Highway Code One Year On

[mjr]

You were riding a pedal bike; could you not have simply moved towards your left momentarily to create a safe gap for her to drive through and avoid the conflict, rather than unnecessarily stick to your primary position?

I apologise in advance if I am wrong, but that is the way it looks from the photos you have posted.

The image is too blurry for me to tell if the road surface is intact in the gutter.

Surely the bottom line is that the motorist should not have proceeded into oncoming traffic until and unless it had moved over to create a safe gap? Isn't bullying a bike rider into the kerb a type of reckless driving?

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Neither can I, to be honest. Looks like she had moved out towards the centre of the road to avoid the partial pavement parker on her left.

You were riding a pedal bike; could you not have simply moved towards your left momentarily to create a safe gap for her to drive through and avoid the conflict, rather than unnecessarily stick to your primary position?

I apologise in advance if I am wrong, but that is the way it looks from the photos you have posted.

And here I think lies the issue, she did not slow at all, she continued straight at me, there are no circumstances where she could have gone past me leaving 1.5M even if I was in the gutter the road with the car parked is simply not wide enough for her to do so, but she didn't care she was coming through that gap, I'm summarizing as I wasn't inside her head, but at no time did she consider she was putting my life in danger.

Had I been another car, a van, a HGV or possibly even a motorbike she would have yielded, but a cyclist, no they have no right to be in their way.

Surely the bottom line is that the motorist should not have proceeded into oncoming traffic until and unless it had moved over to create a safe gap? Isn't bullying a bike rider into the kerb a type of reckless driving?

I ride this piece of road usually 4 times a day & this happens virtually on each occasion, the cyclist is expected to yield, get out of the cars way.

 

[classic33]

It depends. It's much less likely to happen because I don't drive my car in bike lanes.

No, you should be where you're expected to be, in your lane when driving a car. Doesn't always happen though.

Doesn't alter the question though. Would you attempt to pass, on/to their left, a vehicle indicating a left turn?
Or on their right, if it's indicating a right turn.

Right turn removes the cycle lane from any possible answer, for the UK at least.

 

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

It reminds me of the Bristol cyclist who used to do the same, shouting at everyone and deliberately riding into people. Can't remember his name but was discussed on here a few times.

He was called Taypet. Why I remember that, yet forget important things I do not know...

 

[ianrauk]

He was called Taypet. Why I remember that, yet forget important things I do not know...

That's him. I remember a couple of videos. One where he cycled into a woman on a shared path and another when he ran into a ped who was crossing a cycle path. Both were very avoidable iirc

 

[glasgowcyclist]

It reminds me of the Bristol cyclist who used to do the same, shouting at everyone and deliberately riding into people. Can't remember his name but was discussed on here a few times.

That was Taypet21. He was a member on here too but under a different name.

Ah, I see LCpl Boiled Egg beat me to it.

 

[Jody]

It's a lovely theory but you know if that becomes accepted practice then some muppets will put their indicators on any time someone on a bike might be able to pass them on the left, don't you?

There's good reasons why there is conspicuously no rule in the highway code against passing a vehicle indicating left (unlike indicating right). Only to "proceed with caution".

"Some" muppets might, but I suspect that's not going to be the case and you probably know it.

There's no rule for passing a vehicle on the left whilst indicating as its almost impossible other than being on a cycle. We're talking about 1 single lane of traffic. If your travelling with traffic, and the car in front is signaling without overtaking then it has priority.

 

[classic33]

The roads and Highway Code aren't laid out in a way that expects motorists to do it:
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You can't have it both ways. If cyclists campaign that they want paths that offer free passage up the nearside of roads without giving way at every side road, you can't then blame them for not giving way to the traffic at every side road. The reason cyclists aren't willingly going to give way is the amount of energy it wastes (see above), and separating cyclists from the main traffic flow increases the expectation among other road users that they should do so, as John Franklin points out in Cyclecraft.

I can see the way I take risks on cycle paths myself, and gamble at side roads rather than waste energy slowing down yet again, so it surprises me not at all when I see the research that shows they're less safe. That's why I'm against cycle paths/lanes. The problem is that people want what makes them feel better rather than what makes them safer.

Either give cyclists the RoW up the nearside and enforce it, or don't lead them to think they have that right in the first place. Personally, I think the latter is the better option if you don't want to have to gamble your life on others respecting your rights.

The question asked related to going up the left-hand side of a car whilst in a car. Nothing about what you gave in your "answer".

 

[boydj]

Neither can I, to be honest. Looks like she had moved out towards the centre of the road to avoid the partial pavement parker on her left.

You were riding a pedal bike; could you not have simply moved towards your left momentarily to create a safe gap for her to drive through and avoid the conflict, rather than unnecessarily stick to your primary position?

I apologise in advance if I am wrong, but that is the way it looks from the photos you have posted.

I had similar last week on a slightly narrower road, which would have meant a close pass from a driver moving in the opposite direction. She was already in the middle of the road, but not yet at the cars parked on her side, while I was already passing the cars parked on her side. I moved into the centre of the road and stopped as she seemed to be about to push on through and if she had done so I would have had to stop and pull into the side. So she had to stop. She wasn't too pleased, but I was able to carry on safely.

 

[raleighnut]

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I find this chart hard to believe, the glaring error is the 60mph figures for HGV's, how does a vehicle governed to 56mph manage to exceed this on A roads and yet not on Motorways where the speed limit is the same for them. Now I know that there are a 'few' continental lorries on the roads that do not have the governer and some of those are capable of 90mph+ and the limiter can be disabled (by taking the fuse out) but the tacograph records this

 

[Alex321]

I find this chart hard to believe, the glaring error is the 60mph figures for HGV's, how does a vehicle governed to 56mph manage to exceed this on A roads and yet not on Motorways where the speed limit is the same for them. Now I know that there are a 'few' continental lorries on the roads that do not have the governer and some of those are capable of 90mph+ and the limiter can be disabled (by taking the fuse out) but the tacograph records this

On single carriageway A roads, their limit is 50mph (40 in Scotland), not 60 like cars, so it isn't surprising that so many exceed that.

On motorways, where it is 60mph, the 1% are probably accounted for by foreign trucks that aren't all governed to 56, while there aren't many foreign rigid HGVs on the roads, hence why they are 0% on motorways.

I'm not even really surprised the figure on NSL single carriageways is higher for trucks than for cars, since trucks will tend to be found mainly on the more major roads, while cars will often be on the smaller roads where you can't safely drive anywhere near the 60 limit.

 

[fossyant]

That's him. I remember a couple of videos. One where he cycled into a woman on a shared path and another when he ran into a ped who was crossing a cycle path. Both were very avoidable iirc

He's been replaced by Harry in Manchester. Good video of him on the crazy new bike lane on Deansgate showing how bad it is, but he shows in the clip where he rides through a bunch of pedestrians already on a crossing, as the light changed to amber. Should have stopped. Needless to say his actions distracted everyone from his original issue of pointing out how bad this new lane is. I walked passed it yesterday and its both pointless and dangerously designed.