Get on the cycle path.... what else apart from the hand signal could I have done to prevent the stupid overtake?
Get on the cycle path.... what else apart from the hand signal could I have done to prevent the stupid overtake?
Anyone who confuses my signal in the video as a right turn shouldn't be driving a car. Simples.
So Lee, what else apart from the hand signal could I have done to prevent the stupid overtake?
Why were you in the middle of the lane Mags? Turning right soon? Perhaps if you'd both given eachother some more space to manoeuvre, maybe the situation wouldn't have arisen. I don't think it's fair to label the guy an 'idiot' though, just because he misjudged the gap and mucked the overtake. People make mistakes - and fair cop that he backed off.
We don't actually know if it was the "back off" hand gesture that stopped the overtake - it could have been the shouting and/or the repeated backward glances (or a combination of any of the three).
FWIW, I don't regularly signal to other road users in the manner of the OP (I remember gesturing to a driver last winter when it was icy to back off and I recall doing somthing similar to a tail-gating coach a year or two ago) as I like to keep my hands on the bars wherever possible.
Don't follow this - the signal has the desired outcome, how can it be bad practice? It's not as if motorists are going to start overtaking right-signalling cyclists because they think you were "only" giving a back-off signal, is it?
Besides, the official meaning of the right hand out is "I intend to move out to the right, or turn right". Using your hand to signal to a following motorist that you want them out of the space alongside you fits with that pretty well.