trivia
* my friend ran into a pedestrian the other day. My friend stayed on his bike, but elbowed the pedestrian. He’s rather pleased with himself for giving the ped something to think about. I can’t say I approve, but it is somewhat annoying when people walk out onto the road in front of you.
* a driver recently had a pedestrian do the same to him. His emergency stop was successful and he didn’t hit anyone, but when he ranted about the incident on his blog, a commenter asserted that avoiding idiots is *entirely* the driver’s responsibility—you need a license to drive, but not to walk down the street. Does one therefore always drive slowly enough to be able to stop instantly if any of the pedestrians casually walking down the street should suddenly change direction?
* another friend of mine hit a small boy in her car the other day. She was doing 27mph when he ran across the road. He has a broken leg. Cars scare the hell out of me, useful as they are.
* I cycled into a dog. I was braking, as I tend to slow down when there are dogs running around the path (it was the path along the river in Woolston), but it ran under my wheels. I fell off and bruised a foot and a thigh. It took a few minutes to unstick the bits of the bike that got knocked, and when I looked down the path before moving off, the dog was still running around looking fine. Maybe I should stop and walk every time I see a dog?
* There’s been a long thread on the Brompton-users’ mailing list lately about practising emergency stops, braking technique (put most of the weight on the front brake, brace with your arms so your bike doesn’t flip). Go out into the car park on a quiet afternoon and test out your bike. Experiment a bit. How fast can you stop?
* I was reading some cycling newsgroup’s FAQ. One entry suggested never cycling a route you don’t know alone - in case of scary dogs, no less. What a terribly boring cycling life that would be. Another entry on avoiding crashes, particularly when cycling with a group, was interesting - don’t look at the crash or obstruction (same deal for potholes in the road) - look for the space and head towards it, as fast as you can.
* The DebConf wiki entry on Edinburgh suggests that there aren’t many cyclists in Edinburgh because of the hills. In fact, people I know who’ve cycled in Edinburgh and then stopped or cut down have complained about how scary it is cycling in Edinburgh, because of the traffic and in particular the buses. That’s because there isn’t a culture of cyclists in Edinburgh. Cars in Cambridge know that there are idiotic cyclists about and they get the hell out of the way. You indicate right on a Cambridge road, and the car behind will slow down in case you pull across the road without checking. Indicate right anywhere else, and you have to wait for the traffic to clear. I’m not suggesting we need more idiotic cyclists on the roads, but having a culture of cyclists makes the traffic more cyclist-aware, and tends to result in cycling being more comfortable for the cyclists. Be brave, get on your bikes, and when the town sees that people are cycling, they might just start fixing things for the cyclists.