Road Rage

It'll be interesting to see if the threat of physical violence including potential murder will be followed up by the police.

Will the driver, who seems to have anger issues, continue to be allowed to have a car license?


In another article on the BBC on the same day a bike racer was questioned (ie one who races a bike on a track) stated that there was no evidence that helmet cameras are having any affect on improving either cycling or car driving.  Well I guess on a track it probably isn't.  All we need now is the BBC to understand that organisations like CUK (the old CTC) actually have data on this

I guess the issue is should they follow the high way code or not.

Riding two abreast is perfectly specified in the HC except when making a turn.  If they were making a turn two abreast they were wrong.  If not they were doing what was right.  However, I certainly would help a car overtake me in such a position and we will always have bike and car riders who just are dumb.

The trouble about riding along a single width road with cars parked down them is that the HC advises one to allow for numpties opening a car door.  When riding you cannot see if there is a numpty in the parked car until you are on the car so you have to ride at least a door width outside the car, plus of course the width of the bike's wiggle movement and look out for pot holes (pot holes for a car are just a pain, for a bike they are very dangerous)

Finally the HC is clear that an overtaking car should give a car's width to over-take a bike.

So, while to some Jeremy's behaviour seems a little odd he is following the basic rules of the road.

Yesterday I had a similar situation of a narrow road with cars down one side and a truck getting frustrated as I worked my way up a hill.  (Yes it was in Yorkshire and it was a minor road).  Finally he saw a tiny gap and went for it.  Terrifying for me as 5 tonnes of truck just missed me, and for what, to get to his site a mere 250m up the road.

Without seeing the specific circumstances I think it would be inappropriate to make a judgement on that.

Cyclists have to take a greater responsibility for their own safety because they have to work on the basis that others may not: either through ignorance, oversight, or selfishness. That includes leaving sufficient room or be confident of having sufficient wiggle room for taking avoidance action on potholes and car doors. Amongst other things.

My philosophy is that a confident cyclist that takes deliberate action to dominate the road space when it will improve safety is a live cyclist. A timid one may well end up a dead one. I will quite happily deliberately move further out in the road to make my presence greater to prevent someone from trying an overtaking manvouvere where there isn't sufficient space: I've got an  uphill climb close to me where there are segments of bollards in the middle of the road. I will typically move further out to prevent an idiot from trying to pass me at those points. ON the other hand I've several times seen my wife being passed with no more than inches to spare in the same place, or start to be overtaken only for the driver to slam on the brakes and pull back in, even though they could have held back for the sake of 5m. Likewise if I think someone is positioning to overtake me on a blind corner (yes that is a frequent occurrence for cyclists) I will move out to discourage it.

Likewise in queuing traffic or approaching queing traffic I will move to the middle of the lane. Visibility and blocking. Dominate the road space. Likewise at roundabouts - recently for some reason I stayed in the left of the lane, unlike my normal practise. Car came up alongside, when traffic allowed they set off and cut across me taking me off my bike. I should not have needed to relearn that lesson.

Riding two abreast is fine: doing so such as to block traffic behind when there is not a good safety reason is bad form, regardless of what the HC may say on legitimacy. Though I have sympathy when its a larger group as it shortens the overtaking distance for anyone behind, and discourages someone from starting to overtake and then doing an emergency pull over into the middle of the group.

Most cyclists are also car drivers and I would hope they try and put themselves in both sets of shoes when on a bike. Most drivers are considerate, but not all are cyclists and don't appreciate the issues. And we all can be susecptible to lapses/oversight. For the car driver its a dent, for a cyclist it can be a lot worse.

And don't get me on the subject of cyclists that go up the inside of lorries etc.

As JV said during the argument one shouldn't drive close to the parked cars, and in any case it seemed to me that even if he had been to one side the car didn't have room to pass safely (defined in most of Europe as 1m gap). 

If it was as narrow as it appeared I'd also say that 20mph would be max safe speed, and a cyclist is probably doing say 15mph, so the car isn't exactly slowed down much.

(You might be able to guess I ride a bike into town regularly and have done for 30 years; I managed to get a bus driver prosecuted once when he cut me up-no worse squeezed me into parked cars, when I was doing my level best to go quickly and clear out of his way seeing as he was in such a hurry - I had a passenger as a witness and the £$%^&* magistrates still let the %^&*() off, seeing as he would lose his job and would no longer be able to kill people professionally.  rant rant rant)

@bobo ... tut tut.   naughty man.

I guess the crtical issue is never ride MORE than 2 abreast

Not sure how riding 2 abreast works for overtaking cars on narrow roads (if they have to over take giving a car width).  However, it makes complete sense when dealing with on coming traffic on narrow roads.   Courtesy is probably the more important thing.

I guess I assumed everyone knew the rest of the HC advice, after all you must read it to drive and should read it to ride.

The issue of Surrey is pretty interesting.  The riding community is split on this one so perhaps I can offer some thoughts.

There do appear to be a bunch of people who seem to be experts on their rights in the county and certainly a number of cars and bikes are behaving like A@@@les.  (Please, I'm not suggesting that any of the writers here are included in that description).  I suspect it is partially due to the large amount of money and the perceived rights that come with owning that getting in the way of common sense and courtesy.  It must be hard when sitting on a £10k bike or in a £70k Chelsea Tractor to think, "how can I help someone else"? rather than "this is mine, I have rights". 

Interesting point as it happens all the time.  These cars keep getting stuck in queues and I have to work out if I should safely squeeze past or just wait behind them.  Luckily I tend to ride where there are a host of other routes which I can take, but it makes you think.

The other issue is cars don't move steadily, they are always speeding up and slowing down as they inch bumper to bumper along at say 5 mph, you don't know how irritating that is.

Just to amuse

Time from my house by car to the local shops:20 minutes plus parking time, means 25 minutes door to door
Time from my house to local shops:15 minutes door to door