rules for cyclists on dual carriageways

[glasgowcyclist]

If he rode on the left side of the right lane the driver could perform a normal overtake.

Absolutely not!

If you're using the outside lane, take control of it. Keeping to the left of it could make you the meat in a very nasty sandwich and keeping to the right will encourage some drivers to skim past you without using the other lane.

I see this type of thing regularly in Glasgow (on multiple laned one-way streets) where some cyclists ride up the white lines, with cars and buses squeezing them from either side. Utter madness.


GC

 

[albion]

The beeps say it all.

Even drivers thought you were acting dangerous, thus likely putting a life in danger.

 

[Hacienda71]

I don't think you can make a judgement on this on the basis of the OP. You would need to know the precise location it took place in, the cyclists exact positioning and the speed and volume of traffic at the time.

 

[summerdays]

It's a difficult one and I don't think you can give a black and white answer. I'd appreciate your opinion on this road which is local to me

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.4...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sQ0gkG_AWYD0ofeHIfnKR9w!2e0

This is a 1lk stretch uphill. The right lane is a right turn only, left lane is straight on. So if you want to turn right you need to be in the right lane. But it's steep and if you take a position in the middle of the lane you will have a huge queue of traffic behind you. I'm sure some would say "so what, they have to wait"....but it doesn't feel like the right thing to do there. FWIW, I ride in the right lane but on the left side of it so as to allow space for car drivers to safely pass on my right. Must admit I cycle up it as fast as poss to minimise time there though

I'm slow uphill so I would stick in the left hand lane till it was nearer the point where it split then I'd signal and change lanes (depend on traffic conditions). If I've looked at the right place on google maps it looks like there is traffic lights on the split, so that might make it slightly easier if you could time it correctly to change lanes during a red phase.

 

[fitzyafcb]

Firstly I want to thank you all for so many quick responses.

I have learnt a lot from your answers. It's interesting to hear how everyone rides differently when it comes to these types of roads and I have definitely learnt that if we all drive a little more slowly and had a little more patience situations like this can be avoided.

Just to add though, this particular stretch of road is congested throughout the day everyday. Drivers chopping and changing lanes etc (not me :-)) I have even seen motorbikes and scooters riding on the footways.

I still think the safest way would be to cycle on the inside of both lanes and signal to move over to right lane when approaching a roundabout and not to do it so far away from the next roundabout but then would an impatient or nast motorist allow a cyclists to move over?!? I said 300 yards but it could be more. Anyway it was a long way to get prepared for a junction in my opinion but we are all different I guess and as a cyclist he must have felt safer being where he was.

I did undertake but thought it was safe but as I started to pass the cyclist looked to his left and veered out into my path. I had to look left and a right all at once which is a damn tricky skill believe me, and I may well have got it wrong, but then again it was safer than going any wider to avoid the car next to me who wanted to undertake or to carry on trying to pass the cyclist. I breaked and the car behind didn't like it. The lanes are too narrow and I feel I made the correct manoeuvre at the time to avoid an accident or killing anyone.

I think we can all take something away from this, I certainly have and i'm very happy I posted.

Take care all

 

[w00hoo_kent]

Likewise, following it on google maps it looks like a straight two lane drag, then the right hand lane turns right at traffic lights. I noticed a lot of speed camera signs and possibly a static camera too.

I'd stay in the left lane until just before the shell grip started in the right hand lane. Around then I'd go to primary and make a solid signal right. Because of the traffic lights you may now be filtering up the left of traffic waiting at a red, I'd be comfortable with that. If there's no traffic I'd expect to be given space to come across in to the right hand lane by one of the next three cars (I'd hope it was the first, but it'd definitely happen by the third.) Again with no traffic I'd take the lane until I was through the junction.

I do similar here pretty much once a day.

Initially I'd pull to the left at the traffic lights, wait for them to go red, then go across the traffic to where I needed to be. After I got more confident I now signal and come across, despite the traffic that's constantly there I always get room, tend to turn my signal in to a thumbs up acknowledgement as I get it.

 

[w00hoo_kent]

@fitzyafcb if I've got that right, on a two lane piece of road you had car car bike all next to each other with your car the one in the middle? That was definitely your problem, no way it was a safe manoeuvre and no surprise people got irate.

The cyclist wobble was probably part of the shoulder check. It's not unusual for you to unwittingly move the bike when you look around, partly because if you're not thinking about it you move your shoulders which effects the handlebars, partly because you tend to go where you are looking. Again if that caused a problem, then it was because there wasn't room to do what you were trying to do. Basically if you wouldn't put three cars side by side on that bit of road, don't be the one that puts three of anything else there.

Filtering through traffic is a bit of a special case, if the traffic is moving slow enough that splitting lanes is safe then it doesn't really count the same way as vehicles moving in free flowing situations. I'm presuming the OP was with free flowing traffic.

As you say, patience and thinking about all the variables. A bike should be given the space of a car, if I'm given half the space I tend to accept that, less and I get miffed. Cyclists are quite squishy and metal boxes aren't, you tend to remember that when one is close enough to you for you to consider it dangerous and react accordingly.

 

[Scoosh]

When drivers get impatient with cyclists going 'a bit too slowly for their liking' I often wonder if they would give the same level of abuse to a tractor driver, who is often going slower than many cyclists ...

 

[glasgowcyclist]

I did undertake but thought it was safe but as I started to pass the cyclist looked to his left and veered out into my path.

Then you've passed him too closely. From your description, you have tried to pass on his left in his lane while another car tried to pass you both in lane 1. That is a recipe for disaster and you have only yourself to blame. When a cyclist is in a lane ahead of you, that lane is occupied and you should use the next available lane to pass. If other vehicles prevent this you must wait, not try to squeeze through.

I had to look left and a right all at once which is a damn tricky skill believe me, and I may well have got it wrong, but then again it was safer than going any wider to avoid the car next to me who wanted to undertake or to carry on trying to pass the cyclist. I breaked and the car behind didn't like it.

Again, you've put yourself in this tricky position. You had other options.

... I feel I made the correct manoeuvre at the time to avoid an accident or killing anyone.

I'm surprised you think that after nearly hitting a cyclist and upsetting other drivers.

GC

 

[w00hoo_kent]

When drivers get impatient with cyclists going 'a bit too slowly for their liking' I often wonder if they would give the same level of abuse to a tractor driver, who is often going slower than many cyclists ...

My feeling is I'm doing them a favour, they are just a bit miffed by me being in the way for a few seconds, if I left them room so that they could try a squeeze and they took me out they could be living with the consequences of that forever.

 

[Peter Armstrong]

I would deffantly be doing what the cycist did, sit in the middle of the right hand lane, its more dangerous to sit in the left side of the lane because people with squeeze past, and block you when you get to the roundaboooot.

 

[John the Monkey]

I still think the safest way would be to cycle on the inside of both lanes and signal to move over to right lane when approaching a roundabout and not to do it so far away from the next roundabout but then would an impatient or nast motorist allow a cyclists to move over?!? I said 300 yards but it could be more. Anyway it was a long way to get prepared for a junction in my opinion but we are all different I guess and as a cyclist he must have felt safer being where he was.

Could be that he indicated way back, expecting to be ignored until the traffic slowed on the approach, & was surprised by someone letting him into the lane. I've had that happen on approaches to right turns, and the reverse (I ride right up to the junction, signalling right all the way with drivers ignoring me - I end up stationary on the left kerb, waiting for a gap to cross into the junction).

It's hard to tell without knowing the road and what the usual standard of driving is.

Roundabouts can be grim though, and road position is extremely important in getting over them safely - the cyclist you saw won't have made the choice lightly, or without reference to their experience of this, or similar roads.

I did undertake but thought it was safe but as I started to pass the cyclist looked to his left and veered out into my path. I had to look left and a right all at once which is a damn tricky skill believe me, and I may well have got it wrong, but then again it was safer than going any wider to avoid the car next to me who wanted to undertake or to carry on trying to pass the cyclist. I breaked and the car behind didn't like it. The lanes are too narrow and I feel I made the correct manoeuvre at the time to avoid an accident or killing anyone.

I drive too (as most of us do) - personally, I'd have stayed behind (given the situation you've described), and that's the course of action I'd recommend (again, based on what you're described).

 

[albion]

...
I still think the safest way would be to cycle on the inside of both lanes and signal to move over to right lane when approaching a roundabout and not to do it so far away ..

You really have to assume the cyclist is correct. Like me they will adapt to every different situation.
For example, to go south and take the side road south past the west of Washington services, near no one will use the dual lane entranceway to the A1. They all use the footpath until they have passed the A1 slip road.

But you really have to live it to know it. I'd say your cyclist was most certainly taking the best option as far as his own knowledge stood.

 

[4F]

Cyclist = traffic.

 

[Leodis]

I use a 300 yards duel carriage near work, I join it at some lights and have to move into the right lane before them, this means I am in the right lane approaching a roundabout. Not had a problem with drivers on there, I stick to a meter from the curb like I would on the left though running through my mind everyday is the excuse "You wouldnt expect to see a cyclist there" as a defence but I do it twice a day and it beats crossing three lanes of traffic.