Matthew_T
"Young and Ex-whippet"
- Location
- Prestatyn, North Wales
Just something that made my day a little brighter:
There was an airshow on today at a town near where I live. The traffic on pretty much every road was at a stand still, therefore I had the oppurtunity to do a lot of filtering. There were two particular sections of my ride when I was filtering that cheered me up.
1) When lane splitting down a narrow but busy main road, traffic in both directions was stopped. As drivers were near the kerb, I decided that it would be best to go down the center of the road. While I was riding (not very fast BTW) I often encountered situations where I could not get through because the traffic was so close together. And people actually moved over to the left for me to get through when they saw me coming. I of course was thanking everyone who moved over and that cheered me up.
2) I had earlier overtaken a motorbike who was held up in the traffic in 1). I had travelled about 1 mile when I stopped at a set of traffic lights. I then noticed the car infront of me behind some more traffic (which confused me a bit). After the lights, the road widens and there are cross hatchings down the center of the road (with the occasional traffic island as well) for about half a mile. I could see that the motobike was going to filter past as many people as he could, so I decided to do the same.
But I felt like it would be fun to try to keep up with the motor bike. So when he set off, I did as well, hitting 30mph. He started to pull away from me but I continued to stay in the center of the road passing everyone. At the next set of traffic lights, I saw him waiting to turn left (when I was going straight on). I pulled up allong side him and informed him that I was behind him the whole way (not actually correct but there wasnt time to be detailed). He replied "It was hard wasnt it?" and I said "Yes, it certainly was". Then the lights changed.
In all, the combination of people being kind and letting me through, and a nice biker, really cheered me up for the rest of the day.
There was an airshow on today at a town near where I live. The traffic on pretty much every road was at a stand still, therefore I had the oppurtunity to do a lot of filtering. There were two particular sections of my ride when I was filtering that cheered me up.
1) When lane splitting down a narrow but busy main road, traffic in both directions was stopped. As drivers were near the kerb, I decided that it would be best to go down the center of the road. While I was riding (not very fast BTW) I often encountered situations where I could not get through because the traffic was so close together. And people actually moved over to the left for me to get through when they saw me coming. I of course was thanking everyone who moved over and that cheered me up.
2) I had earlier overtaken a motorbike who was held up in the traffic in 1). I had travelled about 1 mile when I stopped at a set of traffic lights. I then noticed the car infront of me behind some more traffic (which confused me a bit). After the lights, the road widens and there are cross hatchings down the center of the road (with the occasional traffic island as well) for about half a mile. I could see that the motobike was going to filter past as many people as he could, so I decided to do the same.
But I felt like it would be fun to try to keep up with the motor bike. So when he set off, I did as well, hitting 30mph. He started to pull away from me but I continued to stay in the center of the road passing everyone. At the next set of traffic lights, I saw him waiting to turn left (when I was going straight on). I pulled up allong side him and informed him that I was behind him the whole way (not actually correct but there wasnt time to be detailed). He replied "It was hard wasnt it?" and I said "Yes, it certainly was". Then the lights changed.
In all, the combination of people being kind and letting me through, and a nice biker, really cheered me up for the rest of the day.
