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.

Oh right so every one who lives rurally is rich 🤣🤣🤣

I don’t give a shit if drivers think I’m a fuckwit. I just don’t want them to kill me!

Framing the debate only as a matter of courtesy ignores how massively different the stakes are for motorists and cyclists. Look at the statistics posted by @StopsWalkingToSneeze. Read the post on page 3 from @PauliesWalnuts .Yes, getting stuck behind a cyclist can be frustrating. One might even bump your wing mirror or scratch your paintwork. But if you pass a cyclist too fast and too close and they wobble/swerve and fall off, they may well sustain a head injury (even with a helmet) or go under the wheels of the car behind and be seriously hurt or killed.

The changes to the highway code reflect this hierarchy of vulnerability.

no, but I cycle because I cant afford a car, as do many others. The average car driver is richer than the average cyclist, by definition

There always seems to be an attitude that cycling is a hobby.
For me it's a mode of transport.

I live somewhere absolutely choked by traffic. The pedestrian and cycling infrastructure is terrible. Try and do anything to address it and the whole 'War of Cars' rhetoric comes out.

There is. And yet earlier on the thread another poster was complaining that they were late for a child's activity because of a cyclist.

Apparently being on the road for the purpose of a hobby is only acceptable if you're in a car.

cyclists are fucking idiots

they are using the road legitimately, the only reason you refer to them as fucking idiots is because they are in your way, you don't own the road

That's making a big assumption that cyclists don't also own cars! It also assumes that someone with only a cycle can't afford a car. Many (if not most), do own a car also, or could afford a car but don't need one, so your "richer" definition simply isn't valid.

There is. And yet earlier on the thread another poster was complaining that they were late for a child's activity because of a cyclist.

woman this morning complained to me it had taken her 30 minutes to drive a mile due to all the people in cars..... This is a road with a cycle path running the entire distance between the point A & B that many people were using and no-one was on the road, even though it was a wet morning

After last night's dance with death on the ride home I had a stern word with myself and cycled to the garage 12 miles away to pick up my car after its service - yes, I'm an occasional driver as well as cyclist - I do around 4,000 miles a year. There was an accident on the M60 at Prestwich and an accident on the M66 causing EVERYONE to come off and try to get where they needed to be using the local roads. It was utter gridlock. It's taken a colleague 2 hours to drive eight miles to a site visit in Salford from North Manchester. There wasn't a bicycle involved.

There are just too many cars and too many people using them for too short journeys. Whilst I was queuing with the traffic I saw a woman drive out of her drive, squeeze into the main traffic, crawl 500m and then let her tweenager son out at a school gate. We need to really invest in public transport and safe active travel routes. The main problem we have isn't horses, or cyclists, or milk floats or peletons, it's just too many cars and too many people who don't give a toss about anything that could possibly hold them up for a couple of minutes.

I'm a frustrated but kind driver. I have a good friend who cycles and I always think of her when I overtake a cyclist. I don't take chances, I pass with decent distance and I'll hold up traffic until I think it's safe (same for horses).

Still hate the Lycra men and the idiots who ride on a nearby dual carriageway despite there being a very good parallel cyclepath. Something to do with timed times. Or 5am factory workers swooping across traffic with no lights.

I'd love to cycle myself but it's so dangerous. My 9 year old would love to cycle to school but it's too dangerous. We have these ridiculous cycle lanes near me with flimsy poles and parked cars on the left. Just causes congestion and isn't any safer for cyclists. Id happily assign arterial routes into/out of a city as cyclist only routes and implement one way systems/park and rides for cars as more useable infrastructure to change. This piecemeal approach is not helpful. It just pisses everyone off.

@PauliesWalnuts

Whilst I was queuing with the traffic I saw a woman drive out of her drive, squeeze into the main traffic, crawl 500m and then let her tweenager son out at a school gate.

She may have been going that way to work anyway, and just given her son a lift part of the way. How do you know she wasn't driving a relatively long distance to her workplace which she couldn't do by public transport? You're just assuming she drove him there and was heading straight back home which is highly unlikely.

Ha ha When my child was at primary school, i would see plenty of parents drive their children to school, some a lot nearer than 500m.
Walking 50m is too much for many of the UK's over weight population.

One only has to look how the roads empty during 1/2 term to realise that driving kids to school is a national pastime.

Likewise, I'm both a cyclist and driver, in fact I usually walk to work, so that's 3 modes of transport. I despair at the driving standards, but also despair at cyclists who ignore road signs/markings, ignore traffic lights, don't wear bright clothing or have lights in bad weather or the dark, undertake cars/lorries/buses indicating to turn right, cycle on footpaths and pavements, etc. I think EVERYONE needs to take a hard look at themselves, and we need to stop this counter-productive cyclists versus drivers argument. Yes, some drivers are idiots, but likewise some cyclists are too, and likewise plenty of moronic pedestrians too!

As for cycle lanes, yes, so many are useless/pointless and it's no surprise cyclists don't use them which causes resentment as often they make roads narrower causing more congestion, and then the drivers stuck in queues see cyclists on the road, weaving in/out of queuing traffic instead of using the empty cycle lanes. Not to mention those cycle lanes just painted at the side of the road where it's wide, but then disappear when they're really needed at junctions or where there are central traffic Islands narrowing the road.

I fully agree we need "proper" cycle lanes, not pointless "add ons" to the side of existing roads. Whether that is by completely closing some roads and making them cyclist only, or by re-purposing redundant old railway track beds, depends on the situation, but it's the only way to make cycling safer by properly separating cycles from cars/lorries/buses. But at the same time we also need to separate cyclists from pedestrians, as that's just as bad a problem in "shared" routes as cyclists/cars.

I see both sides as a cyclist and a driver.

I drive to work because the road has no cycle lane and feels unsafe to me as a cyclist, there's congested traffic both ways so cars never have an opportunity to safely overtake you in the proper way - they end up squeezing by.

As a driver - it's an absolute pain being stuck at 10pm with no space to overtake safely. Makes the journey take 3 x longer at times, resulting in being late for work.

Because the woman was wearing pyjamas underneath her coat.

I ve cycled since a teenager and yes many car driver are crazy, i don't mean the ones that over take to closely/too fast they are in all honesty, a minority for me.

Its the ones that give loads of room as they overtaking into a corner, blind crest, with on coming cars.... its as if they have their very own guardian angel... it wont me they kill, it'll be themselves... but they don't seem to care.

However, i wish Cyclists would consider that if they, where safe to do so, let drivers past, it really would help reduce the anger.

Plus the law & courts need to start giving out deterrent sentences to drivers convicted of careless driving, min 12 month ban.... that did wonders for reducing drink driving.

1800 people a year die on our roads, vast majority in totally avoidable incidents.

Until recently i drove approx 35k miles a year... over the course of maybe 600k miles, driving all over south and south east England.. inc London, i can think of only a handful of times i was held up for more than a minute or two by cyclists.... Tractors and Diggers yes many a time.

I agree that on a Sunday morning, getting by a large club ride is difficult but during the working week, its almost always a solo cyclist, who other wise would be in car, adding to congestion & polution...

But i spent many many hours in stationary traffic because of car accidents & breakdowns.

I will always give space but I do get annoyed when a cyclist signals for me to overtake at a point that I don’t consider safe ( I appreciate they may have a clearer view round a bend but I want to see for myself not trust someone else’s judgement)

I do travel pretty much daily thank you, I drive in rural areas and I drive a company van. I’m a busy working parent whose day is planned out in five minute intervals. I don’t have time to waste. But I don’t think I have any more right to be on the road than anyone else and I take care around cyclists because they are people who are also trying to get somewhere.

@fernfen
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

..and what exactly gives you the right to determine your journey/reason for travel is more important than theirs? or calling the many cyclists on MN names?

tbh you sound like the fucking idiot who could do with controlling their anger behind the wheel.

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.
@fernfen with a temper like yours, you aren't safe to be on the road.

And no, I have never ever been late to anything as a result of a cyclist. I've been made late by traffic, roadworks, not enough parking spaces, getting lost in one-way systems, and faulty alarm clocks but never by cyclists. If an extra five minutes in your journey would cause you to be late for your appointment then you should leave earlier. It's your fault if you're cutting it fine.

Rural Wales here. Single track country lanes with passing places, a minor road known locally as "Schumacher Lane" because of the amount of speeding, a single carriageway A road, 33% gradients - you name it, we've got it. I still didn't drive like an arse. I instead kept back, slowed down, and waited for a safe place to pass.

A three-year-old Vauxhall will cost an average of £12-13k to buy secondhand. Then you've got to fuel, insure and maintain it. The main reason I sold my car and took up cycling was because of the cost of running the thing. So yes, if you own a car you clearly can afford an expensive asset and may well be richer than Jane the shop assistant.

Ddraiggoch - I think you might take the crown for the most sanctimonious poster on this entire thread and that's quite a feat 😂 A big well done to you on being so perfect, always following all the rules to the letter whilst never having any angry thoughts... I want some of whatever you're on! 👏🏻