To be surprised this is legal?

[jennymanara]

Today I was driving along a dual carriageway where other cars were going at 60-70mph at least, and came across a cyclist on the road cycling slowly along on the left hand lane. The cyclist was not going fast. This seemed incredibly dangerous for the cyclist as they were going so much slower than any other vehicle on the road.

So AIBU for being surprised this is legal? This road in reality was no different from a motorway except that there was no hard shoulder, and cyclists are rightly banned from motorways as it is recognised as too dangerous for cyclists to be on.

it is legal, and being on both sides as a cyclist and a driver, its no less dangerious than cycling on a normal road through the country. its illeagal on motorways though.

I know it is legal. I am surprised you think that a cyclist on a dual carriageway with drivers all driving 60-70mph plus, is similar to cycling on any other road. I also suspect a lot of other cyclists agree with me as I see cyclists all the time, but it is the first time ever I have seen a cyclist on this dual carriageway.

We often drove along the A19 at 70mph and see cyclists participating in time trial races. Mile after mile of cyclists. It’s madness.

and cyclists are rightly banned from motorways as it is recognised as too dangerous for cyclists to be on.

drivers are to dangerous to let cyclists on motorways

They you go I corrected it for you

My Dh used to have t cycle partly down an A road with no hard hard shoulder i hated it was worried every day

I know that some drivers are dangerous to cyclists. But this is not the issue here. Having anyone going along at 10-15 mph while all the other traffic is going at 60-70 mph, is dangerous. If a car had been going that slow on that road, they would have got a ticket.
This road was basically like a motorway.

Actually motorways and the like can be car exclusive as they're designed to get you from A to B at high speed, it's inner city traffic that should be far more cyclist friendly.

It's a terrifying combo.

It’s the drivers that are dangerous, not the tarmac road

You do realise that a mobility scooter can legally go on a dual carriageway

Unfortunately drivers kill 1700 people a year & it’s acceptable- until that changes just try & stay safe on roads in uk

I agree not appropriate with no cycle lane

Relative speed can be an issue in road safety. Essentially it is safer when everyone is going around the same speed.

I drove at night along a similar A road - it had a hard shoulder and two lanes with speeds up to 70 mph.

Everyone was hurtling along, trying to get home.

There was a guy pootling along on his bike along the white line separating the hard shoulder from the inner lane. Absolute madness.

And the UK is one of the safest places to drive in the world.

And a mobility scooter would be dangerous on that road.

Agree inner city traffic should be more cyclist friendly.

Also just googled the A19 and did a streetview. That is like the road I was on. Apart from signs and hard shoulder, it is in every other way like a motorway. Dual with central barrier and straight, so cars are going along at the speed limit.

MrsTerryP would you like to back up your statement that uk is one of the safest places to drive? I take by that it would be at least in the top 5 safest places?

www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2016/11/top-10-countries-with-the-safest-roads.html

Yup.

It varies but stays in the top ten safest generally. Including some weird anomalies like Micronesia and San Marino that regularly appear. And are not really comparisons.

UK comes fifth in having the lowest rate of fatalities caused by drivers. She is right.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate

Indeed but 5 deaths a day is still to many. If 5 people per day were being shot with guns the British wouldn’t find it acceptable - but kill with a car and it’s ok

But being in the top 5%, and probably the top 2% of comparable countries, unless we want to just stop using cars (or develop self-driving systems), there will be deaths. It's certainly not "OK" but since the entire economy is based on car driving, what would you like to do?

If pretty much everyone carried and used guns every day to work and home and school and hobbies, there would absolutely be more than 5 deaths a day.

Driving is an activity that has inherent risk. Like many things we do. We just do it a lot. So the risk increases.

You dont think theres a difference between 5 people a day dying through accidents from the millions of journeys per day and people being deliberately killed by guns?

Dead is dead and unfortunately life cut short

Oh and most gun deaths are not on purpose...

Oh and most gun deaths are not on purpose...

Source?

Dead is dead and unfortunately life cut short

Yes, yes, emotionally yes. But that doesn't actually answer the question of how you would make it safer?

Policy makers and engineers actually have to look at these issues without emotion and make decisions. Anyone can say "won't someone think of the children?" and feel that they've made a difference but it doesn't actually do anything. Policy, education, engineering and statistics make a difference to road deaths, not emoting about it.

Oh and most gun deaths are not on purpose...

Well most of them aren’t murders, but quite a lot of the “cleaning a loaded gun, pointed at your head, with the safety catch off” accidents are suicides. There are the “toddler/dog accidentally firing gun” accidents, and the “drunken dicking about” accidents too of course, and presumably those ones are not on purpose.

'drivers are to dangerous to let cyclists on motorways

They you go I corrected it for you'

Yes, because all drivers are dangerous and all cyclists are perfect.