What a great way to spend a couple of hours, sitting in
the sun watching your fellow cyclists misuse a busy
road junction!
Two years ago when I last did that junction, the pavements
were used by a minority of children and nervous/incompetent
cyclists. Now, there are at least as many bikes on the
pavements as in the road: if the lights are green and the
road's clear we ride in the road, if the lights are red or
there's a queue we bypass them on the pavement. And if a
road's one-way out of town, a fifth of us still come into
town that way. No wonder cyclists have more dependable
journey times!
H*lmets are worn by nervous-looking women or by blokes who
present themselves as Serious Cyclists and don't smile.
Smiles go with loose clothing and bare heads. Or in one
case, with a h*lmet pushed so far back as to give virtually
no protection.
A young couple rode confidently across my junction, in the
road, on a solo bike. They weren't even Chinese - I didn't
think white people still knew how to double up on a bike.
One woman complained that she'd been counted twice at other
junctions - does this cause extra wear, or will her h*lmet
protect her?
I did not see any recumbents.
Strangest of all, the survey forms came with a pencil
donated by a sponsor, stamped "This pencil is made from one
recycled vending cup". They've blown the plastic into foam
like plastic wine corks and used it instead of wood. I'm
really impressed that they can make a whole, full-size
pencil from one measly vending cup!
--
Sue ];(🙂