Why you shouldn't give cyclist a wide berth when passing

[RobM77]

yonex said:

RobM77 said:

• VED is a levy on emissions. Cyclists, horses and electric cars etc therefore don't pay it.

• VED is not road tax; there is no such thing as a road tax. Roads are a public benefit paid for by general taxation. Where I live we don't have pavements, so roads are how everyone walks places! They're not exclusively for cars or in fact anyone - they are for us all to share with equal rights.

• Most cyclists will also have a car. For most people, cycling is a sport and a way to keep fit, like running. This especially applies to the lycra brigade as people like to call them; because generally speaking, if someone's wearing dedicated cycling clothes and wearing shoes that you can barely walk in, they're not riding to the shops, funnily enough!

In a nation of coffee slurping, Dorito eating, smelly fat people we should applaud cycling, not deride it. I find it shocking that many people not only insult people who are getting off their arse and burning calories, they actually expect them to unclip, come to a halt, climb off their bikes and wave a car through as if it's somehow superior to them. If a cyclist is all over the road or riding two abreast, then yes, that's wrong and perhaps a friendly toot of the horn will pull them back to where they should be (they may not be able to hear that you're there). If they're cycling along normally then in virtually all circumstances it should be possible to overtake and if you can't, then you should take a look at your driving, and in most situations, not blame it on the cyclist. I'm not denying the OP's story could be true, but as I said before, in 22 years of driving and nearly 30 years of cycling I've never come across a cyclist holding a car up for more than a few hundred metres.

If the OP's story is true, then sure, if I was the cyclist in question I'd pull in after half a mile or so! To have a car behind you for that long is extremely weird. It's merely the arrogant and entitled attitude that I'm responding to.

This is the nub of it. Self important salad dodgers (if we're going to generalise eh) with one hand on speed dial and the other flicking a fag butt out of the window. The sight of cyclists must truely annoy them, I get that from the 'insults' that they post up on PH, it's playground stuff. 'lycra boy' 'Lycrasists' 'Bradley Wiggins types' 'MAMILS' and so it goes on. One poster recently suggested I might look 'camp' in lycra, it's quite remarkable that all this nonsense is spouted over such a small bump in the road. As a motorist you are going to get held up with traffic, no matter what you drive/ride.

Last night there was a local club out and about. Their riding wasn't great and I must have followed them for 6 corners down a country lane. I could have squeezed past, just, but there was no rush. I thought of all the frothy posters on here and timed this 'massive inconvenience', after all it was the most I have been held up in a while.

72 seconds.

Get over yourselves.

Plus put it in the context of all the idiots driving cars and lorries that you see every day; those people can potentially smash your car up, costing you thousands in resale value, and injure or even kill you. Having to engage your brain and overtake a 45cm wide cyclist minding their own business is not exactly the greatest of driving challenges or dangers is it?

[walm]

brrapp said:

Sorry I haven't been able to upload the link to Google earth on this tablet (another disadvantage to living in the wilderness). Could someone please upload a link to an 8 mile piece of single track road somewhere in the UK? Just to appease the city dwellers who don't believe such a thing exists.

I am sure they exist.
I just have my doubts that Julian was stuck behind lycra-clad bellends doing 10mph for 50 minutes on one.

For a start if you are lycra-clad, 10mph is embarrassingly slow.

[Osinjak]

RobM77 said:

How do you cope with cows being walked down the road? Or a tractor at 15mph? The idea that you have some sort of priority and expect the waves to part for you is rather bizarre to put it at its mildest!

Edited by RobM77 on Tuesday 23 August 16:03

Where I live tractors regularly pull in to let people past. Hyperbole much? What a bizarre post.

[RobM77]

Osinjak said:

RobM77 said:

How do you cope with cows being walked down the road? Or a tractor at 15mph? The idea that you have some sort of priority and expect the waves to part for you is rather bizarre to put it at its mildest!

Edited by RobM77 on Tuesday 23 August 16:03

Where I live tractors regularly pull in to let people past. Hyperbole much? What a bizarre post.

The vast majority of cyclists will hold you up for much less time than you'd spend behind a tractor between it pulling in (they pull in every 3 or 4 minutes usually - I've never been stuck behind a cyclist for that long!!). If I was on my bike and had held a car up for more than half a mile though, yes, of course, I'd pull in; but it's never happened... My post above was in direct response to what the OP said above expecting all cyclists to just wave him through.

[anonymous-user]

WinstonWolf said:

Hang on, let's look at this laterally. Cyclists are to be thanked if you think about it, once you're past them you've got the road to yourself

It's even more basic than that, without all these 'insert various insult here' on bikes there would be hundreds more cars in the way for all of us every day

[saaby93]

walm said:

I am sure they exist.
I just have my doubts that Julian was stuck behind lycra-clad bellends doing 10mph for 50 minutes on one.

For a start if you are lycra-clad, 10mph is embarrassingly slow.

You're forgetting the lookee likey ones

Got all the cycling gear - tick
Spent the money on the bike - tick
iphone - tick
Headphones - tick
8 mile country lane - tick

Plodding along 10 mph tops - world of own - doesn't matter if anyone is behind - passing places what are they?

Why is it when someone posts about one of these, everyone either thinks that all cyclists must be the same, or that the poster is saying that all cyclists are the same?
It's neither. It's some numpty giving everyone else a bad name

[walm]

yonex said:

WinstonWolf said:

Hang on, let's look at this laterally. Cyclists are to be thanked if you think about it, once you're past them you've got the road to yourself

It's even more basic than that, without all these 'insert various insult here' on bikes there would be hundreds more cars in the way for all of us every day

That's not fair though.
Sure, commuting in London.
But we're talking about leisure cyclists who would probably be playing golf if they weren't MAMIL-ing up the road.
They wouldn't be taking a country drive, would they?

[walm]

saaby93 said:

Why is it when someone posts about one of these, everyone either thinks that all cyclists must be the same, or that the poster is saying that all cyclists are the same?

Simply because the OP implies that all cyclists should be punished, that's why.

julian64 said:

After that little meeting I'm now of the opinion that cyclists should not have equal access to the road as cars.

[WinstonWolf]

walm said:

yonex said:

WinstonWolf said:

Hang on, let's look at this laterally. Cyclists are to be thanked if you think about it, once you're past them you've got the road to yourself

It's even more basic than that, without all these 'insert various insult here' on bikes there would be hundreds more cars in the way for all of us every day

That's not fair though.
Sure, commuting in London.
But we're talking about leisure cyclists who would probably be playing golf if they weren't MAMIL-ing up the road.
They wouldn't be taking a country drive, would they?

I commute 18 miles through the arse end of nowhere in Lycra! There are usually three cars that come past on the narrow bit, very rarely have a problem with them getting past safely. I even know who will come past at about what time, it really is rural

[walm]

saaby93 said:

You're forgetting the lookee likey ones

Got all the cycling gear - tick
Spent the money on the bike - tick
iphone - tick
Headphones - tick
8 mile country lane - tick

Plodding along 10 mph tops - world of own - doesn't matter if anyone is behind - passing places what are they?

Along with the OP you are just making things up.
I have never EVER seen a wannabe in the countryside with headphones. (Nor considered their brand of phone even remotely relevant, even as an Android user.)

I am not saying it doesn't happen - I just think that when it does, there is also a blue moon, preceded by 30 days all called Sunday.

[WinstonWolf]

walm said:

saaby93 said:

You're forgetting the lookee likey ones

Got all the cycling gear - tick
Spent the money on the bike - tick
iphone - tick
Headphones - tick
8 mile country lane - tick

Plodding along 10 mph tops - world of own - doesn't matter if anyone is behind - passing places what are they?

Along with the OP you are just making things up.
I have never EVER seen a wannabe in the countryside with headphones. (Nor considered their brand of phone even remotely relevant, even as an Android user.)

I am not saying it doesn't happen - I just think that when it does, there is also a blue moon, preceded by 30 days all called Sunday.

Well fancy that, I always ride with ear buds in out in the country.

[julian64]

yonex said:

8 miles, I just don't believe you. This is re-enforced by one of the cyclists riding with his hands off of the bars for 'about a mile'.

Also, cycling is one of the fastest ways to get around London.

HTH

Honestly this is the most dire type of post on PH. I feel slightly disinclined to even answer. It you think the whole post is a lie then just don't reply. If you call custard on everyone on the internet then why have the conversation.

I didn't measure eight miles, or take the time behind them. It felt like an age it was an estimate, but I fail to see what's going on with your brain. If I tell you where and you measure it to 3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10, does it make the comment any less valid. The only certainty was me looking at my speedo and seeing 10mph for most of the way with the cyclist making little attempt to go faster although they undoubtedly could, or pull over. I didn't actually measure the time or distance but gave an estimate and for that I whole heatedly apologise, but really does that make any difference

The route was from my house in ash kent through pease hill toward stanstead and then onto trottiscliffe, but I could simply have scoured the map for any section of road for your nonsensical request.

It matters not whether you believe me or not. What matters is that I posted that is was unreasonable for a cyclist to hold up a car at 10mph for eight miles and there have been a significant number of posters on here defend their right to do so.

Those particular cyclist need their moral responsibility not to hold up faster traffic put into law in the same way a middle lane moron can now be bought to book.

And I say that with a heavy heart cos I hate the ever increasing legislation in this country.

[Hitch]

We have loads of visiting cyclists around ours and I'd say it is a 50-50 mix of sensible vs. ttish behaviour. The latter dislike the fact that when they turn up and unload their bikes us locals don't simply stop what we're doing and allow them to live out their Froomeish fantasies on empty roads. I drove about four miles to a pub for dinner last night and because it was a lovely evening they were out in force. I passed about six or seven groups and was shouted at by three of them. The scenarios were as follows:
1. I had the cheek to overtake a group of six cyclists who were taking up the whole side of the road and moving very slowly because they were drinking water and chatting - I passed entirely in the other lane on a long clear stretch.
2. I interrupted one chap's downhill pursuit flying time trial by being entirely in my own lane as I rounded a sharp bend on the lane up the hill to the pub.
3. I had the temerity to be in my own lane when one chap who was riding with his head turned the other way rounded a bend at the same time as me and was surprised that he couldn't also be in my lane at the same time.

I was driving the family bus with a nine month pregnant wife on-board on winding country roads. As I live here I know how often you encounter Bloody Big Tractors on a mission to get home at dinner time so I always take it easy to avoid any unnecessary ditch and hedge finding. My speeds at most were between 20-25 mph, perhaps nearing 30 for my daring overtake!

I cycle in the same area and never have a problem, neither do the 50% who seem to take a sensible and pragmatic view of cycling on mixed use roads. There is a massive attitude problem with the other 50% and they give cyclists a very bad name as they can be pretty aggressive for no real need. It's almost like they're looking for an opportunity to be confrontational.

[RobM77]

walm said:

saaby93 said:

You're forgetting the lookee likey ones

Got all the cycling gear - tick
Spent the money on the bike - tick
iphone - tick
Headphones - tick
8 mile country lane - tick

Plodding along 10 mph tops - world of own - doesn't matter if anyone is behind - passing places what are they?

Along with the OP you are just making things up.
I have never EVER seen a wannabe in the countryside with headphones. (Nor considered their brand of phone even remotely relevant, even as an Android user.)

I am not saying it doesn't happen - I just think that when it does, there is also a blue moon, preceded by 30 days all called Sunday.

Me neither. Doing 15-40mph on a bicycle wearing shorts and a t-shirt is dangerous enough, without listening to music at the same time.

I take issue with "wannabe" though. I have no desire at all to be the next Bradley Wiggins or even to compete. Since the age of about ten I've just loved riding my bike and it keeps me fit - that's enough for me. I'm not a "wannabe" anything.

[walm]

WinstonWolf said:

Well fancy that, I always ride with ear buds in out in the country.

You're really not helping here!!!

[walm]

julian64 said:

It matters not whether you believe me or not. What matters is that I posted that is was unreasonable for a cyclist to hold up a car at 10mph for eight miles and there have been a significant number of posters on here defend their right to do so.

Really?

I must have missed them.
Genuinely! Can you quote them?

[WinstonWolf]

walm said:

WinstonWolf said:

Well fancy that, I always ride with ear buds in out in the country.

You're really not helping here!!!

I've been mostly deaf for a couple of years, had the bones in my ear removed and I'm well adjusted. I find background music reduces those "whoa, WTF was that" moments.

[ashleyman]

I just returned home from holiday in Cornwall and there's one experience that has left me confused since it happened.

I'm driving down an NSL road that eventually moves into single track. It's NSL (60), the speed limit signs are obvious and I'm on the bit of the road with 2 lanes. I'm doing about 55 as I come round a bend and see a mother and her 2 young boys cycling up ahead in front of me. I let off a little and the arm of the mother comes up and is waving at me. I'm confused but I go past leaving sufficient distance. A brief conversation with the wife and I stop further up ahead, turn around to ask if the cyclist woman was ok. I wasn't sure if she was saying slow down (even though it's an NSL and I'm doing less AND slowed for her) or if she needs some help.

I pull up and say, 'Everything alright?', only to get a torrent of abuse about how I should be driving slower because she was cycling there. I just reminded her that it was an NSL country lane and then drove off, turned around and carried on with my journey. Only to find her now cycling on the centre white line and blocking the path of a different car. Eventually she moved over and we both passed.

Now, I get that sometimes my car can be a bit noisy, but she had to be pretty stupid taking her 2 young boys, one of which looked like he could hardly ride a bike, on a bike ride down a country lane like that. Especially as further up the track is literally only just wide enough for 1 car to pass.

[CS Garth]

julian64 said:

I didn't measure eight miles, or take the time behind them. It felt like an age it was an estimate, but I fail to see what's going on with your brain. If I tell you where and you measure it to 3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10, does it make the comment any less valid. The only certainty was me looking at my speedo and seeing 10mph for most of the way with the cyclist making little attempt to go faster although they undoubtedly could, or pull over. I didn't actually measure the time or distance but gave an estimate and for that I whole heatedly apologise, but really does that make any difference

Indeed it does. As the shorter the distance the more you look like an impatient moaning Minnie. . I'd suggest your wild exaggeration was to garner greater sympathy. If the post was "i sat behind some sub-optimally courteous cyclists for a little over 1800 yards" you'd have been less well treated even on a motoring forum imho

So, in short: impatient man meets cyclists who doesn't pull over when man would like. Man has to wait for a few minutes to pass. We as car owners don't own the road and the sooner we stop acting like we do the better

Live and let live

Edited by CS Garth on Wednesday 24th August 10:59

[walm]

ashleyman said:

Now, I get that sometimes my car can be a bit noisy, but she had to be pretty stupid taking her 2 young boys, one of which looked like he could hardly ride a bike, on a bike ride down a country lane like that. Especially as further up the track is literally only just wide enough for 1 car to pass.

You would rather she took them on a main road?

There are literally hundreds of miles of NSL round me where doing anything more than 20-30mph (in a car or on a bike) is suicidal.

That's where I take my youngest to learn to ride on the road.
Because people pass slowly rather than with a 60mph differential.

I am sure she was making a fuss over nothing as most over-protective mothers who don't get out of third in their cars are wont to do!