So far in some posts, I have written a lot about cycling and how it helps with exercise, friendship and making me feel better when I am feeling down, which I believe is mainly a result of my own mental health problems. But it lifts me and makes me feel good again, and I have needed cycling many times in the past, when feelings haven’t been good!
When I had my accident back in 2013, I was playing competitive darts, no great level, just a local pub league, but I enjoyed throwing the darts and the night out. I know I was a half decent player, even if I say so myself. But I lost my first two come back games after the accident, I gave up after the second match, and I have never thrown a dart since!
Back to January 6th 2013, and my anonymous mate asking me to put my thumb up to let everyone know it was okay to take the photo, and it was to this day!
I had a very busy and challenging job, but with the onset of my anxiety and with the change to me, especially my memory, and the demands of the job, I had to resign. I was letting the company down, and as importantly to me, I was letting myself down, compared to my normal working standards I was not doing well. So, I had to give that up too and there’s a bit of a theme there?
But the one thing I never wanted to, or ever felt like giving up, was my cycling, the one thing that caused the accident, my PTSD, my mental health problems and the incident that changed my life, and if I am honest that is something I have never understood! Surely that would have been one of the first things to stop!
Anyway, on a Friday just after giving up my job, I phoned my old boss, a local haulier, where I had previously worked as a transport co-ordinator, and asked if he had any driving jobs available, and lo and behold he needed a 7.5t driver for local deliveries and collections to start straight away, and so on the Monday there I was ready to go, feeling better, as the responsibilities and demands had been lifted off my shoulders.
For me it was a blessing, I did the job for about 9 months and it rested my head. There was no stress, no pressure and nothing tough, just a job to do and a wage to be had!
Things have changed, I’ll stick to roads thanks. My new baby - a Wilier Triestina Rapida 2027 model. What a machine.
But it does bring me on to my first post on cycling, and again something I feel quite strongly about, and that is cyclists being seen, or at least seen more easily. Mainly because I have experience of quite close calls both as a driver and a cyclist.
The top speed of my 7.5t was about 60mph. With a lot of the driving being on smaller, narrower side roads, some B class, the most I would do was about 40mph, but so you are aware at 40 mph, this means it will take just 11 seconds to cover 200m, which isn’t very far, and isn’t a very long period of time.
But driving down country lanes, it is often dark and shaded, and this was where I often came across cyclists, with no hi-viz or bright clothing and nearly always with no lights.
And that was me driving at 40mph, trust me I met many cars or vans driving at nearer the 60mph speed limit, thus meaning it will take just the 7.5 seconds to cover that 200m! And often the distance between spotting the cyclist (and occasionally a horse and rider) was less than that 200m. I only used that distance as a guide for travel times. And so, in a 7.5t vehicle, potentially fully loaded, meeting a cyclist 100m away on a dark shaded country and maybe even wet lane, you can see where I am coming from?
It would give a driver about 6 seconds thinking time to stop the vehicle, and about half that for a car or van going faster. Now that time can be reduced even more if the cyclist (or horse and rider) isn’t so visible and doesn’t get seen straight away, which often happened, and to me I don’t understand it.
And as I write this part, I am not long back from a beautiful Sunday morning autumn cycle on some Shropshire roads, side roads and main roads, and what did they have in common? Well, they both had the sun shining through the trees and the shaded areas too. It was lovely, and with it being the weekend there was many cyclists out enjoying the sunshine and blue skies.
Country lanes and quite dark too, but still 60mph limits, like them or not!
As I was in the middle of writing this, I was possibly more aware of them, but they were not easily seen, and I believe from about the 20 cyclists we seen, we were the only ones with lights on our bikes. Many blended into the countryside and woodland backgrounds, as they wore basic bland clothing, and without any lights they were not easily seen, and by doing my 12 -20mph I had time to look for them. Cars and others were driving at the 60mph speed limit!
I can imagine many people reading this would think that a driver should be driving to the conditions, but there are two points here. Authorities deemed these lanes and roads to be a 60mph speed limit, and how many drivers go out thinking they had better drive slowly in case they meet a cyclist or horse rider on a dark road, or on blind bends, because we don’t. And that doesn’t matter if you are a lorry driver, a cyclist, a horse rider or anyone!
But this happened quite often during my driving spell for work, and it was something I found very frustrating, whilst I have always made myself visible, it highlighted the need to be seen even more, and even with my poor memory, these events are something I remember quite vividly.
When out cycling a few months back, one of our friends was cycling about 100m in front of us, and he wasn’t wearing any bright clothing and had no rear light on his bike, and it was our turn to be cycling on a shaded road, as we often do.
A car, travelling quite quickly, overtook me and the friend I was cycling alongside, and they then cut back into the left as you should do, only to swerve back out to the right straight away, to overtake our friend in front, and to this day I believe the driver reacted like this as he simply hadn’t seen our friend ahead. Had my cycling buddy been wearing hi-viz or had lights on his bike, I think the car would have stayed out to the right to overtake us all in one go, as there was room to do so. Can I point out the driver was doing nothing wrong!
Imagine if after overtaking us and cutting back left, the driver had been distracted by something, anything. Maybe their phone ringing, changing a channel on the radio – anything, would they have had time to avoid my cycling buddy in front, thankfully we will never know. But I believe that is how easily situations can be created because cyclists feel they don’t need to make the effort to be seen.
If it’s a dark shirt it has a bright logo!
Or I just wear bright coloured tops and jackets
More and more cars have lights that come on automatically, one car I drove did just that, although the back lights didn’t, it was just a visibility thing for those I was driving towards, and so I would urge more cyclists to think along these lines, and automatically put lights on their bikes front and rear, and preferably flashing lights at that, they are more noticeable!
I couldn’t upload the video, but this light flashes, I want to make sure you can see me approaching.
And I want to make sure you can see me when you’re approaching me!
My (flashing) and audible indicators. Some may say a bit OTT, but no excuses when being seen. I’ll never give anyone that excuse ‘I didn’t see you.’ I ask other cyclists to consider some lights please?
It is one of these things I just feel a bit passionate about, and it can only be good if cyclists are seen more easily, both for them and the drivers. As well as my lights attached to the bike, I carry spares just in case and I also have indicators on my bike, and audible ones at that. When cycling once to meet a friend, I was about to turn into a street, just as a pedestrian walked out onto the road, using their hearing to cross the road rather than their eyes. I didn’t have the indicators at this stage and was a deciding factor when looking at them. Of course, when I said something (politely) to the pedestrian, it was all my fault as I was a cyclist. On this occasion, I couldn’t be bothered to stop and argue!
I wear bright clothing and use lights, whatever the weather and I simply don’t give anyone or any driver the opportunity to say something similar to ‘I couldn’t or can’t see you.’ If you can’t see me when I am cycling and you are driving, you shouldn’t have a driving licence, and you shouldn’t be behind a wheel, as I told one driver as they cut across a junction I was approaching, and came onto my side of the road, totally oblivious to my presence. As I knew they were going down a cul-de-sac, on this occasion I did follow them and I did tell them they should cut their driving licence up and sell their car!
I have had cars pull out in front of me as recently as yesterday, and in my opinion they do it for various reasons. These being I am a slow cyclist and they have plenty time, when they don’t, and they simply can’t judge speed and distance. Maybe it’s a case of they didn’t see me, they don’t care, or I am a cyclist I can give way to them.
This is not a case of driver’s v’s cyclists; it is about people! People not caring and not bothering to help each other. We can all help others by helping ourselves. We can all be brighter cyclists, we can all be better more considerate drivers, but drivers can’t be considerate to cyclists if they can’t see them! So, I suppose I am asking more cyclists to be brighter and be seen! Wearing darker colours with no lights does mean that on many occasions you are just blending into the back ground
If larger cars are being built to be driven with their headlights on permanently for safety reasons, surely that tells us something about all road users being seen more easily. And if larger more easily seen cars have this safety feature, then cyclists (maybe horse riders) need to consider having them too, unfortunately if one doesn’t see the other, there is only ever going to be one outcome!
Thanks for reading
DJ
