{"id":466,"date":"2016-11-02T17:23:05","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T17:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/?p=466"},"modified":"2022-03-24T19:53:18","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T19:53:18","slug":"fighting-fear-i-got-confident-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/spokeswomen\/fighting-fear-i-got-confident-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting the fear: how I got confident on the road"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charityfocus.org\/blog\/upload\/2008\/smiley-bike.jpg?resize=500%2C333\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Theres a lot of talk about women being more nervous of cycling on the roads than men. \u00a0I don\u2019t know if I agree with that. \u00a0I do think they\u2019re often more prepared to admit fear, which is definitely not the same thing. I suspect that men often mask their nerves in lycra and bravado whereas women decide that cycling is not worth risking their lives over. However, scary facts about women being knocked off their bikes by lorries suggests that they can also be victims of their own wariness.<\/p>\n<p>I certainly had loads more hairy moments before training to become a cycle instructor. I was definitely a curb hugger and would often dash for the pavement if things got beepy. The instructor course was an eye-opener for me. There were a few simple tips and techniques that instantly made me feel less vulnerable and defensive when navigating the bike-hating streets of Leeds. It didn\u2019t save me from the idiots but it made me feel safer and in charge. I thought I\u2019d share some of the most useful, just in case they help you too\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Look drivers in the eye\u00a0<\/strong>whenever you want to do something<\/li>\n<li>Take up the<strong>\u00a0position of a car<\/strong>\u00a0(i.e. in the middle of your side of the road) whenever at a junction, don\u2019t let yourself be overtaken when turning \u2013 this includes roundabouts<\/li>\n<li>Get to the\u00a0<strong>front of traffic\u00a0<\/strong>at a red light if you have time. \u00a0If you don\u2019t, get in between two cars and become a car yourself<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t worry about pissing off drivers<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 they\u2019re pissed off because they\u2019re stuck in a metal box, not because of you.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cycle lanes<\/strong>\u00a0are not always the best place to be<\/li>\n<li><strong>Look<\/strong>\u00a0over your right shoulder, a lot<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t assume\u00a0<\/strong>other cyclists know what they\u2019re doing<\/li>\n<li><strong>Beware the gutter<\/strong>, its often the most dangerous place to be<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cycle two-abreast<\/strong>\u00a0its not only legal (and more fun) but recommended by British Cycling<\/li>\n<li><strong>The more confident you are, the safer you will be<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This stuff is kind of obvious I guess, I just wish I\u2019d been told it earlier.<\/p>\n<p>This video is great too :<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content-asset videofit\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bicycling in traffic is a dance you lead\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/9827254?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"720\" height=\"481\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Theres a lot of talk about women being more nervous of cycling on the roads than men. \u00a0I don\u2019t know if I agree with that. \u00a0I do think they\u2019re often more prepared to admit fear, which is definitely not the same thing. I suspect that men often mask their nerves in lycra and bravado whereas&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spokeswomen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p74t96-7w","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}