Motorists' view Vs cyclists' view

[fossyant]

but they do become stationary...

Only when it's jumped out at you and you are on your back wondering what happened. Ninjas.

 

[LosingFocus]

Only when it's jumped out at you and you are on your back wondering what happened. Ninjas.

*cough* I was making a rather bad pun Fossy... check my spelling...

 

[fossyant]

*cough* I was making a rather bad pun Fossy... check my spelling...

Very good - too early for me. !!

 

[Boris Bajic]

Something that I have noticed is that when I am in the car (passenger) and we overtake a cyclist, I fell as though we are too close. And yet when I am cycling and someone overtakes at the same distance, it feels like just any normal pass and it isnt too close.

Does this favour the motorists or us?

Neither. I am guessing that you have been a frequent car passenger for many years, but it was not until you started cycling that you began to pay close attention to the position, speed and direction of other vehicles.

Now that you are an enthusiastic cyclist, you have two views of other road users: one as the operator of a fragile, low-speed bicycle whose protective shell you form. The other as a passenger in a powerful, high-speed vehicle that puts glass and a substantial shell between you and other objects.

You're going (at a guess) through that process we all go through of comparing similar situations from different viewpoints. I saw my daughter (a keen cyclist for many years) get quite a surprise when as a learner she started to drive past cyclists and see them at junctions. She'd never really gone through that whole 'observation, anticipation, response' thing as a younger child in the car. Why should she?

She had on a bicycle.

Many of us who drive and cycle find that observations made while doing one inform our behaviour when doing the other. There is a school of thought (with which I agree) that believes a cyclist who drives will be a better cyclist. Not a better cyclist than one who doesn't drive, but better than he or she would be if he or she didn't drive. I think this is true across a range of vehicle types. The more the merrier.

There are many who disagree with this and have very good reasons for doing so. As in all matters of opinion, they are wrong and I am right.

Carry on.

 

[Miquel In De Rain]

.

'm the other way round, I'll drive a road and think "Whoa, I wouldn't want to cycle here", until I do when I realise that it's just another ribbon of tarmac.

It's just another ribbon of tarmac/mad barsteward boy racer,white van man,homicidal cabbie.