Trike

[ailbhe]

Pedalling around Reading today, I've learned a lot about roundabouts, cyclists, and cars. Many car drivers honestly think that cyclists belong on footpaths, not roads, and drive accordingly. Many cyclists agree. Cycle tracks that go around 3/4 of a roundabout are not useful if the turning onto it from the road means turning 100 degrees up a slight bump onto the pavement and then up a hill. It's much easier, safer, and less disruptive to stick with the car traffic.

Many car drivers think the trike is great. So do many cyclists. And many pedestrians, especially those with children. Most commonly asked question: "Can you cycle it on the road?"

When navigating through traffic in a legal and safe manner, it's very irritating to be overtaken on the footpath by two cyclists cycling abreast without reflectors or helmets.

Linnea pointed out "Man no shirt, man no helmet" when she saw a man cycling without a hi-vis vest or a cycle helmet.

Cyclists assume that the trike must be very difficult to cycle. It's not. What's difficult is getting the Sam Brown Belt on around the bump. The hi-vis vest won't go on, and the belt has to sit under my bump in front. Still, I assume I'm visible from the rear, and anyway I only cycle in daylight. Perhaps I should get a hi-vis cycle helmet cover. I really do like being visible (memo to self: put hi-vis smiley face stickers on the trike box somewhere).

I still need a Trike icon.

Comments

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I still need a Trike icon.

Me too.

Lately I have started to get really damned annoyed with two classes of cyclists:

1. The ones who point and laugh at me for riding a tricycle on the road while they're riding on the pavement without lights, helmet or visibility clothing. Some of them are not even wearing sensible clothing for cycling, yet they think they can comment about me. Well, whatever.

2. The parents who go cycling with their kids, and put the kids in helmets and hi-vis vests, while not wearing them themselves. I think this is irresponsible, because it gives the kids the unconscious idea that helmets and visibility clothing are things that you grow out of, like training wheels. "We don't need to wear helmets because we're adults and we know how to be careful", or some such bollocks. Gah.

[rmc28]

I don't wear a helmet because I'm an adult and have read the various research on both sides of the argument and concluded that the benefits of a helmet to an adult with road sense are marginal; and also because I cycle more and more carefully if I don't "have to" wear a helmet.

My children are damn well wearing helmets until they're in their mid-teens and can convince me that they have the necessary road sense and have understood the cost-benefit analysis of helmets.

I wear hi-vis velcro straps to hold my trousers in and never cycle at night without lights, but that's about it for visibility efforts. I do cycle assertively and on the assumption no-one else around me is paying attention to me, so I can get out of their way if this proves to be true. Since I got pregnant I've found I treat parked cars with even greater suspicion than usual, because the consequences of riding into a suddenly-opening door are that much worse now. Cars generally treat me with more respect when I cycle a meter out from the pavement than when I'm in the gutter, so I tend to do the former. It also gives me somewhere to go if a git decides to overtake me too closely.

Mind you, Cambridge is probably safer than most towns to cycle in, because of the high volume of cyclists, and simply by having reflective straps and lights I'm more visible than a significant minority (*sigh* not that I'm pleased about this).