Why do some cyclists use the entire lane, use fog horns, and flashing lights?????????

Retrogamer

I've had a few cars beeping at me before because i was in towards the left of the road and had to move towards the middle to avoid potholes.
In all of these causes it seems the motorists were trying to overtake me with leaving a very small gap where they could have went over the other side of the road to pass instead.

Perhaps if i cycled in the middle of the road and "took the lane" this would solve that problem.

brat

prowla wrote: »

It's good to see that the cyclist in the above is keeping left, as the Highway Code stipulates.

You are badly misinterpreting this HC advice. Keeping to the left of a lane is dreadful advice for safety and for view. If, as you suggest, you are going to take IAM instruction, they will make you very aware that a flexible lane position is required to take best advantage of view and safety considerations.
If you have access to 'Roadcraft' have a look at chapter 7. It offers good advice on lane position.

brat

AliceBanned wrote: »

Personally when cycling in London or the countryside on quiet lanes, I stick to the left rather than taking the lane. This thread is the first I've heard about it. I don't cower in the left though, but I do end up getting some of the potholes as I feel that is safer than moving into the middle of the road, and also because so many motorists are impatient if you do that and start blasting their horn, which is unpleasant.


Also when on a very narrow long country lane where the motorist is forced to slow down behind me, I sometimes stop completely and let them pass. Maybe I am being too nice to them but it is irritating having them behind me waiting to get by, both for me and for them.


I do think the OP is a venting rather than a search for information though. We cyclists get it all the time.


Also when driving I expect a cyclist to let me pass if they are going more slowly than me. There is no point blocking the road for no purpose (I don't think it is always safer in the middle) but in London it is better to be out towards the middle more often. I've had a van door open on me and another van do a left turn almost dragging me round, despite me being in front to start with.

I completely disagree in respect of country lanes. I ride 4 to 5 metre roads most of the time, and I'm only ever near the grass verge when negotiating a right bend or when a car is passing. Otherwise I use the entire road width. It's the safest way for me to ride.

If I'm in my car behind a cyclist it is always my plan to pass the cyclist at some point. If the cyclist assists, that's fine, but I don't expect.him or her to pull over.
As a cyclist I would pull over after a minute or so if the car driver seems to be having difficulty passing, but I very often catch them up again stuck because of an approaching tractor or bus. I usually sneak past then never see them again!

esuhl

Retrogamer wrote: »

I've had a few cars beeping at me before because i was in towards the left of the road and had to move towards the middle to avoid potholes.
In all of these causes it seems the motorists were trying to overtake me with leaving a very small gap where they could have went over the other side of the road to pass instead.

Perhaps if i cycled in the middle of the road and "took the lane" this would solve that problem.

I've had that problem too. Vehicles squeeze past, forcing oncoming traffic into the kerb, with millimetres to spare each side. You end up having to cycle in the centre of the lane to stop such reckless behaviour.

Other times, a car can be patiently following you (leaving a decent gap). You veer to the right to avoid a pothole... the driver suddenly thinks they'll lose any opportunity to overtake in future, so floors it, squeezing past you and oncoming traffic, only to nearly cause an accident.

I had to laugh (in despair) when a car behind me dangerously overtook without being able to see traffic emerging from a road to the right, at exactly the same time a car on a road to the left pulled out right in front of me (and into the overtaking car). This is all in a tiny village with 20mph speed limit -- the exact speed I was travelling at.

Sometimes I think the effect of cyclists on car drivers is akin to the effect cats get when they see catnip.

prowla

AliceBanned wrote: »

Personally when cycling in London or the countryside on quiet lanes, I stick to the left rather than taking the lane. This thread is the first I've heard about it. I don't cower in the left though, but I do end up getting some of the potholes as I feel that is safer than moving into the middle of the road, and also because so many motorists are impatient if you do that and start blasting their horn, which is unpleasant.


Also when on a very narrow long country lane where the motorist is forced to slow down behind me, I sometimes stop completely and let them pass. Maybe I am being too nice to them but it is irritating having them behind me waiting to get by, both for me and for them.


I do think the OP is a venting rather than a search for information though. We cyclists get it all the time.


Also when driving I expect a cyclist to let me pass if they are going more slowly than me. There is no point blocking the road for no purpose (I don't think it is always safer in the middle) but in London it is better to be out towards the middle more often. I've had a van door open on me and another van do a left turn almost dragging me round, despite me being in front to start with.

You are a considerate cyclist!

prowla

brat wrote: »

You are badly misinterpreting this HC advice. Keeping to the left of a lane is dreadful advice for safety and for view. If, as you suggest, you are going to take IAM instruction, they will make you very aware that a flexible lane position is required to take best advantage of view and safety considerations.
If you have access to 'Roadcraft' have a look at chapter 7. It offers good advice on lane position.

I certainly appreciate the need to be aware of your surroundings and that there are indeed situations on the road where a cyclist may need to move out, including pot-holes, drains, parked cars, and so on; however, that flexibility does not mean you should not obey the rules of the road and keep left otherwise.

If there are suggestions & guidelines which advise a subset of users to use a different set of rules to the established ones which the majority follow, then there are certainly going to be issues arising.

We've seen evidence here where cyclists don't believe that the rules of the road apply to them, and where convenient have invented supplementary wordings to suit their preferred interpretation of the rules, or to say that the items in the HC are only recommendations which they don't have to follow, only to then go on and quote other schemes which are not generally known in support of their viewpoint.

You can't have it both ways.

Anyway, I'm off out for a drive - safe travelling!

Retrogamer

Can a cyclist be prosecuted for cycling into the middle of a road which has the conventional 2 lanes?

brat

prowla wrote: »

I certainly appreciate the need to be aware of your surroundings and that there are indeed situations on the road where a cyclist may need to move out, including pot-holes, drains, parked cars, and so on; however, that flexibility does not mean you should not obey the rules of the road and keep left otherwise.

If there are suggestions & guidelines which advise a subset of users to use a different set of rules to the established ones which the majority follow, then there are certainly going to be issues arising.

We've seen evidence here where cyclists don't believe that the rules of the road apply to them, and where convenient have invented supplementary wordings to suit their preferred interpretation of the rules, or to say that the items in the HC are only recommendations which they don't have to follow, only to then go on and quote other schemes which are not generally known in support of their viewpoint.

You can't have it both ways.

Anyway, I'm off out for a drive - safe travelling!

So, despite knowing that your interpretation of the Highway Code is wrong, you're happy to use that misinterpretation to accuse cyclists of not believing the rules apply to them. Nice.

Strider590

prowla wrote: »

I certainly appreciate the need to be aware of your surroundings and that there are indeed situations on the road where a cyclist may need to move out, including pot-holes, drains, parked cars, and so on; however, that flexibility does not mean you should not obey the rules of the road and keep left otherwise.

If there are suggestions & guidelines which advise a subset of users to use a different set of rules to the established ones which the majority follow, then there are certainly going to be issues arising.

We've seen evidence here where cyclists don't believe that the rules of the road apply to them, and where convenient have invented supplementary wordings to suit their preferred interpretation of the rules, or to say that the items in the HC are only recommendations which they don't have to follow, only to then go on and quote other schemes which are not generally known in support of their viewpoint.

You can't have it both ways.

Anyway, I'm off out for a drive - safe travelling!

I'm sorry, but drivers are the worst by far when it comes to making up their own highway code and then trying to enforce that on other road users. When these drivers meet a cyclist, that's when the trouble starts.

Norman_Castle

prowla wrote: »

We've seen evidence here where cyclists don't believe that the rules of the road apply to them, and where convenient have invented supplementary wordings to suit their preferred interpretation of the rules, or to say that the items in the HC are only recommendations which they don't have to follow, only to then go on and quote other schemes which are not generally known in support of their viewpoint.

You can't have it both ways.

Anyway, I'm off out for a drive - safe travelling!

If you're driving a car on a wide lane do you hug the nearside kerb?. Forget your preferred interpretation which places cyclists where you want them.. Regardless of anyone's choice of road position or mode of transport the keep left instruction means use the left hand lane.