Temporary Traffic Lights

[Deleted member 26715]

What about when you can't see the end of the roadworks while waiting on red? This happens a lot on the steep hills around here, they're rarely straight. You drive cautiously forward on green and can't be blamed if you meet a slow cyclist coming the other way

No but in those instances I'd stop or slow & get over to the left as far as I could & not just come barrelling through expecting the cyclist to do the avoiding action.

Had one a couple of months ago (actually likely to be more now), where our lights went to green & just at the same time I saw a Ford Fiesta started to enter the lane from the other end, he obviously had red & thought he'd chance it, he was also clearly going faster than the 30mph limit. He ended up having to brake very hard & then reverse back up the lane, not sure if it was me on the bike or the HGV behind me that made him change his mind.

 

[CXRAndy]

If its a long section, I just ride within the cones. Rarely is the coned area unnavigable

 

[Slick]

If its a long section, I just ride within the cones. Rarely is the coned area unnavigable

Freshly laid tar is a bit of an issue. Damhikt

 

[Slick]

I do that too, but it feels more uncomfortable to do so if the coned area is on the right rather than the left. Probably because if the coned area becomes obstructed I'd have to re-enter the traffic from the right.

More generally I find I'm ok with temps on a flat road. But some around here are very steep uphills and it feels like the timing doesn't take into account how slowly a cyclist goes up a steep hill

I never really thought about it until now but I can't think of a time when I have done it on the right, funny that.

 

[CXRAndy]

Freshly laid tar is a bit of an issue. Damhikt

Never seen workmen at these sites.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Actually happened to me again today - the driver at the other end just moved out a bit and waited for me

It is good to remember that most car drivers are perfectly sensible and responsible

it is just that you remember the morons

I suppose one solution would be to have a separate lane for cyclists where possible - dunno how that would work though

 

[DRM]

I think with these things you’re constantly assessing where you can bug out to , I have sometimes decided it’s safer to be inside the coned off area than out of it, especially if it’s on an uphill bit of road, but usually I can manage to negotiate the roadworks without disaster, but it can be a worry wondering if the lights have been set to give you sufficient time to clear them

 

[Ajax Bay]

if you went slower than 36km/h then you could prevent the last vehicle to cross the green light behind you from getting to the other side before the lights changed to green for oncoming traffic.

No problem. The drivers waiting can see the cars coming slowly towards them (behind the cyclist). They will not pull out.

I'd prefer to pedal through with a line of cars behind me, rather than be at the back and end up on my own exposed

This ^^ though if I can see the coned area offers me a safe route to the end, I'll take it.

I usually take a strong central position

I do advocate this rather than subservience in (and out) of the cones: minimises the likelihood of the waiting driver not 'seeing' you. The law-abiding cyclist has started on green and even if slow will surely be in sight of the waiting driver, as their eyes turn from red to green.

 

[Milkfloat]

I much prefer to have a queue of cars behind me rather than being last, that way the cars waiting to come through will wait rather than trying to bully their way through. If they are stupid enough not to wait, then at least they have to come to a stop when they meet the opposing cars and thus not try and bully me out of the way. They can then have the fun of reversing back up.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Grappling hook on the last car in front of you?

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Grappling hook on the last car in front of you?

Once tried to grab a lift off a pickup truck as a kid, it didn't end well

 

[Ajax Bay]

grab a lift off a pickup truck

View: https://youtu.be/zZJ7cq6T3v4?t=64

 

[Slick]

Once tried to grab a lift off a pickup truck as a kid, it didn't end well

I did it regularly on an old message bike with a tractor and trailer and normally it worked really well until one day I got greedy and held on to the trailer at the junction which I usually didn't as the shop was straight ahead and this thing was turning right. As it pulled away, I shot straight out like a bullet out a gun straight into the back of a parked car. Nightmare

 

[HLaB]

Once tried to grab a lift off a pickup truck as a kid, it didn't end well

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH7EyPs_Va8

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I agree that riding up the middle of the lane is a good way of ensuring that cars don;t enter and try to bully you off the road

but it depends on the speed that you ride at
if you are an experienced rider on a proper road bike and normally ride at 20 mph - then yup - OK
a normal person on a cheap mountain bike will be going far slower

and riding down the middle at 7-10mph with a queue of cars stuck behind you is the best way I can think of to create a load of cycle haters
who will then ride past me at 40 with 2 inches of clearance a few days later
so please don't do that

personally I have started riding inside the cones if they are on the left (UK - so we ride on the correct side of the road)
otherwise I often use the pedestrian route (carefully and giving way to walkers) for longer stretches of road works