Wind

BigRab

I took a turn through the park on the way home last night thinking that
staying away fron the road would be safer. Hah!

I heard a funny cracking sound to my left and a huge tree was uprooted
by the wind and came crashing down, luckily away from me but it scared
the c%%%p outta me.

I took up a LOT of the road on the rest of the way home and the drivers
were magnificent (there, I've said it!) oh, except for the driving
instructor who blasted his horn at me for being well out in the lane
(on a DC). Thanks mate, I wish I'd had the spare capacity to note your
telephone number and make some crank appointments for lessons!
Excitement.

BigRab

David Nutter

BigRab <robert@earthsci.gla.ac.uk> said:

> I took up a LOT of the road on the rest of the way home and the drivers
> were magnificent (there, I've said it!) oh, except for the driving
> instructor who blasted his horn at me for being well out in the lane
> (on a DC).

I seem to get more abuse for taking the lane where there's an additional
lane for following vehicles to overtake than on single carriageway roads,
though one would expect the opposite. No idea why, though I guess it must
make sense to the irate cagers responsible.

Regards,

-david

David Hansen

On 12 Jan 2005 03:23:00 -0800 someone who may be "BigRab"
<robert@earthsci.gla.ac.uk> wrote this:-

>I took up a LOT of the road on the rest of the way home and the drivers
>were magnificent (there, I've said it!) oh, except for the driving
>instructor who blasted his horn at me for being well out in the lane
>(on a DC).

There do seem to be rather a high proportion of driving instructors
who should not even be driving a car, let alone teaching others how
to do so.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
prevents me by using the RIP Act 2000.

Mark Thompson

> I seem to get more abuse for taking the lane where there's an additional
> lane for following vehicles to overtake than on single carriageway roads

Abuse? You might be able to modify your road placement to stop this. I
generally ride in the left hand "tyre track". I get plenty of space when
cagers are overtaking and it doesn't seem to confuse the poor things as
much as riding over on the right side of my lane (I think they think you're
about to do a right turn when over on the right of a lane). Never had any
abuse.

Richard Bates

On 12 Jan 2005 03:23:00 -0800, "BigRab" <robert@earthsci.gla.ac.uk>
wrote:

>except for the driving instructor who blasted his horn at me for being well out in the lane
>(on a DC).

I'm sure he was merely "warning you of his presence".

A polite "thank you" wave is the standard reply.


--
Amazon: "If you are interested in 'Asimov's I-Robot',
you may also be interested in 'Garfield - The Movie'.
... erm, how do they figure that one out?

Tony Raven

Richard Bates wrote:
> On 12 Jan 2005 03:23:00 -0800, "BigRab" <robert@earthsci.gla.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
>
>> except for the driving instructor who blasted his horn at me for
>> being well out in the lane (on a DC).
>
>
> I'm sure he was merely "warning you of his presence".
>
> A polite "thank you" wave is the standard reply.
>
>

I usually take it as an observation that I am not riding in the primary
riding position so I move out to the primary position and wave my thanks
for their observation ;-)

Tony

Richard

>>I seem to get more abuse for taking the lane where there's an additional
>>lane for following vehicles to overtake than on single carriageway roads

It's because the poor dears find it harder to overtake you, you're
forcing them to take extra exercise. If it's single lane, they only
have to keep looking ahead to spot a gap in oncoming traffic to overtake
in. If there's two lanes, they have to go to all the effort of
swivelling their eyeballs a few degrees to check the mirror to make sure
someone's not coming up in the right hand lane as well.

/sarcasm

Colin McKenzie

David Nutter wrote:
> I seem to get more abuse for taking the lane where there's an additional
> lane for following vehicles to overtake than on single carriageway roads,
> though one would expect the opposite. No idea why, though I guess it must
> make sense to the irate cagers responsible.
>
It's because the poor dears (like novice cyclists) are far more afraid
of what's behind than what's in front. Moving into a lane full of
traffic going the other way is easy, as you can watch them all the
time. Moving into a lane of traffic approaching from behind is far
more complicated, and you might have to make someone slow down, or
even get hooted.

This fear of the unseen behind seems to be an ingrained human
instinct. Is it realistic to expect people to learn to deal with it?

Colin McKenzie

Colin McKenzie

David Nutter wrote:
> I seem to get more abuse for taking the lane where there's an additional
> lane for following vehicles to overtake than on single carriageway roads,
> though one would expect the opposite. No idea why, though I guess it must
> make sense to the irate cagers responsible.
>
It's because the poor dears (like novice cyclists) are far more afraid
of what's behind than what's in front. Moving into a lane full of
traffic going the other way is easy, as you can watch them all the
time. Moving into a lane of traffic approaching from behind is far
more complicated, and you might have to make someone slow down, or
even get hooted.

This fear of the unseen behind seems to be an ingrained human
instinct. Is it realistic to expect people to learn to deal with it?

Colin McKenzie

BigRab

>I usually take it as an observation that I am not riding in the
primary
>riding position so I move out to the primary position and wave my
thanks
>for their observation ;-)

LOL Had it not been for the hundred mile an hour wind I would surely
have waved
my 'thanks'.

Robert

Velvet

Colin McKenzie wrote:
>
> This fear of the unseen behind seems to be an ingrained human instinct.
> Is it realistic to expect people to learn to deal with it?
>
> Colin McKenzie
>

Yes, it's really not that hard - if it was, cyclists'd have to stop
cycling, and anything not single-carriageway'd have been long since
abandoned...

Fear of the unseen behind is completely different to the ability to mesh
into a lane of overtaking traffic, IMO. I think the inability to mesh
is a lot more about not being so aware of speed and distance and spatial
awareness stuff.

Plus, there's a lot fewer courteous drivers these days. Many *many*
will pass you and not let you pull into *their* lane. Sometimes I've
done it anyway when it's clear they're just being bloody-minded
(deliberately closing a potential gap, for example) - much to their disgust.

Oh how I wish one could press a button and give the offending tosspot
(yes, I realise this might occasionally be me!) a quick blat of static
electricity from his/her seat :-)

--


Velvet

gazzafield

"BigRab" <robert@earthsci.gla.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:1105607458.490159.31060@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>
> >I usually take it as an observation that I am not riding in the
> primary
> >riding position so I move out to the primary position and wave my
> thanks
> >for their observation ;-)
>
> LOL Had it not been for the hundred mile an hour wind I would surely
> have waved
> my 'thanks'.


100mph wind and your out on a pushie???!!! It was bad enough in a car.
Tosser.

David Nutter

Mark Thompson <pleasegivegenerously@warmmail.com> said:
>> I seem to get more abuse for taking the lane where there's an additional
>> lane for following vehicles to overtake than on single carriageway roads
>
> Abuse?

Muffled yelling from rolled down windows, horns and the like. By the time
they've done all that, they would've been able to overtake in the next lane
over, hence my puzzlement.

> You might be able to modify your road placement to stop this. I
> generally ride in the left hand "tyre track".

That is where generally I ride when I wish to take the lane, or slightly
further right in certain situations (e.g. heavy traffic, or I want to turn).
That way I just suffer occasional abuse rather than repeated murder
attempts.

> I get plenty of space when
> cagers are overtaking and it doesn't seem to confuse the poor things as
> much as riding over on the right side of my lane (I think they think you're
> about to do a right turn when over on the right of a lane). Never had any
> abuse.

It may be a behaviour peculiar to Lincoln[shire], vile place that it is. I
don't recall it happening more than once in Durham. That said, it's hardly
common even here.

Regards,

-david

Colin Blackburn

David Nutter wrote:

> It may be a behaviour peculiar to Lincoln[shire], vile place that it is. I
> don't recall it happening more than once in Durham. That said, it's hardly
> common even here.

I've had a handful or two of incidents in Durham. Almost all were on the
A690 in the Crook direction with a couple in the town centre.

Colin