Quitting Winter Commuting

[rogerzilla]

I'm more comfortable mixing it with regular commuters than with late-night boy racers or weekend pensioners. The regular commuters are driving a familiar route and not suffering from cognitive overload; also, the traffic is too heavy for anyone to show off their alleged driving skills.

 

[beany_bot]

I'm more comfortable mixing it with regular commuters than with late-night boy racers or weekend pensioners. The regular commuters are driving a familiar route and not suffering from cognitive overload; also, the traffic is too heavy for anyone to show off their alleged driving skills.

Hmm i find commuters on the way to work fine, on the way home though... people are DESPERATE to get home, way worse than weekend or late night. Especially on Fridays. I've had more close passes on Friday afternoons than any other time by far.

 

[Slick]

Hmm i find commuters on the way to work fine, on the way home though... people are DESPERATE to get home, way worse than weekend or late night. Especially on Fridays. I've had more close passes on Friday afternoons than any other time by far.

I feel the same although at 6am I've always felt it was a different type of driver than you get on the school run round here anyway. Early evening run home your slap bang in the middle of all the idiot's at their best.

 

[classic33]

I feel the same although at 6am I've always felt it was a different type of driver than you get on the school run round here anyway. Early evening run home your slap bang in the middle of all the idiot's at their best.

Used to go to Leeds along the A58. At the top of the hill near Wyke, with school run in full swing, being the worst part. After that it was near the city centre, having come off the A58, two roundabouts to get round with a load of frustrated drivers. Queues often back to Ringways and along comes a cyclist passing them when they were "very nearly" there.

 

[12boy]

Nothing scares me more than a young lady with a giant SUV full of screaming kids who is talking on a cell phone. Even scarier than young oil field guys with a 3/4 ton turbo diesel. Get a1000 lumen light or two and studded tires for ice and big ones for the mud but with fenders. Those hairy roads are what mtn bikes and fatbikes are for.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Funny thing is that here White Van Man is rarely if ever a problem, nor young guys in souped up hatchbacks. Both tend to give me plenty of room.

The ones to watch here are older men in Mercedes saloons and women under 30 driving anything, but especially new 'minis', oddly. I wonder if it varies according to country and culture.

[Edited due to apparent inability to type this morning]

 

[beany_bot]

I find the closer I get to the posh areas the worse the behaviour gets. Typically "mums" driving big Audis and range rovers are the worst for both awareness and giving space.

 

[DCBassman]

older men in Mercedes saloons

Glad I have an estate, then!

 

[Andy in Germany]

Glad I have an estate, then!

That's the very strange thing about it: it's pretty much only saloons...

 

[DCBassman]

That's the very strange thing about it: it's pretty much only saloons...

Here anyhow, estates are very much utility vehicles (mine is, and looks it, very scabby for an E Class...), and drivers seem to be a bit more road aware. It's the country folk in the shiny SUVs you have to watch...

 

[KneesUp]

Not as bizarre a suggestion as it may sound.

A few years ago my wife started looking at properties in the 'posher' parts of south Manchester. One of the houses she really took a shine to was a do'er up'er that was in a great area and had a huge garden. I put a stop to it straight away! My reason, it was only about 1 mile from my place of work and that just wasn't going to be sufficient for a cycle commute. I told her to draw a circle about 8-12 miles around my work and start looking there...….

We stayed where we are, 10.5 miles by bike from my work

Can I guess where the house was and where you work?

 

[mjr]

Here anyhow, estates are very much utility vehicles (mine is, and looks it, very scabby for an E Class...), and drivers seem to be a bit more road aware. It's the country folk in the shiny SUVs you have to watch...

That's funny. Over here, the shiny SUVs clean tend to be the farm managers who mostly seem to treat cyclists like horses and give plenty of room. The ones to watch out for in the small lanes tend to be the smoky old diesels (including estates - sorry) with people trying to do two other things while they drive. On the bigger roads, it's the stereotypical hot hatches who seem to fancy themselves as rally drivers right up until they bounce themselves backwards into a hedge if they're lucky or upside down into a fen drain if they're not.

 

[DCBassman]

Here on Dartmoor, the farmers seem pretty good all round, whatever their steed...Agree re the hot hatches, although here and in Cornwall, going into any kind of 'hedge' is likely to be very traumatic, as they tend to have cores of rock...

 

[Andy in Germany]

I find the closer I get to the posh areas the worse the behaviour gets. Typically "mums" driving big Audis and range rovers are the worst for both awareness and giving space.

I remember a traffic engineer saying there was evidence of a correlation between the price of a car and the drivers poor driving, incidences of speeding or crossing red lights et c. The theory was that people begin to feel more entitled then they drive a flash car and will be less bothered about rules -indeed they tended to see them as an annoyance.

 

[DCBassman]

I remember a traffic engineer saying there was evidence of a correlation between the price of a car and the drivers poor driving, incidences of speeding or crossing red lights et c. The theory was that people begin to feel more entitled then they drive a flash car and will be less bothered about rules -indeed they tended to see them as an annoyance.

Hence the lack of indicator use often seen...only the 'little people' use indicators...