Cycling UK Forum

I always use the “Pass Me” or “Follow Me” terminology as it makes more sense and the kids understand that far more easily. Primary and secondary are the wring way round as we would spend far more time in the Pass Me/Secondary position.

The more I think about it the more wrong it seems. Especially the follow me part. Would be better with pass or don't pass. Or keep behind me but that's wrong because the follower might want to turn off. Whatever, it didn't make much difference. The kids either stuck with primary position as they had been taught or ignored the woman anyway. Keep out or keep in worked best.

There's a temptation to go with "None shall pass!", and never mind that the kids won't really catch the Monty Python reference. Hey ho. Though I imagine they're ot generally familiar with Fight Club they seem to enjoy that Snake Club has two Golden Rules, the first rule of Snake Club is No Overtaking etc.

Back a while I said I'd try and remember to ask what the Cycling Scotland position was at the CPD day, and... I forgot. Sorry!

Pete.

Don't think it really matters as long as the trainees know the position and why they should use it. I once worked with someone who said "By moving into this position you are saying to the following driver 'Stay behind me, matey!'". After that the kids all referred to it as the "Matey" position. They got into the right position at the right time, and knew why....so mission accomplished.

Do you understand this definition of the secondary position:

The secondary position … is about 1 metre (3 feet) to the left of
the moving traffic lane if the road is wide, but not closer than 0.5 metre (1.5 feet) to the edge
of any road…. The secondary riding position is always relative to the line of moving traffic,
not the road edge.

LanternRouge wrote: 23 Jun 2026, 8:23pm Do you understand this definition of the secondary position:

The secondary position … is about 1 metre (3 feet) to the left of
the moving traffic lane if the road is wide, but not closer than 0.5 metre (1.5 feet) to the edge
of any road…. The secondary riding position is always relative to the line of moving traffic,
not the road edge.

In the context of National Standards Training (typically Bikeability taught to kids in Y5-6/P6-7) this is not an easy concept to get across to youngsters with limited experience and as the roads it's taught on tend to be relatively narrow residential urban/suburban roads with significant widths taken up by parked cars it's not really an especially helpful definition to pass on.

Accounting for that, the Bikeability Scotland Level 2 Rider's Guide has it slightly differently:

The secondary position
• Is further to the left of the primary position.
• Allows faster traffic to come past you, but still provides enough space to react and see the road ahead.
• Is ideally a metre away from the kerb, and is never the gutter.

Personally I'd say that's a rather more useful description than the original because there's really not that many roads with a clear meter left of the traffic stream, especially with increasing car-bloat making the traffic stream wider and roads with parked cars effectively narrower.

Pete.