Group of cyclists not letting cars past- is this legal?

[Serenity674]

Interested in whether this was legal. Was driving to my parents this morning, they live remotely so it was a single track country road, although not narrow, with wide verges on either side.

i came up behind a group of circa 20 cyclists, probably doing about 15-20mph and ended up stuck behind them for about 10 mins. Round the bends was fine and they actually went faster than I would have gone in my car but there were several very long straight stretches of road where I could have got up to 30-40 mph (it’s a NSL road) but they wouldn’t move to let me past, just rode 2 or 3 abreast taking up the whole road. They definitely knew I was there as the ones at the back kept looking behind at me.

i know the law says cyclists can ride 2 abreast and it’s actually safer as it means cars overtake them properly but surely this doesn’t apply regardless of the road? Were they just doing the safe thing or should they have let me past?

I am a horse rider so i am always on the side of passing more vulnerable road users safely but this just seemed like a bit of a dick move- or were they actually doing this for a reason I’m unaware of? If I was riding my horse on a road like this I would ride 2 abreast until the car slows down then move into single file to let them past.

There have always been rules in the highway code about "keeping up with the flow of traffic" which expects tractors etc to pull over and let cars past if a queue begins to form and as a horserider I always stopped to allow cars to pass safely as soon as reasonably possible. It's common courtesy and part of country life.

The current rule (169), however, is frustratingly vague, more so than in previous editions of the highway code so I presume such common courtesies are no longer valued as much as they once were. Which is sad because we're all people trying to get somewhere and a little give and take makes life more pleasant for everyone.

Not what the HC says . . . your opinion doesn't change the rules or the law.

The OP asked if it's legal. Are you saying it's illegal?

Drivers often overtake cyclists (and pedestrians, and riders) in a way that is scary and risky. Cycling - or walking, or riding - in a way that prevents them (drivers) from doing so, is entirely legal.

I would love to know where you live, where tractors pull over! I don't think I've ever experienced that...

Car drivers are angry esp if theyve been held up for more than a minute or two by someone on a bike!

Cars are superior to bikes and those plebs on bikes should always yield to them because they’re inferior…

Or something like that.

Anyone driving a car which is 2, or more likely 3, abreast has no right to criticise another road user for being 2 abreast.

Especially because more often than not the 3 abreast is actually just an empty 3 seat sofa they are carrying about behind the driver completely unused.

Use your single file car and there will be plenty of room for everyone. Or just be a hypocrite and complain about bikes two abreast instead.

Er, but you should be doing the speed limit and if you can’t then you should not be wilfully holding up traffic.

Also, another thing that grinds my gears is that there is NEVER any acknowledgment or appreciation if they’ve held you up for an amount of time and you have kept your distance until it’s safe to pass. With horse riders, it’s taught as common practice to smile and nod or raise your hand as the cars go past, as a thank you for their patience and for passing you safely. You never see this from cyclists, ever.

Er, but you should be doing the speed limit

What have I just read😳

So many of the people defending selfish cyclists and refusing to acknowledge that they aren’t the only ones on the road sound rude, unreasonable and/or completely bonkers. Funny that.

The road is a shared space.
I'm a motorist, horse rider, tractor driver and cyclist. It really isn't hard to be considerate whatever you are doing. If I'm on the bike or horse, I pull over when I can if a car has been waiting. If I'm in the car, I wait until there is a space or the road user can pull over. It's not a war.
Some cyclists ARE wind ups sadly, just like some car drivers are pricks and some horse riders are rude. Such is life. I've come across groups of cyclists who persistently hog the road to make a point when there are opportunities to allow motorists to pass safely. Most don't, but it is definitely a thing. Let's face it, nobody wants to sit behind a group of cyclists doing 20mph tops on a 50mph road. As a cyclist, I don't either, which is why I have some empathy and pull over when I can and signal thanks for waiting. Same with the horse, same with the tractor. We can just be nice to one another!

Cyclists are a whole other level of selfish.

another one for traffic school

but the core issue her is the 1.5 metre gap needed by cars and that did not exist on this road

Who taught you to drive? My BSM driving instructor taught me that you should keep to the speed limit on every road, whatever that is. Failure to do so will have you fail the test. Because you should not be holding up traffic whatever kind of a road user you are.

If you drive 30 roads at 20, you aren’t going to pass your driving test.

There isn’t the space on a narrow single track road. The legal overtaking distance is 1.5 metres. There normally is only space for one car. You need to 2 lanes of space to be able to legally overtake a cyclist so whether they are single or 2 abreast on a road like this would make no difference.

they may be able to pull in at safe points but having driven down narrow country lanes for a lot of my life there aren’t really many of them.

You can tell who the cyclists are vs the people whose local roads get used as a racetrack all summer. They are a plague from April to October. I’m not talking about commuters or people pootling along on a bike ride, obviously.

drivers shouldn’t drive dangerously, but slower roads users should also allow drivers to pass safely. I have been in situations with cyclists where I have been put in a position of driving behind at ridiculously slow speeds for very long stretches or aggressively passing on the odd lay-b because they refused to slow down meaning the only chance of passing was to drive faster than I was comfortable - I ended up trailing for aaaaages because safety, which resulted in lots of aggressive hand gestures on their side as well as a building backup of cars on roads that cannot handle much traffic. I don’t need them to stop, just slow down and let me pass when an opportunity arises.

and yes, most of the locals round me are very considerate- tractors regularly pull over, as do horses. It is only the cyclists who have driven in from the city that act like assholes.

They should try doing national speed limit (60 for all you rubbish drivers on this thread) around the back lanes near me. I’ll watch from a safe distance 🍿

Exactly. Excellent post.

"But they were riding 2-3 abreast and spaced out across the whole road" ? @Serenity674

Were they not afraid of oncoming traffic ?

To quote the OP It was wide enough to pass a cyclist, it was single track I.e no white line but it was a wide road, plenty of room to give 2m space. I ride down it regularly…

The core issue is people (no matter what mode of transport) who don’t care about anyone but themselves.

You’re being disingenuous. You can’t see around corners on country lanes so nobody sensible does that in reality. It’s about context and when a group of road users are behaving like twats and deliberately holding up other road users when it can be prevented then that just isn’t on.

Why are so many posters pretending that all single track roads are the same width, and that therefore it would have been categorically impossible for the OP to safely overtake a single file bike? Or maintaining - even more bizarrely - that you need the same width of road to overtake another car as you would to overtake a bike? (Cars are about 1.7m in width; a man on a bike takes up maybe 50cm.) A single track road would only need to be about 4m in width to allow safe overtaking of a bike, and lots of them are wider than this.

You’ve got it @Serenity674 , they are rude and anti social ( I find many cyclists are), but basic drivers have to suck it up.

I’m quoting the poster that said they should be driving at the speed limit