Cycle lanes in Harrogate

Roxs

After a long break from cyclying i am truly shocked by car drivers attitude to cyclist on my daily commute, just entered my thrid week and already on my 6th enounter with a motorist, this evening 2 seperate incidents, i have just ordered a helmet.

i will admit i do not drive slowly and expect cars to stay out of the cycle lanes, I am currently woring on "staying calm" hence the polite knock on the ladies window, the gentleman in the blue carjust after the lights is a different matter, if anyone can give me his address based on his number plate it would be appreciated, nuff said )

Ohh and the video )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FofiS873Dw

UndercoverElephant

Roxs wrote:

After a long break from cyclying i am truly shocked by car drivers attitude to cyclist on my daily commute, just entered my thrid week and already on my 6th enounter with a motorist, this evening 2 seperate incidents, i have just ordered a helmet.

i will admit i do not drive slowly and expect cars to stay out of the cycle lanes, I am currently woring on "staying calm" hence the polite knock on the ladies window, the gentleman in the blue carjust after the lights is a different matter, if anyone can give me his address based on his number plate it would be appreciated, nuff said )

Ohh and the video )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FofiS873Dw

Hi there,

I did watch the video. I could see the first car was going to pull out from a mile away, the car on your road had left a decent gap, which was why she pulled out), so it was easy enough for you to switch to filtering on the outside, rather than stopping and telling her off. The second driver, well, I wouldn't be too pleased if a car driver did what you did, starting an overtake when I was coming up to a parked car.

I'm not trying to criticise, but you need to be looking further ahead in your mind. The staying calm thing will come a lot easier if you do.

dhope

I'm with UE I'm afraid.
Not sure what was wrong with the first car. You can see them a long way ahead and it's clear that they're moving off, giving you time to move around without anyone causing an issue for each other.

The 2nd one - didn't you notice the car ahead that they were slowing for? If their path is being blocked then anticipate that they'll likely need to move around it and give them space to do so. They're ahead and I'd not expect an overtake on that part of road. There's a turning on the right too, it's not a sensible place to be that far into the other lane.

tarquin_foxglove

I'm with the OP on the first one.

Although the cycle lane is advisory you still aren't meant to enter or block it, with her road positioning she blocked a lane of traffic. She wouldn't have done that if it was two lanes of cars.

If I'd been driving, I'd have waited till the traffic started to move before pulling out or increased the radius of my turn so that I was able to straighten up. Just pulling half out is dumb.

I'm with the OP on the second one as well. YB04KKU (?) performs an overtake on two cyclists at a pinch point into a 20 mph street & it is quite tight.

The latter swerve round the red van is when the OP is about to knock on his window & say 'Oy!'

My only advice to the OP is to calm down a touch. Thank good driving & raise the odd eyebrow at inconsiderate driving but chasing people down to knock on windows is like coming first in a sh*t eating contest.

Oh & don't get a helmet, don't you know cars pass closer when you are wearing one. Long blonde wigs are the way to go.

jeepie

Sorry to hear you are having a tough time Roxs. Unfortunately, and it's not your fault, this is the way cycling is .... cars are bigger and car drivers are less aware. I personally would try not to get involved in incidents, unless you absolutely need to, and replace a snarl with a smile. Look as far ahead as you can and anticipate drivers pulling out, left hooking and pushing in etc.... This will happen. It's not right. It's not your fault. It's the way it is. You will not fix it by playing traffic cop. Just try to enjoy your commute as much as you can, as even with all the dodgy driving, it's much better than actually being in a car in my view!

Zachariah

Hello. I live and ride around Harrogate. I have been on those roads many times.

I think you are over-reacting to fairly normal driving.

The mini shouldn't have gone ahead, as there wasn't room for it to join the line of traffic. But it didn't exactly spring out in front of you from nowhere, did it? You could have slowed down and let it through. No need to remonstrate with the driver.

The next one, you go too fast behind the other cyclist and needlessly overlap his wheel, putting yourself further into the road - there is plenty of room at that point for a car and cyclist to go through.

You either don't see or ignore the same car allowing another driver through, then dangerously try and go round the outside to prove a point. It's no surprise the car pulls out as you are in the blind spot and making an unexpected manoeuvre.

We often complain on this board about bad driving and people who seem to think it's their god-given right to go as fast as they want. Chill, take a deep breath, accept you don't need to go so fast. Save the speed for race day.

gtvlusso

Anticipation of idiocy prevents engagement of right fist.....

If you see space, use it, assume everyone is stupid and ride to at least 100 yards ahead and you wil rarely have a ding dong.

_Brun_

If you insist on pushing your way to the front of everything else on the road, don't complain when drivers exert their ability to do likewise.

Also, if you're gonna post videos criticising other people's road use, at least have the common sense to edit out the bit where you're riding on the pavement.

Kieran_Burns

The thing is: you can cycle in two basic ways.

You can be a car hater, gritted teeth, get-out-of-my-way, how-DARE-you-do-that!!! cyclist which your video shows tendencies of.

Or you can relax and enjoy the ride.

The lady pulled out poorly, swing around the outside, enjoying the fact that you're still moving and they're not.

Don't barge your way to the front of a queue if you don't need to (technically you RLJ'd there) give the people around you some consideration, shoulder check, make eye contact, look at the indicators of the car you're next to / behind / in front of while waiting

You're overtaking someone - you MUST look to make sure no one is trying to get past you - the car's going to be faster, so let him go past with a wave. He'll be happy for the consideration - OR put your arm out to show you wish to overtake and look for acknowledgement - again he'll prefer the consideration.

There's a couple of car haters on here, and I hold their opinions in very low regard, they're the flip-side of the cycle-haters coin. They fight their way to work and surprise, surprise they have multiple occasions to complain.

Ultimately it's your choice but if you want to ENJOY riding into work I know which approach I'd prefer.

mudcow007

to be honest i didn't think the mini (first car) was that bad, it was obvious that another car had let her our of the side road to join the main trunk of traffic

the second car, it seems pretty naughty that he just pulled out on you, but like has previously been said, could you not see that the cars ahead of you had slowed/ stopped?

the immortal words from Lock Stock an 2 Smoking Barrels..............Chill Winston!!

nation

Kieran_Burns wrote:

The thing is: you can cycle in two basic ways.

You can be a car hater, gritted teeth, get-out-of-my-way, how-DARE-you-do-that!!! cyclist which your video shows tendencies of.

Or you can relax and enjoy the ride.

I haven't watched the video yet, but this.

Ride assertively, give yourself space, and anticipate drivers doing stupid stuff. It's hard to get angry about a hazard that you saw coming and prepared for in advance.

t4tomo

+1 for what Kierun said.

deliberately cycling upto the mini window to "prove a point" is a bit silly, you had loads of time to see it so just swing around it or better still filter outside upto the lights.

by the end the red mist had truly come down - why were you even trying to overtake that car, except to prove a point, chill out and with a bit of speed moderation you could have been tucking in behind him as he moved on past the obstuction.

Granted he was a bit close to you coming through the junction off the lights, but only because you weren't in to the left behind the other cyclist.

Roxs

Thanks for the construtive feed back guys, i can happily confirm I saw the first car pulling out on me a mile off and pulled up to her window in perfect safety, i was just a little surprised that the driver couldnt see me with a flashing cateye on the front and a bright yellow Jersey, the tap on the window was a polite attemt to educate the driver " heh how could you miss me next time it could be far more serious, or a motorcyle going even faster, think maybe before you pull out"

I did not edit out the 20 feet of pavement i rode on because due to the construction of the road at this point the cycle lane vanishes for 30', while technicaly illegal there was no danger of riding this short stretch to rejoin the cycle lane a little further in the stationary traffic.

The second incident will not happen again, me and my friend (the guy in front) now try and adopt a positive position (some people call it primary position ) ie in the centre of the choke point well before arriving there, this should (with some self control on my part) avoid the red mist bit later on.

I must add that if you had been there it was blatently obvious that the driver was being an arse but on reflection I didnt handle it too well )

UndercoverElephant

Cracking stuff. We'll make a zen commuter out of you yet.