The ASL, the advance stop line, the bike box, it's there for a reason.
It's so that ‘we’ the vulnerable cyclists, can get a bit of a head start from you chaps in the petrol powered lumps of metal. They’re in place so that YOU can see us.
If you push to the front, and yes, all you scooter/motorbike riders are the worst, then we can't fit in the fucking box. Which leaves us rammed down the side of a car/van/idiot.
This is dangerous. This is why we have ASLs.
I had an argument just the other day... as I realise sometimes people will enter by accident, say if you're trying to dangerously jump through the light as it turns to red, rather than slow down, for example.
Anyway, I came upon someone parked in the ASL, I said nothing, it could ‘innocent’. We both pulled away, only to come to another ASL, where he did it again.
I said to him 'This is a BIKE box. For BIKES.'
He holds his hands up and says 'and?' (I think he said that, he wasn't kind enough to wind his window down).
I tell him it's illegal.
He holds his hands together and says 'sorry' with a big shit eating grin on his face.
Amazingly, I didn't just start swearing at him profusely. I held back and told him he was a 'funny man', real funny 'really clever. very witty' - i kept going with it, not really sure where i was going to be honest. But i kept doing it.
Eventually we both pulled off again and i smiled at him again and pointed at my teeth, mouthing 'funny man'
He held his hand out of this window and flicked me the bird.
I'm taking that as a win. When you stoop to the finger, you're out. You LOSE.
But let's consider this for a moment, he had a passenger, a young(ish) girl, which I'm going to assume is his daughter. Now if she were riding through London, wouldn’t he want her to have a little headstart and visibility? maybe?
Just think about it for a fucking second, it's illegal, it's dangerous, you gain a millisecond.
Stop doing it you cunts.
