I've a tendency to complain about a section of road in Cambridge, where
traffic coming into the City Centre has priority over traffic coming out of
the city centre. There isn't room to safely have two lanes there (which is
why there is only one), which leads to the inevitable problem of motorised
traffic coming out of the city centre bullying cycles out of the way, and
cycles coming the same way trying to sneak through against the oncoming
traffic (endangering themselves and others).
Coming in this morning (so with right of way), in the middle of the lane, a
small van chose to come right at me. He'd seem me, in fact he was waiting
behind the line at his side when I started through the section. So I slowed
to a near stop, waiting for him to do likewise, and as he did I moved to the
side of the lane to lean over the road. I've been through the whole asking
them to reverse thing, I've been through this with the local bobbiesa and
got nowhere, and as a result of not simply capitulating and choosing an
option that's either illegal (cycling on the pavement) or dangerous
(scooting down the side of an oncoming vehicle) I've been abused, threatened
and actually assaulted on this section; this morning, though, I simply
didn't have the energy.
Not content with having forced me aside in this way, the van driver opened
opened his door into my path while still moving , hitting my front wheel and
yelling something about how much f$*&ing room I needed.
I've reported this kind of thing to the local plod in the past and nothing
happens. The local road planners, our County Council, see no problem here.
The cycling officers of boththe City and County Councils can do nothing. Yet
this kind of thing is a daily event. Next come the Cambridge Cycling
Campaign; if any of those guys read this group (I'm sure you do) then expect
me to be in touch; I hope you guys might be interested in getting a little
proactive over this stretch of road.
I'm posting here simply out of frustration. Times like this make me want to
hurl my bike into a skip.