To remind drivers to give space

[BelleMarionette]

According the the highway code , drivers should allow at least 1.5m, or 5 ft, when overtaking a cyclist. Cyclists are also not obliged to cycle in the gutter by the road: in fact cycle skills teaches a more central position for visibility and safety.

I am cycling to and from work as it's the right thing to do environmentally. Public transport is pretty limited unfortunately. Around half of drivers pass too close, often within a foot and at speed. I have noticed that it is often German car drivers.. I also had a driver intimidate be by coming up close behind me and sounding the horn because I wasn't in the gutter. In this occasion it was approaching a junction with no safe space to overtake.

I have also had a car reverse into me when I was still in a queue of traffic. It sounds simple, but drivers need to look in their rear view mirror when reversing.

To anticipate common moans people have about cyclists: I have third party insurance, I have done cycle skills training, and have a driving license so am aware of the rules of the road, and I stop at red lights.

There’s one of me on a horse and I’d always move in to a gap to let traffic pass, unlike the twats of 2 a breast cyclists who hold up traffic causing tailbacks due to selfishness. Even if I ride with others we never ride in a group of 20+ horses and riders 2 a breast.

Those are the only cycle lanes I know of. White painted line. Maybe 1m wide at most.

This.

Giving that amount of space is completely impossible on most of the country roads I drive on. I try to drive as slowly as possible when I go past but I can’t for the life of me understand why some cyclists insist on pulling out so it’s completely impossible to past, or not stopping when they are about to start going up a hill without sufficient room. Or, ye gods, cycling 2 abreast! I don’t condone speeding but most cyclists are so dogmatic about this and it just doesn’t make sense in practice to have a cyclist going 1mph up a hill with a line of 10 cars crawling along behind them.

You’re quite right. I stay on a windy road with many cyclists. When we come up behind a cyclist the dc will often mention their road position as I’ve done it so many times. Cyclists should be in the middle of the lane. Overtaking cars should be on the other side of the road, obviously when clear and safe to do so.

Clearly someone who has never commutes to work on a bike! If I did that I’d never get to work as I’d forever be letting cars pass!

AIBU to remind cyclists to not go through red lights? Especially when pedestrians including those with prams and the elderly are crossing on a green man light. It's happened way too many times in my area of London every bloody day!

Also, cyclists who push in front of you and then go really slowly and deliberately let in all the traffic from side roads.

In what other context can someone literally shove right in front of you in a queue and not be criticised for it? Can you imagine if that happened in, say, a shop queue (and then they felt free to let in others too)?

Then you wait until it’s safe to pass slowly, similar to passing someone riding a horse. Worst case scenario your journey takes a few minutes more.

@BelleMarionette

Is that YOU Jeremy Vine?!

And often this can be because the cyclist has risk assessed that section of road and wants to ensure you don't do an overtake that they feel will put them at risk

Then you'll just have to wait until it is safe to overtake.

But that is not what the OP is talking about, there is a huge difference between not riding in the broken glass, dusty, grit, debris, rubbish filled gutter, dodging the broken drains and cracked tarmac.. and riding very close to the central line!

No idea who that is, and can't be bothered to look it up. I'm just a mum who cycles to work and wants to be safe.

I work in an ICU unit and you wouldn’t get me on a bicycle for love nor money, certainly not in London, even with all the cycle lanes.

In fact I was looking after a young woman the other day who had been run over by a scaffolding lorry. Apparently it was dark and pouring with rain and he just didn’t see her. How she survived I don’t know.

She regained consciousness as I was adjusting her drip and she was convinced she was dead. Took me a good 2/3 minutes to convince her otherwise.

The entire surgical team have dropped in to see her, that’s how lucky she is.

To all the drivers saying they’re held up behind cyclists riding away from the kerb, or two abreast, because it’s not safe to overtake. Do you realise you’re supposed to be overtaking on the other side of the road just like you would a car.

You’re not supposed to be trying to squeeze past in the same lane. The Highway Code says give cyclists at least as much room as you would when overtaking a car.

AkA 'defensive driving'.

I have to do the same in the wagon at traffic lights as it's sometimes impossible to turn with cars right next to he

Fair enough but it sounds like a completely different set up. This is a windy country lane that almost never has pedestrians on the footpath as it's in the middle of nowhere and there are no side roads for miles either. There is a line dividing the pedestrian and cycle path so even if someone was walking they wouldn't be in the way of a cyclist.

In London too and cyclists cause so many issues for pedestrians in my experience. Have seen many go through red lights when you are crossing and also go up on the pavements.

Just this weekend I saw three different cyclists nearly cause accidents to pedestrians. One was cycling so fast down a pavement he nearly knocked someone down who was walking out of a shop, another cut right in front of me from behind that I nearly tripped over their back wheel and another actually did cycle right into someone who was legitimately crossing a zebra crossing and then cycled off when the person was on the ground. Ambulance had to be called and it looked like a pretty serious injury

That was just in the last couple of days. So many stories of bad cyclists just like there are stories of bad drivers

Although you're right, I think no matter what the Highway Code says, cyclists should be aware that some drivers will continue to pass too close to cyclists and put them in danger, therefore they have to do what they can to minimise the risk to their personal safety, eg. using cycle lanes/paths where available, being very visible, not cycling right in the middle of the road close to the centre line, not flying round tight bends on country roads as if they're racing, pulling over occasionally if 'collecting cars' in a slow moving queue behind them (like a tractor driver might do), etc.
Although the cyclist may be right in many of these scenarios, they won't be any less dead or badly injured if they get hit by a car.
Look after yourself OP.

Yes but if cycling two abreast means they are cycling at the dividing line, you can't safely overtake even by going on the other side of the road as it doesn't leave the required 1.5m.

Unfortunately the people in the 19th century who built the roads, houses and field boundaries forgot to make the roads very wide so if cyclists don't keep over not only can I not over take you with a wide margin, in fact I can't overtake you at all nor can anyone coming the other direction get past you!

Cyclists need to cycle to conditions, and in the countryside on windy hilly country lanes that means letting faster traffic past. I cannot safely drive at 1 mph whist a cyclist crawls up the 1:5 hill that's 3/4 mile long! Yes this happens 1-2 times a month

Dutch cities were as bad as everywhere else until the Stop de kindermoord protests of the 1970's.

Unfortunately most councils and politicians will side with motorists. Cars are getting bigger and there's not enough space yet cyclists are blamed for gridlock.

Just wanting to give you some support OP and any other mums doing their commute / school run on a bike. I am a cyclist and a considerate driver (I hope) . I'd love to see more people giving cycling a go.

Compare walking past a train that's halted at a station, to standing at the edge of a platform whilst a high speed train whizzes past.

That's the difference between a bike cycling past queuing traffic and a cyclist being close passed by a car/van.