to think that if you cycle up a road on the left hand side of cars, you can't blame the passenger if you get a door in your face

[amispartacus]

It looks like the cyclist was on the inside. No cycle lane but there is one coming up. The cars are queued. Passenger door is open. Cyclist is on the ground.

I cycle a lot. I don't go past cars on the inside. You are vulnerable. If you have to overtake queuing cars, do it on the outside. Then go to the cycle lane.

The person was the transport secretary.

I read that this bit of road is between 2 cycle lanes

so it makes perfect sense for cyclists to continue up the inside until the new bit starts

Grayling is on record as finding cyclists annoying in London. Perhaps he plans to take them out one by one

If you have to overtake queuing cars, do it on the outside

What? That's insane. If this cyclist had followed your advice, he'd probably be dead - a car door opening would have flung him in front of the oncoming traffic.

Some cyclists are bell-ends, yes. But it is perfectly legal to filter on the inside of a queue and it is definitely much safer than your suggestion. Grayling was in the wrong.

Cyclists can't win. Cycle in the middle of the road and you're too slow and drivers honk you. Go up the inside and it's your fault if a passenger hits you with their door.

Highway code says cyclists are equal road users. Shouldn't be an issue.

IMO passenger is at fault here, not cyclist.

It is taking care. There is nothing to say you shouldn't do it. 'Taking care' does not mean that you need to assume everyone else will do something stupid. Otherwise no one (cyclist or motorist) would be able to go anywhere on the roads.

Legally, as several people have pointed out, Grayling has committed an offence, albeit one that is rarely prosecuted. However, it is not unusual for people in London to get out of taxis in this kind of situation and, if they are reasonably close to the kerb, most don't think to check for bikes coming up the inside. Your view of what is (or might be) coming up the inside is fairly restricted from the back seat of a many vehicles. Unlike the driver, you don't have a wing mirror you can look in to see what is coming. When I was a cyclist (in London many years ago) I would not have attempted to go through that gap. Whilst I could fit through it on my bike, it looks a little tight to me and the fact that the car is a little to the left of other traffic in the queue suggests that someone might be about to get out. I would have stopped behind that vehicle until the traffic moved forward again or possibly edged past it very slowly - walking pace or slower.

So, ignoring the legal position (which is that Grayling has broken the Construction & Use Regulations), I would blame (in no particular order):

• Grayling for opening the door with a cyclist approaching
• the driver (who presumably knew what Grayling was doing) for failing to check his wing mirrors and warn Grayling
• the cyclist for attempting to go through that gap

'Taking care' does not mean that you need to assume everyone else will do something stupid

I disagree. Defensive driving and cycling. It's a good way to keep yourself safe.

in the picture halfway down here you can see the cycle lane restarting just a few feet away from where the cyclist was knocked off.

jen the cars stop start in the clip, so I'm assuming it was the same just a few seconds earlier. Can't be sure though of course. Either way I can't imagine the cyclist could be absolutely sure the traffic was not about to move.

in the picture halfway down here you can see the cycle lane restarting just a few feet away from where the cyclist was knocked off.

Maybe you need to point that out to the Transport Secretary. He may be sympathetic towards the problems of these half-baked stop start cycle lanes? Now?

Either way I can't imagine the cyclist could be absolutely sure the traffic was not about to move.

No cyclist could ever be absolutely sure the traffic wasn't about to move though.

amispartacus Passing traffic on the left does not show a sufficient lack of care to mean the cyclist is committing an offence. From the website you quoted earlier "Clearly there are dangers surrounding the practice of filtering by cyclists and there is as yet little guidance from the courts as to what is expected of cyclists in this regard." If it was so simple that left filtering = criminal offence of cycling without due care there would be a whole load of successful prosecutions backing that up.

I do agree though, particularly as the one most likely to be injured in any sort of collision, cycling defensively is common sense. But that is separate from the legal position to me.

I am confused. The clip linked to only shows the speed at which the camera person is cycling, not the cyclist who was knocked over? Is there something I'm missing at the start, showing the speed they were travelling?

FWIW, the road appears extremely narrow when you can see oncoming vehicles, just after the camera passes the coach, so perhaps it is only possible to undertake on this section?

The highway code talks about things you shouldn't do. It does not say cyclists shouldn't filter past traffic on either side but it does give situations where it would not be safe to do so (bus at a bus stop, vehicles indicating that they are turning, long vehicles making a manouevre). It is entirely reasonable and expected for cyclists to filter through, on either side of the vehicle. The only one at fault here is Grayling for exiting the car unsafely.

jen I do think you know what I mean.

In this situation it does seem that the traffic was stop/start, which is a situation that cyclists should not filter.

A more certain situation would be say a grid locked junction at traffic lights, or road works, or a traffic accident.

Filtering up the left is normal practice when cycling in slow moving or stopped traffic.

Yes, but it doesn't make it right, unless it's stopped.

Cyclists often don't cycle defensively in the middle of the road, because although it is indubitably the best way to avoid a driver hitting you by accident because they didn't see you, it's also the best way to get yourself violently threatened (and worse) after you've held the traffic up.

Yes, OP, defensive driving and cycling is a good thing. And if I am filtering I generally prefer to do so on the right, but there are situations where that is not possible. But that still all operates on the grounds of expected behaviour. If someone else does something stupid there is often nothing you can do and you cannot account for every eventuality. You can't remove every risk.

The only point of discussion here is how reasonable it is to think that someone might unexpectedly open a door here. From what I could see of the video the traffic was stationary or very slow moving, and there was no indication of anyone about to get out of any vehicle (either through signalling or moving to the side). So no, I don't think the cyclist was wrong to filter through.

So rather than trying to blame the cyclist how about we educate drivers better?

rightsofwomen, there is no requirement for the traffic to be stationary, the quotes on here are from advice websites about what they consider to be good practice, they are not law.

You are talking bollocks OP. There is nothing wrong with what he did. The fault is entirely with the idiot passenger who took no reasonable due care for other road users consideration.

And fwiw no-one, no matter what they do, 'deserves' to get injured by a car door being opened.

100% the passenger's fault.

I reckon the OP is the passenger

I reckon the OP is the passenger

I had the same thought. :)

'Taking care' does not mean that you need to assume everyone else will do something stupid'

That's exactly what it means when you're driving. And it doesn't mean you have to be frozen into inaction, it simply means you have to be aware of what's happening around you on the road and being prepared to react appropriately if/when someone does something unexpected or stupid. It's called defensive driving. Checking your mirrors and over your shoulder when opening car doors is driving 101, so is signalling to let other road users know what you are doing/going to do.

My first thought was that the op was Boris Johnson. Op you did say you cycle in London a lot?