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.

A lot of people around here commute to a station to take a train to London, many from outside cycling distances from the station. There is one single-carriageway route in. No passing places. No cycle lanes. No pavement. In peak times, no way to safely overtake a cyclist because of oncoming traffic. I don’t have to do this journey very often thank goodness, but some mornings in bad visibility and slippery road surfaces I think we are very close to some awful accidents as commuters become frustrated and worried about missing trains.

A slow cyclist in the middle of the road is a massive headache for me. I have been guilty of passing within 2-3ft of a cyclist because I was stressed out about the delay. I'm sorry - but as I say, cycling is much slower than vehicular traffic, and I genuinely do not have time to allow cyclists to hold me up!

I'm on the other side of this and know the cyclists families that have been left behind through motorists driving like this - how would you feel chatting to them about this?

@Dynamix wouldn’t be surprised if you lived near me in the Yorkshire Dales!

Bingo!

I don't mind where they are as long as they are considerate and don't endanger anyone else.

I wasn't referring to your shared paths, I was referring to the approximately 3 miles of joined up shared paths I live 2 minutes from that the lycra bunch don't use, instead blocking the busy road 3 abreast on a regular basis.

And I don't object to them using the bridleways, I object to the flying around the bridleways, hurtling around corners then being pissed off when they nearly crash into a horses backside. Or a dog walker. Or families also on bikes but with children wibbly wobbling around.

I live 2 mins from the TPT, on a sunday morning it's absolutely packed. Yet still they expect to fly around with everyone jumping out of their way.

OK but can cyclists use a bloody cycle path when one is available, especially if it’s on a pavement, rather than cycling in in the middle of a dual carriageway as happened last night and made us late for DD’s activity

Of course they should. Driver not a cyclist (well I only ride on empty pavements!)

If you find yourself regularly delayed by something on a regular drive then you need to organise yourself better. If you can't, it's not anyone else's problem but yours.

If you're not regularly delayed enough to change your plans a bit then what are you actually complaining about?

I am shocked, although shouldn’t be surprised, that nearly half of voters think you’re being unreasonable for reminding twatty drivers that they need to be aware of other humans who they could potentially kill on their way to work.

I don’t cycle and the reason is those fuckwits in cars who think they own the road.

Utter wankers. Get over yourselves, unless you’re driving an emergency vehicle your journey really isn’t that important.

😂

Do you use lights/high viz? It does make a difference imo (from riding horses, not cycling.)

Too many people on bikes around here seem to think riding in the dark on a black bike and dark clothing is perfectly fine. Half the time you can't see them until you're practically on top of them and it's incredibly scary.

Utter wankers. Get over yourselves, unless you’re driving an emergency vehicle your journey really isn’t that important.

Just remeber that when your appointment is late because the person your seeing could not get past fucking idiots on bikes, or your food is not in the shops as the delivery drivers were delayed, or the fuel is out at your petrol station or your medication has not turned up, or you miss a funeral ect, ect.

A jolly ride on your bloody bike blocking rural roads for miles because your an arogant shit or decided to prat about in the main road and ignore the cycle lane at the side of you, means drivers generally think your a fuckwit.

I don't think you'll be heard by those who do it, but you're right.

Just remeber that when your appointment is late because the person your seeing could not get past fucking idiots on bikes, or your food is not in the shops as the delivery drivers were delayed, or the fuel is out at your petrol station or your medication has not turned up, or you miss a funeral ect, ect.

This never happened though

Out of interest how delayed would you be if your doctor was run over by a car, or if the funeral you're going to is of someone who was killed by bad driving?

One thing you seem to be overlooking

Cyclists have a right to use the road.

Car drivers do not have a right to overtake cyclists. Of course, we all prefer it if over taking can happen, if it is safe to do so.

So if any of these deliveries are held up "because of cyclists", then no, they have not been held up "because of cyclists" - they have not been held up at all, it is simply that whoever was timetabling the delivery was using an entitled and unrealistic estimation of how much speed they could use on the road.

Better get used to getting those estimations down, as the number of cyclists on the road goes up, and up, and up, as it inevitably will

I’m too scared to cycle on roads so good for you for doing it. As a car driver my attitude is that if something is in front of me then it will stay there until it’s safe for me to pass, whether that’s a horse, a bike a tractor or whatever. And if I have to go slow for a bit then so what, it’s not the end of the world. I’m very much in favour of the new more stringent rules. Hopefully they and growing use of helmet cams will make the roads safer for cyclists and then I might be brave enough to cycle on them

@fernfen late appointments? Food not in shops? It literally takes a maximum of a couple of minutes to get past a cyclist, why on earth would there be no food in the shops?

Someone earlier in the thread said they get stuck twice a week behind a cyclist for 45 minutes and only manage to proceed 3/4 of a mile 😅

I think if people are being tragically delayed by a cyclist the problem is not the cyclist, the problem is themselves.

To all those replying to me you obviously don't travel much or live in rural areas like me where cyclists are fucking idiots blocking the narrow roads for miles. 🙄

You don't get it.

They have a RIGHT to be there

You do NOT have a right to overtake them

You just think you do. Luckily, simply being richer and more entitled than someone else does not give you automatic rights over them in our society

I would prefer for cyclists to cycle in the middle of the road, if I'm honest. Inconvenient at times, yes, but so is being stuck behind a tractor, which happens to me frequently.
What I am sick of is cyclists undertaking and cutting up the left of me. They do it to HGVs a lot, I know personally of one who was killed doing so due to undertaking in the driver's blind spot and seemingly not realising it was a matter of seconds before the trailer would turn and crush them. That was the driver's career over due to the trauma of what happened, although he had done nothing wrong.
I think if both drivers and cyclists always followed the rules of the road too (and, ideally, if cyclists could be identified in some way, similar to a reg plate, when they cycle dangerously so they can be reprimanded similarly to car drivers, etc.), it would make life easier. The police could do nothing about the cyclist who almost caused an accident then gave me abuse for some reason, because all I could give was a description of him and his bike - they could confirm he had broken the law with what he did, just no way of finding him.

I live in one of the must popular places for cycling in the UK, great proximity to London and people travel here from all over the southeast to ride here. It's famous around the country. There's loads of road riding, many local and not local cycle clubs, there's also a lot of results and people travel in by car to use them in mountain bikes

I live on the edge of London and commute through the above area daily.

• A lot of trails not results