I'm giving up on the roads.

[Nigel-YZ1]

I never thought I'd see the day when I just gave up.

On wednesday evening I was going downhill on the B6090 towards Kilnhurst, a long straight. Repeating a ride I've done hundreds of times.
I was on the road bike, probably going about 30mph. Visibility was excellent.
Two cars were coming up the hill. The back one pulled out to overtake - head on to me. Must have been going about 70.
It's narrow, there's no room, and despite me waving my arm he carried on. I was staring him in the face.
The cars were side by side as they passed me, 2 feet away.
It all happened so fast I never even thought of diving off the road.

I wasn't shocked. I was just damned angry. How could my life mean so little?
I've spent two years recovering from injury. Two years of pain, months of physiotherapy. Just to do what I love. Just to get out and fly.

I've never been so close to my own death before.
I used to shrug near misses off, but it's not worth it any more. I'm 43 and there's someone else in my life now. I'll not go on the roads again.
I'll take the mountain bike to trails on the roof of the car from now on.

Don't really know why I'm posting this here. Perhaps it's a goodbye to 30 years of my life. Perhaps I just want to know if someone gives a damn about what that scum has stolen from me? Make of it what you will.

 

[brockers]

I hear you. The thing that springs to mind is not to take events personally. They're just events that happen in (your) impersonal awareness.

 

[Highfire]

How sad for you that after all this time you feel pushed off the roads.

However, I can fully empathise. I was knocked off my bike by a car about 17 years ago, and only in the last two months or so have I had the nerve to return to the saddle and the roads.

It's only since I've been cycling again have I become aware of just how close alot of car drivers come to cyclists when overtaking, and how many overtake when it is clearly not safe to do so, for example when a car is coming head on and the car behind you (the cyclists) decides to overtake you at the same time. Very nerve wracking indeed.

I hope you enjoy your mountain biking on the trails.

 

[exbfb]

I have come to cycling as a pursuit I want to do as a fully formed adult.
Don't get me wrong, I cycled as a child and in my teens, but nothing more than a kid on a bike, just that no more.

Having now become interested in the bike as something more than that, the fact that I have done so when I had a wife and family has affected how I view things and what I am prepared to do.

I am one of those people who suffer what I believe engineers refer to as "paralysis by analysis."
If I'm going to do something, I'll be pretty sure to think out how to do it right and to imagine the consequences of getting it wrong. I think work makes us a bit like this these days, think about what could go wrong and plan to avoid it.

I'm getting to the point now.

I utterly empathise with your point of view.
Cycling must be a fun and enjoyable activity, whether it's commuting, leisure, exercise or whatever else. It needs to be safe. When you mix in the fact that, as you say, you have someone else in your life, you understandably don't want to put your own personal safety in the hands of random lunatics on the road.

My own personal way to deal with this is to think very carefully about where I'm going, what road I'll have to be on and whether I can do all of this in what I consider to be safe circumstances.

I respect those whose attitude is that the bike has every right to be there and they won't be driven off the roads. I also commend them for their stoicism in the face of what I personally consider to be pretty dangerous circumstances.

Having said all of the above, I'm one who wouldn't argue with your perspective on cycling after this event.
All I would maybe add is that it might be worth considerign if there is anything you can do which involves choosing some different routes. That surely has to be a compromise better than taking away an activity which you actually enjoy.

 

[david k]

i know exactly what you mean. i used to ride motorbikes a lot, when i had kids i couldnt do it anymore. i feel ok cycling though, choose my routes carefully, you may feel different in a bit of time

 

[zexel]

I have started to wonder if/when this kind of event will happen to me and what I'd do about it, if anything. I'm guessing it's one of them situations where up to the last split second you're thinking, 'no, surely not!'

What a shame, but obviously continuing cycling won't give you what this has taken away from you. Given your previous injuries I would probably make the same decision.

Sorry if the above doesn't make sense, but what I'm saying is I feel for ya mate.

 

[gallego1968]

I understand how you feel and i would say do not give up something you love because of a few idiot cagers out there. If i gave up something because of someone else i wouldn't go out of the house.
These things happen as we as riders have to be aware out there and carry on. Maybe take a break from road but don't give it up altogether.

 

[zexel]

(sorry double post)

 

[corshamjim]

My Dad gave up cycling back in the '70s after coming off at speed down a hill in Bristol. I've never discussed with him what it was that caused the accident - I was only tiny at the time. I do remember the great big bandage on his hip though.

Personally I'm more likely to give up driving than cycling - I seem to suffer more morons when out in the car than when out on the bicycle. I guess that's because I ride different roads to the ones I drive, or maybe it's just the difference in distance covered.

Anyway, you must do what's right for you. fwiw my Dad enjoyed running after he gave up cycling, and now he's 70-odd and has retired to Devon he walks a lot on Dartmoor.

 

[Red Light]

I also commend them for their stoicism in the face of what I personally consider to be pretty dangerous circumstances.

The problem is its a bit like fear of flying. Objectively the danger is extremely low as has been stated here many times before - similar to that of walking - but subjectively people feel it is highly dangerous. Its exacerbated because the near misses, injuries and deaths tend to get reported here for the whole country yet they are in reality a very very small number of events in a very very large number of journeys.

The fact is though whatever form of transport you take there are risk associated with it. I've been in near misses on my bike, in my car and had a couple of incidents on aircraft. Tomorrow you could be unlucky enough to be one of the very small number of bicycle fatalities or serious injuries of you could be one of the car ones while driving to the start of your ride with the bikes on the back. If that day has your number on it there's not much you can do.

I tend to take a fatalistic approach that in the very very rare event its going to happen its going to happen, but getting out on my bike is increasing my life expectancy (by twenty times the amount the risk is shortening it), increasing my general health and well being (regular cyclists are reckoned to have a physical age ten year younger than their non-cycling colleagues) which will allow me to enjoy my life more and for longer before the inevitable debilities of old age set in and is doing something I really enjoy. I'd far rather die on my bike than wasting away slowly through infirmity. And whatever the good intentions the OP will never load the car and drive to the trailhead a fraction of the times he would have stepped out the door with his bike so overall his health and life expectancy will suffer as a result of this decision.

As for this particular incident I'm afraid I get bolshy and would pull out into the middle of the lane as soon as I saw them start the manoeuvre. That can be enough occasionally to force them to abandon it but if not I stay there working out my escape route (usually the narrow space down the side as here) until the last moment. That tends to force them to slow and gives them a bloody good scare so at least they are a) going slower when I do pass them rather than accelerating trying to get past quicker and b) they might think twice about doing it again. I ride on a single track road near home that is a bit of a rat run. If you stay over the cars will not slow down and will pass close at speed but I stay out and force them to slow down to a reasonable speed before passing and stare them out while doing it. Over time the regulars have got to know me and all now slow down and the few that don't are given no choice. My partner was having the same problem there until I suggested what to do and now says its pretty much solved.

So finally, while there are risks don't do a "Hatfield". After the Hatfield rail crash, millions of people abandoned the rail network because of the perceived safety risks and disruption. Doing the calculations, in the two weeks after Hatfield the increase in deaths on the road due to the increased traffic was greater than the deaths in the crash itself, the difference being that Hatfield was a once in a blue moon event while those increased deaths on the road carried on week after week after week. Its the same here, the risk was a rare one off, the health effects of not cycling will go on week after week after week.

 

[Riding in Circles]

Do what ever feels best to you, if you are no longer happy cycling on the roads then stop cycling at least on the roads.

 

[funnymummy]

So sory you had this experience & it has put you off, there really are some selfish, mindless twits around. Unfortunatly if you are on a bike & encounter these twits, the chnaces are it's the riders who are going to come off worse.
It's a shame that it's put you off, but under the same cicumstances I might think twice too, especilally if I had my children with me

 

[Jan Ullrich]

there's so much traffic on the roads these days, and it's getting worse

 

[Andy500]

Sorry to hear about this incident and the impact on you. Fully understand where you are coming from.

It does seem to be that every time I go out on my bike, which is 5 to 6 times / wk, there is at least one incident every time that if circumstances had been slightly different could have led to a major incident or worse.

A couple of weeks ago was going down a steep hill at 30mph +++++ when a driver overtook me so close his wing mirror just missed my right elbow. Unfortunately as he was right next to me a large pot hole appeared directly in my path, i swerved very slightly to avoid it and only just managed to avoid impacting the side of his car. He took great offence to this and once he had over taken me he then pulled directly into my path and slammed on his brakes. I hit my brakes so hard my back wheel left the ground, just as I'm about to hit the back of his car he then pulls away whilst staring at me in his rear view mirror. Even though I've now slowed right down he still slams on his brakes on a further two occasions before I reach the bottom of the steep hill. Fortunately for me he then turns right and heads off into a housing estate. I came away from this incident with a very strong impression that he was deliberately attempting to kill me.

I really can't understand what is going through these peoples heads, probably better not to know.

 

[Dayvo]

That must have been a very difficult decision to make, but it's fully understandable.

Unfortunately there's no way of knowing where and when these fu*kwits are going to be out on the road, endangering other innocent road users for the sake of their own 'entertainment'.

By all means they can kill or maim themselves or each other, that's no great loss, but to play with the lives of vulnerable cyclists/pedestrians is just beyond a joke.

Unless magistrates get tough on this 'driving' mentality, I fear more cyclists will stop going out on the road!

Hope you find peace off the road!