When is 'too close for comfort' - ?

[Deleted member 1258]

I'm a bit dubious about taking a primary position,after a few nasty incidents. One particularly plays on my mind. There i was in primary approaching a busy mini roundabout when Mr Land Rover Discovery thought he'd try and overtake me. He waited till we'd both passed the little bollard,island then in a fit of rage cut me up and blocked my path forcing me to stop. Out he got waving his arms and shouting abuse. I tried to calmly explain my reason for stopping him from close passing me.He wasn't having it and started to threaten me. Luckily for me a police car was passing which i flagged down. He even started ranting at the copper,calling me and other cyclists all sorts of names. I thought the copper might've asked for the idiots insurance details etc,but no he just let him go after asking if he'd calmed down.
The idiot had a young child with him in the car to make matters worse. I bet the tool thought he'd be teaching his sprog how to treat cyclists,when he's old enough to drive.

Our old friend mr impatient, we all come across him/her once in a while, the occasional encounter with mr impatient is worth it for the reduction in close passes using primary brings.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Should I be moving to primary to discourage ?

It's all very well saying take a primary position then they can't overtake,but all it takes is some nutter who thinks he/she has a right to "teach you a lesson for blocking their path". Some out there have no or very little regard for human life and would seriously harm,even kill you if they thought they could get away with it!

 

[keithmac]

The problem is that the rules aren't clear enough and drivers know that they are unlikely to be prosecuted for a close pass. Police in most counties here won't do anything unless there's actual contact and hard evidence.

These I consider too close

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That lools like my normal ride to work!.

 

[Drago]

In a sense you cant win.

Take a strong primary and Accy's nutter might kill you.

Stay to the left and the regular drivers may kill you instead.

There's probably no one size fits all answer, but be inclined to take the lane and pull across and let any traffic past if it seems to me that I'm unreasonably impeding them. Exactly like tractors should do, but invariably don't.

 

[wormo]

I want 1.5 metre gap. When I got back into cycling a few years ago I got overtaken by a car so close my knee made a mark down the side of the car. Put me off cycling for a while again like it did when I was knocked off as a kid.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

There has to be some sort of definite measurement as anyone enforcing a future law needs to argue with some tosser that whines "I thought there was plenty of room" or wants to get the tape measure out.
I passed a cyclist on a 60mph road this morning by going fully into the other lane - something like 15 feet away, the asswipe in the Q6 coming up behind at 80mph gave him 2 feet and didn't even cross the white line.

 

[macp]

For me its the frustration at the sheer stupidity of these people who put your life in danger and as you watch them disappear off into the distance there is sweet FA you can do about it.

This is a road I travel daily on my commute to work and a complete dick in a van comes flying past me very closely I might add. As you can see the road is quite narrow with a bend ahead and on the brow of a hill. I screamed OY !! in complete frustration but he just disappeared off into the distance. And I have had it happen to me going in the opposite direction on this road. I just dont get what they are thinking ??

 

[nickyboy]

Putting aside the issue of what is acceptable on wider, more "main" roads, I do a lot of cycling on small, narrow lanes.

These are often too narrow to allow a vehicle to comfortably pass me going in the same direction as me. So my tactic to try to avoid the issue that @Drago mentions (take primary, and annoy the impatient driver, don't take primary and risk a squeeze) is to take a glance behind so he knows I've seen him. Then I'll go as fast as I reasonably can in primary (probably out of saddle for a bit so he knows I'm doing my best). Then when there's a passing place I'll pull in and give him a wave past. I've never had a problem doing this despite crawling up hills so it seems to work

 

[MontyVeda]

Putting aside the issue of what is acceptable on wider, more "main" roads, I do a lot of cycling on small, narrow lanes.

These are often too narrow to allow a vehicle to comfortably pass me going in the same direction as me. So my tactic to try to avoid the issue that @Drago mentions (take primary, and annoy the impatient driver, don't take primary and risk a squeeze) is to take a glance behind so he knows I've seen him. Then I'll go as fast as I reasonably can in primary (probably out of saddle for a bit so he knows I'm doing my best). Then when there's a passing place I'll pull in and give him a wave past. I've never had a problem doing this despite crawling up hills so it seems to work

This.

Often get a little wave of thanks too

 

[ColinJ]

And that is the correct answer. If your in primary, you can make room by moving left if you have to. If you don't give the motorist the opportunity to squeeze you, they can't squeeze you.

Oh yes they CAN!

It is a long, steep, straight descent. I was doing over 40 mph on the narrow road. I had looked over my shoulder before beginning the descent and no car was anywhere near me. The driver must have done 60-70 mph to catch me where he did and he was doing at least 50 mph when he passed me. I was in the most primary of primary positions - in the middle of the road, not the lane. The crosswinds were moving me +/- 2ft from that position so some of the time I was actually to the right of the centre of the road. The idiot behind the wheel would have been able to see exactly what I was doing as he chased me down but he STILL forced his way through. There was less than 1ft between the car and my right elbow and a similar distance between the car and the side of the road. He laughed off my super-primary and overtook anyway!

 

[gbb]

Depends on the circumstances for me.
When i was city commuting in up to 20 traffic i could tolerate car wing mirrors coming within 6 inches perhaps. Slow moving traffic, me in my cycle lane, them just on the right side, no problem. Traffic is heavy, everyone is hopefully taking attention.
But a 40 mph or worse still higher speed close pass on an open road scares the bejesus out of me....you often get little warning of their impending arrival....and worse still they're usually the ones that are so pointless, nothing coming in the opposite direction and they STILL can't find it in themselves to give you a little respect and space.

So basically, it depends almost entirely on their speed.

 

[classic33]

And that is the correct answer. If your in primary, you can make room by moving left if you have to. If you don't give the motorist the opportunity to squeeze you, they can't squeeze you.

Unless they hit you, in a failed attempt to pass, and you end up on the bonnet. In which case no amount of road posistioning is going to prevent it.

But on the upside, you'll get a new bike, for your troubles.

 

[gbb]

Unless they hit you, in a failed attempt to pass, and you end up on the bonnet. In which case no amount of road posistioning is going to prevent it.

But on the upside, you'll get a new bike, for your troubles.

Hmm, i had this once. Oncoming car in narrow'ish two lane country road. Car coming from behind, we're all going to meet about the same point so i took what i thought was a good enough primary.
FARKIN ELL..../the b'stard squeezed though incredibly closely at speed, how in Gods name he never hit me or the oncoming car, i'll never know. Ironically, had i stayed in position, it would have been close, but nowhere near as bad.

Now of course, some will say you didnt assume primary correctly...yeah that's obviously true but there must have been millimetres between the car either side at maybe 50 mph, you just can't expect such fcukwittery sometimes. Worst incident in my entire cycling life.

I swear to god, if i'd have seen the guy later i'd have ripped his head off (figuratively speaking)

 

[mick1836]

How about.

 

[smiler1207]

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Seems her infant son has more road awareness than the mother!