Taking Sides

The moment of impact was inevitable.

It was however instantly in slow motion.

I had been given perhaps ten seconds warning that the car was on a head on collision course with me and my bicycle with the sudden multiplication of two oncoming headlights into four.

The reason for this phenomena was the impatience of a motorist travelling home that evening and his decision to overtake the long line of slow moving traffic whose company he had tolerated through the twisty course of the five or so miles of road before this first long straight .

Unfortunately for me I had entered the very same straight at the other end and had taken up a text book position paralell to the white central white line ready to make a right turn into a junction.

Inevitable the moment of impact certainly was but nothing could prepare my body and nervous system for the shock and violence of coming into contact with that car, a soul-less lump of metal, plastic and glass. I was not aware of any human factor in the equation as I rolled up the bonnet and my elbow pierced through the windscreen. There was no googly eyed or equally shocked face in my vision as I rebounded and ended up sitting in the road with my spine against the rubber strip of the front bumper.

I am not sure what happened in the minutes before the ambulance arrived but heard myself telling someone that I was alright and could feel nothing sticking out of my flesh nor a warm feeling of blood or bodily fluids evacuating from anywhere.

My legs were a bit stiff but mainly from the realised chill of the evening and I found it difficult to clamber up and perch on the edge of the mobile stretcher. The crew were kind and attentive but all I asked of them for was, cheekily, a lift to my house.

There had certainly been luck in that I had not sustained any serious injury.

The only victim.....well, the next day with a slightly stiff neck I had not been able to see the vehicle behind me in the office car park and left a big dent in its front wing.

My experience had been traumatic but I had not thankfully contributed to the statistics for deaths among cyclists.

In fact there has been, in recent years, a huge decrease in the numbers of fatal incidents amongst those on two wheels.

The figure reached its peak back in 1934 when 1536 cyclists died in Great Britain. In context 2013 saw 109 fatalities. The reasons for the inter-war years carnage are not altogether clear. The overall population was lower than today but with a comparatively high percentage of the population using bicycles on a daily basis for travelling to work or for leisure and pleasure. A figure of 10 to 12 million had been cited for that period. The number of vehicles on the 1934 roads was fewer than two million compared to the 28 million clogging our roads and byways today. It would appear bikes would rule the roads in the significant outnumbering of motorists.

However, it is necessary to consider the number and condition of the road network at that time.

There were no motorways to separate cars from slower road users and trunk roads would therefore take the majority of traffic. This is a major factor in the lower death rate today in that there is a better separation of bikes from other traffic in the proliferation of bike lanes, cycles only tracks and trails and a better awareness of how vulnerable a cyclist can be when in direct confrontation with a motor vehicle.

It is not all encouraging news in that there has been an actual increase in serious injuries over the same period.

Bowling along a nice country lane on a bike is a most enjoyable activity and yet whilst only carrying 30% of cycle traffic these routes accounted for 58% of the fatalities in 2013.

Speed is a contributory factor in documented incidents and yet the majority of killers are heavy good vehicles even though only representing 5% of road users by category.

I am not claiming that cyclists are all angels, far from it I have witnessed some truly terrible road manners and attitudes amongst the increasing number of lycra clad weekenders who are head down and hell bent on acheiving a personal best record on some global positioning system or just downright rude.

There can be no magic formula for the peaceful co-existence of bikes and other road users but if we just keep out of each others way as much as possible we may all get back to our homes and loved ones safely and in one piece.