Courteous (or cautious) drivers are dangerous
I have more problems with people just stopping in the middle of the road or roundabout to let me go than I do with people cutting me off, etc. I'm not sure if they are being courteous or cautious but it can be dangerous.
I have a rule (and it is the law) never to pass someone on the left if they are indicating and moving even if they have slowed or stopped to let me go. In order to maintain speed I will often move across to pass on the right as the car is turning. So when someone just stops I have to brake heavily and usually end up in a hard gear trying to get going again. I have seen other riders continue on through and I think this creates confusion. In order to let drivers know we are aware of their indicating and we follow the road rules no one should pass in these situations.
What are your thoughts and experiences ?
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Rob Wood on -
Agreed, it always creates a messy and very dangerous situation. If they are concerned about being polite and giving way to the cyclist, they should not pass you in the first place and wait.
Yes in my experience it happens a lot and the car driver likely doesn't realise they are doing any thing wrong or dangerous, that is the frustrating situation. How do we spread the message???
-
Permalink Reply by Simon Lownsborough on -
Agreed. I've had drivers slow almost to a stop IN THE ROUNDABOUT because I was approaching. Maybe they've had a previous bad experience with someone cutting in and it's made them nervous. Maybe I wasn't slowing enough for them?
Anyway, NEVER take advantage of this - it causes indecision which may not affect you but the next guy. Wave them through.
-
Permalink Reply by Edward @bikeadelaide on -
Whether they are polite or not, the confusion you are describing comes about because of our poorly designed road system. In so many places, who has right of way is not clear and who should be where is not clear. Instead, cars, bicycles and trucks are just lumped together. It is very dangerous.
What we need is roads that are self-explanatory and safe as a consequence so that this sort of confusion (and worse) is prevented from happening in the first place. It's what Professor Wegman referred to as sustainable safety when he visited. There is a good article about it here.
-
Permalink Reply by Belinda Hoare on -
What is a 'self-explanatory road'? Is it one that has a plethora of roadsigns every 100m that spells out every road rule, every permutation of vehicle scenarios? Roads are not 'poorly designed', they will never be 'perfectly designed' and what has worked well for decades is a system of road rules that a based on logical principles like 'give way to your right' etc. There is a very simple road rule concerning parallel cars and bikes that it is the responsibility of all cyclists and drivers to know - in their heads - before they get behind the wheel of their car, or ride their bike. If a car is indicating to turn of you, and is physically in front of you, the car has right of way. If the car in front of you stops to wait for you, then as polite as it is, it creates confusion. No matter how many millions you spend attempting to redesign the 'perfect road', very human 'polite confusion' will always, always, present the risk of accidents.
-
Permalink Reply by Edward @bikeadelaide on
-
Totally agree. But when you're designing the road, you need to take into account the fact that people do make mistakes despite the best intentions. One thing to do is to design conflict out of intersections. In many cases, even when you have a green light you have to give way to other traffic depending on where it is and the shape of the intersection. You might be turning right and another car opposite you turning left. Who has right of way depends on whether the left turning car has a slip lane or not. You're right that it is an easy rule but it is unforgiving of human error.
Another thing is to avoid conflict between vehicles of different speeds and mass. Either you get them to go at the same speed or you separate them. Which you do depends on the intended use of the particular road. On our roads, we stick those vehicles together and create conflict. It creates even more when the slower lighter vehicle (the bicycle) has to pull out to pass a parked car. Again, the rule is clear but the road is very unforgiving of human error and it is generally the cyclist who comes off worse.
I'm not very good at explaining. Have a read of the blog post.
-
Permalink Reply by Michael Murray on -
I'm not very good at explaining. Have a read of the blog post.
Basically just do the opposite to everything they have done at Brittania Roundabout ! That has to be the perfect example of designing conflict in.
-
Permalink Reply by Edward @bikeadelaide on
-
Totally! I can honestly say I have never ridden on that and nor will I.
-
Permalink Reply by heather on -
Any two-lane roundabout is bad for cyclists. Having said that, I cycled there one afternoon peak hour. Found it much better than cycling along Hackney Road, then on northern side of Melbourne Street trying to get into the left lane for Robe Terrace. While cars tear around the corner out of Melbourne Street, and change lanes to the right for Northcote Terrace.
-
Permalink Reply by Tim B (the running man) on -
I just watched another cyclist ride up the inside of a bus indicating to pull into a bus stop...madness. And no, the bus wasn't letting him go, it was moving in the flow of traffic....madness.
-
Permalink Reply by Rich on -
Roundabouts in my experience are the worst spots on the road for a cyclist.
It seems drivers aren’t looking for cyclists on roundabouts - If a car from any direction is approaching a roundabout I proceed with extreme caution.
-
Permalink Reply by Just another psycho-list on -
Yes, I would agree. Roundabouts are not good places to be on a bicycle.
Riding across the roundabout up at Blackwood where Main Road meets Shepherds Hill Road, at a busy time, is scary as hell...
-
Permalink Reply by rossmg on -
Agree 100% - I appreciate that they have seen me and are trying to be courteous but when it is to the point of actually making it more dangerous for me the cyclist then such motorists really do annoy. As an example I had some dude driving in the bike lane ahead of me about 50~100metres and I caught him at the red traffic lights. I asked him why he'd been driving illegally and he replied that he was trying to assist me by cutting the wind! Very much a wtf moment.
© 2013 Created by Gus K.
