Is this level of insanity commonplace?

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
User avatar
Vantage
Posts: 3050
Joined: 24 Jan 2012, 1:44pm
Location: somewhere in Bolton
Contact:

Re: Is this level of insanity commonplace?

Post by Vantage »

I think you're right actually...
'Scuse me while I wander off to get the oil and tyre levers to remove said foot from said mouth... :lol:
Bill


“Ride as much or as little, or as long or as short as you feel. But ride.” ~ Eddy Merckx
It's a rich man whos children run to him when his pockets are empty.
Psamathe
Posts: 17650
Joined: 10 Jan 2014, 8:56pm

Re: Is this level of insanity commonplace?

Post by Psamathe »

When out for a ride the other day, a couple were cycling same road opposite direction, girl in front, bloke short distance behind and it struck me that bloke probably had the safer position as I could imagine a car pulling out with visibility to overtake/pass the 1st bike maybe without driver even registering there was a 2nd bike ahead. And then when oncoming vehicle spotted, overtaking car has to pull-in and only then notices there was a 2nd bike (hopefully notices).

Also, if driver on "autopilot" overtakes 1st bike and pulls-in without thinking or looking close enough to register 2nd bike.

Just struck me that the 2 bikes in single file was putting leading bike at bigger risk.

Ian
drossall
Posts: 6115
Joined: 5 Jan 2007, 10:01pm
Location: North Hertfordshire

Re: Is this level of insanity commonplace?

Post by drossall »

That's a widely-held view.

The fundamental point is that overtaking a bike is no different from overtaking anything else, because the bike is a vehicle in front of you, in the (one and only) traffic lane. Bike lanes have their place, but confuse things here because, mentally, people seem to imagine that all bikes are in some kind of bike lane, even when none is painted on the road. No such lane exists - as above, the bike is in the "car lane", because it's just a traffic lane, and bikes are traffic.

Any car passing it is moving out of the main vehicle lane to overtake (because there cannot be two vehicles, side by side, both in the main traffic lane at the same point).

To me, it would help as above if drivers had cycling experience, but it's this understanding of what is going on that is fundamental. I'm not sure that this kind of "driving theory" is taught.
reohn2
Posts: 45159
Joined: 26 Jun 2009, 8:21pm

Re: Is this level of insanity commonplace?

Post by reohn2 »

drossall wrote:.........To me, it would help as above if drivers had cycling experience, but it's this understanding of what is going on that is fundamental. I'm not sure that this kind of "driving theory" is taught.


Going off the number of close overtakes I get from motoring school cars I don't think it's even considered by some instructors let alone taught.

In answer to the OP,yes the level of insanity is commonplace,only yesterday I had the same overtaking manoeuvre,the driver overtaking gave me plenty of space,but caused the oncoming driver
to ES.
It happens regularly when I'm cycling :?
-----------------------------------------------------------
"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
TonyR
Posts: 5390
Joined: 31 Aug 2008, 12:51pm

Re: Is this level of insanity commonplace?

Post by TonyR »

BeeKeeper wrote:Just illustrates why we need a law prescribing how a bicycle should be overtaken, as they do in France and Spain. 1.5m gap minimum on the open road and they must indicate. On the spot fine for not doing it.

Would it change anything? Not overnight but they would have to learn it for their driving licence.


It wouldn't change anything because, as with ASLs and driving on the phone, there would be no-one to enforce it.

In the OP's position I would take primary after the first attempt to make them overtake me rather than try to pass.
Vorpal
Moderator
Posts: 20700
Joined: 19 Jan 2009, 3:34pm
Location: Not there ;)

Re: Is this level of insanity commonplace?

Post by Vorpal »

Commonplace? No, but it does happen. With two of you, it might have been better to ride abreast? Yes, a few drivers may honk or yell, but at least then, overtaking would have been a conscious decision, instead of just going round the bike in the way.

Even so, it won't prevent all idiocy. Once when I was on a club family ride, we were 6 adults, with at least as many children in tow on a narrow lane, and a driver bullied his way past us on a blind hill, only to come to a squealing stop, bonnet to bonnet with an oncoming car. :roll:
“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
reohn2
Posts: 45159
Joined: 26 Jun 2009, 8:21pm

Re: Is this level of insanity commonplace?

Post by reohn2 »

Vorpal wrote:............. Once when I was on a club family ride, we were 6 adults, with at least as many children in tow on a narrow lane, and a driver bullied his way past us on a blind hill, only to come to a squealing stop, bonnet to bonnet with an oncoming car. :roll:


And the worst of it is he'd most likely blame you for being there rather his own driving incompetence.
-----------------------------------------------------------
"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
CliveyT
Posts: 461
Joined: 13 Jun 2012, 2:55pm
Location: Cambridge

Re: Is this level of insanity commonplace?

Post by CliveyT »

TonyR wrote:
In the OP's position I would take primary after the first attempt to make them overtake me rather than try to pass.

There's a patch on my regular commute where I'll always take primary- road narrows and goes round a blind S bend. Still doesn't stop people overtaking me, but at least I've got somewhere to go when they do
reohn2
Posts: 45159
Joined: 26 Jun 2009, 8:21pm

Re: Is this level of insanity commonplace?

Post by reohn2 »

CliveyT wrote:
TonyR wrote:
In the OP's position I would take primary after the first attempt to make them overtake me rather than try to pass.

There's a patch on my regular commute where I'll always take primary- road narrows and goes round a blind S bend. Still doesn't stop people overtaking me, but at least I've got somewhere to go when they do

+1
-----------------------------------------------------------
"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
User avatar
Mick F
Spambuster
Posts: 56359
Joined: 7 Jan 2007, 11:24am
Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: Is this level of insanity commonplace?

Post by Mick F »

Here's a trace from a ride last week just north of Okehampton on the A386.
I was coming along from the southwest with a huge lorry behind and I was turning north. Mr Lorry Driver was patient and kept his distance, and I wanted to pull over to let him past, but there was nowhere for me to go as the road is narrow with no refuse areas.

There was no way he could overtake. Primary or secondary or any other "ary" would have made no difference.

I put my hand out to go right at the roundabout, and then took my time going right round to give him time to go, (plus the three or four vehicles behind him) then carried on my merry way safe in the knowledge that I'd helped to keep the traffic flowing.
A386 RAB.png
Mick F. Cornwall
mrjemm
Posts: 2933
Joined: 20 Nov 2011, 4:33pm

Re: Is this level of insanity commonplace?

Post by mrjemm »

A 360° then Mick? :wink:
ian s
Posts: 121
Joined: 24 Jun 2008, 12:59pm

Re: Is this level of insanity commonplace?

Post by ian s »

I have never kept a log (it would be too long) but I think I get overtaken dangerously more days than I do not. Probably the most memorable incident was when a girl in a small snatchback passed me (giving me plenty of room it must be admitted) in the path of an obvious oncoming lorry that had to brake sharply to avoid her. What, if anything, she was thinking of when starting this move, I cannot imagine.
reohn2
Posts: 45159
Joined: 26 Jun 2009, 8:21pm

Re: Is this level of insanity commonplace?

Post by reohn2 »

ian s wrote:What she was thinking of when starting this move, I cannot imagine.


Finishing off her text maybe?

I get the same thing regularly,last week one silly bint playing chicken with a JC.It's the inability to concentrate on what they're doing which should be driving,facebook,twitter and what's for dinner get in the way of these brainless moron's thinking.
Last edited by reohn2 on 5 Jun 2014, 8:41am, edited 1 time in total.
-----------------------------------------------------------
"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
kwackers
Posts: 15643
Joined: 4 Jun 2008, 9:29pm
Location: Warrington

Re: Is this level of insanity commonplace?

Post by kwackers »

I did have one guy end up on the verge on the other side of the road after he overtook at speed on the wrong side only to be faced with another vehicle coming at speed the other way.

I've also lost count of the number of times an overtaking vehicle had been given the horn by on oncoming one after a foolish overtake.
Pompey Monkey
Posts: 74
Joined: 23 Sep 2013, 1:27pm

Re: Is this level of insanity commonplace?

Post by Pompey Monkey »

TonyR wrote:In the OP's position I would take primary after the first attempt to make them overtake me rather than try to pass.


I would be in the primary position before the first attempt to pass, and then pull over If I was holding them up unduly.

This approach took me a good while to be comfortable with, but I have felt an awful lot more comfortable on the road since I've adopted this strategy. There's a clue in what it's called too: "primary"! :D
Post Reply