No need to apologise I used a shortened version of my name - Alison and know it's not clear. I was gently poking fun at you reallymaximus meridius wrote: ↑7 Sep 2023, 8:09pm
Deepest apologies. You may not believe me, but I do always consider that. Honestly, look over some of my past posts. So I considered before I typed "he" and thought "Ali", as in male name of south asian/middle east origin.
Just to clarify I am female not male (you've misgendered me!maximus meridius wrote: ↑7 Sep 2023, 5:14pmInteresting. In your quote of AliGlasgow he said nothing whatsoever about respecting, or not, motorists. He was talking about respecting cyclists. And he said that as a cyclist.cycle tramp wrote: ↑7 Sep 2023, 4:57pmYeah, but cyclists breaking the rules rarely kill anyone, whereas today 7 or 8 people have died in road collisions caused by motor vehicles breaking the rules, blatantly or otherwise....AliGlasgow wrote: ↑7 Sep 2023, 3:26pm
I get frustrated at cyclists blatantly breaking the rules of the road (weaving in and out of pedestrians at speed on pavements, cycling through red lights willy nilly, etc) and think if we as cyclists respect the rules of the road we might get better respect from drivers back.
I'll respect motorists more when they respect the speed limits more...
A nice bit of "whataboutery" you did there.
The sooner all road users, including cyclists, stop viewing other road users as discrete homogeneous groups, the better we will all be.
And I agree, there are a lot of lousy cyclists out there, who do the things AliGlasgow described.
) 
Thanks - I'll try searching again for meeting traffic!slowster wrote: ↑7 Sep 2023, 3:00pm The term you probably need to search for is "meeting traffic". It might not be used in the Highay Code, but is the terminology used to refer to how road users should act when faced with oncoming traffic.
The first question is who had priority. If the van driver had reached the row of parked cars and moved over into your lane (well) before you had reached/drawn level with the parked cars, then you should probably have waited for him to complete his manouevre and return to his lane.
If you reached the parked cars first, then the van driver either needed to stop and wait for you to pass, or only continue if it was safe to do so. The judgement about what is safe is very dependent on all the circumstances, rather than just a simple 1.5m clearance (and the 1.5m for overtaking is not an absolute rule and is itself dependent on the circumstances, e.g. it is not likely to be appropriate for overtaking speeds above 30 mph).
Unfortunately, because it is so dependent on the circumstances, that gives a lot of scope for different people to have different opinions about whether it is safe to proceed and at what speed. Drivers who don't ride a bike will probably be less aware of how dangerous their driving might be in such a situation.
In reality, you will probably not get a positive response from challenging drivers in such situations. People will naturally tend to be defensive and reject accusations of being in the wrong. Your best hope is to be very neutral in your manner and tone, and encourage them to drive differently rather than focusing on telling them they were at fault, but even then you will be lucky to get a positive response.
You could get a Go Pro type camera and submit the footage to the police, but I suspect that it will have to be egregious for the police to consider that it meets the threshold for them to act.
It would be interesting to hear what a Bikeability instructor would say about such a scenario. One technique I sometimes use in a similar scenario (singletrack roads), is to ride in primary position (middle of the lane) and not move over closer to the edge to allow an oncoming vehicle to pass unless and until it slows down to what I consider a reasonably safe speed. In an extreme case if the oncoming vehicle maintains an excessive speed, I would stop in primary position and put my feet down on the ground, wait until the vehicle had reached me and stopped because I was blocking their ability to continue, and then ride slowly around them.
Oh if only there had been no shouting from the driver! And he was only a couple of feet from me head on before he stopped - not a very comfortable feeling at all.maximus meridius wrote: ↑7 Sep 2023, 2:03pm Interesting post.That sounds like some good cycling, in terms of how you handled the situation. And actually not-too-bad driving either. In that he did actually stopped and was willing to talk. As opposed to driving at you head on and sweary shouting. Interesting that he was aware of the Highway Code change, which many drivers won't be. So a bit of a start.AliGlasgow wrote: ↑7 Sep 2023, 12:00pm I had a situation with a van driver today on a small road in a residential area. There are always cars parked on one side and as I was heading along I was more than half way past all the parked cars (who were on the opposite side of the road from me) when a van started driving towards me. The road is narrow enough that it wasn't safe for me to keep cycling as he drove at me but I held my hand up and he stopped so I asked him to give me safe space as he passed me. He said that didn't matter and the Highway Code change only counted for overtaking.
As it happens, and this may be completely illogical, I always feeling safer passing another vehicle (in opposite directions) a bit close. I think it might be because it's easier to see exactly how close we're going to pass each other, and I can aim for "the gap". Whereas if I'm being overtaken, even with my bar-end mirror, it's harder to judge where I should position myself. And if they're overtaking I don't know if they will pull out and leave a good gap, or pass close. Also the time we're alongside each other is a lot less head to head, compared to overtaking. But then, as you said, the closing speed will be a lot greater head to head.AliGlasgow wrote: ↑7 Sep 2023, 12:00pm I've checked and the new change in the Highway Code DOES only specify to leave 1.5m when overtaking a cyclist with no reference to passing head on. This seems bonkers to me as a vehicle coming head on at you is more dangerous, so I'm curious why the 1.5m doesn't apply to any time passing a cyclist - irrespective of the direction of travel.
Yes, the high wall sounds dodgy. I've just returned from the faraway land of passing places (also known as the Outer Hebrides). Where most roads are single track. But at least there's nearly always the option of launching myself onto the verge/into the ditch, if an oncoming driver refuses to give room.AliGlasgow wrote: ↑7 Sep 2023, 12:00pm If I had been a car he would have stopped and waited for me to pass the parked cars but clearly felt that squeezing past me at 20-25mph was completely fine. With a high wall on my left I had nowhere to go at all and had he not stopped it would have been dangerous.