Bit of an incident on yesterdays club ride got me thinking ... https://andrewcater.wordpress.com/2015/03/15/some-thoughts-on-road-safety/
Road rage close encounter...
- Thread starter iLB
- Start date
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Turbo
Clueless member
- Location
- West Yorkshire
Could he of passed if you weren't two abreast?
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Just ignore him and carry on. Nothing more painfully infuriating for the road rager than being ignored.
jdtate101
Ex-Fatman
- Location
- Boring Birmingham
It amazes me the amount of motorist that decide to square up against a large group of fit, athletic blokes and don't think of the consequences if it happens to get out of hand. If their rage got the better of them and they unleashed a swing, it's not going to go well for them in a 8 on 1 scenario is it? But then...when is common sense ever have anything to do with road rage? My own worst encounter was a few weeks ago, where a driver did pretty much the exact same as the OP describes..a dangerous overtake in a stupid place. when we gesticulated to him his error he stopped and was an absolute volcano of rage. He even thumped the top of his car hard enough to leave a dent. He even reversed towards us a few time, threatening to run us over. Luckily there was another car driver behind as witness, so he just sped off in the end. He was a small dude and would have received a good pasting from our group if he'd tried anything. Obviously there was something else going on in his life that day which had tipped him over the edge...we just ended up being its outlet.
Joshua Plumtree
Approaching perfection from a distance.
That's easy for you to say, you steaming hulk of manhood with nowt to be afraid of!
Surely single file when there's stuff behind?
nickyboy
Norven Mankey
- Location
- You want hills? We got hills
If all cyclists fight like this then I don't think car drivers have got much to worry about
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eArlm3ukbVs
Precisely because it was a narrow road. They were in fact making an overtake easier, and discouraging a dangerous overtake.
I think it stretching the meaning of taking a primary at a pinchpoint. Any normal driver would be wondering why are these chaps riding abreast on a narrow road and how far this will go.
I have yet to see a group riding 2 abreast on a narrow road. What I see is outside riders trailing back to single formation at narrow roads and I am assuming its for their own safety and not just as a consideration for other road users.
I have yet to see a group riding 2 abreast on a narrow road. What I see is outside riders trailing back to single formation at narrow roads and I am assuming its for their own safety and not just as a consideration for other road users.
Even if you think it's poor road craft from us, it does not present an open invite for reckless driving.
When it comes it crazies doing various stunts when overtaking cuts across all road users. I have seen them take on HGVs, when the odds are stacked against them. Hate to sterero type but it is always a middle aged male.
That's because the ridiculous deference to anyone in a motor vehicle is so ingrained that even quite a lot of cyclists seem to suffer from it.
A moment's thought will illustrate that going two abreast makes overtaking easier, as the right rider won't be much further right than a single rider would be, so there is less distance needed to be on the right hand side of the road.
nickyboy
Norven Mankey
- Location
- You want hills? We got hills
Precisely because it was a narrow road. They were in fact making an overtake easier, and discouraging a dangerous overtake.
We've ben over this a gazillion times on here but once more won't hurt I guess. I understand your diagram 100%. However, from a car driver's perspective, he wants to give the same space between his nearside and the thing he is overtaking. In riding two abreast that thing he is overtaking is closer to the middle of the road and thus he has to go on the far side of the road more than would otherwise be the case.
I understand that cyclists want the car driver to overtake single file just as he would overtake two abreast, like your diagram, but that just isn't the case.
So the car driver perceives that, in riding two abreast, cyclists are forcing him to either sit behind or attempt an overtake which would be more dangerous for him than if they were riding single file. Cyclists can argue until they are blue in the face but that particular perception is reality
So we should pander to the incorrect perception of the driver, and go single file even though that makes it more dangerous for the riders and more difficult for the driver to overtake? No thanks.
