Cycling woes

I know that cyclists aren’t the most loved tribe, not helped by stupid ‘documentaries’ on Channel 5 and so I try extra hard to be considerate and polite to all other road users and walkers in the hope that I might undo some of the work of the careless ones. I know there are some inconsiderate cyclists out there but there are also some terrible drivers and yet they don’t seem to all get lumped together as a ‘scourge’.

If there is a cycle path on a pavement, I will always use it even if it is slower and more annoying than using the road.

Today as I was getting onto the cycle path there was an old lady who’d just been passed by a cyclist as he was getting onto the path. She chuntered about cyclists on the pavement and so I politely pointed out that it was a cycle path too, pointing at the picture of the bikes that she was almost standing on top of. ‘But yes’, she replied, ‘but they’re always on the pavements’. So I said ‘yes, but this pavement also has a cycle path on it, look!’.
‘But they’re always on the pavements!’
‘OK but look, I’m literally on the cycle path’.
She walks off.

I’m not a fan of split pavements either, but what else are we supposed to do? Apparently trying to use the car less and actually care about the environment doesn’t matter a jot if you have the audacity to get in someone’s way.

Rant over.

(Heatwave today and I was back in the sauna of an office. Oh my.)