Close passes - advice and a rant!

[alex_cycles]

If you get a camera on your bicycle you will be to darn scared to ride once you watch a video you made your self.

We're all different, but that didn't happen in my case. But I only look at footage I'm either going to publish because it's an interesting ride, or something I'm reporting to the Police. Everything else gets nuked. At about 12 Gigabytes an hour, there's not enough space to keep it and there'd never be time to go through it. (I ride about 50 hours a month at the moment).

I'd be very interested to hear your conclusions about passing with and without the passpixi when you have it recorded on video. I too feel that I am passed more safely - ie often not passed - on the short distance I ride on the busy road, but it is very hard to be objective about it over such a short distance.

Not done it yet, but will post back here when I do. One week in, I still think it makes a difference, but would/will be nice to have some scientific evidence to back that up.

 

[a.twiddler]

I'm less surprised about you being hit by a 71 year old than the fact that she was texting. It's not something you naturally associate with older people. I'm not 71 (yet) but it takes me all my concentration just to text let alone do anything else as well!

 

[lazybloke]

Posting this here as not sure where else to put it, so I'm sorry if this kind of thing isn't meant for this section of the forum. I'm terrified enough as it is on the roads but try to put it out of mind as I tend to have a good time when I'm out and credit where it's due, a lot of people are courteous. <SNIP>

Had to know whether this was lack of observation, deliberate act, or something else.
Did you have any perception of 'eye contact' with the driver before they pulled out? 'Cause it seems like the A-pillar & mirror might have obscured the driver's view. Am not making excuses for the driver, quite the reverse - they've neglected their responsibilities as a driver and I know from experience how frightening & painful this can be be - but if this was not an intentional act then it helps to understand the circumstances/causes so that there's a chance of avoiding it in future.

 

[KnittyNorah]

Just updating this.
Yesterday in the lovely (but cold!) sun, I went out sans Passpixi as I'd washed the bike and taken the rear carrier off to let it dry thoroughly. At the 'pinch point' of the central pedestrian island, THREE cars passed me in 'close' succession, the last one much too close for comfort and quite frankly unnerving. I'm as sure as I can be that had my carrier with Passpixi been in place, the initial pass would not have occurred - and neither would the following two.
Immediately after the island and the junction, a fourth car passed me - a learner driver - whose instructor had obviously given the correct instructions to the learner about not simple following the idiot in front ... they passed comfortably wide.

Reminder to self - if no Passpixi, ride on the pavement for 50 m ... it's wide and although not a shared one, I'm always considerate and simply get off and push if anyone else is using it.

 

[Milkfloat]

Just updating this.
Yesterday in the lovely (but cold!) sun, I went out sans Passpixi as I'd washed the bike and taken the rear carrier off to let it dry thoroughly. At the 'pinch point' of the central pedestrian island, THREE cars passed me in 'close' succession, the last one much too close for comfort and quite frankly unnerving. I'm as sure as I can be that had my carrier with Passpixi been in place, the initial pass would not have occurred - and neither would the following two.
Immediately after the island and the junction, a fourth car passed me - a learner driver - whose instructor had obviously given the correct instructions to the learner about not simple following the idiot in front ... they passed comfortably wide.

Reminder to self - if no Passpixi, ride on the pavement for 50 m ... it's wide and although not a shared one, I'm always considerate and simply get off and push if anyone else is using it.

Without teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, have you considered taking a primary position by taking the centre of the lane to stop the vehicles squeezing through?

 

[figbat]

Without teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, have you considered taking a primary position by taking the centre of the lane to stop the vehicles squeezing through?

Good point - I now (and this is a fairly recent update to my riding behaviour) take a central position in the lane through narrowing and if a vehicle is coming the other way leaving not much room for a car to pass me. Of course the risk then is that a following driver gets irked at your preventing their overtake and doles out a punishment pass or worse, but so far I haven’t experienced this, just one aggressive engine revving and close follow.

 

[KnittyNorah]

Without teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, have you considered taking a primary position by taking the centre of the lane to stop the vehicles squeezing through?

I totally forgot I hadn't got my Passpixi on the bike and I'd left it too late after emerging from my cul-de-sac junction 50m before.

In any case it's a very oddly-designed stretch of road overall with deceptively wide bits interspersed with narrow winding bits. I normally take primary as or just before I pass through the pinch point. With the Passpixi in place, I've never felt the need to take it earlier as the traffic behind has actually waited for me to pass through it, drivers even smiling and politely indicating when I turn my head to check if it's safe to move out!

 

[Solocle]

Good point - I now (and this is a fairly recent update to my riding behaviour) take a central position in the lane through narrowing and if a vehicle is coming the other way leaving not much room for a car to pass me. Of course the risk then is that a following driver gets irked at your preventing their overtake and doles out a punishment pass or worse, but so far I haven’t experienced this, just one aggressive engine revving and close follow.

Doesn't always work.

 

[figbat]

Doesn't always work.

I assume that if there’s room to pass they’ll take it. I put myself in a place that leaves no room to pass, rather than just making it tighter. In the case of that video I consider the lane to include the hatched area, since it it there to be driven on. Or, if it is genuinely wide enough for me to be passed I’ll keep tight left and let them have at it.

 

[Solocle]

I assume that if there’s room to pass they’ll take it. I put myself in a place that leaves no room to pass, rather than just making it tighter. In the case of that video I consider the lane to include the hatched area, since it it there to be driven on. Or, if it is genuinely wide enough for me to be passed I’ll keep tight left and let them have at it.

You can't stop overtaking on the hatched area without letting them pass on your left. The problem is the transition from able to overtake on the hatched area to hitting the traffic island. There wasn't room to pass safely at the island, the overtake wasn't performed before the island, and I had to swerve left to avoid them, otherwise there would have been contact as they moved left to avoid the island.

There was nothing more to be done there, I left no room to pass, and they passed anyway.

 

[mjr]

In the case of that video I consider the lane to include the hatched area, since it it there to be driven on.

I hate wide hatched areas. They exist mainly to give car-crazy councils a way to spend on paint and discourage cyclists, instead of doing the right thing and painting 2m wide cycle lanes.

(I think it's there officially because wide lanes would result in more speeding and Elfin Safety says that's wrong but completely ignores that hatching both puts cyclists in danger as shown and reduces the warning that the keep-left island would have had if the hatching only started shortly before it.)