kedab
Veteran
- Location
- nr cambridge
hey CC!
hope all is well and for those in the U.K, i hope your weather predicting skills are nicely honed given what we've experienced in the past couple of weeks
'ooh it's sunny, oh dear it's a tropical storm, ooh it's sunny i'll dry out now, oh dear it's a tropical storm i guess i'll stay wet!'
anyway...commuting to work the other week:
i roll up to crossroads and the lights are red. i'm at the front - they turn green and i set off. now i'm aware of the frickin great Asda artic' behind me and i give it a bit of welly to get over the crossroads and down the road a bit sharpish, putting a bit of distance between us. i'm not the quickest but i can easily hit 20 plus mph on this section - Asda man picks up speed and then the inevitable - he leans on his horn as he catches me and looking over my shoulder to see what the fuss is about, i see he's pointing madly at the split pedestrian/cycle path to my left that he demands i use. This would mean slowing at the next junction to bump up on to it.
now, i know there's an argument to say i 'should' use the pedestrian/cycle path as it's there but, do i 'have' to?! i mean, this is a fairly busy road and there's no way the cars behind the artic' could overtake him due to the traffic flow and i'm not slowing him so badly that he absolutely must pass me?!
so, the upshot of this little encounter was that at the next set of lights i filtered past the queuing traffic and Asda man wasn't best pleased as, when he came past me the next time he past intentionally close, he could have given me as much room as he liked on this section but didn't - i could have wiped my nose on his cab he was that close
i caught him at the next set of lights and tapped on his cab - asking him why he passed so close and if he was trying to intimidate me all he had to say about it was that i shouldn't have been on the road...i gave up and made my not so merry way to work.
am i totally wrong here? should i take the cycle/pedestrian path just cos it's there, am i being a lycra lout just by taking the quickest option for me...i honestly don't know
hope all is well and for those in the U.K, i hope your weather predicting skills are nicely honed given what we've experienced in the past couple of weeks
'ooh it's sunny, oh dear it's a tropical storm, ooh it's sunny i'll dry out now, oh dear it's a tropical storm i guess i'll stay wet!'anyway...commuting to work the other week:
i roll up to crossroads and the lights are red. i'm at the front - they turn green and i set off. now i'm aware of the frickin great Asda artic' behind me and i give it a bit of welly to get over the crossroads and down the road a bit sharpish, putting a bit of distance between us. i'm not the quickest but i can easily hit 20 plus mph on this section - Asda man picks up speed and then the inevitable - he leans on his horn as he catches me and looking over my shoulder to see what the fuss is about, i see he's pointing madly at the split pedestrian/cycle path to my left that he demands i use. This would mean slowing at the next junction to bump up on to it.
now, i know there's an argument to say i 'should' use the pedestrian/cycle path as it's there but, do i 'have' to?! i mean, this is a fairly busy road and there's no way the cars behind the artic' could overtake him due to the traffic flow and i'm not slowing him so badly that he absolutely must pass me?!
so, the upshot of this little encounter was that at the next set of lights i filtered past the queuing traffic and Asda man wasn't best pleased as, when he came past me the next time he past intentionally close, he could have given me as much room as he liked on this section but didn't - i could have wiped my nose on his cab he was that close
i caught him at the next set of lights and tapped on his cab - asking him why he passed so close and if he was trying to intimidate me all he had to say about it was that i shouldn't have been on the road...i gave up and made my not so merry way to work.am i totally wrong here? should i take the cycle/pedestrian path just cos it's there, am i being a lycra lout just by taking the quickest option for me...i honestly don't know
) on my left opened her window and shouted "Use the bl@@dy cycle path".
, backed up and asked which cycle path she thought I should be using; "That one there" she answered pointing to the pavement on the left. "That is not a cycle path, that is a pavement for pedestrians" ... "Well you should be using it" . " 
I don't ride on pavements. 
There is a cycle path on the other side of the dual carriageway" I informed her "Well why don't you use it then?", "because it does not go to my destination and because it is shared with pedestrians whilst I cycle at more than 20mph 
" . "You should be using the cyclepath" " 
