Total assumption on my part, they are 'people who don't ride themselves'
Change that to "don't ride on the road themselves" and I'd be closer to agreement. I've had a few inconsiderate passes from vehicles with bikes attached - often between Glentress and Edinburgh.
Yet 'they' more often than not start their defence with 'I'm a cyclist myself' or some such. Which is presumably code for 'I rode a bike as a child and have one moldering away in the shed...'.
The bloke I referred to up there ^ told us he left us plenty of room - overtaking in 8' of width constrained speed reduction. Gap to kerb + us + 1.5m + pseudo phallus Range Rover is a site more than 8'...
Had a later than usual road ride myself at the weekend, and ended up coming home on a busier road than usual as I was knackered and minimising the climbing.
Lorries and buses were great, waited till it was safe and did a proper wide overtake. Cycle awareness is now part of their training and/or dashcams mean they can't get away with it? A few supercars were out in the sunshine and they were also really well behaved. Presumably the cost of getting your manservant to buff out the cyclist shaped dent on your Bentley/McLaren isn't worth it. Surprisingly, I also noticed the boy racers in their Rice Crispie Beemers etc were also respectful.
It was dead ordinary folk in dead ordinary cars that were passing too close or into oncoming traffic. Just seemed a lack of awareness of speed, handling and the road ahead of them. Maybe only drive because they have to, no interest in being "good at it" perhaps?
As a long time commuter, I've found that many are by people in SUV's. Odd given the elevated driving position.
people in SUVs
Qash-qais - the most dangerous of all road users!
I once had a very angry man in a Volvo tell me I would have been safer in the cycle lane he'd just paid £500k for. I said I'd be safer if people like him weren't on the road. Sadly there is a vast wide pavement cycle lane there and the white bike relates to a user of that lane that was killed by a speeding BMW who left the road and mounted the pavement.
I find that BB oynracer types (except for one knob compensating in front of his gf) give loads of space, probably because a dent would cost em A lot to fix.
Horseboxes, well I remember the one that overtook safely. It was 2017, just south of Windsor. I get they can't swerve like an F1 driver, but maybe overtake like you would like to be overtaken when you are on a horse.
he ALWAYS passed cyclists as close and fast as he could because in his mind ' u shouldn't be on the f****n roads'. There's just no point trying to educate some people
On second thoughts...
Every time the ifor Williams blue and white rectangular logo is safely forty yards in front I breathe a sigh of relief.
Towing trailers, caravans etc should be subject to mandatory training.
It was dead ordinary folk in dead ordinary cars that were passing too close or into oncoming traffic. Just seemed a lack of awareness of speed, handling and the road ahead of them. Maybe only drive because they have to, no interest in being "good at it" perhaps?
This. And also randomly motorcyclists, who never move into the other lane to pass.
down to driver training
indeed, one way of dealing with this is to get all learner drivers on a bike and drive past them at different speeds and distances in a controlled setting so they understand what it is like being on the outside of their motorised bubble...
TBH just put them on the pavement and drive by a foot away at 40-60 mph should do it.
People have absolutely no idea of experiencing speed from the outside of their car.
If you passed them outside their cars on a shared path at 16-20 mph on a bicycle they would be apoplectic with rage at how dangerous they’d been passed but would be happy to do it to a cyclist at 2-3 times more.
I did 200km yesterday and didn't have a single close pass, so it doesn't automatically follow that you get them when riding later in the day.
No particular trends IME for who / what vehicle is more likely to close pass you. Always feel the irony when I get close passed by someone with a bike rack on their roof - it happens more often than you'd think!
Most of these are on roads for 30mph.
Made the error of riding from the Sligachan campsite on the isle of Skye to Portree.
9 of the scariest miles ive ever ridden.
Apparently there no speed limit. You dont hear them coming then they pass you with what seems like a couple of feet at 80+mph. Nothing then BANG!! as it passes and you near jump out of your skin.
The craziest part is it was a Sunday, and i know because I worked for a butcher in Portree for 6 months, and that on a Sunday nothing is allowed to be open. Utterly pointless journey
I was very fortunate the little bike shop there had the owner in doing backshop stuff so i got a five minute chat,and got some gels(that were 6 months out of date)
I took a taxi back at the cost of 20 quid.
Observations.
in my experience there is no one demographic more likely to close pass than any other.
I'm just back from Mallorca and some of the overtaking was atrocious.
When I was involved in bike hire/transport round the Scottish Highlands and Islands, I'd regularly have tourists (many from countries where cycling is more common) tell me how considerate our drivers are.
Many cyclists don't help themselves by not being considerate to following vehicles on narrow roads.
Indeed. I live on a twisty country road and get an almost perverse pleasure in being overtaken by a Mad Max style 4x4 that gives me an entire carriageway to myself.
There's a bigger road I ride on that has a rumble strip in the centre. Vehicles don't strictly need to go on or over it when passing a cyclist, but it's a nice way of letting them know that there's a car/lorry about to pass because you hear them so much better. Worse though is the drivers that don't seem to know that (here at least) it's legal to cross a solid line to overtake a cyclist so try to squeeze past instead.
I'm just back from Mallorca and some of the overtaking was atrocious.
Can pretty much guarantee that these are tourists.
Worse though is the drivers that don't seem to know that (here at least) it's legal to cross a solid line to overtake a cyclist so try to squeeze past instead.
Yep, happens to me too often around here and usually old folk driving fairly slowly in older grey Micras, Jazz's, ..
I'm just back from Mallorca and some of the overtaking was atrocious.
Can pretty much guarantee that these are tourists.
Or ‘Expats’ , going by the comments on all the Spanish stuff I’m shown on FB 🙂
Spain is definitely more pleasant as cyclings popular but there are still muppets but you definitely experience them way less than in the U.K.
"Everyone else's journey is pointless" says man on journey. 🤷♂️
If everything is closed, that's surely the best time to go visit family/friends.
Observations.
in my experience there is no one demographic more likely to close pass than any other.
I'm just back from Mallorca and some of the overtaking was atrocious.
When I was involved in bike hire/transport round the Scottish Highlands and Islands, I'd regularly have tourists (many from countries where cycling is more common) tell me how considerate our drivers are.
Many cyclists don't help themselves by not being considerate to following vehicles on narrow roads.
Indeed. I live on a twisty country road and get an almost perverse pleasure in being overtaken by a Mad Max style 4x4 that gives me an entire carriageway to myself.
There's a bigger road I ride on that has a rumble strip in the centre. Vehicles don't strictly need to go on or over it when passing a cyclist, but it's a nice way of letting them know that there's a car/lorry about to pass because you hear them so much better. Worse though is the drivers that don't seem to know that (here at least) it's legal to cross a solid line to overtake a cyclist so try to squeeze past instead.
They do a ‘happy toot’ here(Spain) to let you know on some of the tighter roads when they are going to start passing.
Its also legal to cross the white line for cyclists but not for tractors.
The Spanish police have an English Facebook group and they actually do post useful stuff about cycling stuff but obviously it turns into a pile-on cyclists.
The law is much stricter here as a bicycle is treated as any other road user,so drink driving fines apply and speeding 45km/h max but you can exceed on descents.
Mandatory helmet useage outside of towns, but you can take off on hot weather hill climbs.
But oddly there are some motorways you can ride if that appeals to you 🙂
They also breathalyse cyclists and yes people do get fines.
From what I’ve heard from real world actual people it tends to be if your cycling on fast busy roads where they are a bit worried about your safety/sanity of riding on it.
I always wonder at fiestas when I’m walking by the local police bike in one hand , pint in the other.
On the upside they don’t worry about closing roads for bike rides around the town or races and they’ll happily use police outriders to do rolling roadblocks for social rides.
A few supercars were out in the sunshine and they were also really well behaved. Presumably the cost of getting your manservant to buff out the cyclist shaped dent on your Bentley/McLaren isn't worth it. Surprisingly, I also noticed the boy racers in their Rice Crispie Beemers etc were also respectful.
It was dead ordinary folk in dead ordinary cars that were passing too close or into oncoming traffic. Just seemed a lack of awareness of speed, handling and the road ahead of them. Maybe only drive because they have to, no interest in being "good at it" perhaps?
Pretty much this - overtaking a bike is a chance to drop a gear and give it a quick blast, and then have 30 seconds of clear road ahead of you.
The identikit soft-roaders have no interest in anything. Until you are right infront of them, they probably didnt even realise the bike was there. Forward observation and even working out that the other cars have slowed to 15-20mph is beyond their understanding.
As others have probably already said, there isn't really a pattern for the folk who close pass in my experience. For my commute to work I'd say builders / contractors / groundworkers vans are probably the worst but that could be because I am out early so see more of those vehicles heading to site for before 8am. On the way home it's a total lottery, no pattern at all.
