Yesterday evening I had an invitation to
visit a friend in York, and decided to ride. I’d borrowed a bike*, and
York is one of the UK’s three ‘cycling cities’** that were being
trumpeted to rival Amsterdam and Copenhagen as world-class cycling
centres, so I figured I’d be okay. And I was, mostly because I started
on a fairly minor road and some kind soul reminded me that in the UK
people drive on the left before I met any traffic.
I can’t say I’m overwhelmed by the bike
lanes: certainly I’d have preferred them to have priority over side
roads like in Germany, and it would have been even better if the one I
was using hadn’t given up after a couple of hundred metres and pitched
me into the road, but it wasn’t too bad.
In the other hand, I liked these nifty
speed lumps in the roads. I’m sure you’re all used to them by now, but
humour me while I ramble on about them like some country cousin
discovering electricity: they are just narrow enough for a car to drive
over them fairly quickly without spilling the drivers coffee, so cars
seem utterly focussed on keeping their wheels either side of the things.
I soon noticed that vehicles overtaking would go over (round?) the more
distant bump, giving me a reasonable amount of room. Just as well as I
was on the road all the way to my friend’s house and back: if I’d
followed the designated cycle route I’d most likely still be out there.
Come to think of it, none of the drivers
who passed were using their phone either, because they had to
concentrate on the road to avoid leaving part of the car on the road. If
only we could get them to treat pedestrians with the same respect as
their own vehicles…
*Thanks dad…
**The others being Bristol and… where are the others exactly?
No comments:
Post a Comment