The riding’s awesome. But are we welcome?
Super smooth coastal roads on the west coast of Mull
I’ve just returned from a fabulous 5-day trip to Scotland. And as you can imagine, the talk in all the pubs, the cafes and even on the street is the big vote on the 18th. But the trip left me with another question.
With amazing scenery, challenging trails and sensible access laws, there’s no doubting the mtbing in Scotland is world class. And that’s without even mentioning the incredible array of trail centres.
But what about Scotland as a road bike destination?
Well the scenery is just as awesome from the road. And the roads are pretty awesome themselves. So it ought to be pretty good.
But the big question here depends on those we share those roads with.
Within an hour of setting off on a circuit of Mull on tuesday we’d been cut up very badly by a white van man, beeped at repeatedly and told to get out of the way by a coach driver, and informed less than politely by a trucker that we should have pulled into the passing space as he approached us – despite the fact that he’d passed around half a dozen of these in the time we’d been in his sight. We watched oncoming motorists pull into passing spaces for the cars in front of us to pass only to pull out again as we approached; and we witnessed more than the odd bit of anger and attitude from others who just drove at us and expected us to get out of the way.
I don’t want to get into a major debate on the interpretation of the highway code here. Or the very refreshing attitude adopted exclusively in Scotland where road signs encourage slower vehicles to pull over and allow overtaking.
There may have been times were technically wrong. There were certainly plenty of times we were most definitely not.
Because for me this isn’t about right and wrong, laws or codes; it’s about courtesy and respect and common sense. And what came through loud and clear during the 6 hours it took us to lap the island was that I was a nuisance. An inconvenience. I was in their way, stopping them or at least delaying them from doing their thing.
Interesting. As a cyclist I found it sad. As a tourist I was dumfounded. It’s ok for me to come up, spend my money on food, hotels, ferries etc but god help me if I make them two minutes late for their next drop.
I have my own opinions on the vote on the 18th and I won’t be sharing them here. But whatever the outcome, I hope the next time I head out onto the roads of the highlands and islands, I’ll be made a little more welcome than I was this time.
Independent or not, an increase in cycle tourism has got to be a good thing for Scotland.
Beneath the Devil’s Point – Cairngorms
I don’t ride on the road unless I’m linking up an off road route but have considered a road bike on many occasions. This attitude to cyclists in Scotland seems very strange but in some ways I can understand it.
While we cyclists like to think we are entitled to the roads like anyone else, if you have to be somewhere and you are stuck behind slow moving traffic it’s annoying. Wether that slow traffic is a tractor or a bike it’s an inconvenience.
Agree 100% Tim – it is an inconvenience! I live in Snowdonia – can you imagine how many cyclists, tractors, tourists, caravans and other slow moving stuff I get stuck behind during the main season. But I have had to learn to accept it. They have as much right to be there and travel at their speed as I do and if my meeting/whatever is that important, I should leave more time – not always easy but how it should be.
We have to remember that cutting up a cyclist or squeezing through a tight gap, isn’t just discourteous and bad driving; it could also end up killing someone. This isn’t me being melodramatic – just follow the news to see how many cyclists are being killed and injured. Surely nobody deserves to die just because someone else was in a rush?
As car drivers we’ve all got to get over the fact that we don’t own the roads and we don’t have the absolute right to travel at the speed we want to.
On a more positive note: if you get a road bike, you’ll love it. Never thought I would but it showed me how wrong I could be…
I do most of my road cycling in Scotland and find it no worse than any where else in Britain. The last 2 years I toured extensively on the Islands and mainland of Western Scotland and found drivers more courteous than in the cities and towns. Last week cycled from Edinburgh to Leeds and didn`t find any difference in attitudes of drivers during the 3 days on the road. I think this article is making mischeif.
I’ve no problem with making mischief, and guessed there’d be some debate about my observations. But I really have told it as it was and I was as surprised as anyone… the amount of times we said ‘don’t let it spoil your day’ to eachother was amazing. I do a lot of miles – road and offroad – although none in big cities or even large conurbations (I live in Snowdonia), and can honestly say I haven’t witnessed so much aggro before. Just hope it was a one off.
As elsewhere there are differences according to where you cycle and maybe luck. We did a week’s tour of Mull in the spring and found folk very courteous and accommodating on the whole. I live in East Lothian and notice a huge difference in attitude when cycling the roads here, compared to nearby Edinburgh. Always going to be a few impatient, incompetent folk around, let’s hope we don’t meet too many of them.