The Badge of Honour: Overtaking beyond the speed limit?

[Strider42]

I've just come back from a very pleasant, though cold, ride. On my way back into the city I noticed something unsettling that I haven't experienced for quite some time. I was sitting comfortably on a down-hill section at the speed limit (varying between 30mph and 20mph) and yet all the motor vehicles, excepting a lorry, were insistent on overtaking me and cutting into the lane. While the overtakes were 'safe' - excluding the exceeding the speed limit element - , I noticed that they slowed back down to within the speed limit almost immediately. I was wondering if this is a common phenomenon?

Is there some badge of honour that must be gained by overtaking any vehicle with only two wheels?

[tatanab]

Absolutely ordinary - s'only a push bike innit.

I live in a hilly area and there is one long and winding descent where I will sit comfortably at the speed limit of 30mph keeping a fairly safe distance from the car in front. Yet any motorist simply must pass me and so fill my safety gap and push me back. As noted, having passed me the first thing they do is brake -- aargh!

On a similar vein - on any winter's evening ride in the lanes as soon as a motorist passes me they almost immediately brake so I have a wall of red lights in front of me. Why? If they can see enough to pass me, why do they so often immediately brake?

[Vantage]

I had one particular plonker in a caterham or similar overtake me on a downhill only to slam his brakes on to make it through the left hand corner, a corner which I'd have easily made it through without braking. If only I'd had a bar mounted rpg.......

[Elizabethsdad]

Yep I have had this too, on the bike and even when driving the car.

[661-Pete]

I was sitting comfortably on a down-hill section at the speed limit (varying between 30mph and 20mph)

I don't know whether you mean that the speed limit was varying between 20 and 30, or that it was 30mph throughout but you were going at between 20 and 30.

Here is a section of my former commute (well it still is on my commute, for the up to 1 day a week I still go to work). What's not clear from streetview is that it's quite a significant downhill, and I can easily reach 30mph on it. The road has a 20mph speed limit (one of several 20mph zones recently experimentally brought in in Sussex). Note that speed limits do not apply to cyclists.

Well, it's a great temptation to motorists to overtake here, isn't it? - especially as it's a one way street. But note the bollards and diverging lanes at the foot of the hill (my route takes me left). I've found that belting down at about 25mph in primary position is quite a deterrent to most overtakers wanting to go left. Most - but not all. I have to be ready for the unexpected .

[Vorpal]

Pedal cycles *must* be overtaken. Anyway, they can't go that fast

[ArMoRothair]

Is there some badge of honour that must be gained by overtaking any vehicle with only two wheels?

I think there must be something in the Highway Code, which I seem to have missed, which states cyclists must always be overtaken in all circumstances, but especially when one is due to turn left, or approaching a sleeping-policeman (which will need to be negotiated slower than the cyclist one has just passed), or when approaching a pinch point which both of you won't fit through.

Where I live is a 20 mph zone full of sleeping-policemen, raised tables, pinch-points, road-cushions - and all drivers behave as above.

[[XAP]Bob]

I have a hill where I tend to do 35-40 in a 30 zone. I regularly get overtaken, despite the fact that the cars inevitably ground out ove the speed bumps...

[Jughead]

I regularly experience this and often receive a mouthful or some gesture for being 'in the way'. There is one particular mini roundabout with 5 exits in Coatbridge Town Centre! One of the exits has an unsighted bend after 20 yards and you wouldn't believe the number of cars/vans/buses trying to get by before the bend. The road isn't even wide enough to ovetake properly. Whilst I'm on a rant. Once I've tied my bike to a lamppost as their is no proper cycle parking. (North Lanarkshire have other 'pressing' priorities apart from cycling) Have you noticed how pedestrian crossings are timed to allow every car by before changing for pedestrians. We definately live in a car centred culture.

Ooh, that's better.

[Strider42]

I don't know whether you mean that the speed limit was varying between 20 and 30, or that it was 30mph throughout but you were going at between 20 and 30.

The speed limit was varying between 20 and 30 and I stuck to them, with one notable exception. The worst part today was not the overtaking, nor van-man who was on facetime on his IPad while driving, it was the guy who decided to drive behind me, at what felt like less than a metre, slowly getting faster but not pulling out to overtake. I'm not sure if it was malicious or careless, but it was pretty terrifying.

In most cases when I hear or feel an overtake coming, using my patented cyclo-sense, I look round to make eye-contact before they start. But sometimes you're just concentrating on the pot-holes and car-doors too much to take your eyes off the road for more than a millisecond.

Overall, I must admit, I get along very well with motor-vehicles. I've been honked at only once this year, or at least only once I can remember.

[Mike Sales]

I was in town, downhill on the 150 yard stretch between the lights and the roundabout, keeping close station on the car ahead. The one behind drew alongside, there was no room for him to slot in ahead. I looked across and saw him staring back, presumably expecting me to brake and let him back in. Naturally I did not and anyway I wanted my speed for the roundabout.

[snibgo]

On Radio 4 recently, in the 6:30 comedy slot, one guy gave a brilliant rant. It went something like this:

"I was cycling in London and this driver shouted at me, 'You're in my way!' And I said, well, yeah, that's how the world works. We are all in someone's way. If other people weren't there we could all get around much faster, but the world isn't like that. Just imagine if I went to your house and yelled at you, 'You are in my way! Your house is in my way! If your house wasn't here we could build a road through here and all get around much faster. So get out of my way!'"

[Redvee]

If I manage to set off a speed camera I'd demand the photo and frame it For a period of 2 weeks there was a speed sign that showed your speed with a smile or frown depending on the speed you approached it, most of the time I got a smile from it, even when 33mph, I approached it once as I slowed and the speed dropped from 23mph to 22mph then to 32mph

[rfryer]

Although it's fun to join in the driver-bashing , one possible rational explanation is that most drivers know that, on average, they will go faster than most bikes, so will have to overtake at some point. If a safe opportunity presents itself, even at the cost of a temporary flaunting of the speed limit, then they may see it as worth getting it over with.

The subsequent braking may be that drivers are accelerating to pass you as quickly and safely as possible, then braking to return to the speed limit once the manouver is complete.

Alternatively, maybe there is a little corner of youtube somewhere where motorists post videos of themselves overtaking cyclists and braking suddenly, probably while shouting expletives. Yes, that's probably it.

[Cunobelin]

We have this at work, there is a car park lane and access lane side by side with a 10 mph limit mainly due to an obscured pedestrian crossing

The number of cars that undertake in the car park lane then cut back in at the last minute is amazing.

Had on person's access to the on-site parking removed after such an event.... and even then they though they were being treated unfairly despite speeding and undertaking