Bicycles and automobiles- can’t we all just get along? @Kah writes about this universal (do aliens have this issue also?) problem of us co-existing with humans in cars. We all drive cars too and have cursed the occasional cyclists for some good reason. Cars are our greatest threat. We can crawl away from our own bicycle crashes, thanks very much. We always lose when a car is involved. Thanks for contributing @Kah.
Yours in Cycling, Gianni
High-visibility jackets offend me. I’m not in the position to judge fashion really, and generally don’t care what other people wear, but something that tarnishes an entire mode of transport as unsafe and dorky is not okay. These garments misinform the general public that cycling is an unsafe activity (look, that cyclist looks like a lit up flare and a Christmas tree had a baby!), they make all other cyclists look like dorks.
Now, I’m not picking on genuinely introverted people, but people who are just less comfortable interacting with other vehicles on the road. As someone truly in love with spinning pedals on the road, I don’t see why there is this reticence to spend time on the road. The footpath is by far the worse option: congested with pedestrians, littered with signs, and unpredictable in its ebb and wanes.
There’s a spectrum of how happy you are with sharing the road: going from very uncomfortable to exuding quiet confidence before becoming attention-seeking and finally there is a thin line to obnoxiousness.
Uncomfortable, more introverted cyclists tend to hug the kerb, trying to stay out of everyone’s way. Every potential interaction is exaggerated; every passing car becomes a danger. Confident cyclists who are experienced know when to draw attention to their intentions, when to back off while negotiating between quickly moving cars, and how to tell the difference between a passing maneuvere that is actually dangerous and one that is not even worth commenting on. This comfort around other road users is something you can cultivate, but not one you can fake.
Attention-seeking cyclists and obnoxious cyclists tend to feel more self-entitled. “I’m a vehicle/road user too!” is the common mantra of these cyclists who don’t feel inclined to offer the same courtesy they demand to the other road users. To be fair these rolling douchenozzles tend to be the same regardless of vehicle.
My problem is, the introverts are trying to make up for their meekness with the artificial posturing afforded by the YJA. Their mistaken assumption of course is that this magical garment bestows visibility, and thus invincibility in traffic, leading some to jump to the illogical conclusion that they have automatic right of way in every circumstance by virtue of the highly visible jacket.
Magic jackets are not the answer to safer cyclists. Learning to share the road on a bicycle is the answer. Anticipation, not hindsight.
Fucking cyclists.
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I think it is a bit ironic how many manufacturers offer black or dark colors with minimal reflective areas for articles of clothing that you would normally wear in low visibility conditions. Long sleeve jersey, rain jackets, light jackets that you would wear dusk/dawn - all of them. I'm not looking for CHARTREUSE (correct, btw), but something a bit more colorful is better than black under such conditions.
Hazard Orange is getting a bit more popular, and maybe I can use it and explain it as a Dutch/Velominati scheme ...
@Ron Rapha is exempt from the YJA stigma. It offers Chartreuse instead.
It's surprising how much reflective trim there is on kit. You'd struggle not to see this lot and not a YJA in sight.
@snoov
It would seem that Emma Way is having a bad day. If the twattersphere is to be trusted it would appear that not only have the police been informed but they've requested that she pops in for a chat. It also looks as though she's been tracked down to an accountancy firm in Norwich who no doubt know about her activities by now.
She's deleted her twitter account but not her twitter pic account thing which suggests she likes taking photos with her phone while driving. the police have also been made aware of that. Silly girl.
Can't imagine she'll get much more than a slap on the wrist though.
@xced
Alas, she'll probably get a warning. Of course, she's so stupid she can't conceive that cyclists might own cars too. Bring back publiic stocks for thiis kind of idiocy.
@Chris She could have run him over and then backed up to make sure and she'd get off with a ban and suspended sentence.
But make a joke about blowing something up and you're sent to Devil's Island.
@ped
Wow, you've got orbs on your feet.
I've just got some Gaerne shoes - they are lovely. I don't know if they light up like that though, but it isn't such an issue in Dubai. If I get hit it will be someone in a Range Rover Sport doing 160km/h on the hard shoulder, and aint nothing gonna make a jot of difference.
@ped
Christ! A little heads-up might have been goo there! I close my eyes and all I see are bright bolts of light!
@Ron
Most of the large manufacturers make white jackets, which I personally think is the appropriate color if you want to be "visible" and not look like a nuclear waste hauler.
I have a pretty thin rain shell from Castelli which is a semi-opaque white, so kit shows through. It's what I wore for my commutes earlier this year when it was still dark as I left my house.
Between that, some lights, and the reflecty bits on the jacket and shoes, I felt pretty good about being seen. I still use lights when I commute even now that it's light when I leave, just to catch the attention of any sleepy motorists.
Article about Emma Way's investigation by police:
http://road.cc/content/news/84212-norwich-police-seek-driver-who-tweeted-about-collision-cyclist