Pulled over to the kerb by the police.
Mid-day yesterday with the Versatile from Waasmunster to Ghent and back (96.6 km).
In Melle in the Frater Street (cycleway along the left side) a woman in a white van passes me, rolls down her window and hollers something about a cycleway. I continue on, undisturbed and begin to come up to speed. I see her stop up ahead and swing open her door. That doesn’t keep me from passing diagonally ... it looks like it’s a police officer. While I pass at about 42 km/hour, she shouts: ‘pull over to the kerb.” Whether she would have shot me if I hadn’t obeyed, I don’t know. In any case, I braked with full power and set myself down in a parking place. She, while pulling up, calls down: ‘that’s just a bicycle; you belong on the cycleway.” I: ‘No, you do not have to use the cycleway with it.’ She: ‘who says that?’ I: ‘the law ... three wheels and no motor! Unless the police order you to ride on the cycleway, but I couldn’t know that you were an agent (no typical police car and just her head visible)'. She: 'But it’s dangerous'. I: 'there’s a flag on it, and don’t you think it would be dangerous to ride 40 to 50 per hour on a cycleway like that?' She: 'mmm...I’ll have to look up and see if you can ride with that on the road...’ And off she went in her car.
If she had only read the newspaper the week before...
I have to ask Johan Vrielink whether he’ll produce a bulletproof velomobile...
By the way: for the new episode of 'Flikken' ('Cops', a Belgian TV show) a recumbent bike is used in a scene on September 15.
In Melle in the Frater Street (cycleway along the left side) a woman in a white van passes me, rolls down her window and hollers something about a cycleway. I continue on, undisturbed and begin to come up to speed. I see her stop up ahead and swing open her door. That doesn’t keep me from passing diagonally ... it looks like it’s a police officer. While I pass at about 42 km/hour, she shouts: ‘pull over to the kerb.” Whether she would have shot me if I hadn’t obeyed, I don’t know. In any case, I braked with full power and set myself down in a parking place. She, while pulling up, calls down: ‘that’s just a bicycle; you belong on the cycleway.” I: ‘No, you do not have to use the cycleway with it.’ She: ‘who says that?’ I: ‘the law ... three wheels and no motor! Unless the police order you to ride on the cycleway, but I couldn’t know that you were an agent (no typical police car and just her head visible)'. She: 'But it’s dangerous'. I: 'there’s a flag on it, and don’t you think it would be dangerous to ride 40 to 50 per hour on a cycleway like that?' She: 'mmm...I’ll have to look up and see if you can ride with that on the road...’ And off she went in her car.
If she had only read the newspaper the week before...
I have to ask Johan Vrielink whether he’ll produce a bulletproof velomobile...
By the way: for the new episode of 'Flikken' ('Cops', a Belgian TV show) a recumbent bike is used in a scene on September 15.
posted by Bruno Van den Bussche at 10/04/2004
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