Are too many motorists misinterpreting the idea of giving us (cyclists) plenty of room on the road? On recent road rides and when driving I have witnessed several instances on people overtaking cyclists with lots of room but seemingly ignoring the fact that other cars are coming in the opposite direction. On my last road ride, I was scared several times by really close misses right in front of me caused by this. I struggle to imagine what would happen if the two cars collided right in front of me. And then yesterday, driving back from a ride, several cars overtook riders but came right into my lane causing me to brake/swerve.

Can they simply not wait until the road is clear and then overtake?

Yep, noticed the same, we’re not horses!

I am. 🙁

My feeling is that drivers often misjudge the cyclists’ speed (a lot more than horses!) and/or the speed of the oncoming traffic. But I have had far too many close shaves recently.

They have a 3ft rule in California now – it’s illegal not to give 3ft of clear space when overtaking a cyclist.

If there isn’t that much room then you shouldn’t overtake into oncoming traffic, as you say.

Guy did it this morning. I heard him approaching from behind, I knew he must be moving right out to overtake me but there’s a van coming the other way. I had a voice in my head screaming, ‘he’s got to realise he needs to pull back’ but no, I could still hear him accelerating to overtake.

At the last minute and what sounded inches behind me, he suddenly braked hard and presumably pulled back in.

He then floored it past, no doubt slagging me off.

samuri – Member
He then floored it past, no doubt slagging me off.

Sadly, probably very true.

My MIL was complaining the other day about a cyclist (on the ToB route as it happens) swerving to avoid a pothole in front of her. I tried politely……. 😉

can’t say this is a common occurence for me. Dickhead beeped at me yesterday coz he couldn’t overtake due to one oncoming car and had to brake (the horror) before overtaking me. Had loads overtaking too close whilst passing a traffic island or oncoming traffic then once the obstacle as passed (and they are already ahead of me) pulling wayyyyyy out into the other side of the road “to give me room”

****s

I’ve noticed this a lot – I don’t think its getting more prevalent though. I think sometimes perspective (being on the opposite side of the road, looking ‘through’ the car overtaking you) sometimes makes these look like closer misses than they are, but there are some that are undeniable close – oncoming traffic having to take avoiding action.

At the end of the day I’d rather they squeeze oncoming traffic in a protective metal box than me protected by an inch of polystyrene, but thats the lesser of two evils…

if you’re worried about it, you could try looking back at the driver, and mouth something to them – doesn’t really matter what.
drivers are a bit more likely to play nice if they see a face and that you’re a human rather than just a bicycle.

straight out of my house on my morning commute there’s a sharp hill with a blind summit and the number of cars that try and blast past despite it being a 20 zone is alarming. using the above tactic sometimes works.

Sods law dictates that even at five in the morning with next to no traffic on the road a car will always approach from behind just as another is coming toward you! Same goes for traffic islands, just as you grt to one there’ll always be a car catching you up! And even though it’s quiet they still have to get past you straight away, there seems to be a reluctance to change gear as the number that chug by on the brink of stalling is horrific!

I had a genius idea the other day.

Every time a motorist injures a cyclist, then the same injuries get inflicted on the motorist.

Infliction specialist volunteers to be recruited from STW 🙂

Or on a kinder vein, automatic ban when injuries inflicted and made to ride a bicycle for commuting etc.

Nah, not so genius, I’ll stick those ideas in my shed with my daft bike collection…

I had a genius idea the other day.

Ooh, me too!

In this cycling friendly days, what we really need are…
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thinner cars.

* waits for applause *

The lack of tollerance of some people to be delayed by 10s continues to astound me. Its not just tossers in white vans either, several people I know, who are otherwise lovely unpstanding people, get irationally angry when they encounter a cyclist and have to wait for a space to get past.

A group of cyclists riding 2 up and there is steam coming out of their ears.

They act very sheepishly when I remind them that I do a lot of cycling.

There’s a corner near my house on my commute where this used to happen a couple of times a week. Going round a tight 90-degree right-hand blind bend, the centre line widens to about 600mm of hatching around the curve. If drivers overtake on the bend, which they frequently do, they tend to give so much room that half their vehicle is in the oncoming lane, and they have about 10m of visibility ahead…

While they may, on the face of it, be doing me a favour by giving me 1.5 – 2m of space, any car coming round the bend the other way is going to hit them and drive them backwards and sideways directly into me… So now I just take the lane, but even then I have to pretty much ride on the inside of the hatching to stop drivers attempting the overtake.

That’s not “giving cyclists too much room”, that’s giving cyclists a totally appropriate amount of room, while doing something else incredibly stupid and dangerous.

I also get some people clip my handlebars, but then swerve out into the road overtaking an imaginary cyclist 3 metres in front of me. Clearly mis-timing everything.

People aren’t very good at driving.

Newsflash! There are morons on the road!

Why can’t people wipe the damn condensation off their windows before they drive away? MORONS!

In this cycling friendly days, what we really need are…
.
.
thinner cars.

well, cars have got massively bigger over the past 20 years, mainly in order to incorporate better safety features, but also to give the impression of superiority/ safety (BMW X5, Range Rover, Audi Q7, Volvo XC90, etc.). Even smaller cars like the Mini and Polo are now twice the size of their ancestors.

camo16 – Member

I had a genius idea the other day.

Ooh, me too!

In this cycling friendly days, what we really need are…
.
.
.
.
.
.
thinner cars.

* waits for applause *

thinner cars,… maybe if we remove two wheels. and maybe remove a few surplus seats, afterall there is usually only one person in the car. Maybe because of all the weight saving we can get rid of the engine…

sorry, never catch on….

At the end of the day I’d rather they squeeze oncoming traffic in a protective metal box than me protected by an inch of polystyrene, but thats the lesser of two evils…

you wear a polystyrene onesie ? 😯

I had a cyclist bunny hop off the pavement into my rear passenger door today. He then just jumped up and buggered off.

Dammit! I have only had that fixed for about 5 months. I had a van drive out from a t junction into the same door in April! Also had a 17 year old girl who reversed into me at traffic lights a few years ago. I think I need to get a non magnetic car!

people overtaking cyclists with lots of room but seemingly ignoring the fact that other cars are coming in the opposite direction.

Hmm, bit like this copper… (except it was a bike coming in the opposite direction (ie. me) )

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h62y9BqA9WE[/video]

Half a dozen near misses when out on Sunday, people just overtaking and forcing the oncoming traffic to swerve or brake sharply. And this was just two of us in single file. Probably better to ride two abreast and force them to wait.

Yep, noticed the same, we’re not horses!

Yes we are!

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84T2i5PCMxw[/video]

This weekend was beautiful.
Cue packs of roadies prowling the lanes or rogue rides on their own.
Also cue the arrival of knobs in tin boxes.
The insane overtaking antics were legion:

Overtaking a cyclist because he/she is in front and slower
Overtaking irrespective of oncoming traffic
Overtaking regardless of visibility ahead or road width
Accelerating to overtake and then braking hard to tuck back in behind the cyclist in front of the one overtaken

Unfortunately quite a bit of this was done by cars with MTBs on the back/roof!

If I’m in the car I take perverse delight in waiting until I have room, visibility and the opportunity to overtake safely for the cyclist and for me, but sometimes those behind have tried to overtake me and the pack of riders in one go, or they get all sweary and cross over a 5 min delay.

Overtaking without checking there’s space to do so seems to be on the increase.
Number of times when I’m driving I’ve found myself head on to another car which has pulled out past a bus or line of parked cars into my lane… I’m in big silver box, did you not see me?

Happens all the time on club rides – cars nearly driving into traffic calming measures, nearly having head-on collisions… God only knows quite what’s going on in their heads!

My very favourite was a car overtaking us on a country lane last year, pulled out and had to stop dead so they’d didn’t have a head-on with the car coming the other way. Cue two drivers staring at each other on one side of the road while we just carried on and the overtaker was back where they started…

Cue two drivers staring at each other on one side of the road while we just carried on and the overtaker was back where they started…

Chances are that both drivers then blamed you silly cyclists 👿

Its not just tossers in white vans either, several people I know, who are otherwise lovely unpstanding people, get irationally angry when they encounter a cyclist and have to wait for a space to get past.

I’ve had my own mum shouting in my passenger seat that I should “Go go go, overtake them here!” (winding hedged road with very little viz) and how they’re not allowed to ride two abreast (they were quite sensibly taking the lane through the dangerous bit) – we were “stuck” behind them for all of a minute. 😯

Thing is, she knows I ride those same roads and if she saw a car pass me like that she’d go mental at them.

Had this a couple of weeks ago on a club ride, the motorist over-took on the blind brow of a hill, then just pulled into the line of cyclists to avoid a head-on crash. Knocked a girl off her bike and then sped off blaring his horn. What a tosser!

Some motorists forget the basic rule that you should only over-take when the road is clear and it’s safe to do so.

Knocked a girl off her bike and then sped off blaring his horn. What a tosser!

Hit and run. Hope you reported him!

What Northwind said.

A cyclist gets the full lane when I overtake. If there’s oncoming cars, I wait. Don’t give a toss about the car(s) behind. Simple, innit?

Cyclists riding two abreast get overtaken in the same way, but obviously because one is closer to the middle of the road there’s slightly less room, but that’s their decision. The whole two-abreast thing doesn’t bother me, ‘cos my reasoning says that if I can’t get past two safely, I can’t really get past one without infringing their safety in the same way.

The whole two-abreast thing doesn’t bother me, ‘cos my reasoning says that if I can’t get past two safely, I can’t really get past one without infringing their safety in the same way.

I’d argue that two abreast just gives car drivers more ammunition…

I see the overtake in to oncoming traffic a lot 🙄

Was it safe to overtake?
No,then don’t you muppet.

I also get quite a few cautious overtakers,they go past at 2mph more than I am doing and take what seems like forever to get past,usually just in time to meet some oncoming traffic 😐

I’d argue that two abreast just gives car drivers more ammunition.

Only bad car drivers.

The number of people who plainly dont have enough vision due to bends or hills, yet insist on overtaking, based on the logic that there will “probably” nothing coming scares me.
The thing is I know most of the roads to drive on as well as to ride and I KNOW that they can’t see enough.
All it takes is someone having a spirited drive toward them and there will be a two car and bike (me) pile up.
Its this obsession with getting past the “slow” bike the instant they can, regardless of the consequences, that scares me.

Only bad car drivers.

Or maybe bad cyclists… two abreast is contrary to the Highway Code, no?

To be fair, I don’t think it is just bikes.

I drive the A68 from Northumberland to Edinburgh pretty regularly. A lot of that is single lane so folk get frustrated when they inevitably get stuck behind a tractor, lorry or grandad. Some of the resulting overtakes are just insane.

Or maybe bad cyclists… two abreast is contrary to the Highway Code, no?

Depends on the road. The unhelpfully vague advice in Rule #66 is to ride “single file on narrow or busy roads and when riding round bends”.

But for anyone overtaking in accordance with the Highway Code, two-abreast is substantially easier as it takes far less time to pass them.

camo16 – Member

Or maybe bad cyclists… two abreast is contrary to the Highway Code, no?

No it isn’t! HTH.

“single file on narrow or busy roads and when riding round bends”.

Single file on busy roads… which is pretty much all my commute, and I’m guessing the same goes for most other commuters on here.

HTH

🙄

Bless.