Surface defects

[pozorvlak]

wormwood_pearl's brother, who is a cycle instructor, very kindly gave us a copy of John Franklin's book Cyclecraft. There's an exercise on page 83 for which you have to look at a photo of a town road, identify all the hazards, and plan your response to them. We both had a go - parked cars, children waiting to cross, a driver clearly about to turn out into the road without looking, all the usual stuff - and then checked in the back of the book to see how we'd done.

We'd missed "poor road surface". None of the roads we cycle on are anything like that good...

Comments

the best way to be a safe cyclist

[(Anonymous)]

Is to drive a car.

Not only do you hone your spotting/reacting to stuff reactions to way above what you need for cycling speeds, but you also notice the idiotic things a lot of cyclists do that nearly gets them killed (often by being the person who nearly kills them!)

eg: the only cyclists I've ever known who ride without lights at night are those that don't drive. If they did, they'd know how invisible they are to car drivers.

Same same for traffic lights, signalling, decent brakes, etc. etc. I'm sure you both do all of that, but I do know people who don't.

I did a cycling proficiency test at school, years ago, where a policeman told us which side of the road to ride on.

-mmat

Re: the best way to be a safe cyclist

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

Yep; when I learned to drive, I was horrified by how little drivers can see compared to cyclists. And I always ride with lights at night.