Rather than do another turbo session today, which would have been sensible, I instead opted for a bit of a recovery ride outside.
This generally means I was cycling slower than usual.
And that means some impatient road users were upset with my antics. How dare I ride my bike on their roads?
I know. I’m sorry ðŸ˜. Please forgive me.
I knew things would be crappy today when I went through the big section of road works around Broughton, the route I have to pass through to get out to my usual flat circuit. It’s been garbage round there for a week or so.
Previously this road used to be a very cramped and polluted section of A-road, until they built a by-pass and shifted the traffic away. Now it’s fairly quiet, but because of this the cars that do use the road go fast.
As you can see, there’s a dedicated cycle lane on the left.
According to the highway code, it is neither compulsory to use a cycle lane, nor actually even possible at the moment there at the moment as there’s fairly large red signs up saying: “CYCLE LANE CLOSED”.
Section 63
The Highway Code
Cycle lanes are marked by a white line (which may be broken) and are found alongside the carriageway. Although not compulsory, you should use the lanes whenever practical as they can make your journey safer. If you need to leave the cycle lane, always check that it is safe to do so and signal to other road users.
Well, on the road there’s traffic lights – no workmen around, of course – but because I was going slowly I passed through the green clearly as it must just have changed to red. And on the other side, the guy in the blue VW Tourag was wasting no time in coming right at me. He wasn’t for moving. No sir, his road.
So he tells me, not so politely that I should be using the cycle lane. Common sense lost on him, as directly behind me is a big red sign saying its shut. Then he takes offence at me jumping a red light? F’ing cyclists… Hey, wrong on two points. Nice work.
I stayed out of the way after that, rattled.
And I thought it had been an isolated incident until I got just about home. As I was coming down my street I was pretty much down to just spinning and really idling along when a stressed out ‘lady’ starts giving me the horn. Sadly, not in the good way. Apparently I was moving far too slowly for her. And as I turned off, onto my own drive way, she gave me the verbals as she tore away as fast as her one litre engine could take her.
I know I’m moaning today, but I genuinely hate this stuff.
Aside from this BS there was another ~58 minutes of worthwhile recovery / mild exercise. So why does the focus remain on the two bandits who want to share their miserable existence with me against my will?
Meh.
Meh and lame.
And pants.
Jeez, you’re having a bad run with the auto-boxes lately! Motorists always say that cyclists are the most entitled, but the reality is that motorists are. They park on footpaths, speed, run red lights and kill people. When was the last time you read about a drunk cyclist killing anyone?
I think part of it is I’m out a lot more at the moment, so I run into it more frequently per week but perhaps no more frequently – statistically – than I was doing at other times.
I wish I had a camera on the front / back / and on my head, just so I could earn some YouTube ad revenue from shaming these cretins.
I guess I should also point out that I’m not always in the right. Sometimes I do stupid stuff and cause legitimate upset. But it’s my blog and I don’t report that 😀 😀 😀
Yeah fair enough! I want one of those new Garmin radar cameras, but need to get a 2nd mortgage to buy one of those!
I saw GP Lama review that a year or more ago, and I think about it all the time when I’m out. I’m not sure quite how useful it would be on UK roads – very few are long and straight, so a lot of the time, particularly on country roads, it would alert you with only several short seconds before the car / truck was on you. And for that sort of thing, my ears are pretty good at figuring out what’s coming.
Never looked at the price tho. Guess I won’t bother now 🙂