Must overtake, bicycle...

[Debs]

The oncoming car driver was good to react so quick, he avoided a head-on collision.

For their own sake, yes they were, unfortunately it just reinforces that the manoeuvre was 'safe' and/or 'good'...

And that for me is part of the problem.

Quite aside from the lack of negative consequences of bad driving (no detection/enforcement as there are too few Police/it's judged not to be a priority), bad driving like this has positive consequences for the bad drivers - they get to their destinations faster (only by a few seconds, but it feels much better to them). And each time they avoid death/injury/collision it just confirms in their minds that the manoeuvre was the right one for them to take. All positives, no negatives.

The solution is to stat shooting some of the tossers.

Any shooting should be done with a camera!

I would argue that in the incident i witnessed the offending car driver only just got away with it, the oncoming car did an emergency-stop manoeuvre and swerved to give room which put his passenger wheels up on the side of road grass verge. It was close enough that skid marks may have been left on the dangerous driver's underwear. Also, these days any motoring villain of reckless intent has to hope there are no cameras around to record the event, even thought they may get away with it so many times but; what goes around comes around... eventually

[reohn2]

You reported on the potus when he visited Wigan, please remind me exactly what he said, diolch

That post said more about the present POTUS than it ever could about Wigan

[old_windbag]

Happy new year to all.............. except the drivers I have just encountered.

I feel very demotivated at this time of the year, colder air, more potholes, wind and wet and imprisoned to turbo( or not ) on icy days.I've not long come in from a shortish ride to get me out of the house, on that I encountered several great examples of our high driving standards, which improve my extensive repertoire of expletives.

First a man in a large bmw pulled over to answer a phone call, he then started off again overtook me with a full lane of clearance( thumbs up ) but into a blind bend of a railway bridge( thumbs down ). He was immediately faced with an audi Q series( like victoria beckham did the range rover evoke, spike milligan helped audi ). That wasn't going slowly and a very near miss occurred, his intentions were good but his timing wasn't.

Then travelling at 19mph in a 30 zone I heard a car behind( a mokka ), knowing there is a big pedestrian refuge ahead I thought they'll wait as time was running out for any overtake. No, at the last minute they overtook into the refuge hit their brakes to avoid it and cut across me, then fled the scene rapidly with drivers window down as they were smoking. AAArrrrggh.

Then I had the usual 80+mph close passes on my wonderful 60mph a-road.

I think our "I want it now" society has created an impatience and selfishness that manifests itself all too often in our driving standards and attitudes, sadly it will only get worse.

[reohn2]

I would argue that in the incident i witnessed the offending car driver only just got away with it, the oncoming car did an emergency-stop manoeuvre and swerved to give room which put his passenger wheels up on the side of road grass verge. It was close enough that skid marks may have been left on the dangerous driver's underwear. Also, these days any motoring villain of reckless intent has to hope there are no cameras around to record the event, even thought they may get away with it so many times but; what goes around comes around... eventually

There's a twisty lane near where I live that I used to ride on the way home,usually around 4.30pm,so well in loonie hour,that always about that time has a 20 to 40 car line of traffic waiting for the drivers at the TL at the end of it,it's a commuter route so is used by the same drivers Monday to Friday.
The times I've witnessed that manoeuvre plus many dangerously close passes are times out of number,only for me to catch the offenders up as they sit in the inevitable long jam a mile further on.
The number of times I've tapped on the offenders window to just say "that didn't get you very far did it?" Are also times out of number,often my question is met with a tirade of abuse,whereupon I'd explain that I'd be home before they got to through the TL,and the the next two TL's in short succession that awaits them
I've come to the conclusion there are waayyy too many idiots behind the wheel,and far too few police about as makes no difference to these idiots to worry about.

[mjr]

I used the cycleways for all but maybe 200m of today's ride (avoiding that last 200m would add 2 or 3 mins) which I don't usually do, but from the sloppy driving, I strongly suspect a fairly high proportion of motorists were still drunk or hungover from yesterday.

[pedalpower2]

Guess I'm lucky living in rural Leicestershire. Most drivers wait for a safe opportunity to pass, only most though. When I wave them through or let them turn in front of me I usually get an acknowledgement.

[Cyril Haearn]

Guess I'm lucky living in rural Leicestershire. Most drivers wait for a safe opportunity to pass, only most though. When I wave them through or let them turn in front of me I usually get an acknowledgement.

One should never wave them through
Only a police officer in uniform may direct traffic

[Cyril Haearn]

I used the cycleways for all but maybe 200m of today's ride (avoiding that last 200m would add 2 or 3 mins) which I don't usually do, but from the sloppy driving, I strongly suspect a fairly high proportion of motorists were still drunk or hungover from yesterday.

I though drink-driving was socially unacceptable
*We do nothing, and talk about it* - Trumptonshire Constabulary

[Tigerbiten]

Guess I'm lucky living in rural Leicestershire. Most drivers wait for a safe opportunity to pass, only most though. When I wave them through or let them turn in front of me I usually get an acknowledgement.

One should never wave them through
Only a police officer in uniform may direct traffic

I wave a lot of traffic past.
I'm not directing traffic, I'm telling them 'I think it's safe if you start overtaking now'.

I'll wave traffic past in three circumstances ......
1:- Coming out of a blind bend and I can see the road in front is clear. It's a combined overtake now and a thanks for waiting type wave.
2:- If they've been stuck behind me due to oncoming traffic. It's another combined overtake now and a thanks for waiting type wave.
3:- If I see an HG approaching from behind when the roads clear ahead. It's to tell the driver I know he's/she's there and it's safe to pass. I'll also give them a thumbs up to tell them it's safe to pull in. A lot of the time, I'm given a 'thanks' on the indicators.
In all three cases, if I'm a bit iffy about being overtaken and not sure if it's safe then I won't wave.

Being on a recumbent trike makes it so easy to wave at traffic .....

[reohn2]

.....Maybe they are just nice people in Wigan!

As a club we ride through Wigan and Leigh to Astley tea rooms. We experience as much hassle and idiot drivers as anywhere else.

Jim
Mine and I suspect RickH's comment were a in a light hearted mood

[ChrisButch]

One should never wave them through
Only a police officer in uniform may direct traffic

Unless this is a false memory, one of the Highway Code-approved hand gestures one had to learn when I first learned to drive (so long ago that flashing indicators were a new-fangled gimmick viewed with suspicion) was a 'please pass me' signal.

[mjr]

One should never wave them through
Only a police officer in uniform may direct traffic

Unless this is a false memory, one of the Highway Code-approved hand gestures one had to learn when I first learned to drive (so long ago that flashing indicators were a new-fangled gimmick viewed with suspicion) was a 'please pass me' signal.

Yes, but it was moved to the "police signals" page in the 1959 edition and we're meant to keep up to date

[kwackers]

Yes, but it was removed years ago and we're meant to keep up to date

There's an interesting point.

If you read the updated HWC it's fairly obvious when new stuff is added, but a lot less obvious when stuff has been removed so it's quite easy to still think something is in the HWC even though it isn't.
When something is mentioned you remember reading it in there but don't always realise that it was the one you read several years ago...

[mjr]

Yes, but it was removed years ago and we're meant to keep up to date

There's an interesting point.

If you read the updated HWC it's fairly obvious when new stuff is added, but a lot less obvious when stuff has been removed so it's quite easy to still think something is in the HWC even though it isn't.
When something is mentioned you remember reading it in there but don't always realise that it was the one you read several years ago...

These days, a list of updates is published at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/updates including removals, which is a big improvement.

[kwackers]

These days, a list of updates is published at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/updates including removals, which is a big improvement.

Cheers, I didn't know about that.