On your bike

I like cycling. Cycling is a good way to get around, keep fit and have fun.  Moreover, once you have acquired your treader, it’s cheap to run and does not muck up the environment.

But why do some cyclists believe that the rules of the road simply do not apply to them? 

These are the people who give us all a bad name and seem to abandon simple common sense the moment they sling a leg over their shiny two-wheeled machine and proceed to be a menace to motorists, pedestrians and themselves. 

Hand signals to such individuals are inconsequential; hanging a left or a right without warning or even a glance behind them is common practice.  

And who, when they come to a red traffic light, simply plough on, because they arrogantly believe that lights are only in place to discipline motorists.  Unless there is more colour blindness in this world than I had imagined.  

On some major roads there is a cycle and motor cycle lane to the right of the main carriageway, where it is an offence for cars, vans or lorries to cross.

It is also legal for cyclists (and motorcycles) to undertake you in this lane and if the traffic has slowed down to a crawl for whatever reason, then they are perfectly entitled to whiz past you on the inside. 

Nothing wrong with that.    

So why do some cyclists feel it necessary to casually pedal along in the vehicle lane, sometimes two or three abreast, when the traffic is flowing normally and doing their best to be obstructive?

But even that’s not good enough for some of these anti-social morons, who prefer to use the pavements when they want to avoid traffic or simply get around town. And it is always the pedestrians who have to move over, never them. 

And don’t get me started on the time, money and manpower that Orihuela Town Hall spent recently on painting a long stretch of road through Los Dolses, minimising the right of way for cars, but making the whole stretch a cycling priority, even though the presence of bikes is minimal and cars plentiful.

Yet as I write, the overflowing bottle bank and rubbish bins outside the school on that same road, have gone un-emptied for weeks.

Someone needs a lesson in priorities.