Commute home tonight after being badly cut up by a white van this morning….

narrowish road – no middle line – on-comming car – van behind – van pushes through past me so that 1 narrow road, 1 cyclist, 1 van 1 car less than 1 ft to spare all at about 25 mph (not me obviously) (you know when his wing mirror rushed past you arm).

So a bit peeved I notice he pull into his house up the road. I ride up his drive as he gets out.

I ask [out of breath] "just a polite request if you would give cyclists more room when you overtake" I said

"I was aware I did give you plenty of room" he said

"There, that's the problem" I said

"do you know some states in America have a 2 foot rule" I said

"were not in America though" he said

"yes but why do you think that they have this rule – pause – to give cyclists plenty of room" I said

He shrugged his shoulders

"Well I am just asking politely if you wouldn't mind give cyclists more room in the future" as his wife came out. I smiled at her, she smiled back.

What else can you do?

I'd be especially pissed that he couldn't slow to let the car go first, from the fear of being a few seconds later to get home, as it was just up the road.

And I don't know if I would've bothered talking to him.

Don't ride in the gutter so there is no room for him to squeeze past

Don't ride in the gutter so there is no room for him to squeeze past

+1

I didn't ride in the gutter – I always ride a foot or two out but they still try it on!! I am a defensive rider and have been commuting to work for 6 years now come rain or shine!!

The last time I rode in the middle of that road to stop someone overtaking some guy cut me up and we had a 5 minute argument and he accused me of deliberately obstructing him and thats why he cut me up!!! 😯 You just can't win!!

Bang on his window as he goes past?

a foot or two is in the gutter. Middle of the lane in that situation or further out. Force him to wait behind until you let him past when it is safe to do so.

The basic position I adopt is about 2/3 of the way along a car bumper to the RHS – behind the driver of the car

When it is safe for him to pass go to the left and wave him thru

see above thread edit TJ 😯

We really need drivers to be better educated – not sure with the current cuts thats ever going to happen in my time commuting to work 😕

Don't ride in the gutter so there is no room for him to squeeze past

150% agree and its really scares me when I'm driving and i see someone hugging the space next to the kerb or more so on one local hill/rail bridge that is narrow and blind within inches of the wall – still owning the road doesn't stop those with the magic (but not working) "see-aroundbend-twatovision™?????"trying to pass you in belief that anything coming the other way will bow to their urgency

edit and as to the OP – i've given up telling people the blank look says it all

don't care foxyrider – get out of the gutter. its the safest place to be. Even if someone cuts you up you have somewhere to go – to your left away from them.

IAM CTC etc all tell you this

http://road.cc/content/news/15646-iam-urges-cyclists-claim-their-lane

Control your space in the road. Demand it. don't be bullied into the gutter

40 yrs urban riding here.

Trouble is things often happen so quickly that sometime you don't have enough time to move out esp if the road narrows ahead etc?

I like it when they overtake you on a blind bridge or corner even though you are in the middle of your lane 😯

Right have to get even more defensive – hmm – sod em all 🙂

thats the attitude Foxy. every incident is something to learn from.

anticipate what is happening ahead and behind. Get into the safest road position early. Make eye contact with cars. When its safe then make it easy for them to get past.

My first road rage incident, I was about 17 and there were temp traffic lights on a narrow rail bridge. I waited in the queue, and the first few cars passed me forcing me really close to the parapet. So I thought 'sod this' and I moved out about 6" to block the next car (the lights were only about 30 yards long, so no biggie). The guy then pulled up alongside me after the lights and told me not to take up all the road. Well the situation escalated* and ended up with him stopping several times and getting out of his car to presumably try and beat me up. Proper scared I was – although if that happened now I'd probably leap off my bike and pound the sh*t out of the fat f**ker, I've had it up to here…

* possibly due to me telling him to **** off, being unable to think of a succinct response.

Make eye contact with cars

+1000000

This makes a MASSIVE difference.

*hnngmmmmmmmm* I agree with TJ *hhhnnngngmgmmmm*

if there's any risk of losing the piggy in the middle game, then I get right out into the lane. Force drivers to have to properly evaluate their manoeuvre rather than let them drive on auto-pilot as if you were just a bollard that they can skim past.

Sod this one or two feet thing. I ride in the middle of the lane, sometimes even further over. Think where your gear lever would be if you were in a car… This removes the can i, cant i squeeze past decision that they are so inept at making.

TJ – I do try my best esp at roundabout – they are the worst – and F'ing big hand signals , look them in teh eyes, anticipate etc – most rides are fine just the odd occasional day when some ****t (usually big vehicles such as vans or people carriers) squeezes though 🙁

My morning commute is getting really scary and I'm going go a different way. This morning a big lorry came so so close, they just don't give a shit at all. I'd no chance of getting his number either as he was going so fast. I'm still waiting for the police get back to me regarding the driver who deliberately drove at me although I had a letter form them asking if I was available for court on any day. Hope that's a sign that action is being taken against the tosser.

Def a minority of drivers that have a pathological loathing of cyclists – the nation needs re-educating or force then to cycle 🙂

On a sl. different track I was cycling in Austria 3 weeks ago and all of the drivers passed me on the OTHER side of the road – very refreshing 😆

Foxy – all you can do is your best and to learn from every incident. Reflective practice is the buzzphrase 🙂

after and incident think " what could I have done to prevent that / make it less dangerous? "

If you ride further out i the road when someone does tray to squeeze past you at least have somewhere to go – into that space you left on your left.

Every bit of road needs to be assessed and every occasion is different.

>Trouble is things often happen so quickly that sometime you don't have enough time to move out esp if the road narrows ahead etc?

I've been caught out a few times approaching the rear of parked traffic – although moving out with a fair bit of space there's always some prat that think that's a good time to overtake, not to mention you actually need to moved quite a way out to avoid the door zone.

As much as I try to grab my road space there's always some prat – last week a Europarts van performed one mother of a swerve to get between me (in the middle of the carriageway – mebbe even further out) and the bollards of the appraching pedestrian reservation. Which reminds me, I didn't get his number (too busy giving a cyclist's salute) but I've got an arsey letter drafted for the Europarts PR department…

Wait 6 months and slash his tyres 👿

I'm pretty impressed by foxyrider, tbh.

Not sure I'd have had the cojones to do that.

>properly evaluate their manoeuvre

I probably get the bollard-swerve bit once or twice a week if I haven't firmly planted myself in the middle/outer of the lane. More usually they've moved out and then brake suddenly when they realise a) I'm a bit longer then a normally bike (I ride a recumbent) and b) I'm going a little faster than they expect.

There's one left hander near work and, regardless, I still get tw*ts overtaking me – the last prat to do so had a phone in his ear, for good measure. Two lanes, one carries around the corner, one a filter lane right, donkey overtakes in rh lane, pulls over *right* in front of me as I'm entering the corner *and* typically bloody brakes – so my cranks are about a ft off the bumper. I really ought to think about removing the chainguard…. 🙁

To follow on from TJ's post, the IAM have published this:
How to be a Better Cyclist: Advanced Cycling – the Essential Guide

– one of the authors (Franklin) wrote Cyclecraft.

I'll give it a read jond 🙂

Oh it's £9.99 🙁

http://www.iam.org.uk/vmchk/cyclists_eshop_how_to_be_a_better_cyclist/how_to_be_a_better_cyclist/flypage.tpl.html

When I've got lots of money I'm going to buy space on a load of billboards all round the country. Half of them will say:

Motorists: Respect cyclists

and the other half will say:

Cyclists: Respect the road

http://books.google.com/books?id=GbmCFx-tzxMC&pg=PA156&dq=Better+Cyclist:+Advanced+Cycling+-+the+Essential+Guide&hl=en&ei=MNwfTNCHEd6XOKyTwfoL&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false might be a good place to start reading

You should have done what Mr I-don't-Pay-Road-Tax does

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owO_aazjkM0&playnext_from=TL&videos=Hpx1cnmGunA&feature=sub

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/remember-that-van-driver-tries-to-hit-cyclist-thread-from-last-week

beat that biatch to the ground with your bent handlebars!

Distance between you and gutter;- 1 metre

Distance between you and parked car ;- 1 metre

Oh it's £9.99

http://www.iam.org.uk/vmchk/cyclists_eshop_how_to_be_a_better_cyclist/how_to_be_a_better_cyclist/flypage.tpl.html
a book that will only be read by those that already know most of the contents?
how to get better distribution?
well at £9.99 Tesco and Asda could run a promo:
free pack of carling or a book on roadcraft or 10% off at the till

specialist bike distributors could offer:
list price on that bike or we'll lose our distributorship but you can have some free gloves and a book

tis boring

edit sorry shouldn't be

Did you write that on arriving back from the pub, by any chance ?

😉