Does anyone else take as long as me to wake up in the morning? No matter how many alarms I set there are days when I really struggle to drag myself out of bed. Sometimes I’m very thankful of a 4 year old kicking and nagging me to go downstairs!
However, once dressed and breakfasted I am normally eager to get going and once on the bike the adrenaline kicks in. It’s just as well because hazards can present themselves at almost any time. One day this week I wasn’t even out of our street, had only just clipped into the pedals, when I this happened to me.
Turning the corner I saw the bin lorry parked up with a binman walking down the pavement towards me. Thankfully I kept my eyes open because just as I reached the end of the lorry a 2nd binman was just returning across my path and I don’t think he was paying too much attention to the road!Β
I was just getting ready to jump up onto the pavement when I managed to squeeze past him. If I wasn’t alert this could have had a sore ending for both of us!
Undertake 1
As well as being alert to dozy workmen, it is equally important to be constantly alert to some of the rubbish drivers on our roads. Having had a good spell without any incidents, sadly I had a few idiot encounters this week. The first one below was as I approached a busy roundabout on the way into Edinburgh.
The lights are red and I filter to the front of the queue. Why would I wait at the back?
Just as I neared the front I could see the lights were about to change so waited behind the lead car and intended to slot into the flow. Mr Mazda had other ideas though and couldn’t bear to be behind a bike so squeezed himself back in on my left hand side. All so that he could reach the queue ahead those fractions of a second sooner…
I must admit, the fact that there was a broken down bus 2 miles ahead creating quite a long bottleneck did leave me feeling quite smug! Is that bad of me?
Undertake 2
Secondly I encountered this Zafira driver on the way home the other day. Red lights again, so I filter to the front into the bike box (which both bikes are occupying, but I don’t let that bother me too much…). The left hand lane here is meant to be a left turn only with some hatching just beyond the junction. Normally I position myself just inside this to the left of the right hand traffic so as not to hold them up.
When the lights turn green and we all set off, I got a bit of a shock when Mrs Zafira zoomed past on my left. Bike box, wrong lane, close pass – I’m not sure how many other laws she could break at the same time!
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