oops, posted half of it, I'll try again
In the UK riding a unicycle you're legally a vehicle, the
road traffic act is very specific about this fact. So,
1) You should be on the road
If you're not confident or you're riding a small wheeled
unicycle, it'd be dumb to ride on the road and I'm pretty
sure no-one is going to pick you up on this one. However, if
you're riding fast on a 29er or a coker, the place for you
is in the road (or on a cycle lane if you like to ride them)
or offroad on public bridleways, not on the pavement.
2)You should be obeying the rules of the road.
As a road user you've got the responsiblity to everyone else
not to do anything stupid. Even the most stupid of car
drivers don't actually want to run you down, you should do
everything you can to make it easy for them not to. You
shouldn't ride through red lights at junctions, because some
poor driver might go through their green and run you over.
You should also not do anything that might hurt pedestrians,
like riding through red lights on pedestrian crossing.
Signal if you're turning. If you signal, most drivers will
let you turn and be much more polite to you than if you just
swerve across their path.
3) You've got a right to be on the road
Sometimes if you ride a unicycle on the road, you'll end up
in arguments with people who say you should be in the
pavement. These people are wrong. At big junctions, you'll
sometimes need to be in a filter lane, sometimes car drivers
will not like this. The safest thing to do in this situation
is stay right in the middle of the lane and let them
overtake only when there's another lane for them to do it
in. At a red light, idling or hopping on the spot is a
perfectly sensible thing to do, just be confident that you
can start again without falling off. Be confident of your
right of way, for example on roundabouts or when going along
main roads.
4) If you're on the road you need lights at night.
Legally you need a British Standard or equivalent front and
rear light. Vey bright lights aren't actually BS, but
fortunately thanks to the EU, you can use anything that
fulfils a similar standard in any EU country, so you can use
bright offroad lights. Also, there's no rule saying you
can't have extra lights. You're also supposed to have a rear
reflector, I've got a cateye light & reflector combined and
have a 12w front light and a bright red light on my helmet.
I've also got red and white reflective tape from halfords on
my unicycle.
5) You should be nice to other road users
It's also nice to generally be polite, if someone is stuck
behind you for ages and isn't beeping their horn lots or
being rude, then let them go past if you can. Falling off in
front of people is particularly impolite, you definately
shouldn't ride on major roads if you still fall off when
riding on tarmac. Ride a bit below your maximum speed so you
don't fall off.
6) Everyone *is* out to get you
90%(*) of car drivers drive like nutters. Always assume
they'll do the wrong thing and be ready to stop quickly or
swerve. Keep your eyes open for cars coming off side roads,
or cars going fast across roundabouts, or for people driving
through red lights. From experience, if people cut you up
don't give them the finger in case they turn out to be a car
full of very scary looking geezers and stop and run after
you making you feel very lucky that you can ride faster.
7) They're not really out to get you
The more you ride out, the more you'll find that the
encouraging comments outnumber the get out of the road
comments 20 to 1. You're doing something odd and most
people seem to respect a little bit of eccentricity. Most
other road users will be lovely to you most of the time. If
people are nice to you, be nice back, a friendly wave
doesn't cost anything.
8) Don't have the helmet debate.
This always comes whenever bike or unicycle safety is
mentioned and it's a waste of time going over it again. Some
people wear helmets. Some people don't wear helmets. There's
not much scientific evidence that helmets protect you very
much, there's even some evidence that says they make you
take more risks. In the end, outside of organised events the
helmet thing is up to you and its a waste of time arguing
it. If you want to know the arguments either way, google for
"helmet debate" or something.
9) Do have the argument about riding unicycles on the road
People will tell you several reasons why you shouldn't ride
unicycles on the road. They're all rubbish. A few common
ones are listed below
a) It isn't safe
A unicyclist is in full control, far more than any other
vehicle user, they can stop on the spot, turn 180
degrees, ride a perfectly straight line deviating less
than an inch either way. A good road unicyclist only gets
off when they choose to and doesn't fall off
unexpectedly. You're more visible on a unicycle, so
people are less likely to crash into you.
b) You'll slow people down
Almost all the time when people slow down for any kind of
cyclist, they'll just accelerate afterwards and get behind
the same car they were behind originally, so not losing any
time. Anyway in London, the average speed for cars in the
rush hour is 8.5 mph, a good unicyclist can average 11 or
12mph in the same conditions and is only held up by car
traffic. Using the same logic, we should ban car traffic in
London and only allow cyclists.
c) You'll cause a crash, someone will get killed etc.
Firstly, yes bad driving / riding can cause someone else to
crash. That's the same for any vehicle, so unless we're
banning all drivers, it doesn't mean unicyclists should be
on the road. However, there are very few cases where a
cyclist has been charged with causing a dangerous accident
and as far as I know no unicyclists have. Its definately far
fewer than car drivers who caused accidents.
Secondly, people will say that it's odd and people might
crash because they're looking at you. It's true that's a
possibility, but then should we ban women wearing low cut
tops in summer, morris dancers dancing on village greens,
fireworks, odd cars, or anything else out of the ordinary,
just so that stupid drivers don't get distracted.
(*)Okay I made that figure up.
Joe
--
joemarshall - dumb blonde
------------------------------------------------------------------------
joemarshall's Profile: unicyclist.com1545Open ↗
View this thread: unicyclist.com29604Open ↗
