Last night I was whizzing home when I came to Ealing Broadway. There's a central junction and people often try and nip across when the lights are green. This time a good 30 people attempted to cross as I approached, not only that but a group of about five lads obviously hadn't seen each other in a while, caught sight of each other as the crossed and decided to have a little chat and a backslap in the middle of the road.
I was going a good 20mph and the light was green so I used my legally required bell and I binged the bastards. I binged until the crossing was clear and then binged some more. In fact, I binged continually until I'd gone through the crossing. There's something deeply weird about a girly sounding bing being able to strike terror into pedestrians.
When I first binged they all looked up like meercats and looked everywhere but at me. Where was that noise coming from? Then they caught sight of me and word started to spread. Someone's coming and we're in the road! Then the swearing started. Oh s*** she's really close and going quite fast. Then the mad dash as a group to the pavement.
It was vaguely reminiscent of a David Attenborough documentary looking at the wildebeest of the savannah when a lion causes a stampede. Odd.
Then, to add to the weirdness, a lovely HGV driver not only indicated correctly this morning but, when I hung back to let him pull out rather than whizz past his left side and risk death, he leant out of the window to check I wasn't coming, gave me a thumbs up in thanks and then pulled out. Sweet.
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Just wanted to say that I enjoy reading your blog and very much identify with a lot of what you say! Whenever a driver is polite to me I always feel like jumping off the bike and giving them a hug in the vain hope that others will see this and decide to be much nicer to cyclists themselves. Instead I settle for mouthing 'thank you' and either putting my thumbs up or giving a little wave. It makes me feel good as well.
ReplyDeleteAs for the dinging, I have a big 'ding dong' bell and am actually quite scared of the amount of noise it makes! I feel like I'm disturbing the peace.
Carry on the good work!
Amy (Liverpool)
I borrowed my other half's bike this week and he took the bell off it when he got it (bells are 'gay', apparently) and god did I miss it. I love a good bing.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for the flattery Amy, never be afraid to bing, the louder the better!
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