Quirk II

It's really no different,

     If you text message and drive, just like the rude bus driver who 'think being on time is more important than life,' so to do you, think that that conversation that you're having is as well... But it's not is it, not really, not in any sense of logic (which powers science to discover the plausible) or reality, will a single dimension conversation hold more weight on the road than the lives of those you share the road with, from child hand in hand beside a stroller with his mother or the driver next to you.

     Let me ask you what this, how aware are you when you are driving? What matters to your eyes and mind when the lives of people around you are just a fraction of a wheel tip away from injury or worse...

     Let me give you an example of what a cyclist is and must be conscious of in order to be safe, not only for themselves but for those they share the road with.

    Firstly, drivers. Most cars drive as if the cyclist is a mere nuisance upon the road. As they pass they rarely signal, even if they are passing you near a left turn and thus cut you off as they round the corner. The same thing happens at stop lights, people neglect turn vouch for the fact they are turning, presuming everyone around should just know their intent without having to be notified, they don't signal... The light goes green, they begin the procedure of turning the corner and nearly hit the cyclist that was right beside them, usually at eye level, all along.

     Next is the random generation of pedestrians, whom I like to describe as 'lemmings' who like to turn abruptly and begin crossing the street from off the pavement (side walk) without so much as looking over their shoulders to check if they might just be walking off a cliff into a sea of traffic like the little rodent into the ocean, as the tale goes.

      Often the lemming will yell some slander at the cyclist as if it were their fault, without realizing that it was them who put both in harms way, after all no one would walk out in front of a car and then yell at the car, you'd be too scared, heart racing, after the experience of nearly dying.

     Then there is the parked cars, watching in the mirrors to see if someone is sitting idly inside. Why you ask? Well it is because people in parked cars like to open their doors without checking their mirrors, 'dooring' the cyclist, nearly decapitating them... Well not quite but often being doored leads to serious injury and the lemming who doored the cyclist leaves as if nothing ever happened.

     Road, the asphalt itself can be a hazard, especially in Glasgow, as there are massive pot holes, divots and storm drains that may cause cyclists a head over heels crash or worse. The conditions are made worse with the weather, from frost during chill winters to wind, that we try to compensate for, which blows us about at its leisure, for it is the power of our sandcastle earth and we are but the cyclists attempting to brave the roads on our way to and from work.

      So once again I ask you, how much are you aware of as you drive the by-ways, high-ways, streets and roads of the world we are ruining?

In earnest anticipation of,