Vine advocates riding side by side for traffic calming.

[Cycleops]

Love him or hate him you've got to admire Jeremy for making waves with his latest uttering on Twitter, saying it's safer for cyclist to two or even four abreast for the following reasons:

1. It calms the traffic behind them 2. It makes it less easy for bad drivers to attempt dangerous passes 3. It is more pleasant and sociable for them.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/jeremy-vine-will-carling-people-twitter-cycling-uk-b949832.html

 

[neil_merseyside]

It is also a much shorter overtake.

 

[Grifff]

I cycle 2 abreast with friends and the local clubs and single out when need be but an untidy group with stragglers can get on everyone's wick. Today I followed 2 guys on a country lane which 2 cars can pass on, they must of been at least 2 m apart putting the one guy on the wrong side of the road (no white line). I followed them for half a mile before they turned off. Little wonder some motorists get annoyed. Maybe they were social distancing

 

[Edwardoka]

Two of his justifications are nonsense, but the replies are an astonishing trash fire that make it clear that motorists need to receive periodic supplemental education.

I've managed to get myself blocked by a couple of people on there for pointing out that their "what if" scenarios demonstrate that they are terrible drivers.

Good times, or rather, it would be good times if it wasn't effectively goading people who are already disinclined to be friendly to vulnerable road users into frothing idiocy.

 

[mjr]

I agree on 2 and 3 and neil but 1 just sounds like using cyclists as human speedbumps.

 

[kayakerles]

Being in the States, I’m unfamiliar with Jeremy Vine, but out on a ride with 3 other people, I’d bet he wouldn’t volunteer to be the 4th person out from the side of the road! Admitedly, on an empty country road you can occasionally get away with it, and it feels great, but I wouldn’t want to be the one farthest into a lane doing the “Traffic Calming.”

C, I must say, you do know how to inspire forum conversation!

 

[Arrowfoot]

I am sure we all want traffic to flow uninterrupted at the speed the road was designed and regulated for. That group is a disgrace to the cycling community and it does not matter if it is quiet road. Just as there are bad motorists there are bad cyclists.

I suspect he was trolling as the logical extensions of his views does not make sense.

 

[steveindenmark]

I took this as being humerous. He was taking the mickey.

But even though they looked like a herd of sheep. Getting past them on that road would have been no trouble. Its when they do it on winding country roads that it annoys me.

 

[theclaud]

It's obvious that it would get the drivists frothing, but on a cycling forum it shouldn't be controversial to observe that, where pedestrians and cyclists claim space confidently, it challenges motor traffic dominance - 'calms' traffic, if you like. The problem is not cyclists being 'used' to calm traffic, but that culture and road/street design work against this, meaning that only confident and experienced cyclists and militant pedestrians can embrace their traffic calming function. When small children can do it, we'll be getting somewhere.

 

[sheddy]

Cars are just too wide. Driver & passenger seats should be arranged in single file.

 

[newfhouse]

Whenever I have attempted traffic (driver?) calming I have usually failed and had to settle for traffic slowing instead. Oh well.

 

[fossyant]

Most roads were designed well before many cars were around. Many date back before motorised transport was invented.

 

[matticus]

Most roads were designed well before many cars were around. Many date back before motorised transport was invented.

... and it was cyclists that got them tarmac-ed!

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Being in the States, I’m unfamiliar with Jeremy Vine, but out on a ride with 3 other people, I’d bet he wouldn’t volunteer to be the 4th person out from the side of the road! Admitedly, on an empty country road you can occasionally get away with it, and it feels great, but I wouldn’t want to be the one farthest into a lane doing the “Traffic Calming.”

C, I must say, you do know how to inspire forum conversation!

You really are the lucky one there.

 

[icowden]

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/jeremy-vine-will-carling-people-twitter-cycling-uk-b949832.html

This made me laugh:-

Ex-London mayoral candidate Laurence Fox

I'd have gone for failed actor and rent-a-gob myself.