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.
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
@sthilzy
Don't let those lights hit those Gaerne shoes. Folks will be permanently blinded FFS.
@sthilzy
Haha! those look like niterider train rat lights, I still have one of those in my garage!
@Mikael Liddy
see my post. i go for the same look when the darkness calls for it. i think the bright oversocks help a lot to signify to drivers that you're a cyclist, as the tapping away on the pedals is a pretty distinct and recognizable-to-drivers image (and i'm not putting reflectors on my pedals, so that's the closest they'll get).
the VMH does highly encourage visibility (and scolds me if i come home from a ride that ended later than expected, wearing only dark kit), but once i chose that pink gilet, her only comment was: "if you're ever going to be the victim of a cycling hate-crime, it'll be while wearing that."
@Deakus
love it. dude has like $5k in lights and a GoPro but he can't buy a bidon.
Need a ruling here!
Just so I can upset everyone else at the mccogal I am going full on neon, BUT should I wear black socks or get some f the glaringly bright defeet ones to match my neon short sleeved top and gilet, both well fitting and semi-pro looking natch, .
Obviously black shorts are the only way to go.
If the weather doesn't improve though all bets are off, at the moment it is 6 C dull and breezy, yes it may pick up in a weeks time but then revert to type for the all important weekend, damn you jet stream.
@G'rilla
That is what is known as an argumentum ad absurdum (argument to absurdity) or a straw man argument. No one is suggesting wearing a crash helmet in bed based on the argument that it would make this activity marginally safer (not me at any rate). But clearly there is a balance to be made between safety on the one hand and style on the other. Where you draw that line is up to the individual. You I suspect will lean towards style even as you slide gracefully off the bonnet of the car that failed to see you dressed in your matt black "Rafa" cycling outfit. Shame no one will get to see it when the lid is screwed down on your coffin.
@Deakus
Not my analogy I would wear a flak jacket and a cycle helmet if I thought it would save my life but not necessarily at the same time.
@Chris
Emma Way has been suspended from her post as a trainee accountant, apparantly the firm she used to work for sponsors a number of running and cycling charity events in Norwich. Not the sort of publicity you want from one of your employees.
@E
This coffin that you have alluded to sounds more like a specimen jar.
@unversio
I see what you did there.
@E
Reductio ad absurdum is actually a valid argument.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_absurdum
Gotta get some use out of my 6 year B.A. in Philosophy...