The reason I quit walking and cycling, this year is the same. I don’t feel safe because of road works that aim to seperate cars from cyclists, without addressing the key issue of traffic density.
Highlight:
I cycled 2700km, ran 945km, hiked 89km and walked 890km this year. A year earlier I walked 1670km, ran 247km, cycled 5300km and hiked 403km. I am not negative out of ignorance. I am negative due to chronic exposure to danger.
In the last two or three days I have been asked why I stopped cycling, and whether I had given up. To both of these questions the answer is simple. I stopped walking for the same reason.
Road works have destroyed walking and cycling routes. Road works on main roads that divert traffic from primary roads to secondary roads increase traffic density and close passes by cars. as well as stress.
In the past I would walk along the roads and find that it was a pleasure. I would walk on agricultural roads and I would be completely engrossed in the podcast or book.
When we were on social rides we knew that if we took the main road, then we’d have heavy traffic and near passes to deal with. Those near passes, several times during a walk, and bike ride are deeply unsettling, and upsetting. They are also entirely unjustified.
With road works cycling routes that were quiet and safe become saturated, especially with rush hour traffic, so what was a safe, relaxed ride becomes a toxic cesspit.
It’s the same with all of my old walks, all of them. Road works were meant to make cyclists feel safer but what cyclist cycles exclusively along the lake, or along a five hundred meter cycle path?
I don’t go on three kilometre walks and I don’t go on urban rides. I ride between towns and villages, and I ride for hours at a time. This year was awful because of all the road works. Traffic is heavier than ever, and that’s just when they have road works on every single main road in Vaud, for an entire summer. They have road works that last two years per project.
That means two years of disruption for cycling and walking.
That’s why I dumped cycling for this summer.
I come from extreme sports. I come from altitude scuba diving in Swiss lakes, year round, and rock climbing and via ferrata. I know about risk, and danger, and safety. With scuba diving, and rock climbing, and via ferrata we are responsible for our safety.
With the road we’re exposed to danger. We’re exposed to people that don’t slow down even when they see children cycling. they don’t slow down when they see horse riders. They don’t slow down when they have cyclists. They don’t slow down when they see pedestrians.
For them the road is a circuit. For them speed limits are for other people. For them we shouldn’t be on the road.
It gets much worse. Right Wing Media, including social media are encouraging people to hate cyclists, are encouraging people to hate speed limits, are encouraging people to think that road deaths are normal, and I can’t accept that normalisation.
Road works endanger us because they add friction for people walking, people cycling and people driving. That friction, when polarised by antisocial media and tabloid journalism provide a lethal combination..
For me, instead of road works, they should increase bus servies, and provide alternatives to cars. Until recently I had lost my driving habit. Now, due to road works I drive every single day. I don’t drive out of laziness. I drive out of fear.
I fear being runover by a bus or car. I fear cars skimming too close. I don’t like coming home in a toxic mood because of toxic behaviour by cars when I walked, or cycled.
My walking and cycling habits both died this year and I attribute it in part to exhaustion, after taking up running, but I also attribute it to walking, and cycling being so awful since the road works began to improve cycling and walking.
I suspect that this year was awful, but I also think that next year should be better, and the year after that, once the absurd amount of road works goes back down to a sustainable amount.
In a year from now, the absurd soft mobility works will finally be over, and cycling might finally feel safer and less toxic.
Cycling and walking are a delight, when they feel safe. Once they feel safe I will re-discover my love for the sport. For now walking and cycling are not appealing, because of how road works make dense traffic so toxic for everyone, whether on foot, on a bike, or driving.
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