You Were In The Middle Of The Road Mate | Car Culture #3
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ส.ค. 2024
- Whenever I share videos of little incidents that happen while I'm cycling I get wonderfully informed comments - I'm sure this will be no exception.
Riding near my home this driver overtook me, and as he did so, he gave me a look that could only reasonably be described as stink eye. He was not impressed with me.
Fortunately, because his overtake only got him to his destination 10 seconds before me, and he wound his window down, I was able to have a chat and ask why he gave me that look.
"You were in the middle of the road, mate".
Right. Well, for those who ride you'll understand this, but for those who don't, let me explain the thought process that goes behind cycling road position, and hopefully next time you come across a cyclist "in the middle of the road", you think before you get cranky. Because it's not about annoying you or deliberately holding you up. It's about managing risk.
Here is a valuable lesson. I had a friend recently hit by a truck in a similar environment. My friend tried to keep left / close to the cars but moved to the right by less than a meter crossing the white line due to a pedestrian at their car. A truck hit my friend and the driver kept going. My friend was badly injured, spent two weeks in hospital and is going through rehab. The incident was caught on camera. The driver of the truck told police he didn’t notice the bicyclist. The police said they could not charge the truck driver because the cyclist was at fault for crossing the white line / moving out of the “bike lane”. Lesson, OWN THE ROAD and follow Chris’s advice. Better to stay in the road and block traffic, than move in and out to allow cars to pass.
I will show this video to my friend who is currently suing the drivers third party insurer.
Oh wow. I'm so sorry to hear about your friend's crash. That's awful. And yes, unfortunately in places where car culture rules, the tendency of police is to find an excuse for the motorist.
The road rules here are similar. If you ride in the road shoulder, and you want to re-enter the traffic lane, you need to give way to traffic in the lane. That's certainly why I avoid going in and out of the traffic lane, and you are safer to own the lane.
I certainly hope your friend recovers soon and can get some kind of compensation from the truck driver.
@@ChrisCoxCycling Thanks Chris, this was in Brisbane and happened on a ride out to Petrie Village.
I also learned the same lesson, luckily I wasn't hurt.
If I'm driving on the side of the road, cars will pass me even if there's a car in the opposite direction and not enough room to pass safely. So I ride in the middle of the lane.
Door zone, line of sight issues, clearly you are positioning for safety as you should be. Good explanation.
Simply amazing the chap's destination wasn't even a quarter mile (or however many klicks) away but he felt the need to squeeze by - on a lightly trafficked, pleasant evening no less.
All I gotta say to drivers who agree with and engage in this behavior - you're gonna start seeing more bikes because of the environment and economy, so either ride with us or give us a modicum of the space we need to operate safely
Thanks Chris. That's good footage to report this incident to the police and see if the driver really has no problem with you taking the prime position in the lane 😁
Not one I'd bother taking further. It wasn't particularly dangerous, he was going pretty slow etc. But it was the death stare and the impatience that just makes me shake my head.
@@ChrisCoxCycling agree, but I like creating work for QPS and it sends feedback to drivers.
@@michaelbradbrook9575 creating work? That's if they actually bother to _do_ the work. I reported an incident on (from memory) the 10th or 11th of May and still haven't heard back…
@@JimCullen QPS have a policy of not providing feedback on individual traffic incidents, but if you ring the station handing the report, they will tell you if it progressed.
@@michaelbradbrook9575 in my experience every other time, they've contacted me either for further details or to know how I wanted to proceed.
Also the centre lines are doubled where you are overtaken, presumably meaning no passing. They should really also be at the rise just before the school zone. Keep up the good work.
The laws do allow you to overtake a cyclist over solid lines, if safe to do so.
@@ChrisCoxCycling which when thought about doesn't really make sense. The point of the double lines is that a car or motor vehicle isn't on the other side of the road. If an opposing driver comes while doing this overtake, the cyclist would be the one compromised, the softer option as opposed to driving headlong into a car. The point of the lines is that it's not safe to do so. They're just taking the piss out of cyclists...
@@theloveboxquartet it does make sense, but it requires drivers to use good common sense, which…doesn't always happen. The speed differential between a car and a bike can be (but isn't necessarily*) quite high. A car doing 60 overtaking a car doing 55 in a 60 zone will take a long time to overtake, so the solid line is much more important than that same 60 overtaking a bike doing 30.
* Just this morning, I was doing 30 (measured by GPS) in a 30 zone on Sir William MacGregor Drive, and somehow a driver still though it appropriate to overtake me. He gave plenty of space though so I'm not overly bothered by this one. Point being, on 30 km/h roads the speed differential _isn't_ very high.
@@JimCullen Good infrastructure is safe by design. Common sense, whatever that is... isn't the answer.
I'm glad to hear they've stopped painting those yellow bikes on the road. What you showed in the video, with them being painted along the line in the door zone, was basically a worse version of sharrows, and sharrows are already the worst kind of cycling infrastructure.
Thanks Chris, great explanation. Until more cyclists are on the road, am learning that you have to treat drivers like children. ie. Not enough just cycling in primary for some drivers, I also have to give accompanying hand signals to reinforce drivers to keep well away or stay back.
Yes, seems kinda extraordinary that you have to point out things like traffic islands, parked cars or oncoming traffic to some drivers. But they so often get what Ashley Neal calls "target fixation" - they only see what's right in front of them, and when it's a bike it's a case of "must get in front".
@@ChrisCoxCycling Good term for it. Interesting also how the driver gave more passing clearance to the traffic island than he did when passing you. What did he say when you caught up with him? "...I was very cautious." No, fella. I'd say more like malicious.
He suffers from GAS (Get-Ahead Syndrome)
Surprised you didnt call out the vehicle crossing double lines, 3 demerit points, cha ching
Nah, it's legal to do so to overtake a bicycle (if safe to do so).
Jeez the nerve! Forcing that poor man to overtake on a double line and cut you off as he runs out of space before the island. Are you aware of the critical things this person could otherwise have accomplished in the two seconds you held him up?
To sum it up, just Incase you didn’t wanna watch the full vid… biker = right, driver = wrong. the driver over took him approaching a centre traffic island, and came within 2 metres of the bike which = very dangerous. he had to ride in the middle of the road, there was no safe way to overtake in that situation at all. So Moral of the story, driver shoulda known not to overtake, cos he was justified to be ridin inna middle of the road. Reasons given: can’t give the overtaking driver space or he be ridin to close to them parked cars, he might hit all dem pedestrians walkin inbetween them cars, and then… he needa stay in the middle cos he approaching a side street and goin uppa hill, and there was oncoming traffic that couldn’t be seen.
All in all you get a pedantic analyse of how the driver didnt need that 10 seconds of extra time he gained by over taking. Your welcome. Don’t ride a bike onna busy fuckin road.
You went so well until the last sentence mate.