Riding 2 abreast

bigshape wrote:oozaveared

bigshape wrote:

oozaveared wrote:

bigshape wrote:

in mine, and i’m sure plenty of other peoples opinions, the only way to get everyone who drives to be aware of cyclists, is to make practical cycling under instruction a part of the driving test.

unfortunately it’s been suggested many many times and has fallen on deaf ears.

until then we just have to accept that some drivers are dicks.

cos someone will want to exempt genuinely disabled people and fair enough but then someone will claim they are being discriminated against because they are obese or asthmatic or can’t cycle and wear a Burka and god forbid anyone fell off or had a heart attack. You’d need a whole new Department at the DVLA to deal with all the sick notes and other nonsense like rastafarians claiming they can’t get a helmet over their wooly hat, muslims claiming that they aren’t allowed to exercise during Ramadan or when they are fasting and a shed load of people claiming allergies to exercise, pollen, the cold, the heat, or that sweat made their makeup run or that their town was too hilly or that it was unfair because they lived on the coast and it was too windy. And all the rest of it.

I once had a bit of a rant at a teacher that cancelled a district sports day for about a dozen schools all due to compete at the Aldershot athletics stadium. The longest distance to be run was still only 75m. But the temperature soared to a sweltering 25C and she cancelled the whole thing due to a “heatwave”.

it’s not worth the candle. No-one except people who don’t mind riding bikes would do it and it would end up in a permanent pay day for the lawyers …again.

excuses, excuses…
if they didn’t do it, they wouldn’t get a driving license.
driving is a privilege, not a right.

Not quite sure why the need for that tone. but to respond in kind ….

Technically a driving licence is a licence it’s not a right or a privilege. It being available to anyone that satisfies the criteria pertaining.

Tiffin15 wrote:The gentleman

Tiffin15 wrote:

The gentleman who started the thread was quite rightly protecting his children but if protection is required then maybe a quieter road might be a better option….cue uproar starting with “why should I…………..

Sorry but this blatantly calls you out as someone who doesn’t ride a bike much. Close passes (which the OP was guarding against) happen regardless of the road width or traffic conditions.

Tiffin15 wrote:

I have wandered slightly from the point I believe he was making but many of the responses here fail to see the issue I was raising, finger pointing or militant defence of a position will achieve nothing.

No, you have failed to see the point everyone else is making. Try posting the same comment on a politics story on Sky News, it’s about as relevant.

Tiffin15 wrote:Because I

Tiffin15 wrote:

Because I believe in give and take I am a Troll?

Not quite. And I think you know that yourself. It’s because you decided to use this opportunity to go off on a wild tangent, apropos of nothing.

Because I believe in give and
Because I believe in give and take I am a Troll? a Troll would probably ask how many times have you compromised road safety in pursuit of a Strava time? but I’m not so I won’t.

There is no excuse for abuse
There is no excuse for abuse and I have wandered slightly from the point I believe he was making but many of the responses here fail to see the issue I was raising, finger pointing or militant defence of a position will achieve nothing. The frustrations that drivers regularly vent originate because they fail to see any justification in a cyclist delaying their journey. Likewise a group of cyclists may see dominating the road between traffic islands is the safest option but this is missed by other road users, do either see the road in the same way as the other? Education is the only solution as one respondent pointed out drivers should receive more training on the needs of cyclist but equally cyclists should themselves have some sort HSE responsibility when travelling in a peloton. Of course there are many arguments against this point of view but lets face it the status quo is failing and despite the action of a few councils in the current environment roads are not likely to improve for the ever increasing amount of people taking to two wheels. Sometime ago I believe on this site there was a thread on horses I seem to remember a lack of tolerance towards them! At least nobody has defended the right of fat men to wear lycra

Of course I would give them
Of course I would give them the same space I would give a car, the point I attempted to make was the two abreast rule is generally understood by the majority of motorists, taking up the whole lane is not. The attitude displayed here by many respondents is disappointing, I cycle regularly and suffer the same issues as any other cyclist, adopting an I am right therefore you are wrong attitude pretty much gives credence to the image that many drivers have of cyclists. The implication was that the peloton should have remained two abreast until the traffic that had backed up in the village passed I didn’t mention single file.

Tiffin15 wrote:I think I said

Tiffin15 wrote:

I think I said pretty much all and expressed my “surprise”. Not trolling but expressing the opinion that its give an take on our roads.

The OP was stating they were riding legally and not doing anything wrong but getting abuse, probably down to motorists’ ignorance, I’m not sure what some supposed inconsiderate cyclists you encountered have to do with it so I guess people may wonder what the actual link between your post and the original one is.

Do you think the OP may be one of those cyclists holding up the traffic? If not, I suspect you’ll have more luck trying to contact them and asking them to limit their riding to 2 abreast rather than posting that in response, or would you like the OP to try and contact the cycling club as presumably all cyclists are responsible for all other cyclists’ behaviour?