When a car drives dangerously close to you as a cyclist, you barely have time to react, to process it. One second, you are riding along as normal, without a care in the world, the next thing you know, a tonne and a half of metal and its driver is passing at speed centimetres away from you, and all you can do is hope for the best. The violence of it is difficult to describe, but imagine being at peace, focusing on the road ahead, only for a big block of metal to come thundering past you at at least twice your speed. It’s terrifying every time, but you become numb to it, of course you do. It happens on almost every ride I go on, and happened on Sunday, on a normal country road.
Every time it happens, I’m reminded of my vulnerability as a cyclist. There are things that can mitigate the experience, whether that be rear-view mirrors or radars, but there’s nothing to stop a driver interrupting your flow state like this, in the moment. No matter what you’re wearing, or how brightly lit you are, a moment of inattention could cause disaster. This is true of all driving incidents, of course, but on a bike, you can feel particularly helpless sometimes.
