Before you utter, “weirdo”, and slam the lid shut on your laptop computer, just admit, deep down, that you do. Let me explain.
Living at the top of a mountain road there was a blissful absence of annoying cyclists, bikers and Anglophile drivers using the wrong side of the road. With a little over a week to go before the State of Alarm concludes, cyclists are as thick as flies on a jam sandwich, whilst bikers and motorist think the mountain road is a test track.
For two whole months the only thing you would see on the road were deer and mountain goats, scratching their heads wondering where the errant branch of the ape family had disappeared to.
Then there were those clear horizons, alternating with refreshing spring showers… not a whiff of pollution!
And now we come to the mild agoraphobia that everybody experienced once we were allowed to emerge from our safe (albeit lunatic asylum) homes. Come on! You know it was true… that vague sense of ‘not-quite-rightness.’ Those shifty glances at passersby and then there’s the git that sneezed twice – everybody else attempting to cross over to the other side of the street from him without wanting to look like a panicking pansy. Never mind that there was a bloody-great delivery truck coming – better odds with the truck, after all.
Yes, yes, we all said that we couldn’t wait to get out of the house and go to the local… but like a budgie in a cage with the door left open – I can finally get out, you think; I’m free you deduct! I might wait a moment first, you procrastinate.
(News/Editorial: Freedom)
Tom, I’ve just realised that you said, “I don’t want to write a letter for open public discussion I am merely highlighting that this publication has a clear bias against cycling.”
What do you think you have been doing all this time if it was not for “open public discussion.” I mean, “leave a comment” is a bit of a give away, isn’t it?
All you comments are viewable for anybody and everybody who cares to read them. They can also comment, just as you have, as well.
Now, the reason that I said, “write a reader’s letter” and I will post it as a separate article is because all this exchange between us is tagged under an humorous (I hope) article on the lock-down hangover.
For this reason, if you wish to continue this discussion – and by leaving another comment here it is indicative that you do – I shall create a completely stand alone article with all your and my comments attached.
Please point me to the legislation that provides for a mimimum speed limit on any road apart from an autovia?
On a bend you should be able to stop within the distance that you can see on front of you, there is no limit nor recommended top speed. Imagine there is a fallen tree or an animal, you will hit it. The stopping distance at 50kmh is 29 metres. If you can’t see 29 metres in front of you on the straight roads then you shouldn’t be driving.
Speaking of cornering at speed I have at no point mentioned ‘screaming down fast enough’. It is quite simply that a bike will corner faster than a car on a tight bend because we effectively have more road space to spare hence I will regularly get stuck behind a car on corners.
I do not deny for one second that cyclists do stupid things. Just as cars, motorbikes and buses, infact every road user. So please instead write your article talking about irresponsible road users of all types, because as I pointed in my original comment the road was a nicer place for everyone during lockdown.
Once again I am just pointing out that this publication has a bias against cyclists.
Thank you for your positive observations, as well as negative ones. 😉
“So you drive around a blind bend at a speed that doesn’t allow you to react to an obstruction in the road,”you ask.
Roads not only have maximum speed limits; they also have minimum ones. This means that if the maximum speed (unless indicated otherwise at certain points) is 80, then the minimum is 40. You shouldn’t really be going slower than forty, therefore.
Let’s say a particular sharp bend has a 60 speed limit on it, then the lowest you can legally go is 30. Now, even if you are going round a bend at 30 and find yourself with two cyclists side-by-side, then there is no way to avoid them. You hit them at 30, then you kill them or put them in a wheelchair for life – it’s as simple as that. Thirty, by the way, is the speed limit when passing through a village like Otívar, for example, so it is considered a prudent speed.
You can’t take a bend on the left-hand side of your lane because you get cyclists, as you have already admitted, screaming down fast enough “to be held back by a car,” (your comment; not mine). You are just as likely to meet a biker cutting the corner as a car or even a bus. Result, you hug the right if you want to live. That’s when you find two cyclists, side-by-side (completely illegal as I have pointed out, providing proof).
But you know, Tom, it really has nothing to do with whether the formation you cycle in is illegal or not… it’s about whether you want to live or not.
The one thing I have learnt after 40 years of using a motorbike on roads is this: the other driver has the right of way, even when he doesn’t because when it comes to a Motorbike-vs-Lorry fight, the biker always loses because the opponent is wrapped in armour and belted in and you’re not.
You might, perhaps, deny that cyclists on that road do absolutely stupid things, like zig-zag across both lanes because it’s steep, right before a blind bend. They do because I have come across them doing precisely that. Cyclists go as fast as possible down hill and couldn’t give a damn when they get to Otivar about speed limits – the only thing they are worried about is keeping the speed up. Do you think they apply the brakes and slow to 30? Of course they don’t.
So, yes, of course this opinion piece is completely biased against cyclists, they are a danger to themselves and to the poor bastard that has to live with the death of another road user, even though it wasn’t his fault.
And the end of the day, Tom, it all boils down to irresponsible people using a public right of way as if it were a speed track for a sports activity, be they cyclists, bikers or motorists. 😉
‘Trouble is you go round a blind bend and find two cyclists, cycling side-by-side. They’re moving so slow that you have no time to react.’
So you drive around a blind bend at a speed that doesn’t allow you to react to an obstruction in the road? That obstruction could be an animal or a single cyclist. I would then suggest you are driving too fast for the circumstances. A cyclist in single file requires you to overtake just as two abreast does.
I thank you for your offer to write a letter and I also thank you for publishing my comments, when many other publications would not. I don’t want to write a letter for open public discussion I am merely highlighting that this publication has a clear bias against cycling.
Glad you mentioned what is permitted and what is not. Quoting from Real Decreto 1428/2003, de 21 de noviembre:
2. Se prohíbe que los vehículos enumerados en el apartado anterior circulen en posición paralela, salvo las bicicletas, que podrán hacerlo en columna de a dos, orillándose todo lo posible al extremo derecho de la vía y colocándose en hilera en tramos sin visibilidad,…
Given that the whole of the Cabra road has little or no visibility because of the bends, it means that cyclists should be in “hilera” (single file). Trouble is you go round a blind bend and find two cyclists, cycling side-by-side. They’re moving so slow that you have no time to react.
So, no, Tom, cyclist can’t buddy up riding two abreast where they like – only on a straight stretch with visibility and the Cabra, as you evidently know… is anything but a straight road.
But let’s not turn this article into a pissing match over who is most annoying on the Cabra road. Put your point of view on the “Your Questions” section and I will format it as a reader’s letter and everybody can comment as they feel on the subject, OK?
I know how annoying it can be stuck behind other road users who are slowing me down. It happens everytime I descend the Cabra on my bike and a car is on front of me. I also find it annoying that whilst all drivers have licences they don’t seem to know that in Spain cyclists are permitted to cycle two abreast. Most foreign drivers are also unaware that cyclists in a group can have the right of way on a roundabout. Once the leading cyclists enters the roundabout all others can follow and the cars on the roundabout must give way. I don’t make the laws, I just follow them
What’s annoying is that just about all cyclists are also motorists, meaning that cyclists know how annoying it is finding yourself crawling along in first gear behind a couple of cyclists on a road full of blind bends who insist on cycling side-by-side… Whilst just about every cyclist also drives a car, very few drivers also ride a pushbike up moutains.
I spent a couple of years with a bicyle as my only transport cycling between Almuñécar and Otívar back in the 90s after my motorbike gave up the ghost. I mention this because one thing is using a bicycle as a form of transport and quite another is using it as a sport.
Mountain roads are not sports facilities for cyclists – they are dangerous communication routes and just the same as cyclists are not allowed on autovías because they are a danger to themselves and other autovía users (because of their inability to travel above the lower speed limit on hills as well as their poor stability at slow speeds) they should also be banned from mountain roads for the very same reasons. It is logical that people can cycle up as far as the Lentegí on the Otivar road, but from there on up bicycles should be banned, the same as from El Supiro del Moro all the way along to the mountain pass (more or less Mesón Los Prados) it’s safe for cyclists but from the mountain pass down, they should not be allowed.
It is not what transport one uses, Tom, it is where one uses it. 😉
Cycling to work during the lockdown there was a blissful absence of annoying motorists.