Blimey I'm a crabby old cow. Drove to work today after two days of cycle commuting. The reason (or excuse, make your own judgment) is because tonight is book club night and me, accompanied by the Complete Works of Shakespeare had places to go after work, and then a journey home at 9pm ish. Somehow, though, the two days of cycling to work have turned me into the most angry motorist imaginable. I hated the drive in. The whole time I am prevented from moving up to the 30mph speed limit by congestion. Every set of lights is red, and at every set the queues are so long I watch two changes before we can finally move. Other car drivers are indecisive, or stop abruptly in front of me or get into the wrong lanes or just generally act like cretins, and I spend my journey staring frustrated at other people's exhausts.
It's the cycling that's done it. On the bike I'm always at what passes for top speed (which for me, not so fast), nothing is ever in my way, red lights happen and I stop but never ever ever have to sit through more than one change of the lights. If car drivers are acting like cretins it affects me much less because I'm so much slower, not dependant on most of their actions and basically only being vigilant for those who edge too near the kerb or do the usual stupid move where they overtake the cyclist and turn left (this is a daily occurrence on the bike) causing me to brake / swerve / feel heart rate rise.
In the car, however, the calm cyclist who just focusses on her own journey becomes a raving nutter lunatic who shouts, who waves her fist in the air even, and is generally a rather assertive driver. She's not nice. Realisations like this make me think hard about cycling to work more often, but then, there's always the excuses ...
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