Pet hates

Although I always try to adopt a positive attitude to life and not to allow too much garbage to enter into my thought processes, I do from time to time get a little ... shall I say irritated? ... by things. My current "pet hate" is cyclists.

I have never been a cyclist. I didn't have a bike as a boy and the only time I have ever ridden one was the occasion when I borrowed a school friend's and rode to the supermarket where I worked stacking the shelves. It was downhill all the way, possible getting on for a couple of miles, and my friend had to run all the way to reclaim his bike and ride back again. Maybe that lack of cycling experience makes it difficult - if not impossible - for me to think as a cyclist. For me, that's a plus! I wouldn't want to think like some of the cyclists I have very nearly run into.

Why do cyclists think they own the roads? Do they really think that just because they rely on human strength as opposed to mechanical they can wander at will? They act all too frequently as though the rules of the road that are obeyed by every other living creature - well, every other type of road user - don't apply to them. They ride blithely through red traffic lights and, if a motorist happens to be coming across their path they look as though he has no right to be anywhere in the vicinity, let alone proceeding on a green light. They move off the road onto the pavement when the whim takes them, completely regardless of pedestrians, mothers pushing prams, children, dogs... Even when the local council spends a small fortune marking out special cycle lanes, do they use them? There was a time when I regularly (ie every day, Monday to Friday) drove along a stretch of country road with one lane for traffic in each direction. There was a grass verge on one side of the road, with a cycle path beyond it, yet almost every day I would find a cyclist blocking my way while I waited for a gap in the oncoming traffic to pass him. And it wasn't the same cyclist every day, in case that's what you are thinking.

Even if one cyclist does ride in the cycle lane, if he/she has a companion, the second cyclist, rather than riding in front or behind, has to ride alongside the first - in front of all the motorists.

But my gorge really rises when I'm walking the dog through the woods or along footpaths across the fields. I suppose cyclists relish the challenge of riding along the narrow paths that wind through the trees, but when the ground is soft those cycle wheels cut up the paths something terrible. Even so, that's not the worst. The worst is when they insist on riding like bats out of hell regardless of children or dogs running around, coming up from behind without any warning. They seem to think we mere walkers should be constantly watching rear-view mirrors just in case a cyclist wants to get past, which they seem to do by getting as close as they can without actually knocking down the startled walker.

I know one shouldn't generalise and that not all cyclists as as bad as that. All the same, the majority seem to be. Perhaps if the government was to insist that all cycles be registered and taxed... But no, that would make no difference to the riders' behaviour.

I suppose I shall just have to grin and bear them, but cyclists - I hate 'em!