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@MotherGirl
@ Oliver - I have lived and cycled in London for a few years before the 'boom' but I think my point was I am surprised that attitudes to cycling from other road users hasn't seemed to improved along with this. Yes indeed - for the second city, Birmingham never gets such high volumes of traffic and it's still relatively easy to get around without too much forward thinking. I will definitely take time to get to know the London roads well. My friend isn't an instructor no but is a very experienced rider who can't get his head around my riding style, he sees other traffic as the 'enemy' I suppose and thinks I am too courteous of a cyclist.
I really can't get my head around instructors who teach one thing but then do exactly the opposite in their own time but I suppose that's up to them. Sadly, there is a huge money incentive in these parts to teach Bikeability, etc and I encounter some people who really couldn't care less about the job or the future cycling habits of their trainees.
The hardest thing is getting the trainees to think for themselves, it's quite easy to follow what we do once they've been shown it exactly but no situation is the same. I find it frustrating that some groups never get taken off the quiet side rides so they're (in my opinion) really underprepared for the road and the actions they might encounter from other road users. Major and minor always proves to be confusing as children especially focus on the actual words instead of their meaning if that makes sense? On some courses primary and secondary aren't used at all, instead stay behind me and come past me are used and then sometimes there is swapping between the two which is also confusing for the trainees. Also, I suppose because of my age (22) I get instructors who are the designated assistant who completely take over sessions which I don't mind so much as I try and let the assistant instructor do part of the teaching and swap over a bit because it's boring sometimes but not at the detriment of the teaching quality.
It would be very useful to meet up but unfortunately I'll be mid way to Berlin on my charity ride by the 10th. Hopefully someone can take notes or feedback. I shall be in London on Friday getting ready for the Open polo tournament so maybe catch some of you then.