Commuting rant.

I have city cycled for years and you have to be very alert and aware of everything going on arond you.

That said i have had 2 proper incidents occur to me While on the road.
The 1st was the dreaded bus beep, driver pulled along side me beeped and then opened doors and shouted abuse at me with it ending get on the side you K**B, subsequently i was younger then 19. So i caught him at lights jumped on bus and ranted and raved at him so much that police turned up, I was nearly in trouble only for a trusty passenger who i found out later was also a cyclist on their way to interview came to my aid, and said the driver caused it all. H e got arrested and the bus company had to get another driver to collect the bus, something to do with the fact that he had endagered passengers,
I got a letter of then Merseybus appoligising to me.

The 2nd was some woman seen me coming down a road and thought, sod it its only a cyclist, I had to swerve to miss her car (BMW) and hit a unsuspecting old lady at the lights, fortunatly it was outside and ambulance station who came to the aid of me and the old dear, after me repeatedly apoligising to the old dear she said she seen it wasnt my fault and that of the driver and not to worry. She later attempted to claim damages from me old dear turned into old b**ch :twisted: I had to goto solicitor to counter the claim and had to goto court and fortunatly i had the ambulance driver as witness to admited she said it wasnt my fault

I agree with John, most people aren't awake at that time in the morning. Most days are a near miss somewhere but I try to vary my route to work if possible to stop myself riding by auto-pilot so that I can be more aware of the occasional hazard.

bus drivers - possibly the worst drivers on the road, they stop at bus stops on an angle so have a huge blind spot when looking for traffic overtaking, very dangerous, i dont see how they want to ban smoking and driving when a bus driver has to be a retailer/tax driver/ security guard and control a 10 ton juganaut

walkers - ipod fiddling, texting, head down, wake up you live in a society with other people around you, be aware of your surroundings, no wonder so many of them get mugged,

i do a 4 mile (each way) commute to uni in brighton (which according to the bbc a few weeks ago is a model for how the country should be cycling friendly), i fear for anyone without many years cycling and traffic experience who decides to commute by bike and a government promoting such activity is reckless,

i avoid accidents each day thanks to my own awareness, caution and bike handling skills, developed over 20 years cycling and 10 years driving, i was knocked off by a driver turning left and cutting up a cycle lane, no damage, but one day i fear i may not be so lucky,

the main problem with this country is, like the OP has experienced, cyclists are either forced onto the road with motor vehicles or onto the pavement with pedestrians, painting a bit of red on the road or pavement and calling it a cycle lane, does nothing to change that,