"More than primary encourages an undertake": Footballer-turned-driving instructor Ashley Neal questions cyclist's positioning (+ concerning police response); Bigham the Bounty basher?; London's most dangerous borough for collisions + more on the live blog

If anyone wants to dodge the winter and ride some great gravel or road or hang at the beach in a chill part of Mexico, I’ve now got a place for that to happen pic.twitter.com/yjVxZi5ctI

— Phil Gaimon (@philgaimon) November 3, 2022

I'm sure Phil won't mind if a hundred or so of us come visiting...

Interesting news from the European Cyclists' Federation that there has been a "major step forward" with EU member states supporting a proposal to require bicycle parking in every new and renovated residential and non-residential building.

Member states gave support to a revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). Although the wording of the revision does include the caveat that for residential buildings they would only be required to create "as many spaces as appropriate" if it is deemed unfeasable during the building process.

The European Cyclists' Federation "welcome many elements of the council position but hold the view that it must be further improved". 

"Member states' get-out clauses are too wide, 'average user capacity' is not an adequate criterium and provisions on parking space for non-standard bicycles and charging infrastructure for e-bikes are absent," the Federation added.

Just one more Panorama-related post... it's been that kind of week...

Two BBC reporters doing a news report while cycling: Richard Bilton in England and @annaholligan in the Netherlands.

Can you spot the difference?

The difference is a result of our policy choices over decades. The good news is we know what we need to do to make it better. pic.twitter.com/ovcwZnDbfa

— Adam Tranter (@adamtranter) November 4, 2022

[ 📷: CC BY 2.0 Waterford_Man]

The Evening Standard reports the London borough of Westminster is the most dangerous place to ride a bike in the English capital, having analysed Metropolitan Police collision figures. Of course the data only counts recorded collisions and injuries, but the number of collisions involving a person riding a bicycle has risen from 150 in 2017 to 437 in 2021.

A total of 307 incidents have already been recorded between January and August 2022. The Standard's Miriam Burrell reports incidents were most frequent in Westminster over the past six years, with the exception of 2018 when the most were recorded in Southwark.

[📷: CC BY 2.0 David Holt]

So far this year 40 collisions have been recorded in Westminster, up from 30 in 2020 and 38 in 2021. "Westminster is coming up constantly as top for walking and cycling collisions," Healthy Streets campaigner Clare Rogers told the daily newspaper.

"You can say that it's partly because so many people walk and cycle in central London but it’s not an excuse for Westminster City Council, who have been notoriously backward for putting in cycling infrastructure. Ultimately this is about cycling infrastructure."

The son of former Liverpool and England full-back Phil Neal, Ashley — who had a brief playing career himself and now works as a driving instructor, uploading videos to YouTube on all things road safety — has done another video on cycling. So, we thought we'd take a look to see if it's anything like the last couple that have come to our attention...

> "I wholeheartedly disagree with his approach" – YouTube driving instructor Ashley Neal on CyclingMikey

> Footballer-turned-driving instructor Ashley Neal divides opinion with use of horn in overtaking video

This one's all about primary position (or riding in the centre of the lane) something Rule 72 of the Highway Code suggests should be adopted:

On quiet roads or streets – if a faster vehicle comes up behind you, move to the left to enable them to overtake, if you can do so safely.

In slower-moving traffic – when the traffic around you starts to flow more freely, move over to the left if you can do so safely so that faster vehicles behind you can overtake.

At the approach to junctions or road narrowings where it would be unsafe for drivers to overtake you.

Clearly in the video too where there is the danger of car doors flying open, or something or someone suddenly emerging from between parked vehicles, it is suitable to ride away from the left. It seems the cyclist thinks any driver overtaking here would cause danger, so they adopt primary position to discourage such a manoeuvre... only to be undertaken... something Neal says wasn't helped by their positioning being too far to the right of the available road space...

"Now, there's no way in the world the motorist should have even thought about overtaking the cyclist in that situation," Neal began. Cool, job done, let's all pack up for the day...

The YouTube driving instructor then explains the cyclist needed to stay out the door zone which doesn't leave enough room for any motorist to overtake safely, with a 1.5m gap...

But what about the cyclist's "poor positioning"? Neal then asks, suggesting they were too far away from the cars, which might have encouraged the "stubbornness" of the driver to kick in and force the overtake.

"I'm all for keeping positive and maybe commanding other road users at certain times, but why go so far? Why go all the way into the oncoming traffic lane?"

Neal then argues the positioning also took away their "escape route" back to the left and adds: "If I were on the bike I probably would have positioned near, or on or just over, the centre line of the road and if the other vehicle behind had decided to come past I would have slowed it down, tucked it in to the left a little bit, allowed the situation to clear and then got on with my day..."

Thoughts? Should the emphasis simply be on not dangerously over/undertaking? Not too sure about the merits of "tucking it" into the door zone just because an impatient motorist has to get past but hey, I'm not a driving instructor...

Mungecrundle: "To be clear. The issue here is really not about the cyclist's road position, it is about a motorist in too much of a hurry, determined to get past, with no care or attention to anything or anyone appearing from between the parked cars."

wycombewheeler: "I agree entirely 1) there was not enough space to overtake 2) the cyclist correctly stays out of the door zone 3) the driver is wrong 4) the cyclist positions so far to the right, they enable the undertake. Riding in the centre of the space ensures there is no room on either side for the overtake/undertake."

HoarseMann: "Ashley thought the cyclist should have been riding near to the white line. He didn't consider that the strong position in the centre of the oncoming lane was probably to deter oncoming drivers from ploughing on through before the cyclist had completed the overtake of the parked cars.

"He does, generally, have good advice to give and is broadly respectful of vulnerable road users' rights. However, his lack of experience in dealing with bad drivers when cycling shows through when he tries to pass comment on situations like this. He's also not immune to dropping the odd cycling fallacy here and there.

"But by far the worst bit about this video is the response from the police, who failed to take any action against the driver (other than reminding them not to drive dangerously) and blamed the cyclist for following the Highway Code!"