To stay in one piece, ladies, cycle like a macho man
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To stay in one piece, ladies, cycle like a macho man
Katie Law
Boris Johnson yesterday announced more plans to improve cycling safety in the city
to get killed?
It's a strange and disturbing statistic, especially given that the same set of figures also show that male cyclists have more collisions
and
crashes than women, and are also more likely to be seriously injured.
Is there anything that women cyclists can do to reduce their risk, other than waiting for Boris's new measures, which include the
possibility of
cyclists being allowed to turn left while the lights are still red, to
become law? The short answer is yes: behave more like a man.
For there's no doubt that by and large a bloke on a bike, like everywhere else in life, is more aggressive, more confident, takes more
risks and
goes faster than a woman does. My advice is that, for once, it may pay
to take a leaf out of his macho rulebook.
You have only to wait with a group of fellow cyclists at a light to observe the complete range of gender characteristics. It's the men who
park
themselves squarely out in front of the waiting traffic; it's the men
who fly ahead at top speed; it's the men who get into arguments with
drivers. It is also more likely to be the men who shoot the lights,
ride the pavements and squeeze through potentially dangerous traffic
jams. I'm not saying that women don't — but they are less likely to.
While these characteristics hardly constitute a superior moral code of behaviour, they almost certainly go some way towards asserting the
rights of the cyclist to occupy the same turf as the driver. In so
doing, they may also offer better protection against the lorries that
have been responsible for most of last year's cycling deaths.
I only fully came to realise all this after I was fined by the police for shooting a red light, even though at the time there was not a
pedestrian in sight. I didn't question or challenge the offence but I
did make the decision that if I was going to be treated like a
motorist, I was jolly well going to behave more like one in future. And
a male one at that.
Since then I have become a veritable road hog in a fluorescent jacket, perfectly happy to pull right ahead and claim the middle
section of the middle lane whenever I go round a
roundabout, even if it means making the cars and lorries behind me slow
down. They can honk all they want to, but the point is that they can
see me.
Nor do I have any hesitation in pulling out to cross a lane, having made eye contact with the driver behind me, holding out my right arm,
to slow him down with imperious confidence. I've even
started rapping boldly on the car windows of drivers who drive and talk
on their mobiles.
Perhaps when we can turn left on red, I might be able to return to being a little more ladylike. Until then, staying alive seems more important.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alexander Langman Hender on -
Bravo!
I have heard the most fatal accidents involve a lady cyclist sitting behind a van (lorry) at the lights, so when they go ahead and the van turns left without indicating, they get squashed.
Pulling up in front of the van, making eye contact with the driver, throwing him/her a coquettish smile - all likely to ensure that you're seen. If you're seen, you're safe.
As for claiming the middle section of the middle lane - it's yours and you deserve it!
Good re-post, mate.
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Permalink Reply by Neil-Adelaide Bicycle Polo Club on -
Sometimes i dont think i care how angry drivers get at cyclists. If they get a chance to be angry then they almost certainly have seen them. The temper is their own problem. Likewise, a driver that has hit a cyclist is almost certainly apologetic.
I know, I got hit twice in one year. Then I started riding more assertively (within the law, mind) being more visible, taking the lane if necessary. Some drivers may see this as being aggressive and display their frustration but I'll get to my destination in one piece whatever it takes.
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Permalink Reply by Doddsy on -
You've been hit by two cars and you obey road rules.
Mind me asking what you did wrong?
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Permalink Reply by Neil-Adelaide Bicycle Polo Club on
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Neither accident was my fault. Both drivers were just completely oblivious to my presence in broad daylight and while wearing hi vis clothing.
The first one was real, crazy fast. The classic overtake then left turn scenario. Young female driver collected me while turning left into an angle park at a "brisk" speed. She had changed lanes just prior to this but forgot to check the cycle lane. Me, into front left wheel arch and over the bonnet. Snapped carbon frame, bruised and grazed.
second, older male driver in van fails to give way to me at a roundabout. I am usually very cautious, made eye contact with him but obviously he just didnt see me. cant explain how someone can be looking straight at me and then drive on into the roundabout. The upside, vans are quite soft to crash into the side of.
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Permalink Reply by Doddsy on
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Ahh the half overtake and left hand turn manouvre is one of the biggest signs of incompetent driving. We can't really say how many cycling deaths have been caused by such stupidity among Australian motorists and in this case London's going wide and swinging in Lorrie drivers.
Over the last 12 years as a bike courier its happened to me many times. On one occasion in particular it happened out the front of the Coopers ale house while heading west on Halifax street. An elderly man decided to turn left from the right hand turning lane across three lanes of traffic without signalling. The manouvre forced me onto the footpath of hurtle square. I caught up with him and he was so frail,old and on so much medication that he could barely see past the hood of his own car. (It didn't register that someone was talking to him throught the window so it was up to his teenage grandson to acknowledge that the old man shouldn't be driving and needed to pull over.)
Luckily enough i have always been able to avoid getting knocked off in such scenarios, I feel your pain.
Bit of a shame that such accidents happen while we are obeying the road rules.
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Permalink Reply by Bicycle Fish on -
A lot of anecdote, AND from another jurisdiction. ...Hey, I thought London was a cycling paradise - don't they have the Congestion Charge, after all ? But I digress ...by all means , act confidently on the road, but why "..take risks.." or "..shoot the lights,
ride the pavements and squeeze through potentially dangerous traffic.." as the writer suggests. All these sound pretty dangerous to me - maybe the ones doing that account for the crashes to which she refers!
Anyway, anecdotal accounts like this often focus on the "..10 women cyclists killed last year.." as tho the people who weren't killed don't count. What's worse, after all : 10 cyclists killed and 200 injured....or 5 cyclists killed and 500 injured...? Who can say ? Maybe you can reduce "killed", but is that any thing other than a feel good, if injuries continue..? ( Especially when so many of those injuries are in effect self inflicted (!) by (eg) un-lit night commuters, "wrong way" riders, "stealth" riders in all_black uniforms.... ) I say, Share the Roads ( with respect) / BF
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Permalink Reply by Doddsy on
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A city with a population near 8million is always going to have more accidents than a town as small as Adelaide.
Lorries (trucks) are the major cyclist killers in London.
It appears to have a lot to do with cyclelanes that approach intersections and encourage unsuspecting (unassertive) cyclists to overtake on the left hand side of motor vehicles.
You should never rely on a motorist to signal.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Warner on -
Passing queued traffic on the extreme left is often not the best idea - the space can be very narrow, the gutter might have a rut at its edge, left turners might get you. If I don't think the lights are about to change, I often ride between the lanes and move over to the left once I reach the front.
And if the lights do change unexpectedly, I signal and push into the left lane of traffic. They never seem to mind.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Palfrey on -
I saw a cyclist just after he was hit by a van doing a left hand turn from Gawler Place into Pirie St. It was fairly obvious what happened and it was so silly to perform such a manoeuvre in such a narrow street, but I guess because the cyclist has the right to overtake on the left the van driver would have been found to be at fault, the cyclist appeared to have a painful leg injury but was well and truly concious and there was no blood.
Sadly in the same week another cyclist tried the same manoeuvre entering Hanson Road from a side street on the inside of a semi trailer. Thet was fatal.
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