Monday, 11 June 2007

Beware the buggy


As every commuting cyclist will tell you, mixing it with motorised traffic can be quite hair-raising at times. Avoiding large buses and heavy vehicles in restricted road width often means getting squashed in the kerbside or against parked cars, all the time with the danger of someone opening a door or pulling out of a side road.

These thoughts are in one's mind travelling down the A666 towards Blackburn but it is comforting that I have more options than this poor chap on his motorised transport. It probably has a top speed of 8mph and can’t be very manoeuvrable. I passed him this morning going a good 10mph faster. Further back under Skew Bridge he’d have been barely noticable. Luckily most motorists were quite considerate this morning but it would only take one fool doing 50 down this 30mph road (not uncommon along here) and it could be a different story.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Cycle lanes in France, Germany and Austria normally are dedicated to non-motorised traffic. They are situated away from roads. The only hazards to cyclists are pedestrians and roller bladers.

However the cycle lanes in this country are a sop to EU targets only. They are white lines painted about two feet from the kerb.
It just goes to show what a law breaking lot cyclists are, because if they stopped in accordance with the sign "Cycle lane ends", there would be at least a few hungry , tired and bemused cyclists at each junction.