Motorists overtaking cyclists - AIBU

[PintofWineForMe]

I went to the supermarket today which is about a mile from my house. It's just a normal B road but with a 40mph limit.

On three separate occasions on this journey cars were crossing into the oncoming side of the road to avoid cyclists. It wasn't particularly busy so if they had just hung back for a few seconds they would have been able to pass the bike without almost driving into me. One car missed me by a few inches.

I totally get that people are in a hurry. I also understand that bikes need plenty of space and I'm not advocating driving close to cyclists. I just don't understand the mentality of someone who would rather have a head on collision rather than waiting behind the cyclist for a few seconds so the driver can pass safely.

Is it unreasonable of me to think that drivers could be a bit more patient and aware of other people on the road, be it motorists or cyclists?

Around here, the cycle paths follow the roads. They are separate from the roads, not just the edges of the road separated with white lines. If families use them, why not others? What inconvenience could there be? It is inconvenient for drivers to queue up behind loads of cyclists huffing and puffing, but I do it because it is safe. Even when they ride three abreast to make it impossible to overtake when riding in single file would more considerate to other road users. It is safety that matters but to ensure this, we all have to be inconvenienced from time to time! Even cyclists!

Celtic - apologies. It would be lovely if all roads allowed enough space for cars and bikes. My DH cycles to work and he's been knocked off his bike twice. The last time resulted in skin being scraped off and a sprained ankle. It could have been worse but thankfully he was ok. But the simple facts are that our roads are relatively narrow and cars have got wider and more powerful. All that is required is a little patience and and some consideration and not driving into oncoming traffic.

When I see an oncoming car indicating to overtake a cyclist, crossing the white line to my side on a road and its wide enough for us all to fit I would just move over to my left and not think it particularly unusual. Especially on busy roads where gaps in traffic are limited.

Everyone should be competent enough drivers to see the cyclist and the other cars intention to move out before it happens so they can move over to accommodate them.

If the oncoming car wasnt indicating that is bad driving.

He was knocked off and injured two summers ago when someone went tearing past him only to slam on the brakes to make a turn into a side road, he ran straight into the back of them.

Chrissie any motorist running into the back of another vehicle would be held squarely to blame, regardless of whether the vehicle in front braked suddenly or not.

I am sorry that your OH was injured but don't the road rules apply to him?

Pearlylum the manoeuvre Chrissie described would be equivalent to:

Car A is in the left hand lane of a dual carriageway doing a steady 40mph.
Car B overtakes car A but pulls in front with too short a gap for a safe stopping distance between the vehicles and then immediately drops down to 5mph in order to make a sharp left turn.
Car A had no choice over the available stopping distance did they? So how could it be their fault if they can't stop?

And why would the blame be different if car A is a bike and the speed is half of the above.

bojo is that it appears to be only parents and children who use the expensively installed and well signed cycle paths

1. The above is exactly why many cyclist DON'T use cycle paths. Do you really want little kids who are wobbling all over the place and learning to ride their bikes in the same space as fully grown adults who can easily reach speeds of 20mph? We'd be absolutely shot to pieces if anything happened while we were using a cycle path and a kid wobbled into our way.

1. Many cycle ways are put in by a local authority who have to be seen to be "doing something" for cyclists. What they deliver is often completely unsuitable, and without any consultation with the people they are hoping use it. Simply put, we didn't ask for them, they were installed as lip service and they don't offer a safe or usable environment for many cyclists, so we use the safer, faster and more appropriate carriageway instead.

Impatient motorists do this when overtaking buses too. It's not just overtaking cyclists. Terrifies me.

I rather like the analogy between cycle paths and park&ride schemes (I think I saw it on here). Using a park & ride bus is safer, better for nervous drivers, reduces congestion, and makes the roads clearer / safer for everyone else. But it's slower, less convenient, and there's absolutely no compulsion to use it.

YANBU

Unless it is a very wide A road then it generally isn't safe to overtake cyclists while there is a car coming the other way

OP is correct

Unfortunately some drivers are idiots

shotsfired- so you want consideration but won't extent it to others?
There are learner drivers on the road too- hesitant at roundabouts, stalling on hills and junctions, moving slowly.
You want to bomb along cycle paths at 20mph and see slower more hesitant users as a nuisance.

Don't you see something ironic in your attitude?

I don't agree that bad driving is because of government decisions or Cuts in the police force

It's because driving standards are appalling. No amount of police on the roads will possibly change how individual drivers chose to make dangerous manoeuvres. Reeducation has to be the best investment.

I attended a speed awareness course last month and I wish every driver was mandated to attend one. It is amazing how road conditions have changed, signs have changed and how blasé we can all become after 5, 10, 20+ years of driving after passing our driving test!

No pearly - I'm not really sure how you reached your conclusion.

I cycle (or as you put it, "bomb along") on the road because I don't want to endanger the more vulnerable road users on the cycle paths. And also because the limited cycle paths in my area don't go where I want to or are otherwise unsuitable for me to use.

I also drive my car on the road and give due consideration to other road users, and give plenty of space and time to the more vulnerable ones - learners, horses, cyclists, anyone who needs it. I am all about consideration

I'm sorry my post was so evidently confusing to you.

I'm also sorry you have such a hatred of "cyclists" (a number of people that you appear to regard as one single entity), when I am actually a perfectly nice person, and I'm sure we'd get along just fine in RL.

CelticPromise I always thank drivers who do the same for me especially if I'm puffing up a certain hill where there is no safe place to overtake.

Me too. I am always very grateful to other road users who give me room to get where I am going. I am doing my level best to get up the hill or round the bend or through the junction as fast as possible. I don't know anyone who would deliberately ride/drive slowly solely in order to delay other traffic, that would be completely nuts.

I don't mean people who cross the white line slightly to pass a bike. I mean people who cross into the oncoming lane so that over half of their car width is on the opposite side of the road. It's not a busy road and it's not a very wide road. If I'm having to try and get out of the way to prevent an accident then surely that's a bit dangerous.

WeAllHaveWings - please don't move over to encourage cars to squeeze past cyclists, the overtaking car should be moving right over to the wrong side of the road unless at very slow speeds.

If cyclists are obstructing the traffic they should be pulling over occasionally to let the traffic flow.

Yanbu Pintofwineforme. It's annoying when the driver behind honks when I'm waiting to safely pass even though I'm clearly in a higher powered car.
Pearlylum you are being deliberately obtuse and derailing the point of the thread. You are also denying your children an enjoyable life skill. Will you actively prevent them learning to drive? Because that is a dangerous activity too.

Yanbu.
I live rurally in what seems to be a cyclists heaven. They flock here. I can be driving for 2/3 miles before I manage to overtake. Irritating but you grin and bear it.

Bicycles should be given as much room when overtaking as a car. If you wouldn't have room to overtake a car you don't have room to overtake a bike. It is quite correct to be all the way over the other side of the road when overtaking a bike but obviously only when there is nothing coming the other way and there is a clear view of the road with no bends or dips to ensure this can be done safely. We can have no way of knowing, without video evidence, whether the OP was being oversensitive to someone performing this manoeuvre safely knowing they had plenty of time to complete it before the OP's car got to them, or whether they did it in a risk way with only inches to spare between them and calamity.

On the country roads where I cycle at least some cars cannot overtake easily because of their size - now that's fine,if you want to drive a tank you are free to choose that,but there are some downsides and that is one of them!
And it's as much your choice to drive a car like that as it is mine to cycle.

There is an entire misconception about how risky it is to ride a bike. It is not dangerous and yes children not being encouraged to ride is absurd.

Riding compared to driving is such a no brainier for a load of excellent reasons but we still have stupid car culture in this country and that will be hard to shift.

And yes to the bike related safety measures. Often put in despite protests from bike groups. You know people who will actually use them.

We can have no way of knowing, without video evidence, whether the OP was being oversensitive to someone performing this manoeuvre safely knowing they had plenty of time to complete it before the OP's car got to them, or whether they did it in a risk way with only inches to spare between them and calamity

I suspect she isn't being overly nervous. This happens a lot. And indeed it happens in Germany too. I was recently cycling in northern Germany (on the road as the cycle path had too many tree roots and it was horribly bumpy) and cars overtook us when there was oncoming traffic and really did just pull in with inches to spare. I was practically closing my eyes waiting for the impact! So the impatience is not confined to UK drivers.

90% of the cycle paths/lanes round my way are a waste of space and only suitable for small children learning to ride rather than anyone needing to get from A to B in a timely fashion.
For example, on the paths there are frequent side turnings which the cyclist has to cross as a pedestrian, many obstructions to weave around, eg. road signs, bollards, even phone boxes. Every so often the cyclist is dumped back into the road, usually at a hazardous point with no cycle lane to ride into.
On the cycle lanes it seems to be a perverse delight of the planner to have a largely useless lane for a stretch of road and then, when a lane could actually be a little useful, eg. at a junction or when there's a central reservation which narrows the carriageway, the cycle lane just ends.
So I rarely use them. Most of them were probably planned by people who'd never ridden a bike in their lives, simply to comply with some government directive to increase the number of them.

Think we have located the driver OP was talking about in pearly probably drives white van

I wait impatiently behind bikes for an appropriate gap. I am a confident driver and I know exactly how wide my car is and the gap I need to overtake a bike and my capabilities. However, I know nothing about what the cyclist or oncoming motorist might do or be capable of so overtaking is unsafe and moronic.

But what really REALLY winds me up is when you have done the patient waiting behind a bike, managed to get round them safely, only to get to a traffic light and they immediately cycle passed you to the front of the queue so you have to do the whole thing again!!! ARGH!!!! That just aggravates drivers and could lead them to make dangerous decisions to try and overtake them AGAIN! Why shouldn't they wait in their place in the queue like they would have to if they were in a queue? I sometimes pull my car right over to the curb so they can't just cycle down.