Man rides bike with child in trailer down dual carriage way
Discussion
OP doesn't mention any child present?
I use mine to carry stuff, my toddler refuses to get in it these days. You wouldn't be able to tell whether he was in it or not from a passing car. Especially if you're lack of awareness means you're having to emergency brake to pass something in front of you.
I use mine to carry stuff, my toddler refuses to get in it these days. You wouldn't be able to tell whether he was in it or not from a passing car. Especially if you're lack of awareness means you're having to emergency brake to pass something in front of you.
Mandat said:
I think that good driving would be observing and anticipating the road ahead appropriately so that the cyclist can be overtaken safely and in good time, without having to resort to braking and taking avoiding action, as the OP said was happening.
Somebody is living in an ideal world in some parallel universe where this Samsung invention already exists: 
On a dual carriageway there will be traffic obscuring what is ahead and the consequent closing speeds would put any cyclist, never mind one with a trailer, at serious risk.
ExPat2B said:
Driving an electric mobility scooter which has a similar speed and rear profile to a bike trailer is already illegal on an unrestricted DC.
No it isn't.You just need to have a flashing light.
https://www.gov.uk/mobility-scooters-and-powered-w...
Mobility scooter definitely slower than a bike btw.
MoelyCrio said:
OP doesn't mention any child present?
I use mine to carry stuff, my toddler refuses to get in it these days. You wouldn't be able to tell whether he was in it or not from a passing car. Especially if you're lack of awareness means you're having to emergency brake to pass something in front of you.
Child present, quite clearly silhouetted by the sun through the mesh. I use mine to carry stuff, my toddler refuses to get in it these days. You wouldn't be able to tell whether he was in it or not from a passing car. Especially if you're lack of awareness means you're having to emergency brake to pass something in front of you.
wibblebrain said:
Mr2Mike said:
Just for the hard of thinking:
The OP did not suggest that riding on a DCW is illegal.
The OP did not suggest that the cyclist has no right to be on the DCW.
Cycling on a road with cars an HGVs travelling at high speed presents a not inconsiderable amount of risk, and deliberately exposing a small child to that risk is completely irresponsible.
^^^The OP did not suggest that riding on a DCW is illegal.
The OP did not suggest that the cyclist has no right to be on the DCW.
Cycling on a road with cars an HGVs travelling at high speed presents a not inconsiderable amount of risk, and deliberately exposing a small child to that risk is completely irresponsible.
Nail, head, bang on.
Can't believe the self righteous responses earlier in the thread.
doogz said:
So, when you're doing 50, and someone on a bike is doing 15, and someone else on the other side of the road, meaning an overtake is out of the question, how do you tackle that situation? If the road is busy, you're not going to have seen the cyclist half a mile down the road, and had time to back off and look for a space.
Braking and taking avoiding action is absolutely the answer here.
Braking and taking avoiding action is absolutely the answer here.
Why not? if there's good visibility you should be able to - and if the visibility is so bad, you need to slow down a bit.
Although planting your foot and then reacting as if anything else that "appears" on the road is a shock certainly explains a lot of driving I see.
(I am not an advocate of the bloke taking his kid on the dual carriageway for this reason inter alia)
It's not something I would do, but I'd be genuinely interested to know whether cycling on dual carriageways is in fact more dangerous than eg single carriageway roads? In theory it ought to be safer, as there is a whole additional lane for overtakes.
I don't know how you'd measure it though. The ONS stats do give number of casualties by road type, but you'd need to correct for how many miles were cycled on DCs compared to other road types.
I don't know how you'd measure it though. The ONS stats do give number of casualties by road type, but you'd need to correct for how many miles were cycled on DCs compared to other road types.
thelawnet1 said:
ExPat2B said:
Driving an electric mobility scooter which has a similar speed and rear profile to a bike trailer is already illegal on an unrestricted DC.
No it isn't.You just need to have a flashing light.
https://www.gov.uk/mobility-scooters-and-powered-w...
Mobility scooter definitely slower than a bike btw.
V8forweekends said:
Why not? if there's good visibility you should be able to - and if the visibility is so bad, you need to slow down a bit.
Although planting your foot and then reacting as if anything else that "appears" on the road is a shock certainly explains a lot of driving I see.
(I am not an advocate of the bloke taking his kid on the dual carriageway for this reason inter alia)
wibblebrain said:
Somebody is living in an ideal world in some parallel universe where this Samsung invention already exists:
no they aren't they are living in the world that professional drivers, emergency drivers and those who have undetraken road focused driver development for 'hobby' purposes live in mph1977 said:
wibblebrain said:
Somebody is living in an ideal world in some parallel universe where this Samsung invention already exists:
no they aren't they are living in the world that professional drivers, emergency drivers and those who have undetraken road focused driver development for 'hobby' purposes live in 
I don't claim to be perfect (at all), but I try to look ahead and see patterns - as someone else said, you'd see other vehicles slowing and/or pulling out around the cyclist. It's very rare for any such thing to be a total surprise to me, and if it is, it's usually down to poor observation on my part. V8forweekends said:
mph1977 said:
wibblebrain said:
Somebody is living in an ideal world in some parallel universe where this Samsung invention already exists:
no they aren't they are living in the world that professional drivers, emergency drivers and those who have undetraken road focused driver development for 'hobby' purposes live in I don't claim to be perfect (at all), but I try to look ahead and see patterns - as someone else said, you'd see other vehicles slowing and/or pulling out around the cyclist. It's very rare for any such thing to be a total surprise to me, and if it is, it's usually down to poor observation on my part. V8forweekends said:
mph1977 said:
wibblebrain said:
Somebody is living in an ideal world in some parallel universe where this Samsung invention already exists:
no they aren't they are living in the world that professional drivers, emergency drivers and those who have undetraken road focused driver development for 'hobby' purposes live in I don't claim to be perfect (at all), but I try to look ahead and see patterns - as someone else said, you'd see other vehicles slowing and/or pulling out around the cyclist. It's very rare for any such thing to be a total surprise to me, and if it is, it's usually down to poor observation on my part. If you are still not getting it, try this as thought experiment - you have been asked to close one lane of a DC so roadworks can occur.
Your proposal is to have no warning signs, no cones, no flashing lights, but a small brightly coloured flag and a flimsy metal cage, inside which you place your own child.
Would this be your preferred method ? Would you stand at your child's funeral and blame the driver that didn't see it, believing yourself to have done no wrong ?
Your proposal is to have no warning signs, no cones, no flashing lights, but a small brightly coloured flag and a flimsy metal cage, inside which you place your own child.
Would this be your preferred method ? Would you stand at your child's funeral and blame the driver that didn't see it, believing yourself to have done no wrong ?
Doh another PH argument ensues
On most new DCs they have a few feet to the left of the white line which can be used as a pseudo cycle lane, but as someone else said and assuming we're not talking about single lane DCs the idea of the second lane is you can overtake slower moving traffic. If you keep over to the left isnt it even safer?
I think there was a thread a couple years ago where a cyclist on a time trial holding primary position centre lane didnt fare too well
but thats a rare occurence.
On most new DCs they have a few feet to the left of the white line which can be used as a pseudo cycle lane, but as someone else said and assuming we're not talking about single lane DCs the idea of the second lane is you can overtake slower moving traffic. If you keep over to the left isnt it even safer?
I think there was a thread a couple years ago where a cyclist on a time trial holding primary position centre lane didnt fare too well
but thats a rare occurence.thelawnet1 said:
What was the speed limit on the road in your OP?
60mph, It is infamous for road accidents, recently a Police car stuck and killed a pedestrian walking along that road and the inquest cleared him "prosecutors said the officer driving the car could not have expected someone to be walking on the side of the A31"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-32353820
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