This rather poor video shows
A cyclist not wearing a helmet!
More importantly it shows a Rover 200 series cabriolet, how old is that clip?
“middle of the road/lane” does not mean
They mean two entirely different things, which is the crux of the misunderstanding and the unwarranted abuse. 💡
nothing to bloody do with riding in the middle of the ‘road’ though.
I find it incredible that I understand this yet the educated STW masses still struggle.
sbob - about 3 years old IIRC
Morning all !
There is a discrepancy in language generally, and the vernacular usage dominates - "bloody cyclists in the middle of the road" doesn't mean that literally as we all know (in fact it means "more than 10cm in from the gutter" mostly)
"centre of the carriageway" as twitted by the copper does, however (especially coming from a police force) literally mean the middle of the road - on the image form the original tweet it actually would be on the catseyes. Funnily enough, on the pic they accompanied it with, the cyclist is in the middle of the LANE and not the carriageway, as implied by the dotted line anyway. I do think that's fairly poor and a far better comment would be to say that riding well out from the edge is far safer and is what they recommend
Most folk understand in respect to cyclists "middle of the road" equals " middle of the lane" As in "why were you cycling in the middle of the road" when you are cycling in the middle of the lane. Even the IAM uses the phrase "middle of the road" to mean "Middle of the lane"
https://www.motoring.co.uk/car-news/cyclists-why-do-they-ride-in-the-middle-of-the-road_62617
https://cyclingfallacies.com/en/20/people-should-cycle-at-the-side-of-the-road-not-in-the-middle
https://cycling.today/why-do-cyclists-ride-in-the-middle-of-the-road/
Even the IAM uses the phrase “middle of the road” to mean “Middle of the lane”
Yep - I think we all agree on that TJ
Of all the people using language to describe appropriate road usage, what does/should a police officer mean when he/she says "central in the carriageway"?
Middle of the lane - as does everyone who uses "middle of the road" or "middle of the carriageway"
I can forgive you for not knowing what "carriageway" means ( 😉 ) but not a police force
I know what it means but it is obvious that the police in this case mean middle of the lane. Pedatry rules on this site! And as I pointed out on narrow roads I will actually be in the middle of the carriageway or even to the right of it 😉
😉
trouble is (as I believe is jecca's point) a POLICE FORCE is using specific pseudo-legal terminology ambiguously
If they'd said "road" it'd have been just about OK - but not brilliant, given it's from from a copper
If they'd said "lane" it'd have been fine, except for the lack of lane markings on many rural roads
If they'd said "well out from the edge" (maybe even suggested a distance), it'd have been great
n0b0dy0ftheg0at
Member
I can’t help but think, as I’ve written many a time before on various online places, that we really should be making use of modern technology to enforce motorised vehicle speed limits
Speeding is the least of the issues here, automating fines is great for revenue but it means people just get away with more like diving dangerously within the speed limits
Even the folk going to tesco need to get out of the gutter.
ride 1.5 to 2m from the kerb pulling in to 0.75m to let cars past when its safe to do so
Our surrey road (the one I live on) is designed to allow cyclists that choose to forgo the beautiful cycle path that runs parallel to the road to cycle safely in the gutter...
The centre of the road (somewhat <2m) is full of traffic calming which has been specifically designed to allow the cycle gutter to be unimpeded... (personally I find the speed bumps make for once jumps on my hard tail but I don't think that's what's in the majority of cyclists minds)
From there they can go left through the park or up the hill into town with no pavement or cycle path... or go up the one way. Most cyclists choose to push one way or another. A fair few who have been carrying their racquet in one hand whilst cycling are going no further than the park/leisure centre anyway ...
If they knew what a pelaton was they would struggle to ride in one whilst carrying their squash racquet or shopping bags anyway... hence why the advice by surrey police is not particularly helpful to the majority of cyclists who use the Surrey roads.
Come 07:00 on a weekend it's completely different with lots of club riders making their way out ... but that is a tiny percentage... the sort of people who might benefit from the tweet if they didn't know already.