Getting startled whilst commuting

[gretaboy]

I am new to this whole cycling commuting thing and will prob get flamed for this but I do believe it is a 2 way street and when there is no bike lane cyclist who lane split at lights do cause an impact on the flow of traffic that can get extremely frustrating if as a motorist you give a bike the space and overtake them safely and then they lane split at next lights and this is repeated over and over

So while there is no excuse for either side abusing someone do take a moment to consider if your actions contributed to their frustration as the solution is mutual respect and I know I have seen both sides of it and rarely is both parties 100% innocent

AussieCJ7.....I have a shoulder to ride on for 99.5% of my ride. Their are a few choke points where the shoulder simply disappears. At these times I dig deep and go as hard as I can until the shoulder reappears so that I impact the traffic as little as possible. In saying that, I have never had issues at these choke points with people beeping, yelling out or driving like lunatics endangering my life.

In my case, and I can only make comments based upon my experiences, what you have described has nothing to do with what has happened to me. I have only experienced P platers being idiots when there have been two lanes for them to travel in and I have a nice wide shoulder to ride in. So lane splitting cannot explain why these tools do what they do.

Also, my main point on this thread is/was...why does it seem only P platers do the "startling"...again based upon my own experiences.

[trailgumby]

I find the assumption that I assumed interesting.

Lane splitting is not the root cause of driver frustration, it is merely the available and convenient target.

The root cause is too many cars on the road for the available capacity. Building more or "better" roads to increase capacity only makes the problem worse in the long term becasue it attracts more single-occupant cars, with the obvious consequences for resource use and air quality. Despite this being a clear lesson of the results of the last 50 years of road infrastructure construction, our State governments continue to pump billions after billions of dollars into this black hole.

What is needed is a proper public transport network, decent cycling infrastructure, and government commitment to adjusting driver attitudes to cyclists.

If there were less selfish drivers, each taking up the space of 12 cyclists on the road (on average) with their single occupant cars and more cyclists our traffic congestion would be much less and more people would be arriving at work and back home again feeling energised and invigorated instead of cranky and frustrated.

[gretaboy]

...... and more people would be arriving at work and back home again feeling energised and invigorated instead of cranky and frustrated.

Hey trailgumby..is that how I am supposed to feel when I get to work

I am usually shattered, sore and sweating profusely when I get to work...but..in saying that, once I have a shower and some breakfast I feel on top of the world

[trailgumby]

I used to thrash myself. I found it was actually less effective in improving my fitness - less was more. Nutrition was the other small change with a big effect

Arriving at work shattered was not good for either my work effectiveness or my safety in heavy traffic, and doing the same homeward bound had a serious impact on the quality of my sleep, and my ability to get to sleep at a reasonable hour.

[Fred Nurk]

Theres a dude with a couple of dogs in his ute that manage to scare the crap out of me with surprising regularity.

I know the vehicle, I know its going to be going past me at some point on my commute, but his dogs are pretty much silent until they're metres away from me. Gets me every time...

[Christina Brinkmann]

Pack a pistol and shoot them next time.