Change in behaviour of lorries at lights

msmancunia

Recently started commuting again after a six year gap. I've noticed that since I started again, certainly on my route, that lorries and HGVs seem to be behaving differently at lights since I picked up again. On my 12 mile route from Oldham to Salford this morning, I've had a lot of HGVs and especially those industrial skip wagons and heavy builders wagons pass me, especially on Oldham Road.

Firstly, they gave me a LOT of room when they overtook me, which was great. Not sure if they're doing this next bit on purpose - they are tucking right into the curb when they stop at lights - as if to stop cyclists creeping along the inside and into their blind spot. Anyone else noticed this on the roads?

Aerozine50

Yes it is more noticable. Some of them will have been trained to do this to deter cyclists from putting themselves in a position of endangerment and thus it avoids the skip lorry driver being sued for left hooking. However I would imaging it requires a left side mirror pointing downwards to clear the entire side of the truck before they edge into the kerb, or else something they might not have seen approaching may get squished.

However conversely I see a lot of white van men and lorry drivers trying to deliberately block cycle lanes too out of jealousy.


Regards

Paul

CakeLovinBeast

I don't think that it's limited to lorries as such, though as you say, they at least tend to give plenty of space when they pass. I get plenty of cars each day who seem to deliberately block the pavement side, especially if I've already been past them once.

Bit of a false economy... By and large, I'll judge a queue of traffic before deciding to filter. If it's a set of lights then I'll hold position as often as not. However, if I feel that it's safe to go, then I'll go down either side to get past, so they'll have to repeat the manoeuver again anyhow.

scattered pedals

However conversely I see a lot of white van men and lorry drivers trying to deliberately block cycle lanes too out of jealousy.


this unfortunately can sometimes result in my bar-end sliding along their bodywork as I pass - oh dear

estampida

its a mixture of things

most modern hgv's have cctv revcording in-case of crash, and they dont really want to see a death in 360p techincolour, being played by the police

change in trainning of the drivers

satnav & tracker both show how they were driving prior and during

but they still seem able to squash people in built up area's, not sure why they hate bike lanes and block you in, maybe it is somthing to do

nwallace

The one thing that can't change is the geometric requirements of turning a long vehicle either articulated or rigid.

Some bike lane designs encourage you to go up the nearside of them.

Once had a woman in a car behind me ranting at me for not going up the offside of an artic and a bus at a very tight roundabout. Just to make it worse (for her) she turned right at the circle (it was in Dundee) while bus, artic and me went straight on, how in **** can getting to tesco 5 seconds earlier be worth me risking a squishing in a car on a circle where even medium sized cars need to cut?