As part of an ongoing bike odyssey, I just did about 30km on a stretch of road with rather too many cars for comfort. That’s to say, about a couple per minute in each direction. So hardly any, but still way too many for me.
The appearance of lights in the mirror, the rising din, the need to carefully keep a straight line to minimize risk, the rush of wind, the parting gift of NOx and PM10. As an aside, the pollution issue has always been my main objection to private cars, since it’s so obviously unfair to eject your toxic effluent behind you. In the case of cigarettes, at least the smoker actually has to inhale the smoke before everyone else does!
Perhaps the most annoying of all: the motorists who want to help. They creep up behind you and hang around, waiting for a good moment to overtake even though there’s not another car on the horizon. Often when this happens I’m actually riding on the hard shoulder, but no, it’s not enough for them! “Get in the ditch so I have some more space, it’s safer”, they seem to say. When finally it’s good enough, they (and often the tail of traffic they’ve accumulated) will step on the gas and leave me in a cloud of diesel fumes. Absolutely. Infuriating.
These are the kind of experiences that remind me why for many years I hardly got on a bike. For me, the main problem with cycling has never been the physical effort or the discomfort. It’s the damn cars.
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Yep, yep, we get you.
I frequently get those drivers who will stop in their lane, completely blocking traffic, for whatever they think I might do - putting us all in jeopardy. I have to wave them through and pantomime “Go, go! Don’t stop!”, to get them to go, so they don’t cause an accident.
Just last weekend I was at a 4-way stop in a quiet neighborhood. I got to the intersection about three seconds after a car going perpendicular to my path, but the driver stopped and waved me through anyway. (Sighhh…) She had the right of way, so I stopped, but she waited, so I went straight through. But then someone in another car behind me tried to go next - I think maybe they thought she was not moving - and she honked long and loud at him. Like, what?!? You should have just gone when you had the right of way!!!
For me, the main problem with cycling has never been the physical effort or the discomfort. It’s the damn cars.
For you and a lot of other people. And that’s part of the problem we have.
City planners will often say that “there’s not enough demand to build cycling infrastructure on Death Road A, B, or C”, but fail to realize that demand is low because A, B, and C are Death Roads!
I just did about 30km on a stretch of road with rather too many cars for comfort.
Man, I did a 200km+ ride last weekend. According to my bike radar, I had 547 vehicles pass me, despite the majority of my ride taking place on our “waterfront trail” (which includes a mix of country and high-speed road… sigh).
None of the roads I was on had posted speed limits beyond 80km/h, yet several vehicles were clocked at over 100km/h, while passing me.
And yes, the exhaust smoke over the ride was just too goddamn much. It sucks the joy out of a ride like that, even when motorists aren’t trying to purposely punish-pass you!
But I’ll keep cycling, because it will always put a smile on my face, even after experiences like that. If you can avoid the cars, do it. If not, let your city, regional representatives, and provincial or state reps know you want more separated cycling infrastructure!