Thanks for this, Matt
this is a nicely written, thoughtful report, and the language shows a real appreciation of the diversity of cyclists. I liked the section about avoidance/guardedness/assertion/opportunistic. This leads to a subtler appreciation of cyclist's choices
To understand the different behavioural approaches used by cyclists, it is helpful to take a step back and consider the context in which those approaches are being deployed. The easiest way to do this is to look at the contrast between bicycles and cars.
One important, if obvious, difference is that bicycles are much narrower than cars. This fact creates a lateral ‘degree of freedom’ within lanes which cars lack: a car is either in a lane or not, but a cyclist can choose where to position themselves within a (car-width) lane.
In fact, one could argue that within any given car lane there are at least three embedded (if unmarked) cycle lanes: left, middle and right (see Figure 3.1 below). This is most obvious when approaching a right turn in a single (car) lane. A car approaching such a turn does not need to cross any lanes to get into position, whereas a cyclist needs to move from the ‘left-of-lane’ position to the ‘right-of-lane’ position, signalling (as cars have to when they change lanes) before doing so. The best car-based analogy for what a cyclist has to do here would be approaching a junction with three lanes (turn left, straight ahead, and turn right) and finding yourself in the left-turn lane when you want to turn right. The kind of stress a driver experiences when they make this mistake is probably not a bad model for the stress cyclists can experience whenever they have to turn right.
This was a particularly telling passage
For instance, one driver in London described how he had realised too late that his left turn was coming up, leaving him (as he saw it) with two choices: overtake and cut off a cyclist in front of him or slow suddenly, creating a hazard for the traffic behind him. He had chosen the first option, and a minor collision had resulted.
What is striking about this particular example is that there was, in fact, a third option: miss the left turn and find another route. The fact that this option did not occur to the driver, even in retelling the story, could be seen as an indication of the way in which stress can cause a narrowing of focus on the task in hand. Alternatively, it might be seen as a form of attitude failure.
That said - I'm not sure where this takes us. The authors have, perhaps inadvertantly, undercut the DfT's approach to cycling, which is to make a model of cyclists' behaviour and to seek to channel or modify it. The authors of this report suggest that there is no one model, and that the sheer variety of cyclists (ladeez and gennulmen, I give you the folk on CS&) makes channeling or modifying cyclists' behaviour nigh on impossible. Whether somebody at the DfT draws the conclusion that it's the 'terms of trade' that need to be adjusted, not the behaviour of cyclists, only time will tell.......
