I pulled into the middle of the road (quiet country road) to claim my space.

This may not always be a good idea. I tend not to do this sort of thing unless in crawling traffic or coming up to roundabouts/lights etc. It aggravates drivers a lot. Sometimes you just have you cede your road to drivers for your own safety – which shouldn't be necessary but sometimes just is.

I often pull over to let cars by in tight situations too as a goodwill gesture.

I've come to the conclusion that a near miss (which seems to be what you're describing) is nothing to get het up about. Obviously this means being super aware and making allowances for other road users but I find it's more relaxing than stressing about all those bad drivers out there. Expect the worst and you are chuffed when someone does you a favour / recognises your existence!

My 2p worth.
I believe in giving way to cars but only when appropriate and safe to do so. I will take my proper – car like – position in the road lane if I am changing direction.

I believe that cycling a little slower is far better for everyone. It allows you to sit up more making you more visible and more aware what's going on. You can make short sprints if you need to merge with traffic.
Also if you are more relaxed your adrenaline is not as high so you don't get as angry as quickly.

IMHO its much better to ride 'with' traffic on busy but slower roads than it is to ride beside traffic on quieter faster roads.

trailofdestruction if you are having near misses on a fairly regular basis then its time to either change the time you commute at vastly or STOP commuting on that route. No two ways about it if you are having regular near misses?

Also, if anyone gets angry regularly on their commute its raising your blood pressure and stress levels (you'll be naturally hyper-tense from start to finish or even just thinking about setting off).

You are cancelling out any health benefits.

It is better than the alternative, which is staying in the gutter and having some absolute tool trying to squeeze past you on a blind bend, just because they feel you are in their way and holding them up.

That's how I used to ride, and it nearly got me killed on more than one occasion. I ride in the middle of the road when it is not safe for traffic to get past me, and then pull over to let them past when it is safe to do so. Prime example is a very tight S bend on my route. It's bloody dangerous as it is, if I do not claim my space and force people to wait behind me until it is safe to pass, they will force me off the road trying to squeeze through far too narrow a gap and not think twice about it.

Been there, done that.

If it annoys them, tough luck. It's my road as well, and I have the right not to get pushed off it by impatient drivers.

Without knowing your route and cycling technique, I cant offer any advice, though it sounds like you're doing things right.
All i can add, is that for what its worth, I kind of enjoy the buzz of competing for space on the fastest , busiest roads, not only with the reasonable drivers, but the occasional bit of friction with the d**ks too.
You're 33? heh heh!, I'm five years older than that and trust me, it gets worse, in a couple of years you'll be searching for the most dangerous roads to commute on! 🙂

I'm not an angry cyclist, I used to be but found out it wasn't getting me anywhere. It's the bigger picture that's getting to me. It doesn't matter whether I'm in the city or the country, whether I'm going fast or slow, whether I'm doing a fast training ride or a slow pootle back from work, flat bar or drop bar, people don't seem to give a s**t. It's like they look at me from the comfort of their cars and go " oh christ, lets try and squeeze past this muppet as fast and close as possible to scare the cr@p out of him ". It's not me that's having near misses, I'm riding in a straight line on open road, it's the cars that are nearly missing me. It's like it's some sort of game for the inbreds, and as you can see, it's making me want to stop riding on the blacktop.

Sorry to vent my spleen. You are right, I shouldn't let it wind me up, I should take a deep breath and laught at the foolishness of others. I do have good days, but the bad ones seem to stick in my memory for longer. I remeber Victoria Pendleton complaining that she was sick of getting hassled in Manchester whilst trying to do training in the run up to the Olypics. Not just the amatuers that suffer I guess.

Whats your commute route in Manchester?

TandemJeremy – Member
rOcKeTdOg – Member
every commute the odds on you getting killed increase…..if you believe that sort of thing

Rubbish – Thats not how probability works

WRONG.

Whatever the probability of dying on your bike, the more time you spend cycling, the greater chance it will happen.

simples.

Fylde coast into Preston (may God have mercy on my soul) and back, about 22 miles round trip. Mixture of country roads and busy urban streets. I will admit that I'm not a fan of riding in fast moving heavy traffic anyway. I think the solution to my problem is putting dirt tyres on the bike, and dodging the spliff smoking chavs and endless piles of dog eggs on the canal path. At least they're easier to dodge.

EDIT : Just seen this on road.cc

http://road.cc/content/news/16770-round-world-adventurer-run-road-devon

Hope he gets well soon, and best of luck.

Al – What you and what RD are saying are two different things. Once again you leap in without understanding what is being said. What a surprise.

The probability of dying on a cycle commute is unaltered by the number of times you do it. Think of tossing a coin – even if you have tossed a coin 20 times and got heads each time the next coin toss is 50 / 50 heads or tails. So RD is wrong

You are also wrong as the benefits of experience mean that the more you cycle the less your risk per mile or per trip.

Do try to think straight before leaping it.

lol @ probability handbags 🙂

J0Ns right, I used to go balls out on the commute, full on sprint to and from work, I started doing a lot more mileage evenings and weekends so reigned it in a bit on commutes to save my legs and I get a lot less trouble now. Oh and I thought I used to ride primary position until I rode with a bike tutor who pointed out primary was another foot or two out from where I was riding, even less trouble now i know that.

Yes.. probability and likelihood are differet things, at least where mathematics is concerned.

As for road position – if I need to I try to inch out from the kerb just enough to plant doubt in the mind of the driver as to whether or not they can get through, without making it look like I am deliberately trying to holding them up. I appreciate of course this is not always possible and you may need to properly claim your position.

And I don't avoid annoying drivers for their benefit, I do it for my and other cyclists benefit.

TandemJeremy – Member
You are also wrong as the benefits of experience mean that the more you cycle the less your risk per mile or per trip.

You have a 0% chance of dying while cycling if you do not cycle. Ergo if you do cycle, the chance of dying while cycling increases – not as an average necessarily.

I thank you!

Apart from all the usual "precautions" to take when cycling in traffic i.e. defensive cycling and hi vis clothing, CTC membership is in my opinion well worth it. I know it may seem useless if you are fatally injured on your bike, but the best thing about being involved in an accident that wasn't your fault and the driver letting his bullying insurance firm loose on you only to have them squarely smacked down by a CTC QC is very satisfying. Case in point, I took a report from a dickhead motorist complaining about two cyclists, one apparently knocked his wing mirror off when he was setting off from lights, the driver slammed his brakes on and his mate went into the back of him. The driver gets out and chases the poor fella who went into the back and kicks the crap out of his bike, knackering the back wheel (as well as the front being bent). When I get there the driver points out a witness at the nearby Charlie Browns garage who tells me that the driver is a dickhead also and gives a statement to that fact. I managed to trace the affected cyclist who was looking at a £300-£500 bill and persuaded him to join CTC, and see if they would take his case on, they did. So motorist gets told by rob dogging main dealers that his V reg Vauxhall is a write off, and thinks he can get the cyclists to pay for it as his insurance firm have told him that as they went into the rear of him it is their fault. I never told him that I had traced the other cyclist and that he had joined the CTC and would now be getting far better legal services than his poxy insurance firm. Thought he could find that out himself. Brilliant advert for CTC is you ask me.

soulwood just to clarify a guy in a car gets rear ended by a cyclist and the dealer tells him it's a write off?

Luckily I've not had to make use of ctc 3rd party/legal team yet but reassuring to have it.

I used to know a guy who kept spent batteries in a basket on his handlebars that he would chuck at any car that pissed him off! Quite entertaining, but bit of a risky strategy methinks