To be done with cyclists (as a car driver).

[bluegardenflowers]

Have cycled in the past but now only drive.

I'm a considerate driver and always allow plenty of room when overtaking and am patient in following the cyclist when it's unsafe to overtake and leave a big gap. I take care when left turning. They are more vulnerable on the road.

Yet I've been sworn at be a cyclist and it's pissing me off.

Yesterday on a busy road I saw the cyclist and was busy scanning ahead to make sure I could give him half a carriageways room to overtake. I started my overtake as he was wafting his arm around and looking back. It wasn't a clear right turn signal more a 30 degree flap around before swerving into the part of the road I was on, and swearing at me.

Ffs. If you want to turn right, stick your bloody arm out fully and make a clear signal. No wonder drivers and cyclists hate each other.

*I recall sitting at lights at a crossroads when a cyclist came down the near side of my car. Lights changed and he proceeded to peddle off and turn right.

To this day I don’t know how I didn’t flatten him and he’s seemed strangely annoyed at me for having the temerity to be there rather at himself for turning right from the left lane, but hey ho*

were you indicating?

i find it’s rare for motorists to indicate while waiting at crossroads/lights.

i got yelled at the other day for doing exactly the opposite.

so I’m approaching on my bike, wanting to turn right, I have no idea whether the cars are going left or right. If I stick to the pavement and they are turning left, I need to cross their path to turn right. If I pull up on the right side and they are turning right, I have to cross their path to get back to the pavement side of the road.

if people indicated I would know which side I am safest on.

best plan is to try and get slightly ahead to move off before they can, but then they’ve usually pulled up into the cycle box anyway.

Our council has spent heck knows putting lots of cycle paths round our way.
Yet the roads are full of cyclists. Can't they be pulled over? Waiting at a roundabout one wobbled, sat on my bonnet for a second then peddled off. Not a fuck to give it seemed!!

@StRaphael Dangling and wafting are not clear hand signals no matter what they are described as, and by the time I realised it was his idea of a hand signal I was committed to overtake.

FWIW I am patient with the two abreast thing. I live in the country and the roads are usually narrow but it's not a big deal. Most are considerate. It's swearing at someone who actually is considerate to cyclists that pisses most people off.

OP the cyclist signalled. Just because they didn’t signal enough to your liking? Have you cycled on many roads recently? The potholes and debris. It may seem minor but if the road surface is poor (which you wouldn’t necessarily notice in a car with wide tyres spread out over a large surface area, unlike a bike with skinny tyres) it may be much harder to stretch your arm out to a full 90 degrees because you may realise you are going to suddenly have to get your hand back on the handlebars. You noticed they signalled and that should have been enough.

@BerryBerryBerryBerry you’re a dick but I’m quite sure you’re happy with that and that’s the reason you posted. Enjoy your day.

*Our council has spent heck knows putting lots of cycle paths round our way.

Yet the roads are full of cyclists. Can't they be pulled over?*

have you tried cycling on these so called “cycle paths”? They are usually full of pedestrians, or like the one near ours used as a car park while people nip to the shop, or they peter out randomly dumping you back in traffic at a bad point, or they stop every 3 mins for a side road/bus stop.

they aren’t fit for purpose, and the people who design them should be made to commute on them for a month.

A interesting exercise is to do a "Commentary Drive" - as done in Advanced Driving. Say out loud what you see happening around you, road markings, pedestrians, CYCLISTS, horse riders, field entrances, flooding in a gutter, junctions and road markings (so much more than just the signage), lighting, coming hazards - a cat dashing under a car say, or a child with a ball on the pavement, always look ahead to vehicles beyond the one in front etc etc. Very very useful also if you have someone in the car who will soon be starting to learn to drive. My daughter was doing it with me when she was 12 (also changed gears - on the farm tracks....).
Noting all the little things all around is so helpful and can become a very good habit/skill.

So the Cyclist decided to do a half assed attempt to indicate (not indicating at all) and move across when the OP had already committed to a safe overtaking maneuver and was already doing it.

How difficult is it to understand for those defending the cyclist the OP was already overtaking when the prat on a bike decided to make his move, showing they had no awareness of the vehicles around them. Sorry try to defend lycra clad idiots at every turn but they need to appreciate that they do not won the road.

As for other PP`s you should try live in rural areas where many roads are extremely narrow or single lane country roads for many many miles and these loons clad in lycra think they can potter on at walking speak side by side and refuse to pull over for 2 min, ignoring the line of 5-6 cars behind getting wound up. Most bring it on their self's pricks.

@LimboLass His 'signal' was late and ambiguous. I didn't recognise it as a signal until I was already committed to overtaking. He wasn't following the Highway Code but I was.

When I say I am done with cyclists, I think I'm done with being so considerate. No wonder there are such bad attitudes from drivers when cyclists think the Code doesn't apply to them.

When I say I am done with cyclists, I think I'm done with being so considerate.

So you are planning on driving illegally / dangerously?

You can't be 'done' with cyclists, they have as much right to use the roads as you do.

Cyclists, pedestrians and riders have a right to be on any road (bar motorways or any local restrictions). Drivers do not have a right, they are given permission to so providing they follow the rules, if not that permission is revoked.

@EV117 Ah, but there is the conundrum. If you don't know a vague arm movement is a signal, you don't know to watch and wait for it to be clear. He may have wanted to scratch his leg, it was so vague. Hindsight, yes, it was a signal but at the time my attention was in safely overtaking him.

Did you indicate to overtake?
If you did, the cyclist might well have assumed you were indicating to turn right at the same place he was turning right.
Then, when you didn't make the turn (which he would have done alongside you perfectly safely had you been turning right as you indicated), he was surprised that you were continuing along the road while indicating off it.
I don't think you were as aware of the road layout as you think.
You were obviously overtaking at a junction as the cyclist's turn shows.

were you indicating?

No! I was going straight on!

He pulled down the left hand side of my car and proceeded to peddle off and turn right, straight across the front of me.

A subset of entitled cyclist have come to believe they can do what they want and everyone is subservient to them on the road

I agree completely - and I'm a cyclist

The OP has changed story as the thread has gone on. The fact is that drivers have the responsibility to overtake safely. If a cyclist is behaving like they might turn - half arsed signals/shoulder checks/whatever - then following drivers hang back. It's not hard.

And as for all the rest of the typical nonsense about lycra/walking speed/etc - yawn. Motorists are responsible for the vast majority of injuries on the roads. They are the ones responsible for pollution, congestion and all the other stuff that annoys you.

It didn’t used to be as bad: until 2012 I cycled regularly without seeing much bad behaviour from cyclists, but the London Olympics caused an increase (by about 500%) in cycling, and with that, naturally, an increase in bad behaviour shown.
I cycle less now (although hope to get back on the bike soon) and am nervous of the actions of car drivers who have got fed up with the behaviour of some cyclists and now drive as if all cyclists are a nuisance…

Just remember that "cyclists" are not a homogenous group of **ers. Come from right across the spectrum of age, gender, ability, type of bike and sense of entitlement. Being angry at just one - or several - should not (please) affect how you drive when you encounter them in the future.
[Try viewing a few Ashley Neale videos on you tube]

I used to ride out with a girl who had a very naughty (her fault) horse, and mine offered some stability. BUT people only saw - and heard - HER, as she failed to control him nicely, and shouted obscenities at the car drivers. It shouldn't happen, but one person CAN give everyone a bad name.

@LoveMyPiano His vague 'signal' was about 3 m from the junction. I had already committed to overtake and by the time I realised it might actually be a signal it was too late. I always opt to overtake a long way back rather than swerve onto the other carriage way at the last minute. So I had read the road ahead, noted a cyclist (hands on the handlebars), ensured no oncoming cars, and moved out around 10 m before the junction he was turning into. So I was being extra safe. He wasn't

Oh (another) anti cyclist thread. We haven’t had one for a week or so?

Does this mean you were overtaking approaching a junction? Perhaps it's not just the cyclist who should be reading the highway code in that case.

Incorrect.

Cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders have more right.

None of those 3 groups need licences to use the public highway.

Haha. Yes, that's exactly the 'signal' he made around 3 m from his junction. I had clocked him and given myself 10 m to overtake him safely, so way to late to recognise his intention. I like the neon vests, twinkling lights and also the helmet cameras, because it polices the cyclist as well.

When I mentioned about him not having his hands on the handlebars earlier you said He should make clear unambiguous signals. I have no idea what the holding handlebars protocol is

So either you knew that he needed to have both hands on the handlebar unless he was signalling or you didn't know that him taking a hand off the handlebar meant he was signalling.

I am a cyclist and luckily I live in a place with a good cycle way net work but yet other cyclist frustrate me but not signalling or they overtake me when I have clearly signaled I am turning right and have moved over. They appear from no where.
Yesterday in London the amount of cyclists jumping red lights .in a space of 10 minutes ( same light) we stopped counting at 50.

Can't you see that your actions will have looked to the cyclist like you were turning right at the junction where he also turned right? You moved over just before the turn, and he wouldn't have been able to see your right indicator from where he was.
If you had actually been turning right as it looked like you were doing, your car would have provided extra safety for the cyclist's turn. He will have felt relief at this.
Then, for no apparent reason, just at the junction you appeared to change your mind and carry straight on along the road with no indication.

There are two sides to every story.