Cyclists need strong nerves on our roads

SO Melissa O’Neill (Letters, July 10) thinks L-drivers have a hard time. I suggest she take up cycling for a while and then she’ll really know what it means to be second class.

Try being passed too close by an articulated lorry on a bend with a deep gutter along the hard shoulder.

As the hard shoulder runs out, and there is a slip lane joining the road ahead, you have to keep looking over your left shoulder while not wobbling to the right.

Then, unlike Ms O’Neill with her L plate, you won’t be too upset by someone merely honking at you.

While we cyclists might not need a licence, we do need strong nerves and even a certain disregard for our own safety thanks to the road authorites which ignore our needs when it comes to road design and/or maintenance.

The Road Safety Authority is no help either. After all, it’s not as if cycling is a worthwhile form of transport with a role to play in the transport mix and in combating climate change or congestion, don’t you know.

Charles Edwards

Poppyfields Close

Midleton

Co Cork