Normally I leave work around 17:30 - 18:00 and miss the worse of the traffic, and things have been pretty easy. However I've started getting in and leaving earlier and hitting busier traffic and noticing some things that are giving me some problems - this evening being particularly bad negotiating some seriously "get out of my way I want to go home!" aggression.
There seem to be some issues with the way the cycle lanes are set up around Nottingham. Here's what I'm talking about.
Now Maid Marian way is a fairly long, slow incline with fairly thin lanes so fortunately there's a (rather thin) cycle lane so I can puff and pant up the hill at 5mph. Unfortunately, it just upbruptly ends...
... right before a pinch point, then abruptly starts again behind a bizarre lip in the pavement, so I get pushed out into traffic - traffic which at 6:30pm on a Friday night is in NO mood to give me any room.
Then it just stops again ...
... and pinches in. This resulted in me riding in the hatchings and some guy started beeping at me as he came past me very close indeed. Where The F*** was I supposed to go?!?
Now the obvious answer to this would be to remain in primary in the left hand lane the whole time. But with a cycle lane besides me, and moody motorists behind me, trundling up a major road at 5-10mph is going to result in me inspiring a great deal of grief, potentially putting me in even more danger. So what can I do?
And it doesn't end there.
Further up on my route, I find myself going up Derby road - an even longer, steeper incline, with NO cycle lane. I enter it in the left hand lane from the roundabout (and the best place to stay out of people's way) and hit the top doing 3-5mph (possible exaggeration) and have to get from A to B with cars rushing past at 30+:
I'm better off dismounting at the top and using the crossing, but I shouldn't have to should I?
Grumble grumble etc.
There seem to be some issues with the way the cycle lanes are set up around Nottingham. Here's what I'm talking about.
Now Maid Marian way is a fairly long, slow incline with fairly thin lanes so fortunately there's a (rather thin) cycle lane so I can puff and pant up the hill at 5mph. Unfortunately, it just upbruptly ends...
... right before a pinch point, then abruptly starts again behind a bizarre lip in the pavement, so I get pushed out into traffic - traffic which at 6:30pm on a Friday night is in NO mood to give me any room.
Then it just stops again ...
... and pinches in. This resulted in me riding in the hatchings and some guy started beeping at me as he came past me very close indeed. Where The F*** was I supposed to go?!?
Now the obvious answer to this would be to remain in primary in the left hand lane the whole time. But with a cycle lane besides me, and moody motorists behind me, trundling up a major road at 5-10mph is going to result in me inspiring a great deal of grief, potentially putting me in even more danger. So what can I do?
And it doesn't end there.
Further up on my route, I find myself going up Derby road - an even longer, steeper incline, with NO cycle lane. I enter it in the left hand lane from the roundabout (and the best place to stay out of people's way) and hit the top doing 3-5mph (possible exaggeration) and have to get from A to B with cars rushing past at 30+:
I'm better off dismounting at the top and using the crossing, but I shouldn't have to should I?
Grumble grumble etc.
