Cycling tip du jour, Friday. How to calm down after a near miss or angry incident

They should be our friends! Source
Motorcycle News

I needn't dwell on the details, but I had a terrifying moment yesterday - a little bit of politeness on my part - allowing a fellow cyclist to go ahead of me - with me slowing right down - nearly saw me mown down by a motorbike rider who'd shot off from nearby lights at full throttle. Of course he swore at me because as far as he was concerned I was a xxxxing idiot in his way and hadn't got out of the road.

OK, we can talk about blame and whether I shouldn't have done the polite thing, whether the design of the road is right, whether motorbikes should take more care etc etc. But the issue for me is - how can I prevent something like that eating away at me, and stop me simmering with resentment....? How should you calm down after an incident like that?

A few responses from friends on Twitter certainly helped:

muppixdotnet @karmacycle learn to ride a motorcycle yourself, then surround yourself by typical cyclists. Guarantee you'll learn a lot.

lardychap @thefixedfactor @karmacycle zen. Works for me. That and the knowledge that being angry doesn't bother the other person at all. Fixed helps

moriati23 @karmacycle Several days of bitter resentment and fantasising about 'Great Escape' style motorcycle + wire revenge is the only way to go.

thefixedfactor @karmacycle Zen. There are a million near misses in London every day. There are two million angry people. You don't have to be one of them.

sussexlad @karmacycle ah, motorcyclists. always surprising how they are not our side isn't it?

 

It's so darn difficult to stop yourself getting angry, but I think the Zen answer - or, as I've recently put it - calm-a-cycle - is the only way to go. Somehow, to remember that you are not alone, that it does not help to get angry, that there is nothing you can usefully do, all helps. In a slightly defeatist way.

 

I've also wondered, on a more constructive note, if us cyclists should in some clever way join forces with motorbike folks - online of course - and share a few experiences and thoughts (in a nice way) so we get a better understanding of needs/priorities/fears.

 

Does anyone know if a such a forum/place exists? Would us cyclists be welcome on a motorbike board?

 

Anyway, I'm feeling much more zen-like this morning after a nice ride in today - so have a good weekend all, and remember - calm-a-cycle

Are you the mysterious whistling cyclist of the East?

I heard him before I saw him. The distinctive sound of someone whistling the Pink Panther theme song. He stopped at the same lights as me. He seemed to be quite passive-aggressive. I took a very big dislike to him (this has happened before - see blogs passim). It was the loud way he was doing it, kind of pretending he hadn't noticed any of us other cyclists, and kind of trying to look totally "relaxed" while in fact pedalling as hard as possible to be at the front of the pack.

I wanted to get away from the whistling. A few minutes later, there he was again, at Old Street roundabout. Thank the Lord it wasn't the Pink Panther any more. He'd switched to some jazz number. This guy clearly thinks he's one of the all-time best jazz whistlers. And he's loud. He somehow managed to cycle right through a red light while whistling and only avoided being overwhelmed by the mass of motorbikes, other cylces and cars coming the other way by some very polite driving from the pack.

On reflection, I realised (yet again) that my instant reaction was silly. Perhaps the guy really is a musician - the kind who'd we'd all pay good money to watch in a club. And whistling is cool, isn't it? And it makes a lovely change from the silence you often get when a big pack of cyclists are waiting competitively at the lights.

Perhaps you're the mysterious whistling cyclist of the East and you're reading this. Let us all know. Or perhaps you've seen him. Or just heard him.

This KarmaCycle blog does have positive effects, I've found out ...

To my joy and surprise I discovered not only that the occasional person does read this blog (ooooh) but also they actually act on it. Steady now my friend. On Saturday night I bumped into a friend in what's often rather laughably known as "Victoria Park Village"* - basically it's the roundabout area just north of Victoria Park - we talked for a few seconds only, but then he said the magic words:

"I was reading your blog about the "incident" on the canal and when I biked on it this morning I was extra careful and extra polite".

Wow - a testament to the power of new media? Living proof that the brand known as KarmaCycle has finally made it mainstream? errr... more like a mate who I'd sent the link to had actually bothered to click it, but nonetheless, a first for me, and it gives me extra impetus to continue. ("For heaven's sake", I hear you cry, "don't give KarmaCycle any more impetus - he'll only go and write some more nonsense"... etc etc)

* Whoops, sorry, I've just found a link to Victoria Park Village dot com and found out that in fact the area is not only "delightful" but "a true East End London village". Actually to be fair, the first is certainly true.

Is there a "Sunday biking" syndrome?

I don't normally cycle on a Sunday. But I had occasion this weekend to travel to the Fulham Road from East London. In a slightly rose-tinted way, I was imagining clear empty streets, what little traffic there was pottering about as if in the countryside. I was imagining a throw-back to a more polite, easy-going society where drivers nodded and waved at each other and cyclists politely waited at the lights without that stressed look you see on weekdays.

Then I hit Brick Lane and the remnants of the Columbia Road flower market. If anything, there seemed to be more people and cars around than usual. Carrying things. Like flowers, and trees. And it didn't change for most of the rest of my journey (admittedly I did get rather lost and took a few bigger roads than I wanted to). It seems that London is not a city which has a rest on its roads on a Sunday.

The only observation I would make is - there was a slightly more leisurely attitude among cyclists - and more couples doing a bit more ambling along in pairs.

Oh - and how nice not to be wearing silly cycling clothes for once.