Deliberate dangerous riding?

[Hellhound]

Returning to our 'van after a day out we were caught behind a rider on a narrow Lincolnshire road that runs alongside the River Witham.It's a narrow unclassified road about 4miles long.It's a road I've cycled a few times that tends to get little motorised traffic other than Farm vehicles and the odd resident.As we approached the rider he glanced back then moved into the middle of the road!We weren't in any particular rush so I followed at 14-17mph for a mile or so when he glanced back a couple more times but still kept his line.There was no way I could pass without going dangerously close even at 15 mph.I didn't toot my horn,I just pottled along behind at a safe distance.After another 1/2 mile or so there was an opportunity to pass where the road widens just before a little bridge so I did so.I didn't floor it but just slowly accelerated and on passing him got the waving of arms and the finger!
He was on a TT bike(no excuse) and I wonder what the outcome had been had it been a delivery driver or tradesman he'd held up.It was,IMO,a deliberate gesture to stop me passing.Whether he was training or not all he had to do was drift over to the left and a car could pass safely but he chose to drift to the middle of a very narrow road.
No doubt he'd be the first to complain if I'd have forced my way past at an unsafe distance but 'cyclists' like him do nothing to help already strained relations between road users.

[Jdsk]

Even if it was deliberate obstruction why would it be dangerous?

Thanks

Jonathan

[richardfm]

Maybe he was deliberately obstructing you to prevent you overtaking because he thought the road was too narrow for you to do it safely.

[Psamathe]

I ride a lot of single track roads and when a motor vehicle approaches from behind I move out as far as I can (centre is normally gravel, soil & grass) but enough to block the vehicle from even trying. I do this because past experience I've had some try to squeeze past when there isn't room.

I do pull in at the next driveway/field entrance/whatever but up to a fairly sharp pull in (without signalling) I'll be far enough out to completely block any overtake. (I see no point in signalling as it would just encourage an impatient driver to speed-up and I try and maintain speed up to the sharp pull-in).

You say very narrow road - which I interpret as a single track road but I recognise others may interpret differently.

I am quite open to being told I'm doing it wrong, I just base my behaviour on past experience or rather to aoid past experience.

Ian

[Bmblbzzz]

Maybe he was deliberately obstructing you to prevent you overtaking because he thought the road was too narrow for you to do it safely.

This. "Taking primary" as taught in Cyclecraft and recommended by BC and others.

[Mike Sales]

I know this road, it is one of my favourite local routes.
I reckon that at times it gets pleasure drivers too. There are not too many winding routes locally with pleasant views of the river, which is usually out of sight behind what the Yanks call levees.
It is part of the Sustrans Hull to Fakenham route, and I often see cyclists on it.

It is paralleled by the B1192 on the other side of the river.

It is a bit narrow, though has room for a car to pass carefully, in my view. I would want a car to slow, and not go hooning past. I would then move over, feeling happy that the driver had registered my presence.

A few years ago a driver managed to plunge into the Witham drowning his children.

Four children killed after jeep falls into river

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/sep ... insection4

I do not think this cyclist was dangerous.
He was perhaps, annoying or overcareful, but the only danger would lie in the actions of an impatient driver who was provoked. Some drivers have a belief that it is wrong and even dangerous if a vehicle has to slow down for a bicycle.
"After all, if I hadn't braked I could have killed them."

Hellhound is clearly not one of these and behaved correctly.

[661-Pete]

The only thing this cyclist did, which I wouldn't have done, was the 'finger'. When I finally allow a patiently following vehicle to pass, I give a brief nod as if to say 'OK'. And I'm sometimes rewarded with a 'thank you' gesture from the motorist...

I'd hope that the OP wouldn't ever have anything to complain about my riding...

[mattsccm]

Seems reasonable to me. Maybe a rude gesture wasn't needed .

[mattheus]

No doubt he'd be the first to complain if I'd have forced my way past at an unsafe distance

Gosh, how unreasonable.

Drivers should have the right to force their way past whenever they choose!

[Phil Fouracre]

Hilarious post! Where to start??

Even love the title - how on earth is it?

‘caught behind a rider’ mmm? So would it have been caught behind a tractor, woman/man in a car etc, etc, etc?

A ‘narrow unclassified road’, you even mention it at the beginning and end of the post, so no room then?

Weren’t in ‘any particular rush’ - so what’s the problem? that should be the end of the ‘conflict’

No way to pass ‘even at 15mph’ is that some sort magic number? not 10, 20 or 30?

‘Delivery driver or tradesman’ so what? do they have some sort of divine right?

So you have the right to force your way past dangerously, where do you get this right from?

That anyone feels any justification to post this sort of crap on a cycling forum baffles me. It just reinforces the depressing level of stupidity and entitlement shown by most drivers - and this from someone who has posted a few time before, surely not actually a cyclist! - ‘strained relationship’ - yeah, with people like this behind the wheel - what a surprise, sad and depressing.

[Hellhound]

Wow some very predictable replies.

It seems some cyclists seem to think that they are never in the wrong and it's always a drivers fault.Maybe that's why 'cyclists' are seen as a menace!
@Mike Sales you seem to know the route.Yes it is narrow but not narrow enough to warrant passing places.As I said,which some appeared not to read,I have cycled it myself and even when riding 2-3ft from the verge(which I do) a car can pass safely.Although 'unclassified' this road is a (signed)60mph road.Thankfully when I've been passed it has been at a similar speed to my overtake but I haven't deliberately gone out of my way to antagonise vehicles approaching from behind!This is why I believe what the cyclist deliberately did was dangerous riding.
I sit with bated breath awaiting more inane rants purely because I have issues with a fellow 'cyclist'.

I am sure from some of the replies had I been the cyclist bemoaning the car driver it would have been a different story.

[Mike Sales]

Perhaps you could explain to us just why having to drive at 15mph for a mile is so intolerable that it would justify a driver taking a dangerous risk with the safety of a cyclist?
Perhaps this rider was a bit more nervous than you about having a car in close proximity. It does sound like it. Why not just back off a bit. How close did you drive behind him for the mile? Maybe he felt spooked by a car behind.
I know drivers strongly resent moderating their speed for the sake of the vulnerable.
Most drivers cannot respect speed limits and many take risks which are borne by others in places where the young and vulnerable are about.
As has often been said, a speed limit is a limit, not a target, and conditions may often mean that a safe speed is rather less than the posted limit.
Why do drivers so hate slowing down a bit? You tell us that you were returning from a day out, not delivering kidneys for transplant. Just relax. There is too much pressure in this life.
Can you be a bit more explicit about the danger the cyclist presented to you? If it was only that you were "forced" to push past him, then the remedy is in your own hands.

P.S.I remember that in places the surface of that road has long cracks produced I imagine by the settling of the bank.

[Mike Sales]

Wow some very predictable replies.

Yes, predictable. You post on a cycling website one side of a story about a cyclist you saw as "dangerous."
All of us have had experience with drivers who would probably relate the incident in a very different way to the story we would tell.
We are trying to put the other side of your story.
What is undeniably true, is that if there was any danger in this episode, it was the cyclist who was at risk, and you who introduced it.
It is almost impossible for a cyclist to endanger a driver.

[cycle tramp]

Perhaps you could explain to us just why having to drive at 15mph for a mile is so intolerable?

In my local area, there could be many reasons. Its rural, and I'm aware that in the car behind could be a vet. 15 mph for a mile, could very well be the difference between a recoving farm animal and a dead one. Whilst I enjoy the countryside, I also respect it for providing for the livelihoods of those who farm it.

[PH]

he chose to drift to the middle of a very narrow road.

Yes, his choice. That's how it works.