Cycling slowly on fast roads

[fimm]

On Saturday I cycled up a hill, quite a long hill, and I was going quite slowly. The road is a National Speed Limit road. There was one point where the road narrows and goes round a bit of a corner, and there are "No Overtaking" double white lines in the middle of the road because the visibility is poor. However I did get overtaken on that section, and I felt a bit vulnerable - what would have happened if something had come the other way at that point?

Now it is legal to cross double whites to overtake a cyclist if they are travelling at less than 10 mph (which I was). I wondered if I should have been further out (I was between the gutter and secondary) but I also thought that it might be a bit excessive to force cars to slow right down given that I was all but stationary relative to cars doing 60.

Thoughts/experiences anyone?

 

[barnesy]

Double whites means no overtaking under any circumstances in my opinion.

I have roads like this and i try to save some energy up for a fast climb and move out into the middle of the lane, cars have to wait but better for thm to wait than to put theirs or my life at risk.

If you are feeling very slow, is there a point on the oncoming lane where you can walk up the road on a verge or anything?

And the other thing is that just because its a 60 limit doesnt mean the cars need to be doing 60, and i would hope most wouldnt be doing 60 on a hill round a blind bend,

 

[fossyant]

Most drivers don't give a hoot about passing distance.

Just get out training, learn where to place yourself on a road, get fit, then take revenge on the way down

 

[Banjo]

129
Double white lines where the line nearest you is solid. This means you MUST NOT cross or straddle it unless it is safe and you need to enter adjoining premises or a side road. You may cross the line if necessary, provided the road is clear, to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10 mph (16 km/h) or less.


Cut and pasted from Highway Code online. Unfortunately a huge proportion of drivers dont know or care about the rules.

 

[HLaB]

Code wise banjo's right, if you are going less than 10mph the driver can cross if neccessary. Practically though some pr@ts see cyclist and have that must overtake cyclists urge regardless of your speed. I find a stronger position generally helps get me space, it makes most drivers slow down and think but its not a panacea and won't stop idiots.

 

[Alien8]

My normal commute in to work takes me along this road.

The double white lines go on for about ~150m up the short hill and down the other side.

On the up-hill section I'm typically doing about 15mph and quickly get up to over 20mph on the down-hill bit.

This is quite a busy road at commute time with a constant stream of traffic.

In the 18-months I've been using this road I can only remember two occasions when a motorist has slowed behind me and waited until we've cleared the white lines before overtaking.

Everybody, cars, buses, learners, police, happily cross the white lines to overtake me - some closer than others.

The really bizarre thing is that to the far side of the road is a shared use cycle-path, which I never use, but I have never once had any motorists honking or gesturing about "get on to the cycle path".

 

[corshamjim]

If the bend is a sharp, blind, left-hander, then it's difficult to know what the best positioning is. Too far out and the speed-merchant will surely hit you as he whizzes around the corner. Too far in and he won't see you until much later, but well hey hopefully he will miss you if you are far enough in.

It's a difficult call and I'm certainly not experienced enough to say for sure what's best in that situation. One thing I certainly do is try and get around such corners as quickly as possible to reduce the odds of anything fast behind being on it the same time as me!

 

[marinyork]

It's very common to overtake on solids. Drivers don't give a monkeys about solid whites. What would happen would be there would be a very large smash up if something was coming the other way. As I've said before it would be muggins ringing the ambulance for them and trying to assist with the horrific consequences and then muggins getting blamed by the coppers and having to vociferously argue that it was 100% their fault in the investigations afterwards. Nor does speed make much of a difference, I've been doing 30-40mph on double solids placed very sensibly and still you get daredevils overtaking you.

If I was going uphill I would tend to stick in and they'll straddle the line and hope for the best.

 

[fimm]

Doh' should have thought about Google streetview.

My link

It rises 200m in something over 2km, according to my garmin trace, so going faster isn't really an option...
I get lots of illegal overtakes (illegal due to my speed) on double whites on my long commute, but this was different - I think on my commute the sightlines are OKish if you are passing a bike. This felt scarier - maybe I was getting less space.

Thank you for all the comments so far.

 

[summerdays]

I think it creates a problem especially for the slower cyclists amongst us ... I have one place where it is near the brow of a hill on a bend and it is narrow (cut through rock) with a hashed area in the middle. I am normally going at a very slow speed and cars will overtake me on the blind bend, I have to admit I normally go for the keeping in secondary position because of my speed as I can't see around the bend myself and don't want to meet a car overtaking a bike coming the other way. I'm sure a faster cyclist would do it differently.

 

[Tasker]

Well, well.

What a perfect post to bolster my point that it's about time us Cyclists/ Horse riders/ pedestrians/just simple walkers had some consideration from the planners as to the fact that we also contribute to the road network just as much as the man in his car (car owner speaking here).

If drugged up chavs can wreak our city centres and get afforded newstime on the Beeb, when are WE going to join forces with the above mentioned 'excluded' users of the Queen's Highway and demand our rights?

 

[theFire]

Doh' should have thought about Google streetview.

My link

It rises 200m in something over 2km, according to my garmin trace, so going faster isn't really an option...
I get lots of illegal overtakes (illegal due to my speed) on double whites on my long commute, but this was different - I think on my commute the sightlines are OKish if you are passing a bike. This felt scarier - maybe I was getting less space.

Thank you for all the comments so far.

If you generally dont feel safe there why not use the shared cycle path? Or am I missing something....

 

[theFire]

If you generally dont feel safe there why not use the shared cycle path? Or am I missing something....

Ah I think I was missing the point there... after re-reading the first post!

The thread relates to roads like this in general... they wont all have a cycle facility

 

[Coco]

129
Double white lines where the line nearest you is solid. This means you MUST NOT cross or straddle it unless it is safe and you need to enter adjoining premises or a side road. You may cross the line if necessary, provided the road is clear, to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10 mph (16 km/h) or less.

I've added my own emphasis to the above. If they can't see round the bend then they can't tell if its clear. But being right doesn't always keep you safe

I'm not particularly fast when it comes to uphills (or flats or downhills

) and tend to agree with Summerdays. You could just as easily get hit by a car coming in the opposite direction if you were further out.

Life is full of risks and if we worried about every bend and every situation we'd never get out of bed.

 

[Coco]

Forgot to say, hopefully the more hills you do the faster you'll get