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To the gentleman in the Renault van:
The yellow box with diagonal cross-hatchings means that you can't enter it until your exit is clear. When you add this to the fact that a fire engine was bearing down on you with sirens blaring and lights flashing, entering the box and blocking the junction was a particularly stupid idea. Please pay more attention in future.
To the lady in the Mercedes:
(For non-UK residents, on-road bicycle lanes run along the gutter of normal roads, and are designated by a painted line. Drivers are supposed to treat them as a bus lane i.e. do not enter except under exceptional circumstances)
I understand that you are used to oncoming traffic edging into the cycle lane to give you room to pass parked cars. This is a courtesy linked with common sense, as there is no point in blocking traffic on a main road by ignoring an empty space to your left. However, when a bike is actually using the bike lane, I am not going to run over the cyclist who is obeying the Highway Code so that you can get to your destination 30 seconds faster. The train crossing barriers came down just after I crossed anyway, so it's not as if you could go anywhere. Beeping me and making rude gestures doesn't help, and makes it even less likely that I will kill/maim an innocent cyclist to allow you to get 30 yards further down the road before being stopped by the train (which you will probably beep and gesture at as well).
To the boy racer Saturday afternoon:
Living on the North Sea coast leads to some interesting weather. We often get rain showers that dump a week's worth of rain in 10 minutes (no, I'm not exaggerating that figure). When I am having to drive through one of these showers, the middle of the road is 2 inches deep (and it gets deeper in the gutters) and I am coming up to a dip where the level of water is above my axles, I do not appreciate you riding my bumper in an attempt to get me to send a tidal wave over the poor pedestrians caught in the downpour. Quite apart from the fact that this is a) illegal and b) immoral, I would quite like to reach my destination with functioning brakes and a working engine.
Thank you.
The yellow box with diagonal cross-hatchings means that you can't enter it until your exit is clear. When you add this to the fact that a fire engine was bearing down on you with sirens blaring and lights flashing, entering the box and blocking the junction was a particularly stupid idea. Please pay more attention in future.
To the lady in the Mercedes:
(For non-UK residents, on-road bicycle lanes run along the gutter of normal roads, and are designated by a painted line. Drivers are supposed to treat them as a bus lane i.e. do not enter except under exceptional circumstances)
I understand that you are used to oncoming traffic edging into the cycle lane to give you room to pass parked cars. This is a courtesy linked with common sense, as there is no point in blocking traffic on a main road by ignoring an empty space to your left. However, when a bike is actually using the bike lane, I am not going to run over the cyclist who is obeying the Highway Code so that you can get to your destination 30 seconds faster. The train crossing barriers came down just after I crossed anyway, so it's not as if you could go anywhere. Beeping me and making rude gestures doesn't help, and makes it even less likely that I will kill/maim an innocent cyclist to allow you to get 30 yards further down the road before being stopped by the train (which you will probably beep and gesture at as well).
To the boy racer Saturday afternoon:
Living on the North Sea coast leads to some interesting weather. We often get rain showers that dump a week's worth of rain in 10 minutes (no, I'm not exaggerating that figure). When I am having to drive through one of these showers, the middle of the road is 2 inches deep (and it gets deeper in the gutters) and I am coming up to a dip where the level of water is above my axles, I do not appreciate you riding my bumper in an attempt to get me to send a tidal wave over the poor pedestrians caught in the downpour. Quite apart from the fact that this is a) illegal and b) immoral, I would quite like to reach my destination with functioning brakes and a working engine.
Thank you.
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