What I can see in my NS truck mirrors.

[Linford]

I've got no problem deciding if I feel it safe to filter past a stationary HGV, but if that driver has just passed me and he is joining the back of a queue of traffic, then he needs to be mindful that I will be filtering past him at some point again if it isn't moving.
My biggest problem with commercial vehicles is that they don't acknowledge how much space I need when they need to get past. If I'm riding 6" from a drain, I will move out another 6"-12" if the ground is depressed around it.
I had this happen a few days ago...me cycling along, and a 3.5 tonne merc van comes past me leaving less than 12" to my bars (i'm out just beyond the drains. He pulls in a few yards ahead and as I pass him, I say thanks for getting so close....his answer was 'I was on the (broken) white lines, how far out do you want me to go when passing you' ? .....me WTF ?????????????????????????????????????????????

 

[vernon]

I've got no problem deciding if I feel it safe to filter past a stationary HGV,

 

[Deleted member 23692]

I can quite understand why people react badly to your deliberately obstructing their use of the road.

I am doing exactly the same as when I'm riding my bike and taking the smugly termed 'primary'... being assertive and protective of my space on the road.

Whether a car slows a cyclist down or cyclist slows a car down, if the person being 'obstructed' (your word not mine ) gets peeved by being held up for a few seconds then that says more about them than it does about me!

 

[BigonaBianchi]

i would like to ask why, in my experience, is it the large lorry drivers who pass closest? They are the ones who seem most reluctant to pull out far enough when overtaking. Why is that?

 

[MontyVeda]

Sometimes motorised traffic is moving faster than me and sometimes the other way around. When it is faster than me I will, all other things being equal, allow space for drivers to overtake. In return I expect not to be impeded by vehicles when I am the faster road user. I can quite understand why people react badly to your deliberately obstructing their use of the road.

I guess the bold bit is your responce to Ffoeg saying:

These days, at junctions and lights etc, I pull up close to the kerb (especially if I'm turning l left) to stop them being so bloody stupid. This has even provoked some panel slapping anger from the self righteous cyclist, but in their misguided infallibility they fail to realise actually I'm being responsible for their actions... which is what to the eejits seem to want me to do.

Do we as cyclists have a god given right to undertake just to get infront? Or are we just part of the traffic the same as any other vehicle?

 

[Linford]

I guess the bold bit is your responce to Ffoeg saying:


Do we as cyclists have a god given right to undertake just to get infront? Or are we just part of the traffic the same as any other vehicle?

We have a legal right to filter. We also have a responsibility to ourselves to ensure we don't recklessly put ourselves in harms way. If in doubt...don't do it.

 

[MontyVeda]

is filtering and undertaking the same thing?

 

[vernon]

i would like to ask why, in my experience, is it the large lorry drivers who pass closest? They are the ones who seem most reluctant to pull out far enough when overtaking. Why is that?

Because you're in Sussex.

Don't have that problem in Yorkshire or is it because I'm large enough to have my own postcode and a large deviation isn't optional?

 

[vernon]

It could be that Big on a Bianchi exerts a measurable gravitational field.

He's that big?

 

[KEEF]

More mirrors more blind spots.People cause accidents not vehicles.Consideration Patience and a modicum of common sense is the answer.

 

[Sara_H]

I, for my sins, drive a truck for a living. (Someone has to deliver beer, cider and cake to supermarkets, so it might as well be me!)
As we all love trucks and their drivers, I thought it might be of interest to some of you to see what can be seen in the 4 nearside mirrors, hence a pic I took whilst stationary today. I am in the middle lane of three, waiting at a red traffic light.

View attachment 28908

The pic is taken at my eye level, so this is a fair representation of what is visible from a DAF CF.

whats your view on this case?:

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/hope-fennells-killer-driver-jailed-5849881

 

[Deleted member 23692]

This isn't being held up for a few seconds though. If I were to go to work following your rules, I would be overtaken by a large vehicle approaching a set of lights and then wait behind it for a couple of phases before getting to set off again. Then I might get to follow another one through a mile or so of stop start traffic. Then I might get to repeat the first one when things start moving.
It is nonsense. If I wanted to add half an hour to my commute each way I would drive

You could always leave earlier

I've not idea what 'rules' you think I have' made' but you are more than welcome to ignore them

 

[Deleted member 23692]

"they shall not pass my left hand side" rule.

As I stated earlier ... not when I'm near a junction (as in NEAR - one or two vehicles back), but at any other time when stuck in traffic I really don't give a flip which side you pass me on.

CBA now

 

[Sara_H]

[QUOTE 2639004, member: 9609"]Texting whilst driving - he should have been executed. Not sure what the relationship is between this case and what can be seen through rear view mirrors.[/quote]
More about blind spots, the driver said he killed the girl because she was in his blind spot.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

Yep i'm in Sussex, but i'm no bigger than any other 6'4" cyclist (the rest of you are all small)....and i ride very carefully. I can usually tell from listening when the next heavy trucker will pass, and i can tell when they will be to close and to fast, and that is 80% of the time. They seem to believe a bike has no place on a road, that they own the road and that they have a god given right to scare the living crap out of me at the least, just because they cant be bothered to wait a few seconds until it is safe, or to pass wider than 6 inches.
These guys are supposed to be professional drivers, yet they are some of the most dangerous i experience on my rides. That is not because of the stupid size of their trucks but because of their attitude and frankly total disregard for the safty of cyclists.
I appreciate they have a job to do, but all they have to do is change their attitude and drive sensibly. Im sick of being 'attacked' by huge trucks just because they believe i have no place on the road, and they are on some kind of greed driven delivery target or something.
The standard of heavy truck driving here is appalling.