Overtaking Wide? Your views.

[toomsie]

I want to know what your views on overtaking wide on a bike. One of my supervisors seen me overtake traffic wide. He said that it isn’t safe thing to do. He said I was “going down a road the wrong way and it wasn’t pretty sight I tell thee”, due to me wearing Lycia and not having *** for it.
I did point out that I overtake wide and slow so I can see vehicles and vehicle can see me. I don’t believe that we exchanged any useful information but he does know his stuff as he trains HGV drivers, even took them out on bikes to see cyclist point of view.

[[XAP]Bob]

Overtaking wide is sensible - assuming you can see what is coming...

You should always overtake fairly wide, to allow for errors or failures on any vehicle...

At least that's my take on it..

[Bicycler]

In order to get any meaningful response you will need to clarify what you mean by "overtake wide". Are you overtaking moving or stationary vehicles? Or are we talking about passing parked cars? What kind of distance are you leaving to the vehicle you are passing?

The Highway Code instructs road users to leave "plenty" of room when overtaking other vehicles. Whilst it doesn't define "plenty", it is clearly instructing us to leave a decent gap. For cyclists, it is important that we pass parked cars leaving enough space that we cannot be hit if the car door is suddenly opened. We need to be similarly wary of passengers leaving vehicles when 'filtering' past a queue of traffic. If overtaking involves crossing into the oncoming traffic lane we must ensure that the lane is clear before starting our manoeuver. Oncoming traffic has priority.

Whilst we should always consider other people's opinions, it would be a mistake to assume that someone who trains lorry drivers is necessarily aware of the best techniques for cyclists. Many skilful and professional drivers lack any recent experience of bicycle and harbour misconceptions about how cyclists ought to behave.

john Franklin's book Cyclecraft is published by The Stationery Office and if the recommended reading for Bikeability National Standards cycle training. It is worthwhile reading a copy if you wish to becaome familiar with what is currently considered best practice for cyclists.

[Vorpal]

I generally agree. There may be some exceptions. I have gone down between lanes or shared a lane sometimes when overtaking on the outside against oncoming traffic. I only do this along standing or very slow traffic, though.

Otherwise, on the road, I leave generally leave minimum 1.5 metres between me and other road users when overtaking. I may leave more, especially if there are other vehicles following me in the overtake; just to make sure they don't try to overtake me at the same time if there is not room for them to do so.

[beardy]

He said that it isn’t safe thing to do.

I would be inclined to ask why he thinks it isnt safe. With my car mirrors the blindest area is closer to me when behind. The extra separation gives extra time for both to react. Same thing for pedestrians crossing the road between the cars.

[irc]

I'd discount anything he said on the basis that part of his reasoning was the wearing of lycra.

[Ellieb]

I once had a chat with a motor bike policeman when I was a courier. He said, when filtering outside a line of traffic, don't hug the line of cars . If there is sapce to do so move out into the middle of the other carriageway." made sense to me. You see a lot of filtering going on in an apologetic way, which leads to limited visibilty & reaction time in the event that something unexpected pops out of the line of traffic
.
If you are overtaking a parked car always pass outside the door zone.

[RideToWorky]

All good points guys!


Will bear in mind.
Especially the bit of give loads of space!

Bit difficult though, with the skinny roads around bristol, to leave a full car door gap, and not impede oncoming traffic!

[[XAP]Bob]

Then there don't appear to be two lanes of traffic, and so blocking (not just impeding) oncoming traffic is potentially required at times (or blocking your own direction until there is space to pass, or moderating speed so that it doesn't matter if a car door is opened since you have time to react)

[Tonyf33]

Advanced driving/police pursuit driving puts you on the 'wrong' side of the road quite often, taking a wide line gives you more opportunity to view the road ahead so that you see more and have more time to react/change position to make progress safely.
Also the extra space when overtaking/passing wide gives you that bit of room for the unexpected, that buffer zone is as much for your protection as others.

[toomsie]

I once had a chat with a motor bike policeman when I was a courier. He said, when filtering outside a line of traffic, don't hug the line of cars . If there is sapce to do so move out into the middle of the other carriageway." made sense to me.

Moving out to the middle of the other carriageway was what I was doing. I don't believe such a move had any trade-offs. If anything gives me a surprise, I will see it.

[Vorpal]

All good points guys!


Will bear in mind.
Especially the bit of give loads of space!

Bit difficult though, with the skinny roads around bristol, to leave a full car door gap, and not impede oncoming traffic!

If there isn't room for a bike and car to share outside the door zone, there isn't room. Impede oncoming traffic? Would you think of it that way if you were driving a car?

Read

john Franklin's book Cyclecraft

[PH]

If there isn't room for a bike and car to share outside the door zone, there isn't room. Impede oncoming traffic? Would you think of it that way if you were driving a car?

In a car I'd be expected to wait, if I’m crossing the centre line any vehicle coming the other way on that side of the line has priority. If traffic in both directions needs to cross the centre line, then it's a matter of negotiation and trying to find that balance between assertive, polite and safe. I find the ideal in those circumstances is to follow a car rather than be at the front of the queue. Often the choice on a bike is wait like a car or proceed but not in the ideal road position. I'd proceed with caution.
As for the original question, if it's safe to overtake, then how much of the carriageway you use is your choice and yours alone, not your problem if anyone thinks it’s too much, better that than you thinking it’s not enough.

[Flinders]

To avoid the door zone for parked cars you need to go wide.
I'd have thought it also made it easier for following traffic to see you.

[brooksby]

Bit difficult though, with the skinny roads around bristol, to leave a full car door gap, and not impede oncoming traffic!

If there is oncoming traffic and you don't feel you have room to safely get past the stationary traffic in your lane, then I'm afraid you have to wait. End of.

(Personally, I filter past queues in Bristol a lot - and go down between two lanes of stationary traffic (past the BRI) - but I'd never play chicken with the oncoming traffic )