Hold the line!!

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brokenbetty

Über Member
Location
London
I'll happily move in front of someone if the alternative is blocking the ASL entrance. I'm not going to trap another rider in the squish zone. Or indeed be trapped there myself. Nothing more annoying than filtering to a clear ASL then having the berk in front stop as soon as he gets there.
 
OP
OP
jonny jeez

jonny jeez

Legendary Member
brokenbetty said:
I'll happily move in front of someone if the alternative is blocking the ASL entrance. I'm not going to trap another rider in the squish zone. Or indeed be trapped there myself. Nothing more annoying than filtering to a clear ASL then having the berk in front stop as soon as he gets there.

I'm with you on that BB, but these aren't situations caused by poor road reading or surprise conditions (I'm as guilty of each as the next rider).

these are plain and simple queue jumpers, they do it every single time and with 98+ sets of lights on my inbound journey alone...their rudness (or inconsideration for others) get a little frustrating.
 

Landslide

Rare Migrant
keirin.jpg
 

HaloJ

Rabid cycle nut
Location
Watford
jonny jeez said:
I'm with you on that BB, but these aren't situations caused by poor road reading or surprise conditions (I'm as guilty of each as the next rider).

these are plain and simple queue jumpers, they do it every single time and with 98+ sets of lights on my inbound journey alone...their rudness (or inconsideration for others) get a little frustrating.

98+ lights! :hyper: I get narked at 15! Swore today at one set that changed before I got there due to being held up at the prior set only to then have those that held me up trundle past and RLJ. :bravo:
 

Captain

New Member
I havent had much experience of congestion at the lights, but I see too many people jumping the lights and I have also been intimidated by cars creeping into the cycles area whilst waiting for the lights to change.
Bristol isn't too bad for cycle commuting though. on my route I cross in front of Temple Meads station where there are cycle lanes and provisions that allow us to skip the traffic lights, it's nice.

Captain
 

Origamist

Legendary Member
With the better weather, I've noticed problems where there are not ASLs (a bit like the old days) and high volumes of cyclists. In this situation where there is limited space to create a de facto reservoir there are lots of cyclists who either sit to the left of traffic in the gutter, or even more unwisely sit between lanes of traffic on their right and left.
Back to the OP, I accept that other cyclists will do this and I sometimes politely chat to them - it disarms them. I usually find at the next set of lights they pull along side and chat or they are scared and keep well away from me!
 

GrasB

Veteran
Location
Nr Cambridge
In all honesty it's not exactly rocket science, if someone's overtaken you the last thing you do is barge in front & force someone to do it again. If the ASL looks to be fairly full put your self in the middle of the lane between some cars, it has the same effect but means you're not creating a large pool of cyclists which are holding the traffic up as you sort them selves out.

Contrary to what User3143 said overtaking another vehicle does not increase your general awareness. What he seem to have forgotten is we're constantly filtering out the excess information we can't deal with, if you increase attention in one area you, by consequence, reduce it in another. This comes about because time is finite & decisions have to be made by certain points in time. In the case of overtaking someone instead of knowing there's a cue of traffic overtaking you, which can be estimated with a half second glance over your shoulder, you need to work out where the gaps are in that traffic, this takes far longer & requires more checks so your awareness of what's going on ahead is reduced.
 
OP
OP
jonny jeez

jonny jeez

Legendary Member
Origamist said:
Back to the OP, I accept that other cyclists will do this and I sometimes politely chat to them - it disarms them. I usually find at the next set of lights they pull along side and chat or they are scared and keep well away from me!

FANTASTIC advice, I will try that next time...;)

GrasB said:
Contrary to what lee10 said .

GrasB, I think he was kidding;)
 

Sheffield_Tiger

Legendary Member
The answer is simple.

Mount a short rope with a karabiner clip on your head tube. When one pulls in front of you, hook around their seat tube or their rear pannier rack if they have one and enjoy the ride :rolleyes:
 

manalog

Über Member
I had one the other night where he has to get to the front no matter what. I was in Primary at the lights and there is another cyclist to my left and this guy has to barge pass me brushing my elbow with his racksack just to pootle along in front of me! ;) Its not the pootling along that gets me its the Rudeness of some of this people on bikes. :blush:. Sometimes I avoid fellow Cyclist/people on bikes just to avoid this situation but sometimes you just can't.:biggrin:
 

Dan B

Disengaged member
John the Monkey said:
A lot of this stuff just seems to get translated into "you must be at the front of a queue no matter what" to new cyclists, when the key *really* is road position & eyelines, not being at the front as an end in itself.
+1
 
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