This same old crap seems to pop up from time to time on STW… Normally from some fair-weather MTBist, Audi cock…

Sorry OP but your perception is off, if you don’t feel able to sufficiently control your car and avoid killing cyclists using perfectly legal rights of way, you could always hand your licence back…

Busy Roads can be intimidating, the speed differential seems like the most dangerous thing, but then “quiet” roads often suffer from twists and turns limiting drivers ability to see you ahead, and plenty of them get into rally-cross mode once the volume of traffic drops, just because you’re on a road with fewer cars about, doesn’t always actually mean your any safer…

As for suggesting cyclists should be cowering on “Cycle Paths” or bits of painted pavements… Just **** off!

I watched some genius belting along a pavment at ~20 MPH the other day on his cross bike, Steaming blind across Junctions, avoiding Reds (by being on the pavement) and coming a Gnat’s Testical shy downing a Phone zombie by a bus stop, He saved SFA time wise, but put himself and others at significantly greater risk of a collision…

For bimbling about with the kids cycle paths fine but if you actually want to get a shift on on a bicycle you constitute traffic IMO, not a “wheeled pedestrian” and you should be on the Road not the sodding pavement…

it is a triple carriage motorway in all but name and colour.

Definition of dual carrigeway fail?

Better read up on it before you get done for speeding on what you think is a “dual carrigeway”.

I think you know exactly what he meant.

I watched some genius belting along a pavment at ~20 MPH the other day on his cross bike, Steaming blind across Junctions, avoiding Reds (by being on the pavement) and coming a Gnat’s Testical shy downing a Phone zombie by a bus stop..

Whereabouts was this cookeaa….? Just out of interest like.. 😳

my only ever road based accident was on a cycle lane

really safe things them cycle lane.

car came from the right off the main road into a minor road/driveway , crossed the dashed line , entered the lane into the space i was occupying – down i go….. no excuse other than shear didnt look.

but yeah cycle lanes are safe.

Whereabouts was this cookeaa….? Just out of interest like..

Thatcham Heading towards Woolhampton… Don’t suppose you own a Disc braked Vitus CX bike do you?

Audi cock…

calm down, he meant the A3, not an A3

Better read up on it before you get done for speeding on what you think is a “dual carrigeway”.

The speed limit is 70mph there.

As an fairly frequent road rider myself, I’ve occasionally ended up on main roads for different reasons. Sometimes I took a wrong turn, or because I was lost, or new to an area and having an explore or because I actually wanted to take a direct route. It’s no fun and certainly not pleasant but not all cycling is, all the time. Sometimes you’ve just got to get somewhere.

The speed limit is 70mph there

[url=https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=53.584761,-2.488403&spn=0.28207,0.977097&cbll=53.609314,-2.529692&layer=c&panoid=4_4ojMLraW-xMw30rCRe2g&cbp=12,38.57,,0,14.89&t=m&z=11]This[/url] is a road near me which is 60mph, get mtbers and roadies on it all the time, a high speed limit does not equal instant death for cyclists, thankfully. 3 lane dual carriageways (I’m more thinking of 50 limit ones here) should be safe enough places to ride*, they usually have good sight lines, wide lanes, a lack of distractions/obstructions/”street furniture” and ample opportunity to safely overtake, crap drivers make them unsafe, same as any road really. On 70 roads the greater speed differential will increase risk but the other stuff still applies so incidents should be avoidable. I guess the problem is people see multi-lane and switch off/into an even more car centric way of thinking and only look for/see car size and speed objects

*not that I’m campaigning for access to the motorway system, but there’s plenty of DCs knocking about in urban areas, being able to safely use them would be nice.

Don’t suppose you own a Disc braked Vitus CX bike do you?

Phew, not me. 😀

(For the record, I do “belt along a pavement at ~20 MPH”, but there are very rarely any pedestrians on it and I slow down if there are).

OK so we can all do without the unnecessary rant etc. I might be a nobber but then so are those with their own nobby comments assuming that I had problem navigating round him, I abused him as I passed, I wasn’t as considerate as I could possibly be, blah blah blah

This guy used to work opposite our office when this happened http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17512797 he was riding the A40.

Today it was not me but the nervous old dear in the small car who misjudged it and ended up suddenly braking behind him, which caught out the impatient tipper truck driver behind her who hadn’t spotted him and was too close and too fast.

I’ve seen too many deaths on the road, I don’t want to see any more and actually just want everyone to be safe, and no not locked up for wearing the wrong attire.

I’ve seen too many deaths on the road, I don’t want to see any more and actually just want everyone to be safe, and no not locked up for wearing the wrong attire.

nice to hear it, but shouldn’t your ire be aimed at the 2 crap drivers behind you rather than the cyclist ahead of you? You did call the man a “***ing idiot” for merely riding down a road he is allowed to ride on.

“nervous old dear in the small car who misjudged it and ended up suddenly braking behind him”

shouldnt be on the road then. your ignorance is not a reason to ban cyclists from using the road.

i mean – i could quite easily have been driving a series 1 landy with a 1.6 engine down that same road at 35-40mph flat out – what would you have said if she plowed into the back of me then – would still have been a huge speed differential – should i not have been there depsite having paid road tax/insurance/having plates and being road registered ?

being rear ended at 70mph in a land rover or my bike – i wouldnt like either outcome tbh.

OK so we can all do without the unnecessary rant etc. I might be a nobber but then so are those with their own nobby comments assuming that I had problem navigating round him, I abused him as I passed, I wasn’t as considerate as I could possibly be, blah blah blah

Actually I agree with the sentiment that the particular piece of road in question is a bit risky to ride on. However, it was your comments about his clothing that made you come across as a bit of a nobber.

There was a timetrial happening on the A14 at Cambridge last week. I couldn’t believe that you would choose a three lane, 70mph road to get all lycra and areo-helmeted up with mates and head out for a ride…

Darwinism?

Darwinism?

so you didn’t read the rest of the thread then matt? 🙄

Not a good section of road to cycle on and I am not convinced many that actually know it would think otherwise. A3 at Guildford

DONK – I did, I just disagree with you.

everyone – back to your cyclelanes , nothing to see here …. tough tits if you want to go somewhere there isnt a cycle lane too.

The roadies last week were racing on here – one every hundred metres or so.
Clicky googly mappy

links broken but I’m going to guess it’s a picture of a….

road?

<edit> you fixed it, I was right, yay 🙂

yup testers do that ….. nice smooth roads with great visibility for drivers to see you from miles back – as a rear red flashing light is now mandatory even in day light (certainly in scotland it would seem)

they do it on the a90 also …. i dont , i disagree with riding there , how ever i dont disagree with their right to do it.

just because you think they shouldnt be there doesnt give you the right to be complacent and drive like a **** not looking where your going. you wouldnt plough into a tractor would you – speed differential is the same.

I couldn’t believe that you would choose a three lane, 70mph road to get all lycra and areo-helmeted up with mates and head out for a ride…

Surely that’s the safest sort of road to do it on though?

Wide, good sight lines, two other lanes to pass safely in.
Seems safer than doing it on some single lane B-road where you’re more likely to encounter someone coming round a blind corner doing 70.

I remember passing a local time trial here (also on a 3 lane dual carriageway). It was well signed, held at a quiet time, and had marshals in high viz etc. I didn’t find it too onerous to stay in the middle lane as I passed it. The only danger seemed to be from a few drivers who were obviously pulling in on the cyclists deliberately to “make a point”.

I use a busy main road to work as I feel it’s a bit safer and a hell of a lot quicker than the lanes. The 15 mile commute consists of 2-3 mile sections of dual carriage way, these sections have no other junctions apart from a start and a finish. Nothing is going to pull out on me and at the time I go of a morning I am usually the fastest moving thing over the 15 miles. On the open sections the draft of the lorries is terific and the averages on strava look heroic. 😉
The lanes way is a different story, tight narrow country roads, lots of little junctions and blind bends. **** that for a game.

I think you know exactly what he meant.

Yup, the worry was that they didn’t.

I actualy agree with the OP through, riding on DC’s is utterly unsafe, as evidenced by the number of cyclist KSI’s on roads like the A19 between the M1 and Middlesbrough. There were (I think) 2 deaths and a paralysis to TT’ers in the 18 months I lived there.

I know the arguments for better lines of sight, etc, making them safer, but the anecdotal evidence just doesn’t back that argument up.

Awful bit of road that. I have the pleasure of driving through Guildford on the A3 everyday, and its bad enough in a car. . .

There is a great deal of supposition here, suggesting cyclists/car drivers are at fault when nothing has actually happened.

I wouldn’t cycle on that bit of road, even though the rules say I can. It won’t do me any good that my gravestone says, “but he was in the right to cycle there”.

I know the arguments for better lines of sight, etc, making them safer, but the anecdotal evidence just doesn’t back that argument up.

the logic and common sense tell us they’re safe but drivers just keep proving us wrong

I wouldn’t cycle on that bit of road, even though the rules say I can. It won’t do me any good that my gravestone says, “but he was in the right to cycle there”.

no but the increasing public perception of “bikes don’t belong on DCs” and thus drivers not expecting them probably won’t help.

<edit> If every DC in the land had a dedicated segregated cycle lane running alongside it that was just a smooth, just as easy to use and just as fast then I’d gladly never ride dc again. But that’s not the case and isn’t likely to be so officially banning DC use or the pervading unofficial “bikes shouldn’t use DCs” tactic is out of order.

It’s not a tactic of anyone AFAIK, it’s just the fair proportion of cyclists on a cycling forum expressing an oppinion of “F*** that for a game of soldiers”.

yeah tactic was the wrong word, bit of brain freeze, erm… nope still not got the right word, missed edit window anyway…

good sight lines

Not when you are tailgating a wagon, looking to the right as there wont be a cyclist in the inside lane now, would there?

i pedaled along the A40 for a mile yesterday, I’ll expect a stream of angry comments on Welsh forums

Not when you are tailgating a wagon, looking to the right as there wont be a cyclist in the inside lane now, would there?

Same as any other road, then?

I race with …a3crg who organise time trials on the A3 (ham barn roundabout up to liphook) in all the years of racing on that stretch (club and open events) they have never had an accident. The only incident was a tester who rode into the back of a stationary car!

I was a little unsure when I got started, and to be fair they are careful about the timings of events, and there are lots of signs, but with two lanes, cars do give you room, and they can see you a long way back.

Another DC tester here and although it can be mind and arse numbing it feels safer than testing on the single carriageway routes, or the single lane country roads on the way to the event.

As for riding on the A3, myself and 4 others rode London to Paris and used the A2* for a bit before getting onto the nicer roads. It wasn’t pleasant but we were entitled to be there and it was getting us to where we needed to be.

*it’s one different so it’s close yeah?

I’ve seen too many deaths on the road, I don’t want to see any more and actually just want everyone to be safe, and no not locked up for wearing the wrong attire.

A nobel cause indeed.

I, for one, feel much safer knowing that one day I might read someone else’s thoughts about my choice of road and clothing on the internet. The fact that a complete stranger would care enough to rant about it on a forum makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Keep up the good work.

There was a timetrial happening on the A14 at Cambridge last week. I couldn’t believe that you would choose a three lane, 70mph road to get all lycra and areo-helmeted up with mates and head out for a ride…

It’s only 2 lane around Cambridge, Newmarket way though….