Cycling UK Forum

Tonyf33 wrote:I don't find driving more stressful than cycling, not even close. I don't have fear of not being given enough space, I don't feel the need nor actually need to to drive in a manner that 'empowers' me to be able to hold that space. I don't need to constantly have to overthink every junction that has a vehicle waiting to exit, I don't have in the back of my mind of being struck from behind on 50/60/70mph roads, at pinch points. I don't need to worry about being able to freely move around road defects without being closely passed or struck, frankly the list is endless as to why it is often far more stressful cycling than driving.
YMMV

+1

I cycle as my main mode of transport, and although I have a license (and have done for years), I drive very rarely--once or twice a year when I'm visiting relatives who live in the US. I find cycling on the roads stressful because of the risks imposed on me by the decisions made by drivers, but I still prefer cycling to driving. When I'm in a car, I am less worried about my own safety, but more concerned by the risk that I potentially pose to others because of the physics of the situation, and because I'm aware of the horrendous health and environmental consequences of choosing to drive.

jezer wrote:.... pay tax to be on the road, as I do.

It's important to note - and it would be so positive if it were to become common knowledge - that we all use the roads free of charge. Totally free.

Mick F wrote:We have two cars: a Clio and a Fiat500.

Funny, but we get pushed around, tailgated and bossed about when we're in the Fiat, but treated normally when in the Clio.
I noticed it almost straight away when we bought the Fiat last year, whereas we've had the Clio for 14years.

Maybe people in small cars get treated with disdain by people in big cars. Sort of bullying tactics aimed at the little guy.

We've got two cars. I (very occasionally) drive our 1970 VW Beetle, and my wife drives a 1973 VW microbus. She gets a lot less hassle in the 'bus, and admits that she notices she gets treated worse when she's driving the beetle. She says she thinks it's because she's higher up in the 'bus.

I'm getting to hate my daily drive to work.
Pulling away from the traffic lights at Streatley yesterday morning, the line of traffic ahead was going slowly. By the time I reached the cyclist ahead, I was on the double-unbroken white centre lines, so I stayed behind. Wish I had cameras in the car for what followed..... Driver behind was pulling out to the right, straddling the lines, but could not get past because of traffic coming the other way. So he drove inches off my tail, fuming like mad as we travelled the quarter mile or so at about 20mph. Before reaching the end of the prohibition, following driver floors the gas pedal and screams past me and the cyclist, on the opposite side of the line, chased (without any hesitation) by the next driver behind him, who slows down as he draws level with me to give a LOOONG BLAAAAST on his horn, before accelerating away, narrowly missing a head-on with the car coming the other way.
I did later pass said cyclist when it was safe and legal to do so, and was trailed by the third motorist, through Pangbourne and Tidmarsh, where I met another cyclist on another set of double unbroken white lines. Following driver was having none of this as he mouthed his displeasure at me whilst swinging from side to side. When I was able to pass cyclist, this driver was trying to overtake me where there was not room.

I arrived at work a fuming, nervous wreck. What is it about drivers! They are completely crazy!

I do get a bit of big car bullying in my Fiesta. Get an Audi up my buttock but when the lorry ahead pulls in and I get back up to motorway speed they don't keep up.

Nope, road tax doesn't exist - hasn't done since Churchill abolished it.

It will do again soon. Deep joy.

Osborne has now announced that from 2017, emissions tax will be scrapped and replaced with a “road fund”.
Read more at http://totalwomenscycling.com/news/why- ... DJkxHJp.99

Mark1978 wrote:I do get a bit of big car bullying in my Fiesta. Get an Audi up my <i>[rude word removed]</i> but when the lorry ahead pulls in and I get back up to motorway speed they don't keep up.

That's very odd. You don't exceed the speed limit by any chance do you?

Rarely get a chance on the way to work.

brianleach wrote:

Nope, road tax doesn't exist - hasn't done since Churchill abolished it.

It will do again soon. Deep joy.

Osborne has now announced that from 2017, emissions tax will be scrapped and replaced with a “road fund”.
Read more at http://totalwomenscycling.com/news/why- ... DJkxHJp.99

When we have a mayor of London (part-time but on full wages) who outbids other cities for the TDF and than when he gets it says he doesn't want it, wasting everyone's time and money and the other UK cities' chances, what else do you expect?

brianleach wrote:Osborne has now announced that from 2017, emissions tax will be scrapped and replaced with a “road fund”.

Would that be for pavements ie footways as well? Pedestrians don't pay road tax.

MikeF wrote:

brianleach wrote:Osborne has now announced that from 2017, emissions tax will be scrapped and replaced with a “road fund”.

Would that be for pavements ie footways as well? Pedestrians don't pay road tax.

And yet we build this *infrastructure" for them all over the place, even on some roads where I rarely see a pedestrian, and they don't pay any bloody road tax /s

Maybe people in small cars get treated with disdain by people in big cars. Sort of bullying tactics aimed at the little guy.

Not just little cars. Rolling down the M6 in our motorhome this last weekend, nice steady 68ish, overtook a slower car (they're all smaller), which immediately pulled out and re-passed us, then pulled back into the inside lane and slowed down, causing me to re-pass him, at which point... You get the idea. It became so noticeable I started looking out for it and realised most cars we passed did exactly that - immediately re-passed us, irrespective of how fast they'd been going before, and how fast they intended to go afterwards. It would be comical if it wasn't so frustrating - the van isn't exactly a rocket ship, when these muppets slow down in front of you, you then have to wait for a suitable gap to get back around them.

Maybe it was the bike on the back, they couldn't stand being passed by a motorhome or a bike

The average British motorist is an eejit.

Can't agree more with the small car syndrome idea. There are several places around here where roads are single-carriageway one side of a roundabout and dualled the other and the number of eejits in underpowered repmobiles or "family" saloons who pull up alongside as we exit the single-carriageway and then completely fail to keep up with our modern, turbocharged, computer-controlled lightweight small car as it pulls away... well, it would be funny if it didn't lead to road range from the other eejits in genuinely faster vehicles that they blocked.

Tonyf33 wrote:I don't find driving more stressful than cycling, not even close. I don't have fear of not being given enough space, I don't feel the need nor actually need to to drive in a manner that 'empowers' me to be able to hold that space. I don't need to constantly have to overthink every junction that has a vehicle waiting to exit, I don't have in the back of my mind of being struck from behind on 50/60/70mph roads, at pinch points. I don't need to worry about being able to freely move around road defects without being closely passed or struck, frankly the list is endless as to why it is often far more stressful cycling than driving.
YMMV

Yes, my mileage certainly does vary. I don't often have a fear of not being given enough space or need to ride in a hold-the-lane manner or overthink junctions or worry about pinch points or road defects... because I'm usually on a kerb-protected or post-protected track anywhere that's busy. (I do still worry a bit about being struck from behind because some vehicles do jump the kerb without looking when they want to barge past someone waiting to turn right or park - and the number of tyre tracks on the cycle track is rather alarming.)

This is a point often missed, I think. High-quality protected space is about the fun/stress balance more than objective safety - feeling that we may be among the smallest road users, but the highway designers have helped us out (and yes, that does require that they actually help and not just paint white lines on footways). Of course, whether in small car or on a bike, we still need the police to help too and remove more killer motorists from the roads, but there's little hope of that stepping up before 2020 at the moment.