was I in the right?

[grldtnr]

Not a road trip go's past without some prannett doing something totally daft, incurring my disapproval, if It was invested in me to be judge and jury, there would be a mountain of corpse in my backyard.
Thankfully , regretfully I don't have that power.
Oh yes ,I might be a boring Joe, but I fully understand that i am driving riding a lethal weapon, and travel accordingly.

 

[T4tomo]

Lack of common sense its a common thing - accelerating to "cause a situation" when easing off would allow the other car to get out of the way. Nob heads seeking confrontation.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Not quite the same situation as Accy's but I have noticed an increasing number of drivers not waiting for me to clear at temporary traffic lights. There is a constant stream of ever increasing roadworks all around my cycle routes, often it could be a temp light situation where there is half a mile or more of road to clear. As the lghts are set to car speeds, I do get occasions where I go on green and by the time I get towards exiting the roadworks the lights have changed. Most drivers do wait but you get the odd idiot that decides to drive straight at you. I have had a couple of instances where I have actually been forced onto a verge or pavement as they have decided to play a game of chicken with me.

Yes, most drivers think that a green light means go. In fact it means go if clear. It is difficult if you are completely blinded by an obstruction though. In Accys case the advice I got was to creep out/around the obstruction and be prepared to stop. You have to make a move, otherwise you'd be there for hours waiting

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

Yes, most drivers think that a green light means go. In fact it means go if clear. It is difficult if you are completely blinded by an obstruction though. In Accys case the advice I got was to creep out/around the obstruction and be prepared to stop. You have to make a move, otherwise you'd be there for hours waiting

Totally agree on Accy, in that situation you have to go when you feel confident it is safe to proceed. Mine have been drivers who can quite clearly see the full road ahead and that there is an oncoming cyclist and it is therefore in no way clear. You are absolutely right about a green light, first time it happened the driver drove towards me and then stopped in the road. I had no choice than to cycle around as several cars had followed her. She said the light is on green at which moment I pointed out that that is immaterial if the road is not clear. She had no clue this was the case.

 

[Drago]

As drummed into me ,on recent motorcycle training, always drive within a distance that you can see to be clear, in other words ' if you see nowt, drive in doubt'
It's about road positioning really, if the driver has come to a halt so close they cannot see around the vehicle , then they are a complete divot !
If the esteemed Accy, in all is dapper finery, had stopped further back , there's a chance he could have seen it's clear, then gone.
Of course there's further to go ,and the chance someone cresting the hill may have filled the gap, but that's always going to happen.
Just stopping further back your perspective changes, rather than have your snout on the vehicle in front, take a view further back.
It's not a common sense, but is pretty simple to do.

Over a crest - left is best!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Over a crest - left is best!

I know a spoonerism of that, but it’s before the watershed

 

[Accy cyclist]

Below are photos I took a short while ago of the pub on the left where the dray wagon was. As you can see, that car in the photo is taking up a third of the road. Imagine if it was overtaking a big wagon parked on its left. It would be completely on the right hand side of the road, as I was yesterday.

 

[DRM]

The correct course of action would be to pull up behind the dray wagon, carefully timing the stop to when the draymen are dropping the barrels into the cellar, thus are distracted, retract soft top of your Fiat, nip out and put a couple of barrels/crates in the vehicle, then leg it, consider it a lane blocking tax! in all seriousness, if the oncoming car had backed off a bit, there wouldn't have been a problem.

 

[Seevio]

ESH

 

[grldtnr]

It Accy had stopped or prepared to overtake further back his view would have been far better
Road positioning is all !

 

[CXRAndy]

We have a road near us which always has regular accidents. The road bends and at the same time narrows to one vehicle car width. Its a case of who is there first gets priority, invariably vehicles meet at the same time, carrying far too much speed, either or both run off the road and demolish the small retaining walls on either side. You can tell drivers are going to fast, because of the level of damage we see.

There has been another crash at the above bend. This time seems alot more serious, one of the occupants has been killed. The wall has been completely demolished.

The road has been closed for several days now, presumably for police to finish their investigation

 

[grldtnr]

Familiarity breeds contempt, or they just switch of once behind the wheel,
Not do I, I am very conscious of what I am doing whenever I use the road, even to the extent when walking,the route into town usually is along the main drag, with many side streets and drive in businesses , I stride along purposefully, rarely stopping even when conflicting traffic is about, the highway hierarchy and priorities are in my favour and I use it.
Of course there's a small part of me that will accede to your incident with the crash, but when's all said, they were very foolish to crash there, very unlikely to be a visitor ,as even then reckless or not, they will see the danger and take a bit more care.

 

[Accy cyclist]

It Accy had stopped or prepared to overtake further back his view would have been far better
Road positioning is all !

But then my overtaking maneuver would've taken longer if I'd set off overtaking further back. I'm still 'furious' as the first car that came at me could've sat back, moaned about me to his/herself and let me get out the way, with me flashing my headlights and holding my hand up to thank them for their patience. As for the last one in his Chelsea tractor, I know who he is. He's always been a clever devil, walking through the park and town with his German Shepherd dog not on a lead, to intimidate folk with smaller dogs etc. I was tempted after the event to post a PM on his Facebook messenger page explaining why I was on the right hand side of the road when he appeared, but I think he'd be too thick to understand my reasoning.

 

[Drago]

But then my overtaking maneuver would've taken longer if I'd set off overtaking further back.

It would, but it gives you better visibility ahead and more opportunity to safely abort the manoeuvre if required.

 

[DRM]

Familiarity breeds contempt, or they just switch of once behind the wheel,
Not do I, I am very conscious of what I am doing whenever I use the road, even to the extent when walking,the route into town usually is along the main drag, with many side streets and drive in businesses , I stride along purposefully, rarely stopping even when conflicting traffic is about, the highway hierarchy and priorities are in my favour and I use it.
Of course there's a small part of me that will accede to your incident with the crash, but when's all said, they were very foolish to crash there, very unlikely to be a visitor ,as even then reckless or not, they will see the danger and take a bit more care.

The point being the road was CLEAR before, & as Accy overtook the parked HGV, then another car appears, the driver of which should have backed off a bit, which would have allowed both parties to carry on without any grief, in my experience it's idiots like the other driver, who thinks he/she will teach Accy a lesson that's the sort of entitled twunt that would also happily try to run a cyclist off the road as well, it's quite simply trying to bully the driver of a smaller car, because they think they're better than Accy