We cycled back to Dunkirk from Belgium on Monday. I noticed something weird. In Belgium, motorist behaviour towards cyclists was as good as it was in The Netherlands. At one point a truck travelling along a main road stopped to let us pull out of a side road. I could see why he would. By letting us cross the road he let us get on to the segregated cycle lane the other side of the road and thereby be completely out of his way for the next 20 minutes at least. The infrastructure encouraged us all to be relaxed and keep out of each others way. Oddly cyclists got back to the main road at roundabouts, where we had priority and didnt need to give way (In the UK its the opposite, on A-roads often cycle paths start about 50 yards short of a roundabout to encourage cyclists to get on the pavement and give way at every turn off!). Anyway, as we headed West the segregated infrastructure got gradually worse. It started with the cycle path surface getting too bumpy and overgrown to ride on so we got back on the road. Some cars got impatient (noticeable because this behaviour was completely absent in The Netherlands and the east of Belgium). By the time we got to France the cycle paths ended and we met some of the usual sorts of lunatics Im familiar with from back home. This was disappointing, especially since the French in general love cyclists! Arriving back at Dover really took the cake. We had a really weird route out of the port and it eventually directed us onto a dual carriageway. i thought we mustve taken a wrong turn but there was a part of a cycle lane, completely strewn in debris, dangerously so, and then I saw cyclist warning signs for the benefit of the traffic. It was very dangerous indeed, especially since that dual carriageway is rammed full of trucks. Hideous. So, perhaps I was looking for a correlation but I think there is more to it than that. When the infrastructure is brilliant for bikes, everyone remains calm. Cars were respectful and gave us the benefit of the doubt, and stopped when they didnt even need to. I didnt even see one impatient driver. Then the infrastructure declines and the odd angry nutty driver appears.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 22:46:55 +0000
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