On not becoming strawberry jam ... yet
I mentioned the other day that I've had a few near-misses on the roads in recent years, and watervole unhelpfully suggested riding well clear of the kerb. However, I'm not suggesting that this was unsound advice - quite the contrary, I gather it's very sensible practice, and the link she supplied backs that up - but it wouldn't have helped in any of the five cases I was thinking of. I'm not that worried about vehicles coming up from behind.
Three of the near-misses (which as Ben Elton once pointed out are better called near-hits) involved cars coming into roundabouts that just carried on coming even though I was about to cut across them. A fourth involved a car pulling out of a side road on the left - and very sharply too - again just as I was drawing level. That one ended up with my hand on the bonnet while I glared homicidally at the driver. In the fifth instance, a car overtook me - so the driver knew perfectly well I was there - then pulled in tight to the kerb and braked sharply, forcing me to do likewise.
The first four cases have left me feeling very wary of cars coming up on my left, either from side streets or coming up to roundabouts. I've developed the unhealthy reaction of braking hard and swinging out towards the middle of the road without checking first whether there's anything coming up behind me. And this can happen a lot, seeing as my journey to work is through a built-up area with a lot of side streets. The improved braking performance of modern cars doesn't help, as it means drivers zoom up to the white line and then stop sharp. It's the zooming up that scares me, because I don't know if the stopping sharp will happen until it does.
Traffic seems to have got a lot worse in recent years. I gather the official word is that it's actually declined (by about 0.1%) since the Credit Crunch, but I can't say I've seen it for myself. More cars than ever, and the standard of driving has declined. Even if there really are fewer cars, more of them would seem to be driven by selfish thoughtless bastards.
Of course the overwhelming majority of drivers are aware of cyclists and considerate towards them, sometimes even too much so. But I can't assume that of any of them. I have to assume that any car coming up from the left is driven by an inatttentive idiot or some arsehole who isn't going to let a mere cyclist slow him down for as much as a second.
I've seen a lot of online discussion in the past year from women who live in constant fear of Schroedinger's Rapist. I sympathise. Every night I go to work I'm watching out for Schroedinger's Selfish Thoughtless Bastard.
Three of the near-misses (which as Ben Elton once pointed out are better called near-hits) involved cars coming into roundabouts that just carried on coming even though I was about to cut across them. A fourth involved a car pulling out of a side road on the left - and very sharply too - again just as I was drawing level. That one ended up with my hand on the bonnet while I glared homicidally at the driver. In the fifth instance, a car overtook me - so the driver knew perfectly well I was there - then pulled in tight to the kerb and braked sharply, forcing me to do likewise.
The first four cases have left me feeling very wary of cars coming up on my left, either from side streets or coming up to roundabouts. I've developed the unhealthy reaction of braking hard and swinging out towards the middle of the road without checking first whether there's anything coming up behind me. And this can happen a lot, seeing as my journey to work is through a built-up area with a lot of side streets. The improved braking performance of modern cars doesn't help, as it means drivers zoom up to the white line and then stop sharp. It's the zooming up that scares me, because I don't know if the stopping sharp will happen until it does.
Traffic seems to have got a lot worse in recent years. I gather the official word is that it's actually declined (by about 0.1%) since the Credit Crunch, but I can't say I've seen it for myself. More cars than ever, and the standard of driving has declined. Even if there really are fewer cars, more of them would seem to be driven by selfish thoughtless bastards.
Of course the overwhelming majority of drivers are aware of cyclists and considerate towards them, sometimes even too much so. But I can't assume that of any of them. I have to assume that any car coming up from the left is driven by an inatttentive idiot or some arsehole who isn't going to let a mere cyclist slow him down for as much as a second.
I've seen a lot of online discussion in the past year from women who live in constant fear of Schroedinger's Rapist. I sympathise. Every night I go to work I'm watching out for Schroedinger's Selfish Thoughtless Bastard.