jackonaboardman
Speeding Up
- Jul 2, 2012
- 64
- 7
I had the pleasure of cycling round part of the Chichibu Nichitsu loop on the weekend (thanks to everyone that gave me pointers on routes and such), but, the joy of riding in such an insanely beautiful area was punctuated with brief bouts of bumhole puckering fear.
To anyone that knows the route I was cycling in a pair through one of the early tunnels just after the dam near to mitsumineguchi. The tunnel in question was directly after the loop and it was maybe 300 meters long and pretty narrow.
We were cycling with lights on and on the road as the pavement was really narrow and it seemed short enough that we could get through without causing a problem. Knowing that overtaking is illegal in tunnels (I think) we felt pretty safe. Until a lorry decided that driving really fast past us, crossing the central verge and blaring his horn was appropriate behavior. Understandably I myself, slammed on the brakes and made rapid efforts to get to the side even more so and in the process stacked it and put a nice lump of grit in my knee.
I had a similar issue on a ride to yokosuka a few weeks ago with a motorist that overtook me in a tunnel nearly wiping me out and found to my delight he spoke passable English when I remonstrated with him on the issue.
Whilst it makes sense to ride on pavements in tunnels when they are provided/ wide enough to do so I would like to know if anyone knows what the legal standard is for cyclists and tunnels. Are we supposed to walk through? ride through? ride anywhere in particular in the road (such as prime position) dominating the lane or otherwise.
To anyone that knows the route I was cycling in a pair through one of the early tunnels just after the dam near to mitsumineguchi. The tunnel in question was directly after the loop and it was maybe 300 meters long and pretty narrow.
We were cycling with lights on and on the road as the pavement was really narrow and it seemed short enough that we could get through without causing a problem. Knowing that overtaking is illegal in tunnels (I think) we felt pretty safe. Until a lorry decided that driving really fast past us, crossing the central verge and blaring his horn was appropriate behavior. Understandably I myself, slammed on the brakes and made rapid efforts to get to the side even more so and in the process stacked it and put a nice lump of grit in my knee.
I had a similar issue on a ride to yokosuka a few weeks ago with a motorist that overtook me in a tunnel nearly wiping me out and found to my delight he spoke passable English when I remonstrated with him on the issue.
Whilst it makes sense to ride on pavements in tunnels when they are provided/ wide enough to do so I would like to know if anyone knows what the legal standard is for cyclists and tunnels. Are we supposed to walk through? ride through? ride anywhere in particular in the road (such as prime position) dominating the lane or otherwise.