Yesterday's commute!!!

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BentMikey

Rider of Seolferwulf
Location
South London
I had a funny one yesterday. I was going along near Peckham, green light for me, red for the pedestrian (obviously!), and saw someone half way through crossing the road. I slowed and waved him through, but that wasn't good enough for him, he then shouted "You should be in the cycle lane". This bit of road has a cycle lane on the left, then an island, and then the main lane, and I was of course in the main lane as the cycle lane is dangerous IMO.

My response, pointing at the red man: "It's a red light mate, you want to look before you cross the road", and of course he then cursed and swore at me to be in the cycle lane again. It had me chuckling for few hundred yards, especially when the bus driver rolled his eyes at me as if to say what a muppet!!!

Then on the way back I made a mistake, passing a bus in the left hand lane, who was indicating right. I was in the right lane, and as he was just pulling away from a bus stop I wrongly assumed he was indicating to carry on straight in the left hand lane. Oops! A bit later at the giveway a hundred yards further on I apologised to him for not letting him in and explained my mistake. He was really chuffed, we had a cool brief chat before going on our ways. I love this sort of thing about cycling, you get to interact with the people around you far more than when in a car.
 
My first thought when a muppet does that is: "what if I'd been a bus"xx(
 

Tetedelacourse

New Member
Location
Rosyth
Good stuff Mikey. I admire your objective approach and appraisal of the situation(s). It's refreshing to hear amidst all the holier-than-thou sanctimonious stuff that appears here on occassion.
 
It's for reasons like this that I really think that cycle lanes are at best a waste of time and at worst they can increase the risks of cycling on the roads. So many other road users misunderstand the purpose of cycle lanes that their existence only causes cyclists agro like you experienced.

I have no problem with cycle paths as I realise that some people just want to go for a nice bike ride with the family. But cyclelanes on roads try to segregate us from traffic when it would be far safer for us to integrate.

I very rarely use any road based cycle lanes now, as they provide other road users with an excuse to ignore us. I'm sure they often think (subconsciously) 'oh they are in their cycle lane so I can pass as close as I like'.

I wonder if the CTC would support a campaign to ban cycle lanes....:biggrin::biggrin:
 

Tetedelacourse

New Member
Location
Rosyth
magnatom said:
It's for reasons like this that I really think that cycle lanes are at best a waste of time and at worst they can increase the risks of cycling on the roads. So many other road users misunderstand the purpose of cycle lanes that their existence only causes cyclists agro like you experienced.

I have no problem with cycle paths as I realise that some people just want to go for a nice bike ride with the family. But cyclelanes on roads try to segregate us from traffic when it would be far safer for us to integrate.

I very rarely use any road based cycle lanes now, as they provide other road users with an excuse to ignore us. I'm sure they often think (subconsciously) 'oh they are in their cycle lane so I can pass as close as I like'.

I wonder if the CTC would support a campaign to ban cycle lanes....:biggrin::biggrin:

This has probably been done here before but I can't recall. Hackbike had a major beef about it didn't he? Anyway, my own feelings are that they have a use for some cyclists and not for others. Which probably contributes to the confusion surrounding them.
 
Oh and I forgot to say I had an incident with a bus today, similar to yours. I was going around a roundabout at a fair speed and a bus misjudged my speed and almost pulled out in front of me, but he managed to stop in time. A mistake which he acknowledged. I gave him a quick hands up to say thanks for stopping.

Further along the road I noticed that he had caught up with me and he gave me about 20-30 metres space until I turned off. All in all I had a good morning commute with a few small incidents like that. It's nice when that happens:biggrin:
 
Tetedelacourse said:
This has probably been done here before but I can't recall. Hackbike had a major beef about it didn't he? Anyway, my own feelings are that they have a use for some cyclists and not for others. Which probably contributes to the confusion surrounding them.

But most are so badly designed that they teach new cyclists bad habits (gutter cycling, cycling in door zones, cycling up the left side of vehicles at traffic lights:eek: etc)

So I say ban cycle lanes and instead have more experienced cyclists dolling out advice to any cyclists they think need the advice.


(The last bit was just aimed at getting a 'I'd just push you in front of traffic if you gave me advice' reaction from domtyler....:biggrin:)
 
Cycle lanes aren't wide enough. They bunch you into the kerb where you really shouldn't be.


Indeed. I would accept the need for cycle lanes if they took up the whole width of the lane :biggrin:
 

domtyler

Über Member
I had an interesting ride home yesterday too, rode for some way with a guy from South Woodford who was totally bonkers, had me in stitches for most of the way. One major down point was being overtaken while going over the Bow flyover, I was in primary position in the left hand lane, 30mph limit by some total peanut in a silver hatchback going over 70mph at the very least who missed me by inches as he swerved right in, obviously to 'teach me a lesson'. That made me feel sad all night once I got home to my wife and young daughter.
 
I have the answer. Why don't we have car lanes. We could segregate the cars off to the side of the road, over the occasional pavement if need be etc. Then if they ever stray out of them we can shout at them!

We could also convert the canal paths for car use only (with a 15mph speed limit of course) for when they wanted to to go out on a family fun trip.

Of course cars wouldn't be allowed on motorways any more. What could we do with all those empty motorways.....:biggrin::biggrin:
 

goo_mason

Champion barbed-wire hurdler
Location
Leith, Edinburgh
domtyler said:
IOne major down point was being overtaken while going over the Bow flyover, I was in primary position in the left hand lane, 30mph limit by some total peanut in a silver hatchback going over 70mph at the very least who missed me by inches as he swerved right in, obviously to 'teach me a lesson'. That made me feel sad all night once I got home to my wife and young daughter.

Dom, you must have nerves of steel ! That wouldn't make me fee sad, it would make me feel like changing my underwear after the fright I'd have got :biggrin:

Glad you're OK though. The only lesson he taught you was that you'd been passed by an utter pillock.
 

Cab

New Member
Location
Cambridge
I think cycle lanes give motorists the impression that we shouldn't be on the road; we're meant instead to be in the gutter.
 

John the Monkey

Frivolous Cyclist
Location
Crewe
Terminator said:
I like cycle lanes.At least it tells motorists we have as much right to be on the road as them.
Albeit on our own little bit of it, and woe betide you should you go onto the main bit of the carriageway :biggrin:

I don't mind cyclelanes when they're wide, don't have honking great potholes in them, and aren't parked in. My route to work is a mixture of completely inadequate (crap surface, placed so the camber of the road drives you into the kerb, just about wide enough for my elbows to be slightly out of the area covered by it), ok (nice and wide, good surface, but parked in every 200 or 300 yards) and lovely (mostly buslanes that cycles can use too - bus drivers in Manchester seem to be mostly ok (so far) - close to home they're mostly bloody awful).

Peds I haven't got time for.Most of them are peanuts.

I tend to meet them at the start, and ends of my journey - nearer to home they're more pleasant (as, oddly, the drivers get less so). In Manchester they're just indifferent, mostly.

NB: The above based on 3 weeks commuting, and subject to review should I have a particularly bad journey any time soon.
 
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