She says ...

Press, 14 May 1981, Page 23

She says ...

Talking to an experienced city cyclist is always a useful experience for one more used to driving cars — so often we drivers fail to realise the dangers we offer to our fellow citizens on two wheels.' That's dangers unintentionallj’ offered, of course: I'm not talking about the sort of lethal and stupid hooliganism reported to me by one friend who had some youths amuse themselves at traffic lights by reversing their car into her cycle, which was pulled up behind them. ■We car-users fling open doors in the faces of approaching cyclists, we skim past them with bare centimetres to spare, we cut them off at junctions by turning sharp, left ahead of them, we fail, to give way to them because we didn't see them. Cyclists need to think a bit more about, the risks they can cause themselves, too. These evenings, poor lighting is a major risk — how many of you two-wheelers really understand how horrifyingly hard to see you can be at night, unlit? Especially in rain or mist. Connected with this is, I think, the vastly superior speed of the present generation of 10-speed cycles. Many drivers simply fail to appreciate how quickly they move, and how quickly they close what was apparently a safe gapAn unlit 10-speeder at night can be even more at risk than an ordinary cycle — it" appears out of the gloom so fast, and is visible for such a brief period that a motorist has little chance of taking any avoiding action. The cyclist naturally thinks: “Well, I can see her all right, why can’t she see me?” The answer can be fatally easy to find. —Barbara Petre