"polite" left hook.

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palinurus

Velo, boulot, dodo
Location
Watford
These ones are somewhat annoying, but infrequent. Approaching junction car overtakes indicating left. A bit close to the junction perhaps but no big deal, not a whoa! moment, slow a bit and let driver turn left.

Except the car slows right down, so do I.

Then it stops, presumably to allow me past on the inside, leaving me balancing on my pedals wondering whether to wait or go past on the right.
 

NigC

New Member
Location
Surrey
I think I'd go on the right - it's good to see that the driver realised they'd miscalculated it, but you're never quite sure what they're doing ;)
 

benb

Evidence based cyclist
Location
Epsom
I was going past a line of parked cars, and the road was quite narrow. There was a gap in the cars, so I pulled in and signalled to the car who had been driving patiently behind me to go past. Nothing. I waved him on again, and could still hear the engine. By this time I had nearly stopped. I looked behind and he was parking in the gap, except he couldn't because I was in it!
 

Jezston

Über Member
Location
London
benb said:
I was going past a line of parked cars, and the road was quite narrow. There was a gap in the cars, so I pulled in and signalled to the car who had been driving patiently behind me to go past. Nothing. I waved him on again, and could still hear the engine. By this time I had nearly stopped. I looked behind and he was parking in the gap, except he couldn't because I was in it!

Haha, had something similar myself the other day. Moved into the parking spaces at the left side of a road to let someone past, turned out that was where he wanted to go!

You can't win ;)
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
Something we get at work, riding the Maximus trikes, is when we're waiting to turn right out of a side street on to a main road, a driver to our right will slow and wave us out - utterly regardless of the stream of traffic coming from our left. And then they look bewildered or even angry when you don't go and instead wave them past.

On one or two streets, there's a handy traffic island that means we can go half way and wait, but this always happens at the junction where there isn't, so you have to be sure of getting out in one go - unless you are going to assume that a driver coming the other way will stop for you - not an assumption I'm ever going to make.
 
GregCollins said:
all this waving people on and out...

what page is it on in the Highway code? :rolleyes:

It isn't and even waving thanks would be a negative on a driving test.

That said, in the situation of the misjudged pass and subsequent "you go..no you go..", given that the driver is obviously using their mirrors, I usually make a clear signal for the driver to go on ahead.

No point being mardy about it, by hesitating they know they got it wrong and do actually give a damn that they misjudged it.
 
Yeah when they do that I never pass.I reckon they think it's clever top driving when it would be better to hang behind.
 
Had someone this morning pass me and then start to indicate and immediately start to turn into a driveway. I was sat in a cycle lane and emergency stopped, fearing the dreaded left hook. He stopped mid turn as he checked his mirrors, having passed me 5 seconds earlier doing 20+.

All the traffic froze waiting for him to complete the turn.

The 'turnee' was expecting me to pass him on the left, which would have been painful, so we all sat there until he did turn in with a smile from me. I was fuming inside because he must have indicated as he started to move, which made me think I was going to headbut the side of the car...disk brakes are great.
 

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