Why, simply why. Blog-warning
downfader
Posts: 3,686
This morning I extended my commute by 3 miles, well closer to 4 really and made it into work with 41 minutes of pedalling. On the flat I was able to do about 20-25, sadly only a couple of small hill climbs..
..anyway a couple of things cropped in my mind along the way. The first part is Portsmouth Road here in southampton and its a nice straight road. 40mph with great visibility both ways at 6.40am. I noticed a good few other people riding up and down it and it seemed doing a fair bit of training on it. The best part is that drivers gave me LOADs of room. Really good stuff.
So I head back into my own normal commute route and I'm doing 20-ish as its mostly a slight downhill in a 30 zone. Completely different mentality of the drivers there, close overtakes, often with nowhere to go but the back of a queue as they havent been paying proper attention. Simply MUST pass me regardless. A couple of overtakes resulted in the driver cutting in too soon and my having to brake and then regain momentum. This is despite taking a more primary line on corners for my own safety and visibility.
One driver did this to me this afternoon and I had to nip down the left hand side from the speed I was doing. As I past I looked in at the driver and shook my head at her, saw a gap in front and took my chance, LOL. I think I made my point by keeping up with the traffic flow infront of her.
Lastly. This morning I'm turning right to go down a local hill but there was a bus infront. Simply wasnt safe to under/overtake, and as I pulled off behind it I was undertaken by a young lady on a bike I recognised. A yellow and blue fixie that is often parked up at work. She shot down the side of the bus at the bottom of the hill and dissappeared up into my workplace.
I caught up in about 2 minutes and said to her "you were brave doing that there, with that bus". I've seen a couple of cyclists come unstuck there, despite the little cyclelane, and the kerbing at the bottom of the hill. As soon as you ascend theres a left bend in it and many motorists cut this corner off. Busses have no choice because of their size.
I've had a good couple of weeks tbh and just today its gone a bit mental here
..anyway a couple of things cropped in my mind along the way. The first part is Portsmouth Road here in southampton and its a nice straight road. 40mph with great visibility both ways at 6.40am. I noticed a good few other people riding up and down it and it seemed doing a fair bit of training on it. The best part is that drivers gave me LOADs of room. Really good stuff.
So I head back into my own normal commute route and I'm doing 20-ish as its mostly a slight downhill in a 30 zone. Completely different mentality of the drivers there, close overtakes, often with nowhere to go but the back of a queue as they havent been paying proper attention. Simply MUST pass me regardless. A couple of overtakes resulted in the driver cutting in too soon and my having to brake and then regain momentum. This is despite taking a more primary line on corners for my own safety and visibility.
One driver did this to me this afternoon and I had to nip down the left hand side from the speed I was doing. As I past I looked in at the driver and shook my head at her, saw a gap in front and took my chance, LOL. I think I made my point by keeping up with the traffic flow infront of her.
Lastly. This morning I'm turning right to go down a local hill but there was a bus infront. Simply wasnt safe to under/overtake, and as I pulled off behind it I was undertaken by a young lady on a bike I recognised. A yellow and blue fixie that is often parked up at work. She shot down the side of the bus at the bottom of the hill and dissappeared up into my workplace.
I caught up in about 2 minutes and said to her "you were brave doing that there, with that bus". I've seen a couple of cyclists come unstuck there, despite the little cyclelane, and the kerbing at the bottom of the hill. As soon as you ascend theres a left bend in it and many motorists cut this corner off. Busses have no choice because of their size.
I've had a good couple of weeks tbh and just today its gone a bit mental here
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