What has had the largest effect upon me, of this particular incident, is reading the
account of the Reddit user who said he (or she) was behind the cyclist, and saw pretty much the whole thing, including being there right at his end. I've never seen anything like that, and will be quite happy if I manage to never do so, but that has to have had a pretty profound effect. After reading it, I know I'll be even more nervous about the very rare occasions when I do go up the inside of a bus or HGV (on the rare occasions when traffic is barely moving or stationary, and I
know that I can safely get past the large vehicle, and it's safer than going past on the outside), or indeed, when I'm anywhere in the vicinity of such vehicles. This is probably not a bad thing, because nasty stuff can happen, regardless of how careful we and motor vehicles drivers are.
It does sounds horribly like this cyclist didn't do himself any favours by his behaviour, and it does make me wonder how we can get people to be more sensible? I've seen people come close to coming undone when going up the inside of a left turning vehicle, and did have a brief shout at a couple of people on the last FNRttC who wove between some cars turning left into a garage, when it was almost as easy to wait, or go around the outside.
Presumably because bicycle are more manoeuvrable and can fit into smaller spaces, people think it's sensible to go through these gaps, but often it's asking for trouble. TfL has been putting up some advertising to try and get people to realise that HGVs have a huge blind spot. Given the number of people I see stepping out into the road, from behind a parked vehicle, whilst wearing iPods or talking on the phone, I do wonder if we're suffering from some huge failure to recognise that the world is generally out to get us, so it's a good idea to be aware of what else is in your vicinity. Are people taking less care than when I was younger, or am I just suffering from a case of "When I were a lad ..." I seem to recall seeing public information films with characters like the
Green Cross Code Man and
Tufty the Squirrel when I was younger, but less so in recent years (but then again, I don't watch children's TV quite as much either!)
I can't say Wiggins putting his foot in it worries me too much. Yes, he probably shouldn't have said it, and he gave the media the sort of soundbite they were looking for, but he's not particularly qualified to make public opinions on such, so personally I don't care. There is an argument that given how well he has the public ear at the moment, he has a responsibility to take more care over what he says, but on the scale of public cock-ups, this has nothing on getting caught in bed cheating on his wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/whatever with a page 3 girl, or being in court after having been stopped for driving at 120mph under the influence of illegal drugs. He's just won the Tour-de-France and a seventh Olympic medal, I think he's allowed to occasionally say things that he probably shouldn't have, and largely because he was probably caught unaware of events by the media.
