Lifecycle edition 3 Autumn 2016 v1

However, sharing the roads has two sides to it.
Unfortunately, as a road cyclist, on almost every ride
you endure some kind of unpleasant experience with a
passing car, but I'm a strong believer in karma, and using
your own actions to try and improve attitudes to
cyclists.
For example, on an evening ride just last week, three of
us were riding down a fairly narrow country lane, with a
large people carrier approaching behind. In these
scenarios, I would much rather pull up and let the
vehicle pass, it's less stressful for me, and for the driver.
It seems to be an inexplicable trait of driving, that the
instinctive reaction of the motorist (me included) is
"Must get past ASAP". Simply pulling in as soon as it
was safe to do so, hopefully quelled this and avoided
any dangerous manoeuvres by the driver. I know this is
just common sense, but unfortunately there are
instances of groups of cyclists stubbornly continuing, as
there's nothing to say they shouldn't. The driver gave
us a friendly toot and hopefully their courteous
experience with a group of cyclists will leave an imprint
for next time!
A similar incident occurred that evening, with the driver
thanking us enthusiastically for letting her pass, so it
was nice to be on the receiving end of two nice driver
experiences in one ride! Trying to put a human aspect
to situations sometimes helps too.