cyclists blocking the road

[Mark_Robson]

1. Never been on a club ride that has six abreast riding.
2. When cycling into a headwind often never heard a car engine behind.
3. Appreciate a short toot from a car horn as per reasons above, nearly always accompanied by a wave after we have moved over.
4. If our club run contains more than 14 riders we split into 2 groups.
5. On some roads singling out can be more dangerous.
6. Aggressive and/or inconsiderate cycling leads to even more aggressive inconsiderate driving, a lose lose situation.

Normally enjoy a good debate but confrontational attitudes out on the road could potentially be dangerous.

+1 that's called mutual respect and compromise isn't a sign of weakness.

 

[Alessandro Petacchi]

There's only one way to sort it out.........FIGHT .

 

[neil earley]

if you ride 2 abreast on a m/bike its against the law !! so b,,,g,,r them as long as you ride responsible why cant you be safe in a group ps dont condone bullying by either cyclists or car drivers.

 

[on the road]

She drives one of those superquiet 'eco' cars, she did not beep her horn out of 'you're holding me up frustration' but becuase she wasn't sure if the cyclist were even aware she was behind them, and was thinking she could be stuck behind them for miles ..
In total time she was behind them for 17 minutes

And the original point of my post was that, yes cyclist do ride wide to prevent cars from passing when unsafe, I do so myself, but to block a road, when it is safe to pass, to deliberatly hold up another person & to then call her names, such as bitch & slag to repeat a few, to hope she crashes is not on - She passed slowly & wide, it was warm & she had the windows open, they could see she had children in the car - That is just not acceptable

But you've only got one side of the story.

 

[Red Light]

if you ride 2 abreast on a m/bike its against the law !!

Pity its not illegal for drivers to drive around two abreast with an empty passenger seat. If they got rid of that their cars could be much narrower and they would have much less trouble passing. Purely selfish to block the roads because of carrying around three passenger seats that are nearly always empty. ;-ˆ)

 

[Red Light]

But you've only got one side of the story.

And a story that seems to have an awful lot of detail such as whether the windows were open, how she sounded the horn, who was in the car, how long she was held up etc etc but not about which road it actually happened on (which would allow us to have a look courtesy of Streetview to see how reasonable it was to expect to pass.

 

[Jezston]

1. Never been on a club ride that has six abreast riding.
2. When cycling into a headwind often never heard a car engine behind.
3. Appreciate a short toot from a car horn as per reasons above, nearly always accompanied by a wave after we have moved over.
4. If our club run contains more than 14 riders we split into 2 groups.
5. On some roads singling out can be more dangerous.
6. Aggressive and/or inconsiderate cycling leads to even more aggressive inconsiderate driving, a lose lose situation.

Normally enjoy a good debate but confrontational attitudes out on the road could potentially be dangerous.

+1 again.

I'm not taking sides on this argument, but I have been pretty shocked by some of the attitudes expressed here which can only be adding to the cyclist vs cars 'war' the media like to tell us about.

When I've been out on group rides, even with the local fixie crew that often have some ... shall we say unconvential approaches to road use, will still move to let cars pass.

I'm not sure I understand the argument that riding six abreast so that the peleton actually extends into the oncoming lane is in any way justifiable.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

No, but as one peloton, they were preventing traffic from overtaking.

They (we) don't have a God-given right to dominate one lane of traffic. Common sense should have prevailed and they took to riding single file, allowing the motorist to use their judgement in overtaking at a safe and convenient place, and not being, effectively, told to wait.

I undertand, I think, what your point is but...


On Sunday I drove my mother in law to the shops in my chunkychicken (janey, don't fiats have rubbish horns!). The entire way there, and back, there were cars which according to this logic, were 'preventing traffic from overtaking', by their very presence. This morning on my commute a tractor and trailer were preventing traffic from overtaking* by being there.

I'm outraged.

*Didn't stop King Chump in his crossovermobile from squeezing past me (right behind the trailer) into a non-existent gap. Oh well, another report for Operation Crackdown.....

 

[Jezston]

But a tractor can't magically shrink itself into a width a couple of feet across.

A group of cyclists can.

 

[dodgy]

Funny to see you lot arguing over a 3rd hand story

I will say though, that I see some fairly surprising positioning and riding from our learned friends in the CTC. Around these parts you can sometimes see them riding in a fairly disorganised line (was going to call it rabble), some 2 abreast, some not but stretched waaaaay down the road. Almost impossible to overtake in a car, and sometimes tricky to overtake on a bike, despite their slow speed.

 

[screenman]

How was the non-existant gap created? was this by the vehicle behind not leaving enough gap? or not dropping back slightly to let the other person in.

 

[PpPete]

Just a point re horns (feeble or otherwise)

However the driver meant it to be interpreted, for me there is only one acceptable response:

And that's to wave gaily in response, and if the driver passes at the same time, to smile broadly and mouth "Hello" and "have a nice day"

This cuts both ways.... driver intending to politely make cyclist aware of presence gets an acceptable, civilized and friendly response, whilst the driver who intended it as "get out my f...g way" gets the message "toot all you like mate, I'm having a good time, fresh air, exercise, good company, and nothing you can do is going to spoil my day" which works better than the usual Churchillian salute...

 

[Ticktockmy]

Edburton road is a rather pleasant road, whilst it is narrow, it does have plenty of passing places, some are quite long so with a bit of give and take from both parties, she should have been able to pass. I can understand the ladies frustration because the road does not have any “white lines” and in this day and age , motorist do seem to have problems judging time, space and speed without the help of road markings.

I think the problem was a bit of frustration and adrenalin on both sides, and a short gentle toot by the lady would have told the cyclist she was there, which would have given them time to sort the group out so she could have passed.

Of course the real problem was the two children being in the car, Children in cars cause the mum to drive in a caring manner, which means overtaking must be done at a slow speed, that the road requires to be at least 50 foot wide, and no other traffic must no nearer than 30 foot.

 

[thelawnet]

4 and 6 abreast !!!!!!! And then the abuse .............. horns piss me off big time and they are quite startling but not exactly 2 abreast are they. If I was a cop I would have spoken to the cyclists because the OP suggests they had a total disregard for anyone else on the road and in fact encouraged, by their actions, other road users to have a go.

It's unlikely that they were 4 or 6 abreast.


Usually what happens is that the cyclists are riding in a pack something like this:


http://dcrandall.fil...cific-ocean.jpg


Which is of course two abreast and entirely legal (also filling one side of a country road quite easily), but the motorist sees lots of cyclists and decides they are 6 abreast or something equally absurd, as if you'd want to go down a country road six abreast when two is more than enough for safety.

 

[thelawnet]

But a tractor can't magically shrink itself into a width a couple of feet across.

A group of cyclists can.

Bicycles don't have several tonnes of metal protecting them though, so are perfectly within their rights to ride within the limits of their side of the road.