Local cyclist Steve Hackett pedals cautiously along the fine line between cyclists’ and motorists’ rights
Looking at the stunningly beautiful Surrey Hills on a sunny day, you may not be aware of the underlying tension building on the roads.
Since Bradley Wiggins won the 2011 Tour de France and the Olympic road races that followed through the heart of Surrey, cyclists have flocked to the area, occasionally causing frayed tempers.
Shared use of the roads is far from ideal, and Surrey’s are definitely overcrowded. Not only that, the affluent county has an abundance of oversized, off-road vehicles which, combined with the recent two-wheel invasion, results in chaos, especially on Sundays.
Currently, the UK is without an extensive infrastructure of cycle routes, or the space alongside roads to create one. In Belgium and the Netherlands, cycle routes have been in place since the creation of the modern road, so these countries cope with the increase in traffic more easily.
The mentality of Dutch and Belgian motorists is also different. The majority of them grow up cycling, so their driving technique is more sympathetic, and watching out for cyclists is natural.
When cyclists were a minority, in the days before ‘Wiggo’, they were bullied by motorists completing dangerous manoeuvres, such as overtaking and turning left, or passing too close. Too often, drivers showed a lack of care, and often contempt.
Now, with their numbers soaring, cyclists have become bolder. A growing minority of them are taking on aggressive drivers with the result that there have been flare-ups, some violent, around the district.
Despite pleas by the police and the council for cyclists and drivers to show greater tolerance towards each other, incidents of cycle rage continue to grow. There have been reports of serious damage to both vehicles and bicycles.
Four-wheel users often claim that cyclists ride four abreast, but this can be a false impression caused by riders changing position on the move in order to share the workload.
However, cyclists are now being advised by safety groups that riding two abreast is acceptable in many cases.
Such positioning forces motorists to consider carefully before overtaking, rather than trying to pass through a gap that doesn’t exist, and which puts the rider at risk.
Organised cycle rides, known as sportives, are another factor adding fuel to the fire. In addition to Ride London, which attracts 25,000 charity participants and is followed by an Elite race, many other sportives flock to the area.
On top of these are unofficial rides, most of them unannounced and occupying many summer weekends. They do nothing to defuse the growing problem of congestion.
The cyclists on Surrey’s roads are not going away, and a solution to the lack of dedicated road routes is not remotely close.
It seems, therefore, that if a serious injury, or worse, is to be avoided, an increase in care, patience and tolerance is the only way forward – for cyclists as well as motorists.
