Let me begin by saying that as a cyclist, who cycles to commute to work, I've had various experiences on this country’s often substandard roads, but the number of potholes and insubstantial signage are the least of a cyclist’s problems.
Let me begin by saying that as a cyclist, who cycles to commute to work, I've had various experiences on this country’s often substandard roads, but the number of potholes and insubstantial signage are the least of a cyclist’s problems.
I’m sure there are few cyclists who use the roads every day who don’t relish bumping over potholes and gliding over speedbumps, past 4x4s that feel the need to slow down below cycling speed to navigate holes and bumps.
The problem for road-using cyclists is in fact the road-using driver.
Don’t get me wrong: I completely sympathise with the fact that the average driver is simultaneously infuriated by the amount of money they pay for petrol, and embarrassed by their expanding waistlines (because they can’t afford the petrol to drive to gym). So seeing me whizz past them over the potholes and speed bumps, grinning because I don’t have to worry about petrol or an expanding waist must result in some annoyance.
Therein lies the problem. This car-driver, who has realised the price of their mistake, will systematically attempt to eliminate any reminder of this by actively seeking to murder every cyclist they see. Never mind the fact that cyclists are allowed to use the roads as long as they obey the same rules as cars are subjected to. Cyclists are every day subjected to systematic oppression by jealous and ever-expanding drivers.
I've been using the roads since I was old enough to understand that cars can kill me. It’s been since around then that I've also understood that drivers and cyclists both have a responsibility on our roads. Cyclists need to obey the rules of the road, and drivers need to respect cyclists who do (and avoid those who don’t).
Which is why incidents, like the one which I will now relay to you, stir within in me enormous ire.
On my way to work one evening, I was cycling down Graham street. It’s a lovely long downhill which brings me great joy, which is only enhanced by the fact that the first stop street is three quarters of the way down the hill. As an experienced cyclist however, I know to slow down and check the side streets for cars, because I have often had to slam on my brakes to avoid ending up beneath the tyres of a car which has neither stopped at the stop street nor seen me, and turned into Graham at what would be deadly pace in a collision with a cyclist.
So on this occasion, having behaved as a responsible road user, I stopped at the stop street on Graham. I was on the side of the road by the curb, essentially enabling a jealously enraged 4×4 driver with a GP license plate to pull up next to me, roll down the window, and shout obscenities at me, telling me in not-so-delicate a manner to ‘get off the road’. Feeling highly affronted, I returned an insult amounting to the suggestion that his aggression was a result of his rather portly girth. Having landed this blow he retreated, cowed, I like to think, to consider his decisions in life.
There a several lessons in this incident for cyclists and drivers.
I would never advocate hurling insults at fellow road users, but it's worth it for cyclists to know that they have to be doubly, if not triply vigilant on the roads. Not only should we obey the rules of the road to the letter to avoid any blame being landed squarely with us should a collision occur, but we should also anticipate and defend ourselves against the driver who, in an attempt to rid themselves of their guilt for their transport decisions, will fail to indicate, will fail to stop at stop streets and will fail to look behind them before opening car doors in parking lots. However, cyclists should also be aware that that guilt feeling is overwhelming and that some petrol-guzzling, waist-expanding drivers will always hate on those of us who have made better transportation decisions than they have.
And a final note for drivers: if the key to happiness is health and wealth, then everyone should be riding a bicycle.
