Alan D wrote: I come to a stop in the primary position, get off bike, carefully lay it behind me and just stand there squarely trying to look as big as possible. Well there is quite an audience, because I am now stopping the traffic, probably the one thing that prevented an escalation. He stood by his car hurling the most disgusting and agressive gutter abuse at me. I said nothing but tried to visualise the moves that I practised in Ki Akido all those years ago. Well there was no way I was going to leave my bike so I beckoned him to come to me, Matrix style. Well he just shouted, "I'm going to f****** report you" and drives off. Alan
I agree that if you go down the route of giving the finger and/or verbal confrontation, you have to be mindful of the possibility that you may be forced to follow it up with physical confrontation. In this case, however, it sounds like squaring up to him in the way you describe went your way and the driver backed down. He was just as scared as you were, I reckon. He seems to have had to content himself by swearing from a safe distance and saying he was going to "report" you. By far the best possible outcome from your point of view, but due to luck more than anything else. I tend to try and keep my head below the parapet as much as possible in order to avoid escalation of the dispute.
minkie wrote:....For those who haven't seen it Cyclecraft is a great book, full of common sense advice and recommended course work for the National Cyclists Training Standard. I can see from Nigel's qualifications that he's also an expert, so it's a bit puzzling that there seems to be no clear consensus within the training community.
Agree that Cyclecraft is well worth having as a reference book, but remember any book (including the Highway Code) should be treated as guidlines only.
You comment that there seems to be no clear concensus amongst the cycle training community. I think you wil find on a general level there is very much a concensus, but on these sort of forums differences of opinion become evident when applied to specific circumstances.
There is so much to take into consideration when deciding what method to use. there is certainly a valid point made about being crushed if cycling up the left. But that can be avoided is consideration is given to what type of vehicle you are passing, where is the driver looking? Are you visible if he does look in your direction?
Nigel
I think we can take the need for caution and adapting to specific circumstances as a given.
Cyclecrafts general advice is to pass on the right and yours is on the left, or not at all. If that's not a lack of consensus I don't know what is.
Apologies in advance if I've misunderstood something, but you both work within the National Cyclists Training Standard so I would have expected you to give out the same general advice to new cyclists.
All other things being equal I much prefer to pass on the right, but often there's simply more space on the left because car drivers like to be as far right as the lane markings permit.
From the right hand side I find that merging back into the traffic flow when it starts moving again is easy enough provided that I don't leave it too late (I pull back in when the cars alongside me are doing approximately the same speed as I am) and that I signal assertively.
minkie wrote:....Cyclecrafts general advice is to pass on the right and yours is on the left, or not at all. If that's not a lack of consensus I don't know what is. ....
No! My general (default) advice is wait in line. More specific advice would depend on the situation at the time. I would consider it to be more sense to position to the left if turning left and positioning to the right when planning to turn right!
Nigel
DSA registered Driving Instructor, RoSPA Diploma in Advanced Car Instruction, SAFED registered van trainer, National Standards Cycling Instructor
minkie wrote:Ovetaking stationery queues by going down the middle of the road is generally safer than trying to squeeze through on the left, so your positioning sounds fine to me. Like others I think you're best not to get sucked into escalation - it rarely works out well.