Did driving put an end to your cycling days?

[Chris71]

toon10 said:

Baryonyx said:

Yes, basically. Once I knew how the road really worked and I'd seen it from a driver's perspective, I considered the road a bit dangerous to be out cycling on. I also wouldn't want to be an irritation to other drivers, as I know how annoying cyclists can be when they are holding everyone up.

Like a fairly narrow 50mph road in my home town that has a large cycle track running alongside the whole road, yet some cyclists enforce their right to use the road, causing tailbacks.

I saw some builder type stick his head out the passenger window of a knackered transit and scream abuse at such an inconsiderate plank last month. I drove past shaking my head at the guy, I think he was wanting some sympathy for being shouted at. :-)

While I take your point about cyclepaths (I do use them wherever possible on my bike...) I dread to think how traumatic you'd find meeting a tractor on country roads if you can't handle overtaking a single cyclist.

On the rare occasions I end up holding a couple of cars up on the bike I just think back to all the countless times I've had to sit behind people doing 40mph along a perfectly good NSL B-road. I will pull into a layby or sometimes even a gap between some parked cars for a second if it's safe to let people past when I'm on the bike, and as I do so I wonder how many of them have ever done anything remotely like that in their car.

If I'm out for a blast in the TVR I can end up stuck behind a queue of monospeeders for literally the entire length of my favourite B-road. I don't think it's ever taken me more than half a mile to find a safe place to overtake a lone cyclist.

Edited by Chris71 on Friday 23 March 14:10

[pilchardthecat]

A conversation with a urologist put an end to my cycling days.

[toon10]

Chris71 said:

toon10 said:

Baryonyx said:

Yes, basically. Once I knew how the road really worked and I'd seen it from a driver's perspective, I considered the road a bit dangerous to be out cycling on. I also wouldn't want to be an irritation to other drivers, as I know how annoying cyclists can be when they are holding everyone up.

Like a fairly narrow 50mph road in my home town that has a large cycle track running alongside the whole road, yet some cyclists enforce their right to use the road, causing tailbacks.

I saw some builder type stick his head out the passenger window of a knackered transit and scream abuse at such an inconsiderate plank last month. I drove past shaking my head at the guy, I think he was wanting some sympathy for being shouted at. :-)

While I take your point about cyclepaths (I do use them wherever possible on my bike...) I dread to think how traumatic you'd find meeting a tractor on country roads if you can't handle overtaking a single cyclist.

Edited by Chris71 on Friday 23 March 14:10

Believe it or not I can overtake cyclists and tractors. Not sure where that comment came from. My point was that this road is a major road into a town and it has a wide and quiet cycle path along it. Some cyclists still use the road causing large tailbacks depending on the time of day when there is no need. We can all overtake them eventuaklly but as the road isn't very wide, if there's lots of traffic coming the other way, it's not safe to do so until clear which often means having to crawl along the stretch of road for quite some time.

I'm not anti cyclist, I sometimes dust off the old mountain bike and have a blast myself, using roads when I need to but if I can use tracks, trails and cycle paths I will, I'm just a bit more considerate.

[Chicane-UK]

I did cycle for a short while before I got a car and when I did that put cycling to an end for about... 7 years or so. But have now got into cycling for fun and exercise purposes and am cycling more now than I ever have in my life. So I guess my answer is no