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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Motorists overtaking cyclists - AIBU

74 replies

PintofWineForMe · 27/07/2016 17:15

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?

OP posts:

TerribleTwentyTwos · 29/07/2016 10:30

That's meant to say:

Why shouldn't they wait in their place in the queue like they would have to if they were in a car?

ThisPanCan · 29/07/2016 10:34

Blocking off a rider through your own frustrations makes you an inconsiderate and 'bad' driver, no matter what you self-assess yourself as. I get that quite a lot. Drivers creeping along near the kerb in slow moving traffic for no apparent reason other than to try to make life difficult for someone else. Pointlessly.
So well done you.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 29/07/2016 10:51

YANBU. The people trying to pick holes in what you are saying probably drive like inconsiderate twats.

SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace · 29/07/2016 10:55

Twos cyclists are meant to go to the front - that's why there's a space for them at most traffic lights if it's not blocked off by twats.

They don't have to wait in their place 'like they would have to if they were in a car' because they're not in a car!

SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace · 29/07/2016 10:56

I sometimes pull my car right over to the curb so they can't just cycle down

Just saw this - that's twatty: you really shouldn't do that.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 29/07/2016 11:00

Terribletwentytwos you shouldn't be driving if you are putting other road users at risk like that. Shocking

TerribleTwentyTwos · 29/07/2016 11:09

I don't do it very often but sometimes out of frustration, particularly with a bad cyclist! But I never stop in the cycle box or leave my car in the cycle lane, just slightly closer to the curb (occasionally) when it is a normal road as most of them are around me. Some of them are so narrow that you really don't have a choice anyway.

However, I disagree that they should go to the front. People don't expect them to just appear there if they weren't there when they stopped for the light and while you should always check first, it increases the risks for accidents when people turn. Plus lorries can't see them if they stop in their blind spot. Yeah, they aren't in a car but they are on the same roads and if a motorcyclist did it, it would be breaking the law. I don't understand why cyclists get so many leniencies when a driver or biker wouldn't. I have had bikes pull out on me just because they haven't been looking (they were on a cycle path and decided they suddenly wanted to be on the road. The cycle path hadn't ended and they didn't signal that they were about to move.) but when I have a typical British rant about this, someone who cycles a lot said that clearly they had a reason to pull out on me so it was my fault that I narrowly avoided killing them.

NotYoda · 29/07/2016 11:11

YANBU

If you are having to change your speed or direction to let these oncoming drivers pass you, then they are in the wrong

SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace · 29/07/2016 11:12

You can't be doing dangerous things out of frustration when you're behind the wheel of a car, though.

They are supposed to go to the front precisely so that the risk of accidents with turning cars is reduced. They will not be in a lorry's blind spot if they are at the front of a stationary queue, will they?

I've seen cyclists and car drivers do dangerous things - and I sometimes ccycle and sometimes drive. But you cannot just block them because you think it's not fair or you're annoyed. You never know, one of them might get frustrated with you.

MariposaUno · 29/07/2016 11:22

Yanbu I made the mistake of doing what you described and I brushed it off at the time but I knew I'd never do it again.

I simply misjudged the situation but luckily no accident and now more careful.

KidLorneRoll · 29/07/2016 11:23

"Yeah, they aren't in a car but they are on the same roads and if a motorcyclist did it, it would be breaking the law"

No it wouldn't.

Filtering is perfectly legal, even in a car. You do it when you pass a car waiting to turn right on the inside.

SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace · 29/07/2016 11:26

More aggressive cyclists than I will get very cross with you deliberately doing that, Twos. Or with the best will in the world, you risk your car getting scratched when they try to get round you to where they are supposed to be. Really, stop doing this.

SpecialAgentFreyPie · 29/07/2016 11:45

I used to be one of those people for whom the red mist descended if I even so much as spotted a cyclist.

I'm not sure what changed, one day I just realised it's no big deal. Now I notice most cyclists smile and give me a 'thank you' gesture as though by obeying the law I've done something grand! Which is kinda sad actually.

LauraMipsum · 29/07/2016 13:37

YANBU OP.

A few years ago at the end of a long ride, I was riding up a steep and twisty hill with three others, one behind the other. Some impatient heart attack waiting to happen screeched past, then stopped his car on the WRONG side of the road, on a blind bend, on a false summit, in order to lean out of the window and berate us that we had to ride in single file..... which we were already doing. Because obviously we needed road safety lessons from someone who drove like that.

If I hadn't been going up such a steep hill I'd have told him his fortune, but all I could manage was an angry wheeze.

The overwhelming majority of adult cyclists hold a driving licence as well pearly.

LauraMipsum · 29/07/2016 13:41

As for cycle lanes..... the Warrington Cycle Campaign's "cycle facility of the month" is always worth looking at to explain why many people don't use them (because they're crap). www.warringtoncyclecampaign.co.uk/facility-of-the-month/

My nearest cycle lane takes you onto the pavement for about 40 yards and then spits you out back into the traffic at the most dangerous place it possibly could.

RichardBucket · 29/07/2016 13:42

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

Hollow laugh. And pigs should be flying.

ThisPanCan · 29/07/2016 14:02

Well on ocassion I do just this on my Where I see the possibilities arise (coz I am also a car driver who anticipates things) I happily pull over and allow cars/vans/trucks through. It's far safer than aruing with tosser car drivers who should be allowed on waltzers never mind the open road.

ThisPanCan · 29/07/2016 14:04

hmmm "far safer than arguing.."...and "drivers who shouldn't be allowed on waltzers.."

robinia · 30/07/2016 01:12

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

^Hollow laugh. And pigs should be flying.

Why the laughter? I do this a lot when cycling with my ds.

ShotsFired · 31/07/2016 08:58

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

People who say stuff like this - you are aware that cyclists ARE traffic, just as much as you are, right?

(That's not to say actions like pulling over if you are willing and able cannot be done, but bicycles are just as much a valid road user as a car, lorry, motorbike, horse, tractor etc, so they don't have to do anything)

AlpacaLypse · 31/07/2016 09:11

The bit in the Highway Code about pulling over if you're travelling more slowly than the average, if a safe layby appears, so that your tailback can get past, isn't compulsory. But it is common courtesy. In my experience tractor drivers seem to be the only people who do it though.

lljkk · 31/07/2016 09:50

If I need to drive slower than others, I pull over to let other motorists past (this is a legal requirement where I'm from anyway).

So As a cyclist I pull over to let motorists by (or jump on the pavement a lot for same reason, too, gasp horror ). I usually get a thanks from the motorists for that, which is right. Being bullied into it would be outrageous, though.

I thought this thread was about motorbikers, oops. tbh, bikers scare the fig out of me, whatever vehicle I'm in. It's the unpredictable high acceleration and squeezing between cars in lanes behaviour.

IveAlreadyPaid · 01/08/2016 07:36

Yes as a cyclist I am aware that I am also traffic. And I am aware that as a slow moving vehicle it is courteous to allow others to pass even if that means pulling over.

Unescorted · 01/08/2016 08:11

It isn't a aren't cyclists crap because they hold me up and I have seen an example of a cyclist being a tit and therefore all cyclists are awful & should not be allowed to use the road arguement.

It is the oncoming driver who pulls out requiring tthe OP to take evasive action ( slowing down, pulling to the left etc) because they can't be bothered to wait to overtake safely being a tit arguement. They do this around buses, tractors, horses, walkers, bin trucks, disability scooters, caravans, motorhomes, slower cars, quarry lorries, and cyclists on the roads around here. No we don't have cyclepaths or in places footpaths, but you still get Mr Important taking undue risks with other peoples lives becasue their 30 seconds is more important that the lives they will change forever eg the wife & daughters of the cyclist who was smeared along a stone wall 3 years ago by a lorry driver who tried to overtake on a blind crest only to see a car coming the other way. He puiled back in to avoid the car and Gus is now in a wheelchair having his arse wiped by his 13 yo dauughter. Or the kid who was killed walking home from the bus stop after school - 2 years later I see the parents taking a lantern to their grave every night and picking it up in the morning becuase the kid was scared of the dark. The brother hasn't just lost a sister but 2 parents as well. The driver was overtaking the bus the girl had just got off - pulled out to have a look and pulled back in too sharpish when they realised there was a car coming the opposite way. They didn't stop. Or teh runner I knew who has so much leg damage that he will never run again becuase a person couldn't wait to overtake a car that was going at over the speed limit (yes that was me). Carl was hit head on by a car doing in the region of 75mph over a blind crest.

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