Natural Euthenasia In Action

Life’s Little Obstacles

Or not so little. . .

The thing about national cycle routes is that they are a great way of getting from A to B without the hassle of being squashed by busses, trucks, taxis, BMWs and so on. They offer a relatively safe refuge from the trials and mis-trials of the road system.

National cycle routes are of course shared with other ‘users’ such as pedestrians and ‘push chair users’ and it is these users who pose the biggest threat to cyclists on national cycle routes and the second biggest threat to a cyclist overall.

With regard to pedestrians, these are presented as a number of sub-types namely individuals, family groups, jogging pairs (female), jogging pairs (male), those of advanced years and for the sake of this article we’ll ignore the various classifications of dog walkers.

Those of greatest concern to a cyclist who is simply trying to make progress, not at speed since cycle routes are generally on a gravel/scalping surface and not tarmac, are jogging pairs (female), pushcair users and those of advanced years.

These groups have three things in common which are complete lack of awareness of the presence of anyone outside their group, complete ignorance of the existence of ‘left’ and ‘right’ leading to permanent occupancy of the ‘whole’ pathway and complete disorientation when faced with the sudden realisation they are not alone. These then are life’s little obstacles.

Bizarre Behaviour

A gentle ring of the ding on the handlebar should be loud enough to let people know you are approaching. You would expect that when approaching people from behind they may not see or hear you so a secondary ring of the ding when approaching but not-too-close-to-brake should do the trick. With these groups though, this is not the case.

Upon realisation either through the use of a gentle scream, a not-so-gentle scream and/or physical contact their shock is clearly displayed and most will get out of the way, some will complain about cyclists being on cycle routes and some will just say rude things.

One group however is ultimately dangerous and that is the users who are of advanced years.

Euthanasia a go/stop/go/stop. . go..go

Those of advanced years have trouble with left and right it would seem. On the most recent sample of two (i.e. a mixed pair) it would seem that when approaching from the rear, the use of the ding together with a loud voice were enough to grab attention.

Success you would think.

No, when being approached from the rear, they turn round and realising that you are approaching from the left when they turned round you are on their right so they jump to their right which is your left – collision alert, use brakes, stop and just mouth “WTF?” without saying it.

Oddly, when approaching the same two on your return journey (you can do this because they don’t move very far very quickly) the opposite scenario happens in that you are now approaching them on their right but they are on their own left on their own side of the pathway so they move to their right again and yes, you guessed it – collision alert, use brakes, stop and just mouth “WTF?” without saying it.

So be warned, whatever you do when approaching users of advanced years, they will always suddenly realise your presence and move to the right, this also explains several attempt by senior Nissan Micra drivers to make last minute unsignalled right turns . . but that’s another story.

I do feel as though I’m on to something!