Explaining Dangerous Driving in Autumn

When Autumn is well-advanced and darkness falls in late afternoon, it can be harder to find the motivation to make trips around town by bike.

The cold, the rain and the dark are obstacles, but in truth I generally overcome any reluctance they engender and pedal on regardless.

The biggest deterrent, as ever, is motor vehicles – and of course their drivers. The standard of driving, which is woeful year-round, seems to sink even further.

I’m worried that drivers won’t be looking out for people on bikes, and won’t see us. I’m also concerned that their patience and adherence to the rules of the road will be even lower than usual.

Finally, it’s possible that the glass-and-metal-box effect is even more pronounced than usual. When you get into a car and put the heating and the stereo on, it’s like being in a mobile sitting room, isolated and insulated from the world outside.

It leads people to feel disconnected from the outdoors; their behaviour becomes anti-social in a way that it never would in, say, a supermarket.

In a supermarket you have face-to-face and person-to-person contact with other humans; and you can’t depress a pedal with your foot in order to escape the consequences of your actions.

Cars bring out the worst in people.

I’ve been on the wrong end of some rotten driving recently, including this manoeuvre by the driver of silver Nissan Juke T10JLD.

I was cycling straight on and had priority. Why did the driver ignore my presence and the rules of the road, and make their turn right into my path? They would have turned right into me if I hadn’t braked sharply.

I have three possibilities to suggest.

1) The Specsavers Theory

The Specsavers Theory is that the driver simply didn’t see me.

It’s quite hard to believe, but just about possible I suppose. If true, they should not be allowed to drive on public roads.

There was even a person in the passenger seat looking right at me. Surely they could have alerted the myopic steerer to my presence?

2) The Highway Code Theory

Since the Specsavers Theory seems unlikely, could the Highway Code Theory be the true explanation?

This is the theory that the driver hasn’t read the Highway Code (in decades), and doesn’t know that straight-on traffic has priority over turning vehicles joining the carriageway from a side road.

While not inconceivable, this second theory also seems improbable.

You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce that such a driver would be in charge of a vehicle with many dents and bashes as a result of their reckless driving, yet the bodywork of the Nissan Juke was pristine.

3) The Very Important Motorist Theory

We must, therefore, look for a more likely explanation for the facts: the Very Important Motorist Theory.

According to the VIM theory, the driver saw me and has at least some familiarity with the Highway Code; but since they were in a car and I was on a bike, they felt infinitely superior to me and felt that they could do what they liked.

They were too important to cede priority to someone on a bike. This was a Very Important Motorist.

This is the ‘might is right’ culture that we see every day on Britain’s roads.

Recent changes to the Highway Code set out a Hierarchy of Road Users, and make it clear that those who have the potential to cause the most harm have the greatest responsibility.

These changes have not yet been absorbed and adopted by British road users.

Hope (a Dangerous Thing)

I would like to see British road culture change. I would like to see the rules respected. I would like British drivers to stop bullying people on bikes out of the way, and for there to be consequences if they do so.

I would like to be able to do my errands by bike all year round, and I would like to be able to do them without fear for my physical safety due to Very Important Motorists.

I live in hope. Even though experience tells me I probably should not.