Junction advice
built4comfort
Posts: 3
Hi, infrequent poster but long-time lurker looking for advice
I commute along an urban 2 lane road, at the moment there's roadworks at its far end, and I ride in primary in the left lane, where I keep up with the traffic without problem. The roadworks are approx 100yds past the last set of lights, and the lanes at the lights are left and ahead, and ahead. The roadworks filter the right hand lane into the left. Frequently this last junction is a snarl up with traffic blocking it as they try to filter right to left, or block the junction as the traffic ahead is filtering into one lane slowly and they didnt wait for a clear junction before entering it.
Last night, while in primary in the left lane I stopped at the lights while they were on green (not an RLJ for sure) as the traffic in my lane had not cleared the junction, it was a bus filtering to the left lane, which was at an angle but there was no way I was going down its lhs or parking myself behind it in the junction and be in an exposed blocking position had the lights changed on me. The car behind beeped me as it wanted to turn left at the junction and I was blocking it. I acknowledged this with a wave (polite) and held my position, and the lights then turned to red. I was able to cross the junction on the next green as the traffic had cleared by this time.
I've been beeped for doing this at this junction before, but don't think I'm doing anything wrong and it's merely impatient drivers behind, I don't think they'd beep if I was in a car. I feel perfectly comfortable in this lane, and in this position, and could attempt to get into the right lane which generally travels a bit faster, but I'm sure I'll get hung out to dry by traffic in the left lane going straight ahead, when trying to filter back, but I've not tried this, and would feel less comfortable doing so.
So, would you do things differently/have any suggestions, or do as I'm doing and ignore the beeps?
My question is prompted by another incident last night, in which I was stationary in primary in stationary traffic in the right hand lane at a different junction. My positioning seemed to annoy a pedestrian (totally unaffected by it) who crossed the stationary traffic in front of me and began a conversation with his companion along the lines of 'as soon as all these cyclists are banned from the road the better' - clearly of the opinion I shouldn't have been there.
TIA
Andrew
I commute along an urban 2 lane road, at the moment there's roadworks at its far end, and I ride in primary in the left lane, where I keep up with the traffic without problem. The roadworks are approx 100yds past the last set of lights, and the lanes at the lights are left and ahead, and ahead. The roadworks filter the right hand lane into the left. Frequently this last junction is a snarl up with traffic blocking it as they try to filter right to left, or block the junction as the traffic ahead is filtering into one lane slowly and they didnt wait for a clear junction before entering it.
Last night, while in primary in the left lane I stopped at the lights while they were on green (not an RLJ for sure) as the traffic in my lane had not cleared the junction, it was a bus filtering to the left lane, which was at an angle but there was no way I was going down its lhs or parking myself behind it in the junction and be in an exposed blocking position had the lights changed on me. The car behind beeped me as it wanted to turn left at the junction and I was blocking it. I acknowledged this with a wave (polite) and held my position, and the lights then turned to red. I was able to cross the junction on the next green as the traffic had cleared by this time.
I've been beeped for doing this at this junction before, but don't think I'm doing anything wrong and it's merely impatient drivers behind, I don't think they'd beep if I was in a car. I feel perfectly comfortable in this lane, and in this position, and could attempt to get into the right lane which generally travels a bit faster, but I'm sure I'll get hung out to dry by traffic in the left lane going straight ahead, when trying to filter back, but I've not tried this, and would feel less comfortable doing so.
So, would you do things differently/have any suggestions, or do as I'm doing and ignore the beeps?
My question is prompted by another incident last night, in which I was stationary in primary in stationary traffic in the right hand lane at a different junction. My positioning seemed to annoy a pedestrian (totally unaffected by it) who crossed the stationary traffic in front of me and began a conversation with his companion along the lines of 'as soon as all these cyclists are banned from the road the better' - clearly of the opinion I shouldn't have been there.
TIA
Andrew
0
Comments
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Ignore the beeps, it's what I do. Motorists p!ss me off when they do that. Why should we put ourselves in danger just so they can be, what, a few feet further ahead in stationary traffic? Would they really gain anything if you weren't there? No, they'd just get to the next red light a second sooner, if that.
As for the pedestrians comment, total no-brainer. What exactly would be "better" if "these cyclists" were banned? I can't even come up with a sarcastic answer.0 -
It just sounds like reflex bullying of vulnerable road users, i.e. cyclists. You yourself say that you don't think it would happen if you were a car. Even less likely that it would happen to a HGV or bus - it's much harder to intimidate an HGV driver. What seems to happen is that the car behind sees something small in front of them and identify that as needlessly blocking their way - whereas in actual fact, the reason you're stuck there is not because bikes are blocking the way - it's because cars, buses and whatnot have already snarled things up. You just happen to be the perfect scapegoat.
The idiot on foot is also playing bully - his ''ganging up'' with his companion is clearly an attempt at verbal intimidation and a cowardly safety-in-numbers one at that (low-level intimidation of course, but it's still part of the bullying phenomenon). Ignore and stay safe. You appear to be cycling safely with due care and attention to vehicles and road hazards up ahead. Don't change any of that.0
