road.cc live blog: Cyclo-cross 2017-18 annual, motorpacing with Alex Dowsett, Yodel driver “nudged” cyclist, and more

Incredible.

I take a different view. 'Vehicular cycling' gets you modal share of 2%, whereas proper joined-up cycle facilities can result in 30%+. Most infrastructure projects are to provide for utility cycling - short trips in town - not leisure cycling in the countryside. The original designs for Harrogate Station Gateway (funded 2019) were excellent. Since then North Yorkshire Council has (a) failed to build anything at all and (b) diluted the cycling elements of the scheme to the point that they are disappointing and do not provide a useful route.

I don't drive often, and I assumed that drivers around us were pulling out on me when I'm cycling for exactly the reasons you cite. But then I hired a car and, lo and behold, drivers still did this. It turns out it has everything to do with them being crap and aggressive, and not much to do with what it is they're pulling out in front of (except possibly lorries!).

I wonder if it's a location thing? I live in Canterbury and, apart from the odd close pass, I find the vast majority of drivers are actually very considerate. In fact it's a common occurrence for someone coming the other way to stop and pull in if we're both on a narrow lane. I do the same if there's a wide bit close to me, or someone's been stuck behind me for a little while, and I almost invariably get a 'thank you' wave or flash of the hazard lights.

On one occasion when we went to watch the Tour on a cobbled stage, one of the sponsors in the publicity caravan was a chain of retirement homes. My wife is somewhat younger than me; the lady leaning out of the open-top car took one look at us and made absolutely sure she actually passed one of the fridge magnets to her rather than throwing one on the ground as usual. We still laugh about it. Well, my wife does!

@mctrials23 I wasn't thinking of identifying poor driving, which is obviously tricky without supplementary evidence, but given the huge amount of incidents that involve excessive speed GPS for keeping people to the speed limit is perfectly valid; even if there were issues with identifying the exact speed at any point, if it can be measured (as you can) that somebody has gone from point A to point B, a mile apart, on a 20 mph road in two minutes instead of three then get the fine and points in the post. Remove excessive speed and you remove the cause of numerous injury and fatality incidents.

@Sheen wheels I have a version of the R8100 and you definitively need ceramic for the socket Oh no, you don't! Ceramic sockets pretty rare and, as far as I know, only with ceramic and not metal 'ball' (femoral head)

@mitsky Its another one of those things that makes no sense isn't it. Someone was saying in another thread that we need a harder driving test. I don't think we do. Everyone who has passed in the last 20 years has done a test that is more than happy to fail you for behaviour that 90% of drivers exhibit every time they get behind the wheel. The test is fine. The fact that getting your license seems to be considered some weird proof that you will continue to drive safely is the issue. The fact that when you prove that you cannot drive safely its not immediately revoked is the issue.

@Rendel Harris The issue with GPS chips, as everyone who has one of those black boxes will attest to, is that they are crap. They interpret heavy braking as poor driving rather than someone else forcing it. They see rapid acceleration where there is none. All we need is a much higher chance of people being caught and punished for their everyday shit driving. I'm sure as a cyclist that every single time you go out on your bike you will have a dozen or more times when you think "that would have been a nasty accident if someone was coming the other direction". Eventually, when bad behaviour suffers no consequences it becomes completely normalised. Then we struggle to treat it as anything but a normal, unavoidable accident when that bad behaviour does incur consequences.

Drivers regularly pull out in front of me and cause me to slam on the brakes or avoid them. Very often they have seen me and just assume I'm not going very fast or they assume I will slow down/stop (which I do). Too many drivers don't look for cyclists, hate giving way to them or expect the cyclist to be moving slowly and just pull out.