Thinking of selling up..

stop reading the forum, enjoy riding your bike.

Well, if this lot doesn't change your mind then I guess nothing will.

In all honesty I was having one of those dark 'what if' moments. I went out for a ride today, and aint no mo fooker stopping me riding.

Also visited my friend today, he's out intensive care and enjoying the luxury that is hospital food.

I'm not a "anxious" rider, I'm fairly confident in my skill and ability, it's just other people!

Just avoid the situations where you are at greater risk from these people. There maybe places you are totally entitled to be, but are probably "poor value" in terms of risk/effort saved.

After getting nearly run over countless times on roundabouts I have totally given up on the big ones. Something about them makes drivers want to get round them as fast as possible and they never have any expectation ever that a cyclist might be on their way round. They are somehow blind to a cyclist in the middle of a lane. So I gave up.

Always just use pedestrian crossings now. Hardly takes longer.

I probably wouldn't do mad shit like ride on A roads Ive done in the past.

You could try setting yourself some rules / boundaries for your urban riding. For example, in London, I only have one rule, and that is - no cycling on roads that accommodate trucks and buses. You might think that's crazy and it'll take forever to get anywhere - it doesn't though. You just need to learn routes that are a bit more intricate, but you save some time on waiting on traffic lights (small roads have less). I had my commute down to 35 minutes, from Hackney Downs to South Ken (> 8 miles).

aint no mo fooker stopping me riding.

Well, thank fuck for that.

Also visited my friend today, he's out intensive care and enjoying the luxury that is hospital food.

Good to hear.

^^ Most of us would see living by that set of rules as a defeat, Cpt.

Injuries to car drivers are much more common. Oddly, almost nobody stops driving because of it. Don't see anybody pestering drivers to purchase safety equipment each time there's a car accident.

Most people's perception of risk is screwed.

A car driver who has a crash without wearing a seat belt cops even more shit that a cyclist who crashes without a helmet.

if the joy of cycling doesn't outweigh the fear then you're probably best not getting back on the bike.

stop reading the forum, enjoy riding your bike.
Mostly I ride a bike for the sheer joy of it.
A very very long time ago when I was about 11 they told us at school that by the time we were 25 we would have lost a friend or close relative to a fatal road crash. They were right about both.
Decades later London is 3 to 4 times less risky than where I was then. The risks are real but so are the risks of not riding:- a less active, less healthy, joyless life.
Managing ourselves to minimise risk makes sense. For me it is by trying to learn from every 'near miss' and see them before they happen. And training. Spending an hour with a Bikeability trainer analysing and criticising my moves was an enlightening experience. That was about 5 years ago and I need to do it again. Everyone reading this needs to do it again, about every 5 years for the rest of your life.

Charlie

Want a lesson?

yes
and who trains the trainers?
do you lot get annual assessments and refresher training?