Dark Brightness

Karl is writing about traffic and cyclists. I prefer to cycle, run and walk… alone. It gives me silence, a very good thing.

And (apologies to Cactus) he misses the big source of error when doing any of the above on a road: wearing a walkman or ipod. You literally cannot hear the car that is going to hit you.

It’s useful here to distinguish between different sub-species of cyclist. There’s cyclistus zealotus – typically a Greenie who is ideologically committed to cycling as a way of life, detests motor vehicles and will assert his or her right to occupy road space because it’s a matter of saving the planet.

Then there’s cyclistus pelotonus, who – unlike the Greenie – drives a car most of the time (and often an expensive one at that) but at weekends likes to dress up in lycra, climb on a flash racing bike and join his or her cycling mates in a peloton – that’s French for a bunch of riders – on a group ride.

These people, who are generally not too concerned about saving the planet, assert their right to occupy a lot of road space because … well, because there’s a big group of them, they’re often soaked with testosterone and they know motorists will make way because no one wants to end up in court charged with careless driving causing death.

Cyclistus pelotonus has a remarkable ability to irritate non-cyclists even when not on the road. A friend of mine bridles at the way they arrogantly swagger (his words) into the cafés they occasionally stop at on their rides.

I can afford to sound self-righteous here because I belong to a third sub-species, cyclistus solitarius. I ride on my own because I value the solitude and the silence. Because I don’t have any companions to make conversation with, I can keep well to the left and not hold anyone up.

If I’m on a narrow road approaching a blind bend and I sense a car stuck behind me, I signal as soon as soon as it’s safe for the car to overtake. And when motorists behave considerately toward me, as they often do, I acknowledge it with a wave.

via Karl du Fresne.