Anyone found the roads less busy and/or motorists driving better?

[BrownBear]

Yep, I'll remember these rides for a long time. I can include roads I'd normally avoid. Most drivers seem a bit unsure they have any right to be on the road.... not something that you can normally say! I haven't encountered any using the space to street race, but that possibility doesn't bother me too much as you would hear them coming for miles.

Just takes care giving pedestrians bubble space.

[philg]

Ditto - for the ~8 miles along the A39 from the Porlock Toll road to Lynmouth I was passed by, in order:
1. Farmer's pickup
2. Exmoor Park ranger Land Rover
3. Another pickup
All that came towards me was a Devon Police traffic patrol who then turned round and passed me following the second pickup - enforcing the 'essential travel' rules maybe?
OK that road is hardly a motorway for most of the year anyway, but this being Easter week it is very very quiet - as is everywhere else down here

[Barks]

It’s very obvious to me now that many drivers are driving faster on all roads (excludes motorways as I haven’t been on any) and instances of overtaking when I am driving at the speed limit are more frequent. Another example was when crossing a road yesterday with a few cars approaching a distance away, two overtook the the lead driver and roared up towards us luckily far enough away to not be any threat.

[Oldjohnw]

Yesterday on a 10 mile trip I saw a tractor.

The end.

[cyclop]

Audis are exempt from all laws aren't they? They come with free bad driving lessons too so it seems.

Lets be a bit more specific;Black/white,audi,bmw or range rovers are,by definition,above the law

[cyclop]

I was out yesterday around the lanes and something hit my helmet,"crikey" I said,or something similar.All I could see was a crow chasing a buzzard.Is this a case of poor driving(flying)?Last time I was hit by a bird was halfway up the sea cliffs on Anglesey,1975.

[The utility cyclist]

Yep, I'll remember these rides for a long time. I can include roads I'd normally avoid. Most drivers seem a bit unsure they have any right to be on the road.... not something that you can normally say! I haven't encountered any using the space to street race, but that possibility doesn't bother me too much as you would hear them coming for miles.

Just takes care giving pedestrians bubble space.

I can honestly say I won't, is that sad or just me? I still have to do precisely the same thing with regards safety, I still can't make presumptions for that turn/crossing or bend, I actually have to take even more care around pedestrians because they are even more head down/oblivious than before. I still get close passed at speed, now there are more drivers going hell for leather.

And something I don't have to think about ordinarily, will plod pull me over for no other reason other than for the simple fact I'm riding my bike, I'm thinking about how do I respond, do I exercise my right to stay silent which is likely to get me arrested, or challenge them as to why they are stopping me, what reason do they suspect me of committing an offence.
With the miraculous number of police seemingly available to harangue people doing nothing wrong due to all the crime being sorted across the country, this is actually added stress where there wasn't any in that regard.

In a few weeks the roads will be back to normal, same old crud, there won't be any change in modal share or attitude of drivers to cyclists, so does remembering these times fondly actually benefit us or make us feel worse when it returns to that SNAFU, personally I think it'll turn into a negative because of the lull for many.

Good memories/rides happen in normal circumstances, not extreme contrived ones I find.

oh and the response from a minister - Chris Heaton Harris, to increasing cycle space on the road is basically go take a running jump, this is why I won't be holding fond memories https://road.cc/content/news/video-mp-c ... nes-272555

[willp01908]

Saw this earlier.

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/uk-news/2020/04/08/four-in-10-cars-speeding-on-quiet-roads-during-lockdown-in-greater-manchester/

Seems to back up what I have seen - fewer cars but a fair proportion of those that are out, taking liberties.

Dunno if they feel even less likely to be apprehended given that the police are likely otherwise occupied or would normally drive this fast but are "held up" by other traffic. I suspect the latter.

[Cyril Haearn]

Great chance for the cops to catch lots of speeding criminals and have their licences revoked
How many lives might that save?

[mjr]

Seems to back up what I have seen - fewer cars but a fair proportion of those that are out, taking liberties.

Yes. There are far far fewer cars, but a noticeable proportion of the remainder are driven by absolute howling-at-the-supermoon lunatics. Yesterday, I saw an Audi driver overtaking a van on the major route through the blind-staggered-crossroads-on-a-bend in the centre of our village - with normal traffic levels, that would almost always be effectively a quick suicide, a grim clean-up job for the emergency services and hours of traffic chaos - but yesterday, they got away with such stupid driving, of course, and weren't caught on my handlebar camera.

[1982john]

Andy Burnham has stated 40% of cars are found to speeding since the lockdown...

[Marcus Aurelius]

I took the car to work today. Because it’s work, I’m allowed. There seemed to be an inordinately large increase in the number of cars on the roads this morning, and I’ve noticed the numbers creeping up over the last week ( at least in my locale ) whilst cycle commuting / doing the other bits and bobs that are officially permitted. I would be interested to know how many of those extra journeys were ‘essential’ journeys, at that time of the morning. I’d be especially interested to hear the excuse of the 4 people in a Vauxhall Corsa, who got out and went into the shop at the shell petrol station I was at, to buy coffee. I get the feeling that people are starting to extract the urine, regarding this ‘lockdown’. We have got a large hospital nearby, and that certainly could account for some of them, but I suspect not most of them.

[Marcus Aurelius]

Great chance for the cops to catch lots of speeding criminals and have their licences revoked
How many lives might that save?

Probably more than 20000.

[al_yrpal]

I was out yesterday around the lanes and something hit my helmet,"crikey" I said,or something similar.All I could see was a crow chasing a buzzard.Is this a case of poor driving(flying)?Last time I was hit by a bird was halfway up the sea cliffs on Anglesey,1975.

Buzzards attacking walkers and cyclists is fairly common. If you get too near their nests they will have a go at you. Crows do go for buzzards and Kites too for the same reason.

Al

[robing]

On the whole the roads are much quieter and seem to be getting more so each day. But there are still a minority of dickheads about speeding and passing too close.