Don't always blame the motorist.

[GrumpyGregry]

Just long distance ones. You don't need to concern yourself because you don't ride enough to qualify, so your opinion doesn't count.

How long a distance is long distance?

 

[screenman]

Headwind, tailwinds, in the eye of a hurricane, sunshine, rain, plagues of frogs, the motorised vehicles will still be travelling faster.

Why will all the traffic stack up behind?

I don't get it that at all, a rearward glance is not needed by drivers as a permission slip to overtake. As long as the other carriageway is free, surely the cars can pass with a cheery wave and a song in their hearts??

Or shall we add a 5 mile tailback into the equation to help try to make a non existent point stick.

The Snake and much moreso Woodhead pass between Manchester and Sheffield is a shorter than M62 but largely winding, poor to see past others single lane each way with Articulated lorries travelling far more slowly than smaller motorised traffic even they with their far greater width and length don't build up inordinate queues of cars. They accrue some followers and it.can take a few miles (not a few seconds as per OP) to find a safe spot to get by, but they do not ever seem to receive the same level of abuse and opprobrium for the 'inconvenience' they cause.

I'll happily admit to being a Mr Toad if I catch up such a truck, especially on the least overtake friendly bit at the edge of Manchester but never when that has happened have I ever thought it necessary to engage with Internet world to castigate the driver for their driving.

Sorry I meant single track roads,

 

[DaveReading]

So on say a 5 mile long single carriage road you would not do a life saver until you got to the end, on a headwind day that would put a lot of traffic behind you. I take it you have mirrors.

No, I don't have mirrors. And no, as far as I'm concerned a lifesaver is something you do prior to a manoeuvre, e.g. pulling out or turning right (to check that it's safe). I don't feel the need to turn round to count the cars behind me - there's nothing wrong with my hearing.

 

[Bianchi boy]

The attitude of the OP is at the core of everything that's bad about cycling in a car centric society. The post and it's weird title identifies him as a 'cyclist hating cyclist'. Motoring is the norm. We're all drivers. So amongst those of us who both drive and cycle there's a group whose driving mentality is so deeply ingrained that they think of cyclists as an 'out group'. This combined with an incomplete understanding of the rules of the road make them think, upon catching up with a cyclists in their car, that the cyclists are somehow 'in the way'. Thus is at the crux of it. The cyclists aren't in the way, they are ahead. A fallen tree is 'in the way' a cow on the road is 'in the way '. A cyclist riding along in front of your car is another road user with equal rights (some might argue - more right) to be in the road. They are not 'in the way' they are in front of you. And you are behind. They got there first. It's their road. And it therefore falls to you to treat them with courtesy and respect and patience until such time as you can safely pass. They have no obligation to let you pass. Their journey us no less important than yours. Patience. It probably took you longer to write the post complaining about this incident that the valuable time they cost you.
Amazing that a 'former driving instructor' needs this spelling out.

Absolutely spot on comments

 

[screenman]

No, I don't have mirrors. And no, as far as I'm concerned a lifesaver is something you do prior to a manoeuvre, e.g. pulling out or turning right (to check that it's safe). I don't feel the need to turn round to count the cars behind me - there's nothing wrong with my hearing.

A life saver in my terms is a look over the shoulder, no need to count the cars. You may not hear a car behind if you are cycling into a head wind and they are sat a bit back. But you seemed like me to have survived so far so we must be doing things correct.

Out of interest when you drive your car on the single tracks I mention, how far would you think it a reasonable distance for a cyclist to hold you up for, or a walker for that matter.

 

[screenman]

The attitude of the OP is at the core of everything that's bad about cycling in a car centric society. The post and it's weird title identifies him as a 'cyclist hating cyclist'. Motoring is the norm. We're all drivers. So amongst those of us who both drive and cycle there's a group whose driving mentality is so deeply ingrained that they think of cyclists as an 'out group'. This combined with an incomplete understanding of the rules of the road make them think, upon catching up with a cyclists in their car, that the cyclists are somehow 'in the way'. Thus is at the crux of it. The cyclists aren't in the way, they are ahead. A fallen tree is 'in the way' a cow on the road is 'in the way '. A cyclist riding along in front of your car is another road user with equal rights (some might argue - more right) to be in the road. They are not 'in the way' they are in front of you. And you are behind. They got there first. It's their road. And it therefore falls to you to treat them with courtesy and respect and patience until such time as you can safely pass. They have no obligation to let you pass. Their journey us no less important than yours. Patience. It probably took you longer to write the post complaining about this incident that the valuable time they cost you.
Amazing that a 'former driving instructor' needs this spelling out.

Is it their road or our road, is courtesy not down to all of us or just the person behind?

 

[Inertia]

A life saver in my terms is a look over the shoulder, no need to count the cars. You may not hear a car behind if you are cycling into a head wind and they are sat a bit back. But you seemed like me to have survived so far so we must be doing things correct.

What is the purpose of the lifesaver in this scenario?

 

[screenman]

What is the purpose of the lifesaver in this scenario?

I want to know what is creeping up behind me at all times, I do not trust other people to look after my safety.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

Sorry I meant single track roads,
View attachment 128047

Ah ha, gotcha, but thats still inventing a worst case scenario and assuming that people are just going to be rather deaf and rude.

Tractors etc and even IME some considerate slow moving car drivers, decent cyclists, like what we are, invariably have the good grace and common sense every now and again to let any tailback go by.

When safe and mutually convenient to do so. (the key point and the thing that Gavroche stole from the couple in the OP by his MGIF attitude)

Though to be fair I doubt they'd need to more than once or twice in several miles. I've lived in rural areas as a cycle daft kid and holidayed - by bike and car - in areas of the country where such roads are more common, but they're hardly thoroughfares thronged with vehicles where such a hypothesis as you post is likely or common at all, so minimal inconvenience all round.

They also tend to be sound tunnels as per your pic or so remote and exposed in e.g. the fens, that you can hear your own heartbeat in your ears and the rustling of the vegetation. Swivelling your head round; outside of a lifesaver look at the appropriate juncture; is done because you'd hear a well lubed bike or stealth bomber in quiet mode coming up behind you , let alone a regular motor vehicle from a good way off even in weather.

It isn't like this:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFufoOgCMW8


I use mirrors on every bike I have & family ones, wouldn't be without them, they play for more of a part in my urban commute than my backline pootles to nowhere though.

 

[screenman]

Funny I find it harder to hear things behind me when riding into a headwind on the fens around where I live than most other places, it is seldom quiet enough to hear a bike or a car, Eurofighter, I will give you that one or even the Lanc, Red Arrows, Hurricane, Spitfire and a few more no doubt, comes with living in between so many bases, not forgetting the areobatics flying out of Wickenby.

 

[Inertia]

I want to know what is creeping up behind me at all times, I do not trust other people to look after my safety.

What do you think they may do to endanger you?

 

[screenman]

What do you think they may do to endanger you?

Not a clue.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

I want to know what is creeping up behind me at all times, I do not trust other people to look after my safety.

Me too, so I do that fairly often. It's a bit like when I can't see or hear my two cats; I know something's up and usually find them where they shouldn't be. Same when it all goes quiet on a country road, I get the feeling I need to check what's going on behind me in case someone's about to close pass me.

GC

 

[Inertia]

Not a clue.

Well it seems to be a bit unfair to criticise cyclists who dont look over their shoulder when there doesnt seem to be a obvious danger for them to be looking out for.

As GC said there is the possibilty of a close pass but Im not sure a shoulder check for every car pass is a good idea. if I did it on my commute Id spend more time looking behind than in front.

 

[screenman]

Well it seems to be a bit unfair to criticise cyclists who dont look over their shoulder when there doesnt seem to be a obvious danger for them to be looking out for.

As GC said there is the possibilty of a close pass but Im not sure a shoulder check for every car pass is a good idea. if I did it on my commute Id spend more time looking behind than in front.

My reply was to someone who said they only checked at junctions or before a maneuver, my point is that it is a good idea to maybe do a few more.

I must admit that I am lucky in that I seldom get trouble from motorists and cannot remember anyone apart from kids shouting at me.