The Lady Guide to Modern Manners:12 April
Dear Thomas,
Now that spring is on its way, I thought I’d take up cycling again after a break of nearly 20 years. Everyone tells me there are so many more cyclists now and it can get a bit rough. Motorists are sometimes hostile as well. Can you advise on cycling manners?
Lydia Beck, Birmingham
Dear Lydia,
I hope nobody’s telling you you’re a fool and that you’re bound to get knocked off. A big hurrah for cyclists everywhere, of whom I am one. Cycling is environmental, organic, as well as very convenient.
Unfortunately, as you say, other cyclists are now more abundant, especially in cities. Some are too competitive. You can hear their breathing as they push up behind you, panting to overtake. Keep your distance from other riders. Be patient about overtaking.
On the other hand, some pedallers are hardly pedalling, just ambling along getting in the way.
At traffic lights a queue should form with she (or he) who got there first at the front. What actually happens is that someone will worm up from the back and then turn out to be show-stoppingly slow in getting going again when the light turns green, holding everyone up.
Signal clearly when turning, but other road users should understand that it’s virtually impossible to change direction on a cycle while waving one arm at a right angle.
Fellow-cyclists might think they’re being helpful pointing out that your lights aren’t working etc. But there’s no need to be unbearably smug about it.
Don’t be an apologetic cyclist, for your own safety, and in life also, don’t be an apologetic person. I cycle well out in the road because the gutter is full of bits of broken glass (punctures) and I want motorists to see me. Too bad if drivers have to slow their ferocious machines and wait behind you. On roundabouts particularly, perfect the imperious raising of the hand to stop a car trying to push you out of the way, as used by police when holding up traffic to allow royalty to pass. Too often motorists think cyclists have got to get out of their way.
Riders should not mount the pavement nor forge through a red light. I would like to light the touchpaper all the same and point out that these offences have a nearer moral equivalence to pedestrians crossing when the little walking person isn’t green. A vehicle with a combustion engine commanded by a maniac who thinks that cyclists shouldn’t be on the road is the danger we should all be hammering on about. I am exasperated by endless whining about pedal bikes going through red lights or being ridden on the pavement.
And it would be nice if pedestrians did not force the cyclist labouring uphill to stop just because there is a zebra crossing.
Please send your questions to Thomas.blaikie@lady.co.uk or write to him at The Lady, 39-40 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ER
Even in places of some grandeur, such as the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the behaviour is atrocious. Well-heeled captains of industry, venerated examples of the great and the good, thrust themselves forward in the full knowledge that others have been waiting longer.
Good bar staff are supposed to know whose turn it is. If you scowl and huff and puff they’ll ignore you, so bar lore dictates. But these days, bartenders have lost the art. Rather like London taxi drivers who no longer know where Oxford Street is, or Hyde Park Corner.
The British love queues in all other circs. And queues are right, of course, and just. Why not queue at the bar? Would those machines that issue numbers on bits of paper be so unthinkable? Collect your docket and wait your turn. At the deli counter in a French supermarket they’re a marvel of fairness. Will an enterprising bar owner at least try it?
Now that spring is on its way, I thought I’d take up cycling again after a break of nearly 20 years. Everyone tells me there are so many more cyclists now and it can get a bit rough. Motorists are sometimes hostile as well. Can you advise on cycling manners?
Lydia Beck, Birmingham
Dear Lydia,
I hope nobody’s telling you you’re a fool and that you’re bound to get knocked off. A big hurrah for cyclists everywhere, of whom I am one. Cycling is environmental, organic, as well as very convenient.
Unfortunately, as you say, other cyclists are now more abundant, especially in cities. Some are too competitive. You can hear their breathing as they push up behind you, panting to overtake. Keep your distance from other riders. Be patient about overtaking.
On the other hand, some pedallers are hardly pedalling, just ambling along getting in the way.
At traffic lights a queue should form with she (or he) who got there first at the front. What actually happens is that someone will worm up from the back and then turn out to be show-stoppingly slow in getting going again when the light turns green, holding everyone up.
Signal clearly when turning, but other road users should understand that it’s virtually impossible to change direction on a cycle while waving one arm at a right angle.
Fellow-cyclists might think they’re being helpful pointing out that your lights aren’t working etc. But there’s no need to be unbearably smug about it.
Don’t be an apologetic cyclist, for your own safety, and in life also, don’t be an apologetic person. I cycle well out in the road because the gutter is full of bits of broken glass (punctures) and I want motorists to see me. Too bad if drivers have to slow their ferocious machines and wait behind you. On roundabouts particularly, perfect the imperious raising of the hand to stop a car trying to push you out of the way, as used by police when holding up traffic to allow royalty to pass. Too often motorists think cyclists have got to get out of their way.
Riders should not mount the pavement nor forge through a red light. I would like to light the touchpaper all the same and point out that these offences have a nearer moral equivalence to pedestrians crossing when the little walking person isn’t green. A vehicle with a combustion engine commanded by a maniac who thinks that cyclists shouldn’t be on the road is the danger we should all be hammering on about. I am exasperated by endless whining about pedal bikes going through red lights or being ridden on the pavement.
And it would be nice if pedestrians did not force the cyclist labouring uphill to stop just because there is a zebra crossing.
Please send your questions to Thomas.blaikie@lady.co.uk or write to him at The Lady, 39-40 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ER
WHAT TO DO… if you can’t get a drink at the bar
Ghastly. The jamming and cramming at the bar, the bristling resentment. Some awful people boast that they can command the attention of any bar person at 500 metres. If you’re overlooked, you’re a craven wimp. Why can’t anything be done about it?Even in places of some grandeur, such as the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the behaviour is atrocious. Well-heeled captains of industry, venerated examples of the great and the good, thrust themselves forward in the full knowledge that others have been waiting longer.
Good bar staff are supposed to know whose turn it is. If you scowl and huff and puff they’ll ignore you, so bar lore dictates. But these days, bartenders have lost the art. Rather like London taxi drivers who no longer know where Oxford Street is, or Hyde Park Corner.
The British love queues in all other circs. And queues are right, of course, and just. Why not queue at the bar? Would those machines that issue numbers on bits of paper be so unthinkable? Collect your docket and wait your turn. At the deli counter in a French supermarket they’re a marvel of fairness. Will an enterprising bar owner at least try it?