My Journey to Work

By: Marc Curtis
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:25:38
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Two things happened this morning on my way in to work that are fairly representative of a normal ride in.

I cycle most days from Lewisham to Old Street and back again on my fixed gear road bike, and have done on and off for the last 5 years. (Edit: As David rightly points out - only 4 months on a fixed gear bike - the rest on MTBs.)

I don’t often use the 'official' cycle route suggested by TFL, as it takes me through a couple of estates where I have been attacked on a number of occasions by bored kids. My normal route is up the Old Kent Road, over London Bridge and up through the city via Moorgate.

Incident #1: On the Old Kent Road, near the large new Asda BBS (Big Box Store) I was riding up the road on the green colour cycle lane part of the road, on the inside of a stationary bus.

The traffic in front of the bus started moving and as it set off, it pulled in and pushed me onto the curb; where I had to dismount and wait for the bus to pass.

At the next lights, I knocked on the bus drivers’ window and said "Hi, I'm not going to be abusive or rude, but can I just ask that next time you don't run me off the road when I'm using a green cycle path?"

The driver laughed and said - "I let you out earlier at the road works".

I said, "That doesn't give you the right to run me off the road later."

She laughed.

I said, "This isn't funny - this is my life we're talking about"

She then said - "All the other bus drivers do it."

And so on.

In the end I was able to extract and apology and a promise not to do it again - but I think you can see what I'm up against.

Incident #2: In order to redress the balance, and having watched a couple of cyclists continually jumping red lights all the way up Moorgate, I caught up with one guy at a set of lights and asked if I may make a polite point. He said yes.

I said, "Every time you jump a red light, you are giving car drivers an excuse to treat us [cyclists] badly."

He said that he didn't do it very often, and that he was late for work and that he only did it when it was safe etc etc.

I suggested that is was difficult for us to take the moral high ground with other road users when as a group we are constantly breaking the law.

In the end he said he agreed with me. He may have just wanted me to go away - but you never know he may stop pissing off car drivers and start obeying the traffic lights.

My new tactic is going to be to take photos (whenever it is safe to do so) - of bus and taxi drivers who try and kill me and cyclists who are giving cause to these self same bus and taxi drivers by jumping red lights - and post them here.

My other plan (for the future) is to strap a small digital video camera to my helmet and try and capture a typical journey to work. All I need is a mini digi-video camera - so anybody with one to spare, feel free to contact me.

Also check out - http://stopatred.org

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