Mark1978 wrote:LollyKat wrote:stork wrote:They've reviewed it again and come back with a response which is slightly less supportive of the driver (describing the overtake as a 'bit tight'). I agree that the danger here was less to me than to the oncoming vehicle.
But if they had collided, even if only a glancing blow, the chances are that one would have spun into your path.
Which is the entire point of the matter. With overtaking into oncoming traffic you're always worried the driver will panic and yank the wheel to the left to avoid a head on and if you're alongside at the time..
If it comes to the crunch
, I suspect that most drivers would be more likely to swerve towards a cyclist and just hope the cyclist gets out of the way rather than risk hitting an oncoming car. That's why I like to leave a fair bit of space to my left in situations where there tends to be bad overtaking, so I have somewhere to go.............. Contrary to the well researched evidence, In my case I usually, but not always, find that the more space I leave to my left, the more space most traffic gives to me when overtaking. I suspect that is due to the type of roads and time of day I mostly ride.
In this video, I think about 60% of it was the lemming principle, i.e.- 'the vehicles in front got round, so I will go round even if I can't see what's coming the other way when I commit to overtaking'. There is also the fact that a lot of drivers don't correctly judge a cyclist's speed- they usually underestimate it, and so it takes longer to get round than they think it will, hence cutting in too close after the overtake and/or ending up in the right lane facing oncoming traffic.