Aw Diddums

Jul 4, 2006 at 18:49 o\clock

Trouble Glides Behind

by: Diddums   Category: Hearing Loss   Keywords: bikes, traffic, roadworks, close, brush, narrow, squeak, hearing, impairment, deafness

Mood: Sleepy
Listening to: Nothing

 

I'm moving my blog to WordPress. This post can be found there. 

At last the cats in town have their owner back and M. is walking Thundercloud, so I have the afternoon off from pet-minding. When I was walking Thundercloud on Sunday, I noticed the burn is so low it has almost stopped moving in one place. A slight scum is forming on the surface like it does on a pond. It's good that it's been raining again, though it hasn't done much of that today - just looks grey and sullen.

I recently had a close brush with another road user. I decided to draw a diagram of the scene to help people cluck their tongues in sympathy, but after raiding Paintshop Pro's library of images I ended up with a ridiculous illustration instead. It gives the general idea of what happened, though.



I should not tar all cyclists with the same brush. It's just like in any other walk of life, where there are always good, average and bad. There must be very considerate cyclists around - if they're good, you don't really notice them. On Monday, though, I met one of the rather less good.

Traffic on one side of the road halted at the roadworks. I was walking on the pavement on the other side, facing any on-coming traffic. The pavement isn't very wide - there's just about room for two people walking abreast.

There was a lot of overhanging foliage from someone's garden so I was about to swing out to the outer edge of the pavement to avoid it. A bicycle which was ON the pavement thundered past me from behind. Going very fast, wrong side of road and all. Obviously didn't want to wait at the roadworks like everyone else, but at the same time didn't want to risk a head-on collision with a car coming the other way - so chose to put me at risk instead.

While the cyclist sped off, I was left wondering where he got such confidence from. How did he know I wouldn't suddenly swing over into his path? Did he assume I could hear him coming? Why did he go so fast? Couldn't he have got off the bike and walked? Why even bother asking questions? Presumably he knows he's breaking all the rules.

Do other people hear bikes coming - do the cyclists ring their bells and think that will be enough? I don't know if other people can hear them or not - all I know is that I can't, and I'm really fed up with having to look anxiously over my shoulder every ten minutes just in case some fool like that is cruising along without a care in the world. I can't afford to let my guard down - the day I do will be the day trouble strikes from behind.

If you're wondering about the skeleton in the picture, I couldn't find a bike in Paintshop Pro's collection, so the skeleton seemed the next most apt image to use...

Comments for this entry:

  1. quotePacian wrote at Jul 5, 2006 at 16:04 o\clock:It\'s funny you mention this. A while back I was looking at a blog that seemed rather nice, except one of the most recent posts was the author complaining about pedestrians from a cyclist\'s perspective. She wrote that it was up to pedestrians to be aware of their surroundings and to \'listen out\' for bikes. I decided to stop reading at that point.



    \"I couldn\'t find a bike in Paintshop Pro\'s collection, so the skeleton seemed the next most apt image to use...\"



    Skeletons and bikes are both made from elements forged in the nuclear furnaces at the heart of stars or born violently in their explosive deaths. That\'s similar enough for me. More obviously there\'s the whole Manny Calavera angle. ;-)
  2. quotekateblogs wrote at Jul 5, 2006 at 18:22 o\clock:LOL I did wonder about the skeleton - glad you explained it, I was thinking there were some funny folk in your part of the world. Either that, or a lot of supermodels on bikes :-)



    Glad you weren\'t hurt!
  3. quoteDiddums wrote at Jul 5, 2006 at 20:02 o\clock:Thanks - I guess this subject has come up on blogs because of the better weather; presumably we would see fewer bikes if it was cold and windy. Cyclists must get annoyed (understandably) if there are people crossing the road without checking properly, but it\'s definitely different when we are sharing the same path, pavement or whatever. A bike on a path is on the pedestrian\'s territory. There are some good people, of course - some get off their bikes when they see someone there walking, or they slow down and sometimes stop.



    I expect a psychologist would have fun with why I chose the skeleton instead of the running man :-). Or I could have drawn a wobbly bike myself; it couldn\'t have looked any odder. The woman looks strange too, stiff and doll-like (not as animated as the skeleton), but she\'s facing generally the right direction - just about...
  4. quotekateblogs wrote at Jul 6, 2006 at 20:13 o\clock:I think you are right about it being weather related. I should imagine that at the moment there are a lot of people out on bikes, who wouldn\'t normally use them. Maybe, this is part of the problem. They aren\'t regular bikers, so don\'t understand the rules.



    Putting my amateur psychologist hat on, perhaps you chose a skeleton because you have come to see bike riders as cold and slightly inhuman. Or perhaps not LOL
  5. quoteDiddums wrote at Jul 7, 2006 at 00:16 o\clock:More bikes and more pedestrians :-). Though I tramp the streets in all weathers. I think it\'s the bike I see as the evil thing - the human being (if not well trained) just turns into something else as though in its power...

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