snorri
Legendary Member
- Location
- East coast, up a bit.
Are you telling us that all the motor vehicles on the road are engaged on a constant stream of life saving missions?
Doubling Up On Road
- Thread starter DonnyDarko
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Are you telling us that all the motor vehicles on the road are engaged on a constant stream of life saving missions?
guitarpete247
Just about surviving
- Location
- Leicestershire
How about when driving down a narrow country lane and you meet a couple walking towards you (on the correct side of the road) side by side talking. It is slightly dangerous to over take them if there is a bend ahead so what do you do? Stop and wait for them to walk past you or intimidate them into stepping off the road.
I know that as a cyclist we are travelling in the same direction as the car but are usually slower. When driving I always slow to wait till it is safe, regarding bends and lack of clear road ahead, to pass but have often been stuck behind 2 riders on a straight road where I can see ahead but cannot get past because they refuse to drop into line astern. I have always moved over as a pedestrian or gone to single file if a cyclist.
I know that as a cyclist we are travelling in the same direction as the car but are usually slower. When driving I always slow to wait till it is safe, regarding bends and lack of clear road ahead, to pass but have often been stuck behind 2 riders on a straight road where I can see ahead but cannot get past because they refuse to drop into line astern. I have always moved over as a pedestrian or gone to single file if a cyclist.
No. Absolutely not. I'm not sure I even imply that they might be.
Indeed I'm not sure where you get the impression that was even in my thinking.
National transport infrastructure is not just about 'constant streams of life-saving missions', although I quite understand if you think it is.
It is also a means of allowing people to get about and goods to get to shops and cyclists to have a jolly ride.
I'm a keen cyclist. I was riding today in the lanes of Herefordshire with my 12-year-old son, accompanying him to a pal's house.
We didn't ride 2-abreast. We chatted, but in a shouty way amongst the traffic and always riding in line astern. Lots of vehicles passed us. Most with ease. We presented a narrow profile to faster-moving vehicles. We had no reason to hold them up.
I rode home alone and collected him and his bike later in the car (it was 19 miles away and after dark).
We sat 2-abreast in the car and chatted. Nobody passed us or even came close to it. Nobody wanted to. I dare say that without breaking the law nobody could have passed us if they'd wanted to. We weren't travelling more slowly than the majority of road users wanted to travel. Indeed, we wewre travelling rather faster, but we didn't feel 'held up' by slower vehicles. We were sitting (selfishly) in a car designed for seven. It is much wider than a bicycle. It also carries frame tents, surf boards, several bicycles, furniture, family groups and lots of garden waste.
I often cycle in London on business. There, my bicycle is significantly faster than a car. In truth, that's why I take it there on the train. It is practically a road rocket in London. There are people there who travel 2-abreast in motor vehicles. They are not doing it because they feel like a chat and aren't concerned about other road users. They do it because they are in a vehicle designed to take up most of a carriageway.
And they are driving on carriageways designed largely for vehicles like theirs.
There are times when cyclists riding 2-abreast are needlessly holding up faster vehicles when courtesy might suggest they move in and let them pass. In a car that's not an option.
It's not all about 'It's my right so I'll do it'.
Sometimes it's about all rubbing along together and just doing what is couteous, thoughtful and decent.
1588778 said:
I agree. Not necessarily so, but as I said in the snippet you quote: 'largely'.
Camber favours the wider vehicle in the middle of the carriageway. In heavy rain the standing water collects largely towards the outer edge.
Curves in faster roads are designed to be safe for vehicles with two or more axles to negotiate at speed.
Roundabouts likewise.
Road surfaces are designed for the wear associated with motor vehicles.
ShellGrip (which I was cycling over today on precipitous Herefordshire hills) is designed for motor vehicles. It offers little in the way of enhanced grip to a road bike on 20-section tyres.
Of course bicycles are included in the thinking of road designers (and more today than 30 years ago) but our road network is designed largely for motor vehicles.
If anyone wants to believe that cyclists figure large in the thinking of road-network designers, take a look at UK cycle lanes..... Or rather don't.
snorri
Legendary Member
- Location
- East coast, up a bit.
Only sometimes?
freecyclist
New Member
If the attitudes shown in this topic are replicated by cyclists riding 2 abreast on the road then i doubt they will show the levels of consideration to motorists that i would hope they would. For some it seems the legal right to ride 2 abreast and the need to not be seen to be giving any concession to motorists is a recepie for pig ignorant selfishness.
The same selfish cyclists glorying in preventing cars from overtaking by their assertive riding will no doubt in the next breath be complaining about getting intimidated and close passed by the very drivers that they deliberately antagonise.
The same selfish cyclists glorying in preventing cars from overtaking by their assertive riding will no doubt in the next breath be complaining about getting intimidated and close passed by the very drivers that they deliberately antagonise.
Christ this is like pedalling through treacle. If design already attempts to marginalize cyclists, to render them invisible, this is yet another factor we must address by riding assertively. Making ourselves seen where the road invites motorists to disregard us, claiming spaces and surfaces that suit us, and so on.
briantrumpet
Legendary Member
- Location
- Devon & Die
[QUOTE 1588784"]
Jesus would ride a bike.[/quote]
But would he wear a helmet?
Sorry, wrong thread.
Jesus would ride a bike.[/quote]
But would he wear a helmet?
Sorry, wrong thread.
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=fTTF2QIHDCM
or, as the excellent Mr. Welles put it - 'the faster we are carried the less time we have to spare'. If Jenny Jones' dream of a 20mph zone stretching from Brighton to Inverness comes about, the streets will be returned to human beings, whose minds will not be subtly (or not so subtly) altered. Of coure this entire discussion would lapse and thirty something pages worth of pixels would have to find a task equally worthy of their brightness, but you can't have everything in life.
srw
It's a bit more complicated than that...
He has his own jersey:
jesus bike jersey by bikingthings, on Flickr
And a club: http://www.ibelieveracingteam.com/cyclingteam.html
Emmanuel Obikwelu
New Member
Not this one, then?
If you show the same lack of respect and consideration to motorists as you do the other forum members religeous sensibilities then i can see why you might come across as inconsiderate and selfish.
Come again?
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