Thursday, November 12, 2015

...Been a long time since I wrote last...been busy...mind on other things... no time to indulge in writing..

But my wife has recently started work in central London and commutes from our home in Reading (Berkshire) by train. I usually don't need to rise from my bed until 8.15 at the earliest but as my wife is now up at 6am I have followed suit and drive her to the station for 7am.

I quite enjoy it. I'm getting more out of my day than before and whilst I've always been a late-to-bed rather than an early riser, even I have to admit that 11pm is a more sensible bed-time than 1am..

But this blog isn't about my sleeping habits or my wife's new job.

On my way into the town centre it's still dark (its November as I write).. and whilst I'm not surprised at the number of people making their way to work at that time, I am staggered by the amount of cyclists... who pedal along the main roads without lights and wearing dark clothing, relying on luck and alert motorists to get from point a to point b without being hit. Believe me, they are almost invisible and especially this morning in heavy fog...

...Because he was responsible for a viral video (motorist takes a pratfall), I follow a cycling 'militant' on YouTube who goes by the name 'uphillfreewheeler'. This cyclist also lives in Reading and has gained quite a reputation for his petulant self righteous vigilante methods of shaming any drivers he deems to have done anything contrary to the highway code. He takes their registration number and posts his footage online. He wears a head cam and rear facing cycle cam.

He has stopped reporting every 'incident' to the Police after they 'advised' him to stop wasting their time.

True, some of his videos show genuinely bad and dangerous driving but most simply show him chasing down motorists in order to preach at them... and in the case of the pratfall video.. needlessly antagonise situations until they boil over. He has actually taken down a lot of hisYouTube clips where viewers comments were telling him to pull himself together and stop acting like a idiot..

But I digress. This cyclist is waging a one man war against all motorists. He wants better cycling infrastructure (which I agree with), but I think he should be seeking support and raising cycle awareness in a positive way, not simply playing the vigilante and more likely, playing up to his cameras.

To his credit, he at least wears high vis clothing, has good quality lights and even an air horn on his bike.. unlike the majority of cyclists I'm seeing every morning - in the dark - who should not be putting their faith in motorist's alertness and ability to see their silhouettes in the gloom but in their own safety precautions.. high vis clothing and cycle lights.

Pro-rata, for every bad driving incident I'm witnessing, there is a bad cycling incident. By all means, make use of speed cameras, road humps, chicanes and whatever else is suitable to curb errant drivers.. but the rules should apply to all road users, cyclists included.


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