Be informed

I’m a cyclist and sometimes I do silly things. Fortunately, I have got away with moments of madness. I do not do it deliberately. I stop at traffic lights. I do signal. I wear a helmet and appropriate clothing (with visibility). I get very annoyed with cyclists who abuse both the roads and cycle paths. Those cyclists who overtake me at controlled junctions requiring me to overtake them again on the busy Lewes Road, only for them to overtake me again at the next controlled junction. They annoy me.

Talking of Lewes Road, the Guardian reported on the ‘Bike Train’ that hauls itself along the Lewes Road on weekday

The link also provides links to two videos that I recommend. One is a very funny video about a man who was fined in New York for not cycling in the cycle lane. The second tracks one junction in NYC just to show how crazy all road users are.

All road users have some culpability. Pedestrians are now so wedded to their mobile devices that they do not look where they are going. In particular, they are incautious when it comes to walking in or crossing the cycle tracks in Brighton and Hove. Drives me nuts.

Back on my bicycle riding into the University for the first time since the accident (see 18 October). Tough but exhilarating. The arm still aches, but much stronger now enabling me to control the bicycle and manage the pressures of the road.

I was lucky, but it did not have to be so.It seems that the oil had laid undisturbed for 3 hours prior to my run in with it. No one responded to the knowledge when it was reported. By contrast, one cannot go into a newly-cleaned toilet without a big yellow warning sign getting in the way. Cover the carriageway in engine oil and no one acts.

22 June 2010

The summer has arrived, for sure. My daily cycle ride into the University is a delight. I need only one layer – the one that keeps me decent. In Brighton there is a rather amusing little cycle counter on the Lewes Road heading towards the town. For some reason on Thursday, the daily number of riders was halved. Not sure why. I’ll keep my eye on this.