Sunday rides turns out to be not a lot of fun!

Burt25

Just back from a leisurely 15 mile Sunday ride which turned out not to be a lot of fun! First off I was coming into my local town- cycle lane started so I'm riding in the cycle lane approaching a roundabout as the cycle lane was coming to an end I noticed the car beside me getting closer and closer as he approached the kerb and left me nowhere to go! Of course as I'm still getting used to my clipless pedals I panicked and off I came onto the footpath while the driver went on completely oblivious! That was first incident... Then the next.. At about a mile from home I decided to pull over to the side of the road for a breather only for the car behind me to pull up beside me and the driver puts his window down and starts verbally abusing me saying I should have gave a hand signal that I was stopping at the side of the road??- is he in the right? I thought you only needed to signal to turn right?

lawrences

If you indicate left it lets drivers know you're pulling over. If you drove a car and just pulled up without indicating people would be pretty mad.

ShutUpLegs

Sounds pretty normal tbf fair

Mikey41

Hmmm, is the cycle lane one of those tiny painted-on things that's half a metre wide? I ignore those, they are absolutely useless and just encourage drivers to ignore you as "you are in your lane".

The second one... Yeah, he was right (maybe a bit of an arse about it) you should signal you are stopping if there's traffic behind. You also need to signal for both left and right turns.

smidsy

Another very good reason to avoid those half hearted cycle lanes is all the crap gets brushed into there from vehicles and you are much more likely to puncture. The surface is generally sub standard to IME.

Inutero

As someone who regularly drives a bus in a combined cycle/ bus lane, i wouldn't cycle in them. As Smidsy says, all kinds of crap get brushed in there, plus any drain covers in them are likely to be loose/ have potholes next to them, with the weight of the bus going over them.

Cleat Eastwood

Its all a learning curve - if you're a bit worried about being round traffic wjilst getting used to your pedals and you don't fancy hand signals simply slow right down, as if you're slowing to let the car overtake - any non verbal indication is better than none - I doubt whether there are many drivers who actually know the signal for slowing down - so if in doubt play it safe, go slow and edge toward the kerb, it does get better.

slowbike

Last time I used the slowing down signal (right arm flapping up and down) the car behind got all arsey cos he thought I was referring to him ... actually I was, because he was going far to fast for the approach to a pinch point and I wanted him to slow down and wait till we were past it - not for mysake, but for the sake of the less experienced riders I was riding with ... !

danlikesbikes

Sad to hear you had an off, but it is a sort of right of passage with clipped in pedals & I think everyone does it at least once.

Personally I would have signalled as others have said. If I were in a car and someone just stopped I would probably give them a gentle beep of the horn as I passed them though not as an aggressive sign but more of a warning so they knew I was there. On the basis that they did not check their mirrors when first pulling over so could just as easily pull back out without checking and drive into the side of me.

extrusion

Burt25 wrote:

starts verbally abusing me saying I should have gave a hand signal that I was stopping at the side of the road??- is he in the right? I thought you only needed to signal to turn right?

Of course he's not in the right, he's in a car! Next time throw your bike through the windscreen, bounce off his bonnet and claim compo ( )

cougie

If you'd just looked behind you before you pulled over - you could have checked that it was safe to do so. For all you know you might have had another rider there - or just about to pass you ?