An apology from a motorist

[glenn forger]

Give it a rest FFS.... The driver has been brave enough to admit her mistake and came on here specifically to apologise.
Replies like that and she will be wondering why she bothered and we will have another anti-cyclist out there in a car.

Yes, if you leave out the bit where I point out the cyclist was completely out of order then it looks like I'm attacking the driver.

 

[Brandane]

Is it better to pass a cyclist only when they are not passing cars?

It is irrelevant really; you just need to make sure you can pass giving the cyclist enough room - and if that means allowing for the unforeseen as in this case, then so be it......

Edit ..... Even cyclists cannot agree on what constitutes a safe pass from a car. There are 27 pages of riveting reading on this thread (click on the blue text) if you have a spare few hours!

 

[growingvegetables]

The cyclist was travelling very close to the parked cars, he wasn't travelling in the middle otherwise I'd have waited behind him.

Another wee comment offered in the spirit of help and learning; not of criticism.

And I'll be a little bit stroppy ...................................... about the cyclist.

Signs of a cyclist who lacks confidence/experience/competence - riding too close to the kerb. Or (as here) cycling very close to the parked cars - stupid and dangerous. Poor cycling, for whatever reason.

A complacent (and therefore dangerous, however unintentionally) driver sees a space wide enough and carries on through.

A "cyclist aware" driver reads the danger signs ...... and hangs back even more; gives even more space.

[edited after cross-posting] It's not the cyclist passing parked cars that's the problem - but that the cyclist is "giving off messages" about his lack of confidence/fear, lack of experience, or sheer basic unthinking incompetence. We have no way of knowing which it might be - generally I'd think the lack of confidence the most likely; not an unnatural response some of the driving we see!



Hey - and get that bike!

 

[Scoosh]

I hadn't appreciated that the cyclist was in a dangerous position by cycling close to the cars, I observed him doing this before moving out to give him space and assumed he was doing this to allow cars to pass. Is it better to pass a cyclist only when they are not passing cars? That is a genuine question, and if the answer is yes then I will hang back in future.

One of the most dangerous positions for a cyclist is in what we call the 'Door Zone', which is the width of a door from a car where, if someone opens a door, the cyclist has nowhere to go except smack into the door. Ouch. For this reason, many cyclists will move wide of parked cars, while running their eyes down the line of cars to see if anyone is sitting on the driver's side, front or back just in case the occupant doesn't look in their mirror before opening the door. Also why it is best, when opening a car door (on either side) to use your 'inside' hand so to do, as this causes the body to turn and see if anything is coming - car, cycle, pedestrian.

 

[Markymark]

I'm still a little confused. Does the op accept that she shouldn't have overtaken where she did? And that she shouldn't swerve into the path of a vulnerable road user? And that although the other car drove badly the danger posed to the cyclist was from the op and not the other driver?

Or is the op just wanting us all to understand it wasn't her fault but the fault of the other car?

 

[Mugshot]

The cyclist was travelling very close to the parked cars, he wasn't travelling in the middle otherwise I'd have waited behind him.

As has been pointed out this is a bad bad position for the cyclist to be in, the chances of getting doored are high and the consequences of that can be grievous, from being hit by the door, from hitting the ground and from geting run over by following vehicles. The solution is to ride further out, quite a bit further out, however frequently drivers do not understand the reasons for the cyclist being further out into the road and subject them to beeping, revving of engines and abuse. Many cyclists will ride close into the kerb or parked cars to avoid this confrontation and in the mistaken belief that they are being considerate cyclists, there's a whole thread raging away on that very subject right now. If you wouldn't have overtaken the cyclist if they had been further out then it's quite likely the case that you haven't really got the room to overtake them correctly even though they've squashed themselves into the edge.

 

[ApologeticMotorist]

If I'd wanted everyone to say I was totally blameless then I would have found a car forum that was totally unsympathetic to cyclists. This was not an ego stroking exercise, probably more an exercise in self flagellation if anything, but my main reason was to put an apology out there that I can't deliver directly to the person for whom it is intended.

I appreciate the advice I've been given, if I see a cyclist riding close to parked cars, I am now better equipped to understand why and will be even more cautious. I'm just theorising that if he'd been cycling further out into the road that I wouldn't have tried to overtake but I still might have, I don't know. It just feels a bit odd to drive completely on the wrong side of a road that is very wide like that. I assessed the road conditions as they were but obviously misjudged on this I occasion. Lesson definitely learned.

 

[Scoosh]

MOD NOTE:
Which would seem to be a very good place to Close the Thread, while harmony still reigns, the birds are still singing and (somewhere) the sun is shining !

Thank you to all contributors - this has been a credit to the OP and to CC !