Lazy-Commuter
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Was what the charming young lady said just after I passed her last night. More on the incident later, but that outburst made me wonder ..
We've all seen the comments on places like Have Your Say or just about any newspapers website along the lines of "cyclists are a menace: they all RLJ / ride on the path / wobble along the road and get in the way / don't respect the laws of the road / eat small fluffy kittens for breakfast. AND they don't pay road tax". If challenged, the person with the aforementioned views nearly always resorts to the "well, everybody I know has had a near miss with a bike".
So we all know there are muppets riding bikes that do stupid things, same as with any other kind of vehicle .. but this incident did make me wonder how many "near misses" are genuine. Read on ..
On the way home last night, through a biggish estate (few hundred houses) going along the main arterial road that bisects the estate. It's quite wide, with a footpath either side and a few metres of grass between each path and the road. I was in the road, in secondary, well lit up (two lights on the front, two at the back, bright yellow jacket, all of that) doing approx 15 mph (it's a little bit uphill), no cars about.
A group of "yoofs" emerged from an alley ahead to my left, led by a young lady. They were heading towards the road obviously going to cross it. The young lady at the front was using that look-at-me-I'm-so-cool-I-can-cross-the-road-really-slowly-in-front-of-a-vehicle swagger you sometimes see so that's one potential hazard negated.
BUT, she was holding a mobile phone or iPod in her hand (I could see the glow from the screen) and was clearly only paying attention to that. Uh-oh! So I checked over my shoulder and moved a metre or so out towards the middle of the road.
Then, she turned round to her mates and held up said device to show them something whilst now walking backwards towards the road. UH-OH!! Another check and move out pretty much to the white line, slow down a bit (nearly at the top of the hill) and cover the brakes.
When she was a foot or so away from the kerb, she turned back round, saw me and stopped abruptly. So that was it, no problem, nothing .. even had she stepped into the road I was a whole width of the lane away from her and ready to stop.
But, as I accelerated off into the darkness I heard her say to her mates, "Didja see THAT? I nearly got run over by that F****** BIKE" the last couple of words shouted much louder, clearly for my benefit. Her tone of voice suggested that she felt I'd wronged her in some way, rather than it being a "look at me, I'm so random, wacky, crazy and mad that I nearly stepped into the road without looking and got run over" kind of joke with her mates.
So, sorry, a long story with no harm done, but it did make me wonder about some of these "everyone I know has had a near miss with a bike" stories.
We've all seen the comments on places like Have Your Say or just about any newspapers website along the lines of "cyclists are a menace: they all RLJ / ride on the path / wobble along the road and get in the way / don't respect the laws of the road / eat small fluffy kittens for breakfast. AND they don't pay road tax". If challenged, the person with the aforementioned views nearly always resorts to the "well, everybody I know has had a near miss with a bike".
So we all know there are muppets riding bikes that do stupid things, same as with any other kind of vehicle .. but this incident did make me wonder how many "near misses" are genuine. Read on ..
On the way home last night, through a biggish estate (few hundred houses) going along the main arterial road that bisects the estate. It's quite wide, with a footpath either side and a few metres of grass between each path and the road. I was in the road, in secondary, well lit up (two lights on the front, two at the back, bright yellow jacket, all of that) doing approx 15 mph (it's a little bit uphill), no cars about.
A group of "yoofs" emerged from an alley ahead to my left, led by a young lady. They were heading towards the road obviously going to cross it. The young lady at the front was using that look-at-me-I'm-so-cool-I-can-cross-the-road-really-slowly-in-front-of-a-vehicle swagger you sometimes see so that's one potential hazard negated.
BUT, she was holding a mobile phone or iPod in her hand (I could see the glow from the screen) and was clearly only paying attention to that. Uh-oh! So I checked over my shoulder and moved a metre or so out towards the middle of the road.
Then, she turned round to her mates and held up said device to show them something whilst now walking backwards towards the road. UH-OH!! Another check and move out pretty much to the white line, slow down a bit (nearly at the top of the hill) and cover the brakes.
When she was a foot or so away from the kerb, she turned back round, saw me and stopped abruptly. So that was it, no problem, nothing .. even had she stepped into the road I was a whole width of the lane away from her and ready to stop.
But, as I accelerated off into the darkness I heard her say to her mates, "Didja see THAT? I nearly got run over by that F****** BIKE" the last couple of words shouted much louder, clearly for my benefit. Her tone of voice suggested that she felt I'd wronged her in some way, rather than it being a "look at me, I'm so random, wacky, crazy and mad that I nearly stepped into the road without looking and got run over" kind of joke with her mates.
So, sorry, a long story with no harm done, but it did make me wonder about some of these "everyone I know has had a near miss with a bike" stories.
