"You can't ride in the middle of the road"

[ArMoRothair]

School run. Myself and my 7-year-old riding our bikes on the nearest thing we can find to a quiet road around our parts: a narrow residential side street with speed bumps. We ride side by side with me taking a strong primary. The road is so narrow though that 'primary' or 'secondary' are meaningless; the parked cars on both sides mean there is no space for anyone to overtake anything.

Nearing the t-junction with a main road a 4x4 comes up behind us, waits patiently, was delayed for all of about five seconds before overtaking us as the road widens to the junction. The driver wound down her passenger's window and leaned over to shout at us "you can't ride in the middle of the road".

Normally I would answer back but didn't want to risk the danger of it descending into a shouting match in front of my girl so we simply continued on our way.

The best bit was my daughter's response. In all innocence she turned to me, as we joined the usual queue of cars at the next traffic lights, and asked: "what is she on about, everyone is in the middle of the road".

[Tangled Metal]

Sounds like the driver held herself up for as long as you did with that comment. The fool!

When we're out as a family I'm towing child in trailer and partner is on the rear outside corner of the trailer (until I drop her on a hill)

It's a sensible place to be if only to give you the peace that you're protecting the little one. You can't protect them from what some drivers say. At least your child has commonsense judging by her comment. Good on her.

[Vantage]

I do wonder at the mentality of some drivers.
The missus and I took her youngest son (10yrs) along a similar road to the park last week, but instead of waiting patiently, the merc driver who came up behind us lent on the horn. A couple seconds later we pulled into a gap between the parked cars to let him past during which his wife/partner gave me a particularly dirty look. Steam could have shot from my ears. I couldn't believe my eyes when they travelled such a short distance ahead that I could see them pull into their drive.
"Well well, this'll be interesting" said I to Pam. Pam knows me too well and told me to stay calm and just leave them be.
The merc driver and his other half were eyeballed as I rode past.

On the way home, we were going along a main-ish road and needed to take a right side road. After checking it was clear, I gave the go ahead for Pam to move out to the right hand side of the lane and for Shaun to follow. No sooner had I started to follow when some eejit in an Alfa came roaring (literally the engine was being revved off its bolts) up behind us which Shaun clearly heard and he started wobbling all over the place. The driver started slowing but Shaun was still wobbling and my attempts to cover him had me wobbling all over the place too. I could hear the eejit still doing some speed behind us and fearing the worst, I lost my temper, slammed on the brakes and parked the bike across the lane until Shaun was over the other side with his mum.
Somehow, I walked away with my bike without saying a word to the driver but the thoughts I had of throwing the bike through his windscreen and impaling him with it were particularly graphic.

In contrast, I had a lovely ride today without incident, friendly walkers, patient drivers and even found a nice little picnic spot in a ravine with a gorgeous stream surrounded by forest and moorland

[Elizabethsdad]

A lot of roads round our way have the same problem - so many cars parked on the road (and pavements - grrr!) - that the flow of traffic is reduced to one lane and everyone needs to slow down and be patient. On the whole I'd say most people are but the ones that aren't really stand out. The ones behind you are bad enough but it's the ones coming the other way and charge right at you intimidating you to get out of their way that I really hate. I will pull in to let cars by when I can especially for those coming to other way but they do need to give me a chance to get to the gap.

[Lance Dopestrong]

The UK should be like Japan, where you can't buy a car unless you can prove you have somewhere off the road to keep it. If you can't then you're restricted to buying only the tiny Kei cars.

[reohn2]

The UK should be like Japan, where you can't buy a car unless you can prove you have somewhere off the road to keep it. If you can't then you're restricted to buying only the tiny Kei cars.

But due to the way we've structured our transport system ie;car is king,we can't just impose that.
The mistake was made when public transport was privatised,people working ever further away from where they live,the young having to remain living with their parents due to high property/rent to earnings costs and needing transport for that far away job,and that transport(car) being cheaper than it's ever been.
As a result we've been painting ourselves into an ever smaller corner for some time

[Tom Richardson]

There's something weird going on with this problem that I've never got to understand:

Many times I've cycled following a car or a van along roads narrowed to a single car's width by parked vehicles. A driver coming the other way or pulling out of a side road has waited for the vehicle I'm following to go past and then immediately set off so that they meet me on my bike square on head to head in the road. I have to stop for them and they have to stop for me because what's left of the road's too narrow to get past. If they'd waited another second or two I could have cycled past unimpeded and they wouldn't have been held up by the faffing around that has to follow so we can get past each other.

Sometimes it's just aggressive driving but usually drivers just seem to be taken unawares even polite about it but as though me on my bike was some kind of mirage that would disappear when they set off.

(Even had to sue someone for damages after they set off from a side road and drove in to me while I was cycling past wearing a bright yellow reflective top in bright daylight and even had my dyno lights running!?).

[Lance Dopestrong]

The UK should be like Japan, where you can't buy a car unless you can prove you have somewhere off the road to keep it. If you can't then you're restricted to buying only the tiny Kei cars.

But due to the way we've structured our transport system ie;car is king,we can't just impose that.

Of course we can. The only thing stopping it is political will, not physics or some immutable law of nature. The only reason common sense will never break out is because a major portion of the electorate are car drivers, who are supported by a huge, well organised and well funded lobby of manufacturers, oil companies and pressure groups.

[reohn2]

There's something weird going on with this problem that I've never got to understand:

Many times I've cycled following a car or a van along roads narrowed to a single car's width by parked vehicles. A driver coming the other way or pulling out of a side road has waited for the vehicle I'm following to go past and then immediately set off so that they meet me on my bike square on head to head in the road. I have to stop for them and they have to stop for me because what's left of the road's too narrow to get past. If they'd waited another second or two I could have cycled past unimpeded and they wouldn't have been held up by the faffing around that has to follow so we can get past each other.

Sometimes it's just aggressive driving but usually drivers just seem to be taken unawares even polite about it but as though me on my bike was some kind of mirage that would disappear when they set off.

(Even had to sue someone for damages after they set off from a side road and drove in to me while I was cycling past wearing a bright yellow reflective top in bright daylight and even had my dyno lights running!?).

It the lack of validity that's given to a cyclist IMV.
I constantly have drivers overtake me within <200m and sometimes as little as 50m,of the rear of a long jam of 20+ cars at a local TL,that's stopped or moving very slowly.The driver knows he won't get through for at least three cycles of that TL so what's the point.
Paradoxically when I then overtake the standing or very slow moving jam quite a few drivers will move to the left to give me more room pass in case of oncoming traffic.

If many of the idiotic/me first drivers I encounter regularly,were gaining anything I could sort of understand it but they don't,their time saved is measured in nano seconds and so many times I catch them up at the next jam.

To any reasonably sane human being it's plain stupid,but it seems some leave their sanity on the pavement as they enter the vehicle ,and a few grow horns as the door clicks shut

[reohn2]

The UK should be like Japan, where you can't buy a car unless you can prove you have somewhere off the road to keep it. If you can't then you're restricted to buying only the tiny Kei cars.

But due to the way we've structured our transport system ie;car is king,we can't just impose that.

Of course we can. The only thing stopping it is political will, not physics or some immutable law of nature. The only reason common sense will never break out is because a major portion of the electorate are car drivers, who are supported by a huge, well organised and well funded lobby of manufacturers, oil companies and pressure groups.

We're in total agreement
The problem now is,should a different system be implemented what would we do with all the cars we(UK society)has accrued?
What about the multinational oil companies profits,the car service/repairs owners and car sales owners,the whole industry built around the car?

We're heading for a cliff edge like lemmings and no one in power has the spherics to shout STOP! and change things for fear of a loss of that power.

Need is the mother of invention,we'll shortly need to be more inventive.....

[AlanD]

I get the same problem where I am, just round the corner, the road is reduced to a chicane because a couple of van owners park on the road. Twice recently, I've had drivers drive at me on my side of the road because they won't wait behind the parked vans while I clear the space.

There's also a long stretch of road on my daily commute that has twists in it which restrict the view ahead and has double unbroken white lines down the middle (A329 - Streatley to Basildon) When driving, if I see a cyclist ahead I immediately feel my heart racing because I know what's coming up. I slow down and stay behind the cyclist because I cannot get past without crossing the line. On one occasion, I've had the following motorist start blowing his horn at me. Last week, I had a RangeRover driver just inches off my rear, eventually he did cross to the other side of the road (crossing the unbroken lines) and took a long length of road to pass me and the cyclist, this was immediately followed by the next driver doing likewise at high speed. If that cyclist is reading this, sorry, the horn blowing was not aimed at you but rather the stupid Range Rover driver.

Then there's slow moving/parked motor vehicles. I am in a rural area and we are in the middle of harvest time. It's not unusual to drive for a mile or more behind a tractor hauling a trailer loaded with bales. Nobody gets angry at that. But you can bet that if that was a cyclist and nobody could get past, the car horns would soon start sounding.

Also, there are numerous parked cars that turn the road into a chicane, forcing drivers to stop. It's OK because it's a car causing the obstruct; but suppose that space was occupied by parked bicycles?

No! I think that the mindset of the motorist just is not capable of taking account of the cyclist.

[Grandad]

One end of our road has cars parked both sides, reducing it to single vehicle width. It's a busy rat run so frequent delays for everyone. I sometimes wish that this extended to our end as it would stop them speeding once clear of this stretch.

[Lance Dopestrong]

And the policies of this last Labour government don't help. In order to discourage car ownership and therefore car use they restricted the parking spaces/size of driveways for each new property. Of course, this didn't enter anyone from owning a car, it simply means they have to litter the street with them. Have a walk round any new housing development any size from the last decade and you'll see the mess they made of that one.

[Quaker Mike]

Elizabethsdad wrote:

A lot of roads round our way have the same problem - so many cars parked on the road (and pavements - grrr!) - that the flow of traffic is reduced to one lane and everyone needs to slow down and be patient. On the whole I'd say most people are but the ones that aren't really stand out. The ones behind you are bad enough but it's the ones coming the other way and charge right at you intimidating you to get out of their way that I really hate. I will pull in to let cars by when I can especially for those coming to other way but they do need to give me a chance to get to the gap.

I use a tricycle around town. and experience this sort of thing regularly. I just stop, and when they gesture for me to back up out of the way, pedal backwards furiously (to no effect, obviously!). I then shrug my shoulders and wait for the penny drop. Eventually they cotton on, and reverse to a suitable passing point.

It keeps my blood pressure from rising, though I doubt it does as much for theirs!

[Cunobelin]

I like this document from the Institute of Advanced Motorists

Cyclists are advised to take a prominent position in the road well ahead of any manoeuvre to ensure
they are in the right place at the right time. If they ride in the middle of the road it is probably not to
obstruct your path, but to ensure that they are seen by you and by other motorists.
Cyclists often ride at some distance from the kerb to avoid drains and potholes and to discourage motorists from
squeezing them on narrow roads.

Had a guy at work ranting about this and took great delight in publicly handing a copy over and pointing out that Advanced Drivers recognised this, and it said a lot about his lack of driving skills that he was unaware