Road Traffic Calming

[clare.bailey.986]

I'm in a bit of a quandary. On my route home from work I am met with traffic calming islands. The sort where cars go up the middle and cycle lanes (which aren't very wide) either side. I avoid the cycle lane (I have a road bike with skinny tyres) due to a bloody great kerb side drain. Today I was met by an aggressive woman driver telling me to use the lane even though it was my priority to come through. I do try not to inconvenience any other road users and I did slow to let her through but I nearly lost my balance as she had stopped blocking me from going. And I did swear

I would like to know if anyone else has had problems

Kind regards
Clare

[[XAP]Bob]

I carry on - road position is sufficient to indicate my road position. Occasionally I have to stop and point out that I can't reverse since I dint have a reverse gear.

[old_windbag]

I don't see you having done any wrong and don't let it dwell on your mind as the driver will quickly forget it, so many other things happen in a day and for her she'll be having fights with many. Some people are just like that always looking for an excuse to vent their anger. Where I live there are traffic calming islands that narrow the road to one lane( they sit on one side of the road or other ), so similar to your's but with priority to the vehicles on the side opposite the island. The problem with these are that some have a 3ft gap in the island( next to kerb ) for cyclists, marked with cycle sign, but others a 1ft gap!, probably for drainage only. So no consistency one to the next, therefore I always use the road same as a car would and cycle through the vehicle route. This also avoids all the debris that resides in those marked cycle channels as they tend to not get road swept for obvious reasons. Many drivers think they can drive through even when you have right of way, I find when approaching them I try to ensure I make it clear to the oncoming driver that I'm coming through by road position( as Bob said too ). I also take a few look's behind, as often a driver will attempt an overtake into the narrowing... this seems to happen quite often. I think a lot of it is road positioning, eye contact and confidence I guess. Ride to protect yourself and your bike as you're not doing anything wrong and should be treated as another car or motorbike by another driver.
I think theres too much of the "should be using the cycle lane" attitude, I hear a lot of that where I live but they'd change their tune if made to ride a bike and experienced the non-contiguous infrastructure first hand.

[Valbrona]

I think if you ride a bike at a fair speed it is entirely logical to use the same route as motor vehicles use through road furniture. And if you know of any type of hazard on your 'well trodden' route it is your prerogative to take measures to avoid these hazards.

If you think about it ... lots of drivers have completely and utterly no concept of riding a bicycle and the hazards that exist for cyclists. It is beyond their comprehension to understand why you would have gone through this road furniture the way you did.

[clare.bailey.986]

Thank you all for your comments and support. We all just need attitudes to change Thanks again

[thirdcrank]

Traffic calming, at least as it's done in the UK, is often a contradiction in terms as it tends to aggravate existing impatience and anger. Presumably, calming is normally only installed where it is needed and if it takes the form of road narrowing it can put cyclists in competition with frustrated drivers for the reduced space. It's not only cyclists who are at the receiving end although they are generally the most vulnerable to it. We have one of those "Give Way to oncoming vehicles" chicanes here and the position of a speed cushion tends to force cyclists into the gutter, where they are most at risk. I was recently approaching it with priority at a steady speed - 20 mph limit - driving a relatively large vehicle. Quite without warning, a driver coming the other way tried to nip through but misjudged the time available. I stopped to prevent a crash and the other driver began gesturing as though he had a bottle in his (empty) hand and he was shaking it up. The irony was that had I been driving in a similar manner to him, he'd have been pushed backwards for some distance. OTOH, had I been riding a bike, it would have been no fun. Gang warily!

[eileithyia]

I almost always ignore the cycle lanes at such pinch points, I say almost always because i did use one yesterday... it was clean, litter and pothole free, wide enough to negotiate easily at speed and there was a large van heading into the pinch point....

Normally i ignore them, most of the local ones are too narrow and full of debris as they are not included in road cleaning schemes...
As others have said, the driver will have moved on to other worries.... so don't worry about it...