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.

That was me! And generally, if you have good visibility then yes you should. I failed one of my driving tests for doing 20 for too long in a 30. Examiner said I was holding up traffic and that it wasn’t acceptable.

I’d say 20 friends riding along a road obeying the Highway Code

is a lot less antisocial

than a single, angry driver

not if they cannot pass around the cyclists they should not

We have a local group that zigzag over the road (both sides) on straight bits. It is frankly dangerous... They've hit each other and ended up in a pile up of only bikes before now, simply to stop any car from overtaking where it would be safe.

Legal and anti social are different.

If this was a single track road how could you over take? You're supposed to give cyclists a whole car width of space when you overtake.

so it was a single track country road, although not narrow, with wide verges on either side.

You posts are confusing. On the one had you say it was a single lane but then you expect to be able to overtake - presumably leaving them no room?

Single track usually means it's not wide enough to white-line with 2 lanes.
So you can't say you had room to overtake.

It's courteous if they can pull over into a layby to allow a queue of cars to pass.

But if there is no convenient place, then they were right to hold their ground.

In the nicest possible way, you have no clue what you are talking about ! 😂

Slow tractors holding up traffic tend to pull in periodically to let people pass.

And it’s down to common sense that a group of 20 cyclists are unreasonable to deliberately hold up traffic when they can’t keep up with the speed limit just because they feel like riding all in a line / group like immature kids.

Dickheads

Oh really? 😂

yep learned behaviour from the perfect drivers

I think you are confused over single track.
You mean it's a road with no white lines.
This means that neither 'half' is wide enough to divide in two.

Friends of mine live rural. Roads without a white line are usually narrow and you'd find it hard to give cyclists enough space if you overtook them.

It might be courteous to pull over occasionally but definitely not every couple of minutes, every time there is a car. What they were doing is a) perfectly legal and b) safer.

You need a full car's width and enough time to get past all the riders anyway, which is unlikely on a single track road, because something might come the other way.

I'm both a cyclist and a driver (like most cyclists) and never mind waiting.

Narrow country lanes (like the op described) are often NSL

It is completely unreasonable and frankly dangerous to drive many like this.

20 in a 30 is not relevant here.

If it's single track that means, by definition, it's not wide enough for two cars to go past each other with sufficient clearance. Roads are not left as single track for shits and giggles; it's because they are narrow. There are regulations covering this.

And the HC code does, in fact, require that you leave a good distance when overtaking a bike.

"“Leave at least 1.5 metres when overtaking cyclists at speeds of up to 30mph, and give them more space when overtaking at higher speeds.”

So, yeah.

'Rural road life' usually includes the courtesy of using available spaces, eg passing places, farm gates etc to allow traffic to pass when one is going much slower. Surprisingly, not, it's the cyclists generally who don't do this, I did have a couple who were obviously enjoying their mini-power when one turned round to smirk and hit a pot hole, landing in the hedge. Karma is wonderful, made my day.

A man on a bike takes up about 75cm and also there is an allowance of about 20cm for movement when cycling so you are looking at a metre. Add maybe 30 cm of clearance on each side of the car and the bike. So you would need 2.8 metres minimum from side of road for car to overtake then another 2 so realistically you need approx 5 metres to safety overtake. Whilst there may be wide single rack roads, most of the ones I know are only just wide enough for one car. If it was wide enough for 2 it wouldn’t be a single track road as cars could pass each other without pulling in.

Don't know if it's legal but should at least be a matter of road courtesy to let cars pass where safe. If cyclists wish to hog the road then perhaps they should be paying road tax as drivers do.

It's not realistic to expect 20 cyclists to all pull over at the same time!

The lead cyclist of a pack shouts out instructions to the pack behind them.
This is to warn them of parked cars, danger ahead etc.

It would not be practical for 20 cyclists all to pull over onto a grass verge simultaneously. It would be confusing and potentially lethal.

A driver might get past a few bikes but the have to pull in sharply if there was car coming the opposite way.

A group of 20 bikes is no different to a row of 6 cars.

Just stop being so bloody impatient.

After working a 12 hour shift today which involved me getting up at 5am ,I would have been exceptionally pissed off if a bunch of cyclists had hogged the road on my way home this evening! Definitely think it’s arrogant to assume that drivers are happy to sympathise with their bloody hobby !

Ugh bet they were middle aged men in Lycra. The most cunty of them all

A driver near me crashed into a coach yesterday, resulting in the death of both his passengers. He has been arrested for a driving offence. As a rule, I don’t see anything like that level of selfishness from cyclists.

Hw OP could you guarantee that you'd be able to pass 20 cyclists and not face an oncoming car?

Do you really expect 20 bikes to suddenly head for the grass verge to allow you to pass?

Bingo! Road tax!

Vehicle excise duty (not 'road tax', there is no such thing) does not pay for upkeep of the roads. That is taken from general taxation. So people without a car pay for the upkeep of the roads at the same rate as drivers- and also don't expect to keep their private property (their car) in a public place for free.

(And yes, I have a car and frankly think VED should be much higher).

Most cyclists, statistically, also drive, so even if your imaginary tax existed, they'd be paying it as well.

Disgusting comment and language.