Close Shaves Or Not?

[lukesdad]

Pretty much run of the mill stuff .

 

[ColinJ]

It's easy saying take "primary" but when an when an HGV is coming up your back side you don't know if they will slow down and NOT run straight over you.

Had i taken primary on one such occasion (thank you Tesco) i'd now be DEAD!!!!

I thought like that when I first got back into cycling but a very near miss encounter with an HGV convinced me otherwise.

It was a fairly narrow road, with parked vehicles either side , and traffic coming the other way, on a small hill with a blind summit.

I looked over my shoulder and saw the HGV bearing down on me and was intimidated into riding into the 'door zone' on my side - two mistakes in one!

The HGV driver went for a gap which he soon realised did not actually exist and was forced by the oncoming traffic to drift left as he was passing me. It was the nearest of near misses. How close? Let me put it this way, despite squeezing my elbows in, I only had an inch to the parked cars on my left, and an inch on the right to the side of the HGV!

I was very shaken up and vowed to myself that it wouldn't happen again. On the same stretch of road now, I adopt such a strong primary position that even the stupidist drivers know that they can't overtake. They can either mow me down or wait until we clear the brow of the hill and the road widens on the other side!

It is actually very rare for cyclists to be hit from behind as long as they behave sensibly. If you pull out in plenty of time, then only a complete psycho would drive into you and you can't spend your life worrying about psychos or you'd have to stay indoors the whole time (presumably worrying that they might find out where you live and come and get you )!

 

[Hip Priest]

As others have said, I'd suggest you take a more assertive road position. Obviously, it isn't your fault that these drivers passed you badly, but by being a bit bolder, you can prevent them. That's not a criticism, just a bit of advice.