OP
OP
TwickenhamCyclist
Guest
Some interesting comments – all welcomed – I did post that clip up for educational purposes.
Mr P – with respect, I think you’re a little off target – understandable as you weren’t there – but in answer to some of your points here goes:
She might have had priority because of the parked cars – but I think as others have commented, I was well into the manoeuvre before she appeared – if I was driving, like you, and I guess most other people, I’d have waited for the oncoming vehicle that had nowhere to go - not just aimed at them.
She was approaching, in my opinion, too fast, and showed no signs of slowing. I believed she was going to attempt to pass me fast and close. I had 2 choices and not a lot of time to make a decision.
1 – move over to the left/jump out of the way so I was touching the parked vehicles, allowing the car to try and pass me at speed: as I thought I had made clear in the video, I really didn’t think there would have been sufficient space for a safe pass – I think if I had moved to the left she would have carried on at 30mph and possibly clipped my bars or crushed me. (And as it turned out, there wasn’t enough space.) BTW by the time I stopped my left bar was about a foot from the parked cars – so it wouldn’t have given her much more room anyway.
2 - keep the road position and “force” her to see me/slow down – which I did - and which worked – and is exactly what I would do again and again if a similar situation happens in the future.
Once I had stopped I didn’t move at first because I still thought she might actually stop - not just carry on and force past when there obviously wasn’t enough room. I then didn’t move as she began to pass, not out of stubbornness, as you suggest, but because she was pulling faces and mouthing, amongst other things, that there was plenty of room – I was looking at her, trying to establish eye contact and work out what she was going on about – had she asked me to drag my bike the 12 inches that I could to the left, I would of done so, but she didn’t and, as I said, she was going on about there being plenty of room.
I don’t think I did anything wrong there – and still don’t. As I put at the beginning of the clip I think the driver either misjudged the space, or thought it’s only a cyclist… they were also approaching too quickly... either way their fault….
Mr P – with respect, I think you’re a little off target – understandable as you weren’t there – but in answer to some of your points here goes:
She might have had priority because of the parked cars – but I think as others have commented, I was well into the manoeuvre before she appeared – if I was driving, like you, and I guess most other people, I’d have waited for the oncoming vehicle that had nowhere to go - not just aimed at them.
She was approaching, in my opinion, too fast, and showed no signs of slowing. I believed she was going to attempt to pass me fast and close. I had 2 choices and not a lot of time to make a decision.
1 – move over to the left/jump out of the way so I was touching the parked vehicles, allowing the car to try and pass me at speed: as I thought I had made clear in the video, I really didn’t think there would have been sufficient space for a safe pass – I think if I had moved to the left she would have carried on at 30mph and possibly clipped my bars or crushed me. (And as it turned out, there wasn’t enough space.) BTW by the time I stopped my left bar was about a foot from the parked cars – so it wouldn’t have given her much more room anyway.
2 - keep the road position and “force” her to see me/slow down – which I did - and which worked – and is exactly what I would do again and again if a similar situation happens in the future.
Once I had stopped I didn’t move at first because I still thought she might actually stop - not just carry on and force past when there obviously wasn’t enough room. I then didn’t move as she began to pass, not out of stubbornness, as you suggest, but because she was pulling faces and mouthing, amongst other things, that there was plenty of room – I was looking at her, trying to establish eye contact and work out what she was going on about – had she asked me to drag my bike the 12 inches that I could to the left, I would of done so, but she didn’t and, as I said, she was going on about there being plenty of room.
I don’t think I did anything wrong there – and still don’t. As I put at the beginning of the clip I think the driver either misjudged the space, or thought it’s only a cyclist… they were also approaching too quickly... either way their fault….
