Urban Bike Survival Guide No.1 – Waking up the driver
I was freewheeling down a hill in Oxford – perhaps 18mph. The road is quite narrow with parked cars on either side. A van was coming up the other way. Relatively quick for the road size – but probably close to legal limit of 20mph.
Even at this kind of speed things can happen pretty quick. I realised the trajectory of the van was heading straight for me. I had this funny feeling the van was like an arrogant boxer saying ‘coming on if you think you’re hard enough. I don’t mind crashing.‘ Well, that’s all very well, but, it doesn’t take too long to compute that bare skin vs one well hard van driver sitting behind his metal box is always going to come off better in a direct collision.
I had no where to go, I was already close to the parked cars on the left. Even braking to a complete stop would still have van drive into me. There was only one thing left to do – scream as loudly as possible. I let out a good solid manly roar – (a high pitched squel would also have been just fine) – anything to wake up the driver. I was pretty pleased I had so much air in my lungs; at least all this interval training has some benefits.
Anyway, at the very last moment, the van driver changed his direction, I don’t know how he found the space but, he veered away and narrowly the collision was averted. The amazing thing is that he never altered his speed even once, but, shot away. I don’t know what he was doing, maybe he was looking a sat nav, maybe he was not paying attention. Maybe he really was thinking ‘come on if you think you’re hard enough.’ I will never know.’
I was quite taken aback at the brazen audacity of the driver. I may even have let out a secondary insult at the van as it sped up the hill, though there is no need to repeat it on this blog. It was all too late – the van was in the distance, and no chance of number plate recognition. Just a few people coming out of their houses to witness the cause of such a loud scream in the middle of sleepy Oxford street, a street that was nearly witness to another road statistic.
That’s life on British roads, but, I guess as long as the Daily Mail is getting photos of celebrities cycling 1 metre along the pavement, that’s the real solution to tackling dangerous and irresponsible road use.
Related
ok so let me get this straight – you claimed the van was barreling along at near 20mph towards you and you were freewheeling down the hill at 18mph, and it’s a narrow street with lots of parked cars – i’m not underestimating your braking skills or experience but if i’m on a narrow street such as this I would generally moderate my speed to around 10mph because there’s all manner of hazards that can happen e.g. kids or dozy peds wandering across the street and as you mentioned, unattentive white-van men barrelling towards you. I always adapt my speed to the surroundings – i generally try to resist the temptation to put the hammer down when in high-risk areas such as town centres, residential streets, shared paths etc.
Tejvan, from your description, there was no eye contact – all bets are off without that.