First proper commute back on the bike today. Although both AM & PM rush hours seemed, well, not very rushed, and pretty quiet - traffic wise. I was under the impression the big-mac-through-railings brigade were going back to school today, after half term? Maybe I'm mis-informed.
I have to admit the knock on 09.10.06 has influenced my riding outlook a bit, in the sense that all the big scary cars, are viewed as big scary cars. Where previously they were viewed just as fellow road-users, mainly co-operative, but bumbling their way to work.
I recalled insignificant examples in the past where I might be waiting at a traffic light and a driver for example might poke their front bumper in a gap next to me, quite blatantly not suitable for the two of us (too narrow), it's just uncivilised. But the moral is you can't trust some drivers to wait patiently behind you, so I try not to offer them such a gap to even consider.
What I mean is my attitude has stepped up from "hmm, I'll just mind my own business & hope everyone else is a good driver". To: "My Lane! My Lane! It's All Mine!!!!!" i.e. Returning to the pretty assertive riding style, taking the whole lane - conspicuously, especially whenever 2 in to 1 won't go (safely).
PM ride was my first night time ride this winter, and actually it was very enjoyable. With several flashing LED's all set to "provoke epilepsy" mode, I had no incidents, was given adequate room when overtaken by vehicles, and generally felt very noticed. Perhaps more so than in daylight?
1 comment:
It's good to hear you're back in the saddle. My first night-time commute ever tonight and the traffic on the street was pretty tame. Scary moments on the bike path through the woods on a path that is 2.5 meters wide (8 ft) with only my front headlight for illumination and lots of fallen leaves. Turned out to be a bit of excitement on what was becoming a routine ride home. Stick with it.
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