"Operation Love-In" part 3: Diary of a scared driver and a new name for the operation

This is part 3 of a something-part series.  You should read part 1: Diary of an angry driver and part 2: Diary of an angry and sanctimonious cyclist first.


From today, Operation Love-In will no longer be known as Operation Love-In. While I believe the name communicated the the spirit of the endeavour, I didn't want there to be any confusion about its purpose. As the term 'love-in' may engender false readings, it must be dumped.

So, from now on, Operation Love-In will be known as Wheel Harmony. Wheel Harmony is wheel, wheely. So, get wheel. Wheel work together to make Wheel Harmony wheel. I know what you're asking yourself; "Can this be wheel?" The answer is; "Yes, this is wheel...wheely."

Now that we've covered that, let's move on to our next diary entry; diary of a scared driver.




17th April, 2011

Dear diary,

Today, I am very scared. I am scared because when I drive there are bicycles everywhere and I don't wantto hurt them but they just seem to appear from nowhere. Today I was turning left (we drive on the left in Australia) when a cyclist who was going straight came up and banged on my roof and yelled at me. I got very scared. I should have looked in my mirror to check but sometimes you just don't think to do that, do you? I will from now on though. It was so scary. The situation was a bit like this;

I understand that I was in the wrong but I think the cyclist could have approached the situation in a different way. I know he was probably scared by the situation but I didn't do it on purpose.

Bikes seem to do very risky things to me. Sometimes I wonder how they can do some of the things they do safely. Then I had an idea; the perspective of a cyclist would be different to that of a driver. Look at these photos that I took. They show the perspectives from a car and from a bike;

This is what I can see while driving

This is what a cyclist can see

From these photos, it is evident that a cyclist can see much more than I can. They can also see left and right more easily as there are no bits of car in the way to impede their vision. I found some interesting reading on this very topic here.

Even knowing this, it still scares me when cyclists duck and weave and come from nowhere. I feel like they are taking risks and not leaving any margin for error. Some cyclists seem very impatient and get very angry. It makes me so worried. I think if I were to give cyclists one piece of advice, it would be to relax while riding. The same, of course, can be said for many drivers. I will endeavour to be more aware of cyclists in the future as I don't feel like another angry confrontation or being responsible for an injury or death.

Thanks for listening diary.

Yours truly,

S.D.


Click here for part 4.