Cycle path fight back

[sam]

It's a clear message from the highway people as to the hierarchy.

This is the nub of the problem.

It is not down to "bad" driving, in the main it is down to "inconsiderate" driving. The inconsideration of other road users is down to this unwritten hierarchy that nearly everyone accepts.

There is a rule in the highway code that says drivers should give way to pedestrians at junctions. How many times have you ever seen that in practice? When I do that as a driver, the pedestrians almost fall over themselves in gratitude, and I get abuse from other drivers for doing so. On a rural road, peds will leap into muddy ditches so that drivers don't have to slow down, or when crossing a road will break into a run if a car comes round a bend.

How have we got to this stage? After all, when a driver gets out of their car they are a pedestrian, and suddenly they are bowing and scraping to other drivers?

The cycling problem is that we either won't or can't accept our place in this hierarchy - it is not safe to swerve onto a verge to allow cars to whizz past, and it wastes a lot of energy to stop and restart when in reality we should have right of way. This regularly takes drivers by surprise as they expect the "lesser" road user to yield to their superior transport. On single track roads I regularly encounter people driving straight towards me without slowing, in the belief that it would be reasonable for me to cycle up a muddy verge.

single track roads I regularly encounter people driving straight towards me without slowing, in the belief that it would be reasonable for me to cycle up a muddy verge.

That's why bar ends are the same height as wing mirrors!!!  8)