What is the Law (UK) when it comes to cycling in the road?

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srw

It's a bit more complicated than that...
That's because tooting your horn is aggressive. The sound of an engine is quite enough to let cyclists know you're there. If the right-hand rider is on the white line in the middle of the road you've got a whole lane's worth of tarmac to pass them on - more than you often get to pass a tractor. How much more do you want?
 

beany_bot

Veteran
That's because tooting your horn is aggressive. The sound of an engine is quite enough to let cyclists know you're there. If the right-hand rider is on the white line in the middle of the road you've got a whole lane's worth of tarmac to pass them on - more than you often get to pass a tractor. How much more do you want?

I want at least a cars width thats how much, to allow for wobble room. A "tractor" isn't likely to topple under my wheels now is it?
Tooting gently is NOT aggressive it is to alert them of my presence. If they have already seen me of course I don't bother tooting as I don't need to.

Honestly mate, attitudes like that give cyclists a bad name in my book. One minute you want people passing at a safe distance but then when it suits you you want them to squeeze past just a foot away? Give me strength...
 

GrasB

Veteran
Location
Nr Cambridge
Tooting gently is NOT aggressive it is to alert them of my presence. If they have already seen me of course I don't bother tooting as I don't need to.
With most cars you can't 'toot gently' as the horn is on or off, it might only be on for half a second but it's sill loud & liable to make the target jump & be alarming to them. Personally the only reason I use a horn in a non-emergency situation is to alert another driver in a motor vehicle.
 

srw

It's a bit more complicated than that...
Here's the thing. As a cyclist, if I hear an engine behind me I think "potentially dangerous vehicle". If I'm riding with just one other person I'm likely to single out - there's a reasonable chance they'll pass safely. If I also hear a horn behind me I think "impatient git". I want to control that vehicle and that driver - I'll make sure that it can only pass me on my terms.
 

beany_bot

Veteran
1995847 said:
Could we hear a recording of the horn in question? If it sounds parp parp like Noddy's car then it may well sound unaggressive inside the car. Unfortunatly that doesn't stop it from sounding like "get out of my f***ing way" from the perspective of the recipient.

It plays la cucaracha!!! No, joking aside. I don't just race up behind cyclists beeping the horn wildly. I sit patiently behind a them and if after a period of time they haven't seen me, or just don't care and refuse to single file, I let them know of my presence and intention. I really don't see how this is a problem. At the end of the day all I am concerned with is being able to pass them safety, which I can NOT do on narrow country roads if they are two a breast. There is no need to cycle 2 a breast for 100% of your journey, there IS a need to pass you safety.
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
Tooting gently?
ffs I have heard it all now.

Using the car horn is using the car horn.
A driver using it behind cyclists can only be in an impatient get out of my way manner.

All car drivers have to do is be patient and cyclists will allow or help a pass once it is safe to do so.
 

beany_bot

Veteran
Tooting gently?
ffs I have heard it all now.

Using the car horn is using the car horn.
A driver using it behind cyclists can only be in an impatient get out of my way manner.

All car drivers have to do is be patient and cyclists will allow or help a pass once it is safe to do so.
if o ly that were true! I've waited 5 miles plus before behind 2 a breast cyclists before giving a gentle toot and a smile just to let them know I would like to pass safely. Really pisses me off that the same cyclists that demand a cars width (rightly so) on their commute, will happily expect you to squeeze past because they want to ride 2 a breast for 100% of their country ride???
 

beany_bot

Veteran
As others have said, ride 2 a breast when it is safe to do so. All I was saying is that it is aparent to me that many do it deliberately to antagonise.
Not all of course.
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
if o ly that were true! I've waited 5 miles plus before behind 2 a breast cyclists before giving a gentle toot and a smile just to let them know I would like to pass safely. Really pisses me off that the same cyclists that demand a cars width (rightly so) on their commute, will happily expect you to squeeze past because they want to ride 2 a breast for 100% of their country ride???


5 miles? Have you a google map of this road that doesn't allow a safe pass or a turn off for 5 miles.
In all the years of me cycling and with the many many people I have had the pleasure of cycling with. I have never had a group or individuals willing hold up a car for 5 miles.

And what is this gentle toot you speak.
I have heard of a car horn being a car horn. They are usually one loud tone. Does yours have a 'gentle toot' switch?
 

beany_bot

Veteran
Ok fine. Im a bad driver for wanting to pass cyclists safetly (which is not possible if a cyclists refuses (and for no good reason I might add) to move from 2 a breast hugging the middle of the road). My bad. All I was saying is that its a two way street (pardon the pun) cyclists need to help themselves as much as drivers need to help them. I was making a point that it seems to me, on occasion cyclists ride two a breast, deliberately, to antagonise. And it would seem that from some of the responses here I am not wrong!
 

srw

It's a bit more complicated than that...
Oh, you're definitely wrong. Cyclists ride two abreast, deliberately, to minimise the possibility that potentially dangerous drivers affect them.

Just for the sake of balance - the last time I was tooted at by a driver was on the road south out of Aylesbury. I was close to a pinch point before a roundabout, so I positioned myself well out into the road, looked behind me and saw a yellow van. I shrugged at it, as if to say "what am I supposed to do about your impatience?"

When I got to the roundabout I decided to be generous - it's a decent two-laner with no right turn. So I went well over to the left to allow the van past. The "van" turned out to be an ambulance with its blue lights flashing. It proceeded up the road at a very stately 40mph.

I still haven't worked out why, if it was on an an emergency call, it didn't go just a little faster, or add its sirens to its lights. I know that ambulances carrying some patients to hospital won't use their sirens, but since we were going away from the only hospital in the area I'm completely at a loss.
 

beany_bot

Veteran
Oh, you're definitely wrong. Cyclists ride two abreast, deliberately, to minimise the possibility that potentially dangerous drivers affect them.

Have you lost your marbles?

Riding 1 a breast = allows car to overtake with 6 feet of room.
Riding 2 a breast = encourages car drivers (not me but many) to overtake with 1 foot of room.

You've got to be crazy to try and argue a case around that.
 
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