What's the opposite of a left hook?

[Arch]

Riding home last night, on my new commute, just coming up Clifton to the point where it becomes Bootham - very slightly uphill, so I don't have a lot of momentum...

Anyway, a small car passes me - possibly a Peugeot 205, I didn't notice. Passes perfectly well and clear. About 50-100 yards ahead (I'm not good at estimating distance, but anyway, far enough) is a road to the left, and the Pug indicates to turn into it. I'm still coming up behind, but not fast, and the pug is well in front - he'll have completed the turn before I get there. There's a standard slightly pointless green cycle lane painted on the road.

Then the driver stops, on the point of making the left turn, looks in his mirror, then over his shoulder and waves me past on the inside, waiting while I pass! I can only assume he was foreign, although the car was British registered. I know in Denmark for example, cars must give way to cyclists coming up the inside on cycle lanes before turning right (our left), and in Holland drivers entering or leaving side roads have to give way to cyclists on cycletracks alongside the main road. The driver and passenger (both young men) didn't look typically Scandinavian - more dark actually, I thought French perhaps.

I'm sorry now, I didn't really give them the big smile they deserved, I was so gobsmacked I just stared as I rode past.... Anyway, on the off chance that they read this, thanks! If only more natives were like that....

 

[RRCC]

I tried to do this once when I was driving - the cyclist insisted I went first.

 

[zimzum42]

I would prefer a driver not to do this, and would likely be lining up to pass him on the right anyway....

 

[Arch]

I would prefer a driver not to do this, and would likely be lining up to pass him on the right anyway....

But him having done it, it would have been rude not to go...

Anyway, as I said, it's the law in some countries, so I assume he was bringing foreign habits with him.

 

[Arch]

In case no one noticed, it was meant to be positive story about something that made me smile on the way home.... (once I'd got over the surprise)

 

[marinyork]

I thought this was going to be some comic story about an idiot reversing out onto a main road . I've had that happen to me. I've not had the above happen though.

 

[Arch]

I thought this was going to be some comic story about an idiot reversing out onto a main road . I've had that happen to me. I've not had the above happen though.

Well, come and cycle up and down Clifton/Bootham a lot, maybe you'll meet him too!

 

[marinyork]

I'd rather do it on the way to somewhere else. If I cycled up and down the same route too much people might get the idea I was trapped in a time loop.

 

[thomas]

I tried to do this once when I was driving - the cyclist insisted I went first.

I tried getting a rubbish truck to go when I was on a roundabout earlier by waving him and slowing down. He smiled and waved me on...

I wasn't really being nice (that was a side affect), I just wanted to not have him behind me further up (he never actually came past so it didn't really matter).

 

[John Ponting]

Happens regularly in Belgium. I found it a bit unexpected the first time I spotted bikes undertaking me to continue round a roundabout when I was already signalling and was very very close to the exit turn.

No problems at all for either of us. Bit later I sat at some traffic lights (car hood down) and had a long chat with a Belgian cycle club; they explained the rules to me and said that they always made space for UK registered cars.

btw they were 2 different sets of cyclists.

 

[HLaB]

R

Then the driver stops, on the point of making the left turn, looks in his mirror, then over his shoulder and waves me past on the inside, waiting while I pass! I can only assume he was foreign, although the car was British registered. I know in Denmark for example, cars must give way to cyclists coming up the inside on cycle lanes before turning right (our left), and in Holland drivers entering or leaving side roads have to give way to cyclists on cycletracks alongside the main road. The driver and passenger (both young men) didn't look typically Scandinavian - more dark actually, I thought French perhaps.

I'm sorry now, I didn't really give them the big smile they deserved, I was so gobsmacked I just stared as I rode past.... Anyway, on the off chance that they read this, thanks! If only more natives were like that....

Or he was a thoroughly nice chap with a conscious, it does happen occasionally.

 

[Arch]

Or he was a thoroughly nice chap with a conscious, it does happen occasionally.

a conscious what?

I dunno. I don't think there are many British motorists, even among those who cycle who would stop on the verge of turniong and then wait, some seconds, for a cyclist to come past. Like I said, it wasn't that he was about to left hook me or cut me up, he actually had to wait for me to catch up and come by. That sort of behaviour surely only comes from learning a different system to the British one...

 

[Bman]

I would prefer a driver not to do this, and would likely be lining up to pass him on the right anyway....

+1

I would do the same.

 

[Bman]

Thinking about it some more, If I were in a car, in that same situation, I probably would allow the cyclist room to get past. Depending how far away they are. After all, you are tuning left across another lane of traffic.

I just wouldnt expect a car driver to do this, hence my road position change.

 

[Amanda P]

Could it have been the pointless green cycle lane that prompted this odd behaviour?

(You're right, it turned out positive. But the very unexpectedness of it could cause problems. It's when something unexpected happens, and we have to decide what we're going to do in resonse at no notice that accidents happen...)