This turned into a bit of an essay, sorry.
User3143 said:
Yeah sure.
The top two things you have to care of when out on a bike are: 1) your position on the road in relation to other vehicles/road users and 2) read the road ahead and take any necessary action to make sure that number 1 does not come into any conflict of any kind
If I'm at a traffic light on a cross roads, 2 lanes merging to one at the other side of the junction, I'll let a car go in front of me if it's only me and them there. In this situation, me being positioned in the left hand lane and them in the right, my road position puts me in danger if I accelerate away from the lights at the same speed as the car. If there's more than one car there, I'll make sure the driver in the right hand lane has seen me and I'll stay in as strong a primary as possible until I've cleared the junction.
At single lane traffic lights, I'm not in a position when stopped for a car to go first.
User3143 said:
While I appreciate that it nice and spreads 'good karma' by giving way to other road users when you don't have to. At the same time it can bring conflict to number 1 and at a junction this is where it is most dangerous.
Obviously it could lead to some very sticky situations. Obviously the unexpected can and does happen, but if I spent too much time dwelling on that, I wouldn't spend much time outside of a plastic bubble
. I've learned to trust my instincts though, and I'm still here.
User3143 said:
You only have to look at the OP to see what type of idiots are out there. How the hell can a driver see two cyclists and then drive into one of them?!?!
It is scary indeed, and they were both lucky to not have been seriously injured. Some people really shouldn't be on the roads.
That said, the OP was in a position where I and the majority of other people on here would view as dangerous, the car squeezed into a gap too small because the OP had left a gap too large between them and the offside edge of the lane.
User3143 said:
In addition Joe you mention when you clip in it can sometimes be inaccurate, what if at this point you have a clipless moment and fall over? If you fall to the right you will either hit the car (who is overtaking you) or and hit the road directly in front of the cars wheels. Only when you have pulled away and clipped in should you move over to secondary
I wait until they're ahead of me before I start to move, again I only do it on certain junctions when I know there is enough space between me and the other car for them to pass safely.
I'm getting a higher success rate when it comes to clipping in though, about 70% of the time I do it straight away. The rest of the time usually involves looking down at the pedal and flipping the thing over (I wish I'd gone for SPDs now hehe).
User3143 said:
(1) The fact that the car driver would possibly think 'bloody cyclists' is irrelevant. (2) At the end of the day you have just as much right to use the road then they have.
1. A lot of the time, people do think like that and it leads to cyclists being put in danger that could have been avoided.
2. I used to get very militant about this point and put myself in situations which (looking back) were stupid, now I'm thinking more along the lines of 'right to use the road means very little when you're getting punched in the face.'
I do definitely see exactly where you're coming from Lee, and it's the way I cycle the majority of the time, it's just that I'm often in the situation where I feel safer letting the car be ahead of me. I don't spend too much time cycling in central London though. Whenever I have, I most definitely agree with you 100% of the time.