shoved into cycling on the road.
Due to resurfacing works over the years which were just pour more tarmac on, drains had a dip/hole of about 4-5 inches so understandably you cycled along in a straight line away from these, to be fair so did the car drivers. One day a white van decided he didn’t want to be behind me and overtook whilst there was a bus coming in the opposite direction and clipped my front wheel, this meant I came flying off and hit the road just a couple of metres behind white van twit. Yes, he overtook aggressively so he could pull to a standstill a few metres ahead, Crossbrook Street at rush hour could do a good impression of a car park.
The driver behind me now, stopped and helped me to the pavement, threw my bike onto the pavement and then drove off those few metres too.
Wonderful.
No-one checked I was ok; luckily I was although shaken, cut and bruised, but also sadly I was invisible to every car driver who slowly inched past me.
This is why I don’t cycle; technically I could have a pleasant ride in the morning and evening going to work though the forest now but that still means going along some roads at the beginning and end.
To be honest though there is fault on both sides of the cyclist and driver sides, also as a walker I have nearly been run over by cyclists going though red lights at crossings.
I can’t see an easy option to sorting this out but those who think it is amusing to say things about running over cyclists, think of this;
One day you may have a child and it will probably have a bike (we all mainly did), if you think that way then others do as well and now it’s your child who is a cyclist.
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Of course no cyclist has ever said anything vile about motorists on the internet, have they?
ReplyDeleteI never said they didn't, however I haven't heard the level of vitrol from them as I have had the misfortune to read on twitter from motorists just recently.
ReplyDeleteIn particular the 'glee' that some have shown over a fatal accident.
As I said there is no quick solution not to mention that both sides can be at fault.
Sounds like you had a lucky escape, Meer. I try and ensure as much of my cycling is off road now. Not only is this a lot more pleasant, but it's a lot safer too. I shudder when I think back 30 years ago, when I used to cycle in London - I must have been mad!
ReplyDeleteWhy can't we follow the example shown by many European cities, and have dedicated cycleways? Bikes and motorised traffic, really don't mix, especially given the vastly increased numbers of vehicles using our roads today.
Twitter is the mob in 140 characters or less. Retweet to show your approval or disapproval of my inadequately expressed outrage or approval!
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