steverob
Guru
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
I'm sure all of us at some point have had the above phrase (or similar, possibly with some rude words added) shouted at us by an ignorant driver, but today I had a new experience - another cyclist telling me that I should be using the "cycle track" (as he put it) and not riding on the road. There was a shared pedestrian/cycle path on the approach to Oxford (about here on StreetView), he was travelling on said path in the opposite direction to me while I was on the road, and as he approached he started gesturing and then gave me an earful as I went by.
I completely ignored him and carried on riding, plus in my defense the road wasn't exactly busy - I was on it for about a mile, during which time I was overtaken by probably three cars and maybe another five or so passed in the opposite direction. I was also doing about 16-17mph at the time (flat road, tailwind) which is probably a bit too fast for a shared path. The irony is that I'm not against cyclepaths - indeed once I reached Oxford, I started using them to avoid the major roads, but when it's not much more than a country lane I can't see the point.
Really don't know why he decided that yelling at a stranger was the best way of convincing them, but it's kind of bugged me since - if fellow cyclists are now starting to parrot the talking points of the driving lobby, what chance do we have? Anyone else had this happen to them?
I completely ignored him and carried on riding, plus in my defense the road wasn't exactly busy - I was on it for about a mile, during which time I was overtaken by probably three cars and maybe another five or so passed in the opposite direction. I was also doing about 16-17mph at the time (flat road, tailwind) which is probably a bit too fast for a shared path. The irony is that I'm not against cyclepaths - indeed once I reached Oxford, I started using them to avoid the major roads, but when it's not much more than a country lane I can't see the point.
Really don't know why he decided that yelling at a stranger was the best way of convincing them, but it's kind of bugged me since - if fellow cyclists are now starting to parrot the talking points of the driving lobby, what chance do we have? Anyone else had this happen to them?