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There are a lot of whys when it comes to cycling, from both cyclists and other road users alike.
Why do people bother cycling in the first place?
Why do cyclists seem to all wear Lycra?
Why do cars pass cyclists so close?
Why don’t cyclists make themselves more visible?
Why don’t many cyclists use cycle paths?
Why do cyclists ride so close to horses?
Why don’t cyclists pay road tax?
And, many many other questions.
I’m going to try and answer some of these and some others too.
Why do people cycle? Obviously there are many reasons and I fall into the bracket of rather a lazy cyclist. I like cycling, but am something of a fair-weather rider. There are those who commute on bikes, and those who train and compete, even if it’s just local races. There are families who potter about at the weekends and of course those who prefer getting covered in mud riding mountain bikes off-road.
Lycra-clad cyclists have become a bit of a joke and it’s not surprising. Although lycra is actually very comfortable to ride in, it does have its beginnings in cycle racing and if you look at many of the Lycra brigade then you’ll wonder if it’s more about holding all the flab in place than helping the wearers slide through the air. Incidentally, another thing that always makes me laugh, is that so many cyclists buy a lightweight bike, and set about cutting the weight down in every possible way when actually they could save considerably more weight by just, well, losing weight. (This goes for me too)
I’ve covered this next one already, but I’ll say it again. Cyclists were there first. So, when you’re in your car, try to remember that fact. They are not trying their hardest to make life difficult for you. It’s actually pretty difficult riding a bike fast, and not easy to keep right into the side of the road when that’s where you’ll find things like gravel and detritus from the road, manhole covers, drains and so on. Just imagine how you say ouch when you hit a pothole in your car. Well, every little bump feels like that when you’re on a bike.
Why don’t cyclists make themselves more visible? A question I ask myself a great deal. What on earth possesses people to make it as difficult as possible for other road users to see them? This really does drive me bonkers. It is so easy to make yourself easy to see, with fluorescent or bright clothing, decent lights, and dare I say it, good signals. So many riders I see seem to want to ride in stealth mode. Dark clothing, insufficient or no lights and hopeless signalling, and then moan like crazy about idiot drivers cutting them up or passing too close. As a cyclist, I want to be seen as far off as possible, and I have zero sympathy for the stealth plonkers who end up getting knocked off. Once again we seem to be happy to take astonishing risks because we believe that someone else is to blame when something happens.
Why do cyclists ride so close to horses? Probably because they are impatient idiots. It really shouldn’t be difficult to pass our four-legged friends and their riders with ease and respect, but there are always those who just don’t think and don’t care. Watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSa5ySgLsSg if you want to see just how stupid some cyclists are.
Why don’t cyclists need insurance or pay road tax? Well, this one is interesting because I for one, do have insurance because I belong to British Cycling, and as part of your membership, you are insured third party, and encouraged to take further insurance for yourself and your bike. Road tax? This one is cut and dried, road tax is, in fact, an emissions tax, and cyclists don’t produce any more emissions than an electric car that also needs no road tax. I’d actually like to see home insurance cover cycling by default. It would add pence to an average policy and then we’d all know that we were insured.
Why do car and lorry drivers pass so close to cyclists? Well, various reasons of course. Firstly, ignorance, many drivers just don’t understand how dangerous it is to pass so close. Not least because in a car you are sheltered from the wind so have generally no idea if the cyclist is battling a crosswind and may wobble, but also because the cyclist may need to ride around an obstacle that a car driver just won’t see. Then there’s just stupidity, where drivers think it’s fine to pass as close as possible, or worse, think it’s funny. Believe me, you won’t find a conviction for killing someone so funny. The police are finally taking action against this sort of dangerous overtaking. I also understand that cyclists often don’t do themselves any favours either, by unnecessarily riding in the middle of a carriageway, or riding side by side chatting to each other on busier routes. One exception to this is teams who are training, who do, for aerodynamic reasons, ride in trains, two abreast. The reason is that they are constantly changing the front riders and the easiest and safest way to do this is by travelling in a side by side train. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9pmw2ckQSU
Cycle lanes, are they to help cyclists or car drivers? You decide, but here’s a short video to help. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xyd_KGUh10g
Why do some cyclists think they’re above the law? We’ve all seen the idiots on bikes riding straight through red lights, up one-way streets the wrong way, or without lights and many other things for which, in a car, you’d be stopped and prosecuted. Well, I guess there’s no accounting for stupidity in any activity. I’ve seen drivers run red lights too, but to be fair, it does seem that cyclists do it far more, and that, I’m sure, is down to the fact that they currently don’t really get penalised properly for it. I’m a cyclist, and I’m all for heavy fines for such reckless riding. It’s not just dangerous for the cyclist, but for the poor people who occasionally hit them off their bikes and kill them. As someone who hit a person while driving a van, (The person was having an epileptic episode while hiking, and literally fell into the path of my van.) it affected me for a good while afterwards. Fortunately, they were ok, and having been checked in hospital, went on their way. I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like to kill someone who for their own selfish reasons rides out across a junction against a red light. For this reason, I’d like to see bikes fitted with identifiers of some sort, be it electronic, or a small but visible registration plate that can be seen by cameras. They could even be made of titanium for those weight conscious lunatics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yiu1uLgwF1E