With several altercations with cars and motorbikes this summer – why oh why are motorbikes allowed in bus lanes with us – I’d been starting to fall into the ‘Us vs Them’ mentality of cycling in the city.
So I was biking along the inside of stationary traffic this afternoon – oddly with the lyrics of ‘Go West’ whirring round my head – when the car directly in front of me cut across the cycling lane and up on to the pavement narrowly avoiding my front wheel as I screeched to a halt.
With the radio blaring, he didn’t hear my indignant cries of “Hey” nor the less polite cries from the two cyclists behind me. He also didn’t seem to see the shocked look from the man pushing his pram on the pavement. Unfortunately, the traffic picked up and he moved off before the three of us could do anything more than fume at his rear window.
But London being London, I caught up with him two minutes later at the next lights and knocked on his window – yes I am that type of cyclist, cut me off and you’ll know about it.
At the sight of the 6 foot guy in the drivers seat, turning off the loud rap and winding down the darkened window to see me, my courage did wobble as I realised how nasty this could get. Still I had to go on….
“Excuse me, but did you realise that when you cut up on to the pavement back there, I was on the inside of your car?’
‘Oh god really? I’m so sorry’ as a look of surprise flashed across his face.
‘Yeah, so just a reminder to have a quick look ok?’
‘Sure, yeah and sorry.’
Faith in drivers slightly restored.
Today I was a happy cyclist. My rides to work and back felt the safest and fastest yet. This is because I rode in the middle of the road and made drivers think about me. The fact I was there and made myself an issue on the road meant they had to allow for me as they drove.
Up till now I’ve been tucked away as far to the side as I could. I thought this ‘Don’t mind me I’m not really here’ attitude when biking would make me safer. But today drivers had to account for me on the road and I forced them to make way. It made for a much more enjoyable ride as drivers waited behind me until they could pass. Most of them did at a much slower pace and giving me more room than they did when I was tucked away at the side.
Why the change of attitude? Its all come out after an study was leaked from TFL (Transport for London) about the risks faced by cyclists and female cyclists specifically. It was shown to me by a fellow, though far more experienced, London cyclist with whom the discussion about safety on the road has been on-going.
The report was on the e-zine for bike couriers – ‘Moving Target‘ – before being picked up by the Times. For any cyclists and drivers, indeed every road user out there, its worth a read. There was an interesting interview with a bike courier and a member of the TFL on Radio 4 which unfortunately has gone now. It was this interview that changed my mind.
Scarily, the report suggested that those who waited patiently in the designated cycling lanes at the lights were more likely to be killed. Those cycling lanes, where the cyclist wobbles and plods their way up the left hand side of traffic, trying to avoid drains, side mirrors and careless smokers thrusting their cigarettes out the windows, are known to the professionals of Moving Target as ‘Suicide Zones’. Now there’s an attractive name.
Women cyclists were being killed by lorries turning on top of them at the lights, and it was revealed that unless there is an independent witness to the crash the police will not prosecute. They still might not even if there is one. Even more scary, if a lorry driver turned on top of me, there was an independent witness, the police did prosecute and they won a conviction, that lorry driver would face nothing worse than a fine and a few points on the license. A slap on the wrist for taking a life?
So all this has sparked the new, assertive me. Watch out for me driver, I’m not hiding in the ‘suicide zone’ any more.
The two do go together, but they could go together much better if a few simple things were changed.
1. Drivers realise that cyclists are a vehicle using the road and give them due space and respect. This applies to motorbikes too – give me back my space at the lights!
2. Cyclists realise that they are vehicles and thus obey the road rules and share the road too. (To those bastards who run red lights on their bikes – This means you!)
3. Livingstone puts his money where his mouth is and extends cycling routes to give cyclists the space and encourage more cycling commuters.
I cycled to work on London Cycle route 3, a route worked out for bikes by Transport for London. Amazingly the route didn’t have marked cycle lanes all the way and even sent the cyclist the wrong way down one way streets.
This led – as you can imagine – to some rather heated arguments with drivers, one of whom rather than just waving an angry fist actually sped up and drove at me! Now while it was a one way for cars, the drivers needed only to look at the road surface to see the giant bikes painted on the road to realise it was a designated cycle route and to expect to see one or two bikes. But where was my cycling track to give me room and to show drivers to expect me?
Honestly Ken, if you want more cyclists on the road, give us the room and the tracks to ride and set up some education about the road rules for cyclists and drivers.
