9hrs is all it took!

[Finallylostit]

The new highway code to cause anger!

I went for my morning cycle - no issues did nothing different than I normally do.

Home, shower, jump in car to get food shopping. I live down a country road - wide enough for 2 cars to pass with care, wide enough for a car to over take a cyclist sticking to the left of the lane, with the required space at certain points. Locals all know the places to do it safely.

Today 1 cyclist riding down the middle of the lane - now unsafe for car to pull over to other lane and pass - brilliant

Was he considerate of other road users and pulled over- no.

As on the other side were 8 riders riding two abreast high fiving each other and doing the finger to the motorists. Shouting its the law twats!
Were they considerate of other road users no.

Some of the new laws i think are sensible -
but the ride in the middle of the road, even if there is a cycle lane because you don't feel like it - is asinine

2 abreast packs of mamils hunting on weekends as they venture out of London - when they are generally rude enough as it is - gives those cyclists who are arseholes a legal right to now be an arsehole.

Be considerate and pull over to let cars and vans pass -
that is as likely as Downing Street not having another party in a lockdown!

@ifIwerenotanandroid

I have a questions about drivers (D) turning into a road having to stop if a pedestrian (P) is on the pavement.

1. How does the D identify a P who intends to cross the side road, as opposed to a P who is standing there waiting for someone, say, or looking at a bird in a bush or a plant in a garden, or is just gazing into space?

1. How long is a D supposed to wait for a P to get their act together & cross the road? To put that another way, how long does a D have to wait before assuming that the P has no intention of crossing the side-street & so is legally allowed to turn their car into the road even though the P is still on the pavement?

1. What's to stop obstreporous kids standing on street corners to hold up traffic & never crossing the road? Before anyone tells me this is far-fetched, kids do (did in my day) press the buttons at crossings to make the lights change & then run off laughing, leaving Ds fuming as they're stuck at a red light with no-one crossing.

1. Isn't this training children to think that the safest place to cross the road is at a junction, when we were taught the opposite?

Common sense

1. Common sense and observation

1. Good quality information through schools about the implications of larking about at street corners, good quality awareness campaigns sponsored by the government, parental guidance and information. Plus common sense and observation, base on frequency of occurrence in the RW.

1. Parental guidance and schools, eg visits from local community policing delivering good quality information to children. The HC isn't "training them" anything - they are more likely to be informed by teachers and parents about road safety than looking stuff up in the HC. That's if teachers and parents are doing their job.

@velvet24

The new rules are ludicrous and will cause so many car accidents

Just how will they cause accidents? Please explain how that will happen?

@velvet24

The new rules are ludicrous and will cause so many car accidents

Utter shite.

The "new" rules are, for the most part, clarifying guidance and best practice that is already in place.

The only thing this thread has shown (as if anyone who has ridden a bike on the ride doesn't know this already) is how ignorant motorists are when it comes to treating vunerable road users with respect.

All this seems to be doing is making driving a private motor vehicle unbearable. Is this the aim?

Thanks for proving my point.

@KarenTheGammonRemoaner

All this seems to be doing is making driving a private motor vehicle unbearable. Is this the aim?

Which bit do you feel is making it unbearable to drive?

In my view it's time for cyclists to be banned from public roads. They have cycle ways. They contribute nothing and simply endanger other people who actually need to get somewhere. Might not be a popular view but I suspect these new rules will teach them a hard lesson sooner or later.

Drunkpanda

Does a pedestrian at a pedestrian crossing still have to wait for the green man? I was driving across on a green light (for me) yesterday and a woman crossing on a red (for her) glared at me when we came close to eachother - surely she shouldn't be crossing against an actual red light?

Surely pedestrians still have to obey traffic signals that apply to them otherwise it’s just a free for all

@KarenTheGammonRemoaner

All this seems to be doing is making driving a private motor vehicle unbearable. Is this the aim?

Why is it unbearable? All it means is that when you see a pedestrian crossing a side road that you want to turn into, that you slow down and wait.

Ok it might mean that you miss your slot if you are trying to turn right but as long as you indicate most pedestrians will wait. But if they do wait, please turn quickly and be gone! I have lost count of the number of times I have turned up the side road, intending to cross after the driver has turned in and they crawl round the corner as slowly as they can. Do. Not. Dawdle. When. Someone. Is. Waiting. For. You.

And overtaking a cyclist is annoying but you know what they say, it's better to be patient in overtaking a cyclist than being a patient in hospital.

How infuriating!

@FrangipaniBlue

The Highway Code guidance to cycle 2 abreast isn't new, it's always been in there. So it that regard YABU.

The new guidance sent to cycle down the middle of the road, it's to cycle in the middle f your own lane. So on this one YANBU .

Why should cyclists cycle 2-abreast?

The key bit that most cyclists here seem to have missed is "allow them to overtake (for example, by moving into single file or stopping) when you feel it is safe to let them do so" You must allow drivers to overtake and not be a rolling road block- if they are high fiving, or taunting drivers then they are obviously not following the code

This is going to cause carnage and huge amounts of road rage. As I driver I’m happy to be respectful to cyclists (sometimes tricky with large car and narrow roads) but what really fucks me off is cyclists swanning about with no helmets and no safety gear/hi vis stuff. It won’t be my head splattered on the pavement should an accident happen. It should be illegal to ride with no helmet and hi-vis wear.

The new rules are just about being courteous to other road users. They are not much different to the old rules but make some of them clearer.

The law surrounding how drivers overtake cyclists certainly needed tightening up - in my experience about 1 in 5 drivers break the law in this regard.

And many cyclists do stop to let cars past. I do!

@KarenTheGammonRemoaner

All this seems to be doing is making driving a private motor vehicle unbearable. Is this the aim?

These guidance changes are actual law in many european countries, yet they can all drive their cars, many go further and state that the car driver is presumed guilty if involved in a collision with a cyclists or pedestrian - they have to prove it was the non vehicle users fault.

But yes it would be good if we cut back on car usage or don't you care about the air quality you and your children breath?

Pedeestrians can walk out in front of traffic and if they get hit, it will be the motorist's fault.

If a car sees the numbnuts and manages to break, the car behind will go right up their arse. This too will be the motorist's fault.

Cyclist can-and many will- hold up miles of traffic and cause gridlock.

These rules won't last and nor should they. It's Muppetsville.

If they do last, car drivers should refuse to drive for a month. The Treasury will shit themselves at the fall in the revenue that they collect from petrol tax and car tax.

Maybe then they will start to seek money from the cyclists, who so far do not contribute one penny.

They are merely a guest on the road and should behave with the manners of a guest. They don't of course and that is why everyone but other cyclists and partners of cyclists can't stand the ignorant buggers.

It isn't a LAW to cycle in the middle of the road and if you think that, then you haven't read the new rules properly. Cyclists are advised that, to be seen, they SHOULD (NOT MUST) ride in the centre of the road IF they are quieter roads, in slower moving traffic, on the approach to junctions. It's been the default since before September 2021. Cyclists are able to do this for safety reasons and if there is not enough room for a car to safely overtake even if the cyclist was to ride right near the kerb or verge.
It's in order to be seen by other road users.
In fast flowing traffic they're expected to move to the left and groups are expected to ride no more than two abreast when in fast moving or dense traffic.

If they do last, car drivers should refuse to drive for a month

Please please do this! Join the rest of us on our feet/on bikes - the roads will be safer for everyone and you never know, you might enjoy it.

(Road tax was abolished 85 years ago, btw. I know it sometimes takes changes a while to filter through into public understandinf but come on, 85 years?)

@prettyLittlefool

In my view it's time for cyclists to be banned from public roads. They have cycle ways. They contribute nothing and simply endanger other people who actually need to get somewhere. Might not be a popular view but I suspect these new rules will teach them a hard lesson sooner or later.

Please explain what you mean by cyclists will learn a hard lesson? This new guidance will make cyclists safer, unless drivers decide that they will ignore it and chose drive in a way that puts cyclists in danger.

No one pays road tax. Everyone who pays tax fit that upkeep of the highways.
Cyclists contribute by reducing the pollution pumped out by cars, by being one less car making your traffic jam shorter

Frankly your comment is absolutely shameful.

Why do so many posters want helmets to be mandatory? Is it because they don’t want to have to take care to avoid hitting cyclists? Do they think a helmet is a magical force field that will stop a cyclist from being injured if hit by a car?

@GoldenOmber

If they do last, car drivers should refuse to drive for a month

Please please do this! Join the rest of us on our feet/on bikes - the roads will be safer for everyone and you never know, you might enjoy it.

(Road tax was abolished 85 years ago, btw. I know it sometimes takes changes a while to filter through into public understandinf but come on, 85 years?)

You'll know the want though when the revenue isn't grasping in huge taxes from petrol sales.

Give over with your road tax abolished shite! Go tell it to the marines and motorists who have to pay out every year...a tax under another name is till a tax.

Pretty little fool, a paediatrician was killed cycling on her way to work last year in London, was she 'contributing' nothing? And what, by the way, do you contribute?

@TameDucksAtChatsworth who is merely a guest on the road? Unless you're talking about an A Road or a motorway I think you'll find everyone as much legal right and anyone else to be on the road. The car is not king, however much you think it is and how furious reality make you

Some cyclists, particularly clubs, think they already own the ride!!! Thank you, NOT, to whoever changed the law. They don't even have insurance and are usually the cause of an accident!! They are worse than some 'Sunday ' drivers!! They're d**k heads!!

Pinkpiranha, what really fucks me off is car drivers 'swanning about', looking at their mobile phones, not bothering to indicate, tail gating, generally being a menace on the roads. I'll take an unhelmeted cyclist over a dickish driver any day