Riding 2 abreast

I think I said pretty much
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.

Tiffin15 wrote:As is the case

Tiffin15 wrote:

As is the case with most cyclists I am also a motorist and like most sane drivers I have no problem with accommodating groups of cyclists as long as they give due consideration to the 3/4 ton of steel that is my main form of transport. This weekend whilst driving through what is predominately rural Northern Ireland I happened upon a peloton of approximately 20 cyclists, on approaching the village of Moira traffic reduced to a crawl and the peloton caught up. I was quite surprised to see pretty much all of the slow moving traffic move to the right hand side of the lane allowing the cyclists room to travel in pairs up the hill that the village is built on. This rare instance of motorist co operation was poorly repaid the congestion eased and traffic flow returned only to slow down again, the peloton had found a gap in the traffic and was now travelling 3 and 4 abreast completely blocking the lane this continued for the best part of two miles in this time only two cars were able to pass. Now drivers in Northern Ireland are less inclined to beep horns and shout abuse but the sense of frustration is the same and some less patient drivers will take risks when in a rush which of course leads to accidents. Inconsiderate behaviour by some cyclists tarnishes all of us you may have what you believe to be a justified reason for interfering with the flow of traffic but unless you wear a placard explaining your actions you will be perceived as arrogant or bloody minded. Education must come from within maybe cycling clubs should initiate a competency test for members taking part in group rides, and replica team lycra should not be sold to grossly overweight middle-aged men particularly where they can be seen by children or members of the opposite sex.

If these were club cyclists and they were holding the lane it was almost certainly for a good reason you must have forgotten to tell us or maybe didn’t understand yourself. That’s advanced cycling and maybe it’s you that needs a competency test.

Do remember that almost all adult cyclists are also car drivers so they are by definition more experienced road users than the average motorists they are quite often keeping safe by their actions.

As for your claim that all the motorists uniformly yielded…. well the BS detector went into overdrive on that one.

Why are you commenting on here anyway? Is this a Troll thing?

A couple of years ago I got
A couple of years ago I got so bored of explaining to people that riding 2 abreast was legal (and safer/better for drivers) I decided to write a blog post on it: http://ukcyclelaws.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-laws-according-to-highway-code.html

You can see from the comments though how many motorists then spouted the usual “road tax”, red light jumpers, pavement cyclists etc. You can tell/show people all you like but if it’s an inconvenient truth, people have a very hard time accepting it.

oozaveared wrote:It’s mainly

oozaveared wrote:

It’s mainly because most drivers don’t actually know their Highway code. It really is that simple. Numerous discussions at work, in the pub and at dinner parties demonstrated that most motorists don’t know the Highway Code especially the bits about cycling. But worse than that they think they do. That’s a very odd phenomenon.

My suspicion, you are meant to know, you are tested when you get a licence, but a bit like most peoples GCSEs you do enough to pass the exam and then promptly forget EVERYTHING.. but because you need to know you then go on to deny that you have forgotten everything by coming out with gibberish.

Which then comes back to why not re-read if you are in doubt, for instance a local roundabout I was convinced I was wrong because I was using a different lane to amost everyone else.

But no, after checking it seems almost everyone else is wrong and I am right!!

But most people I guess are too busy, too important, too “right” to check and to update their knowledge. How many jobs demand CPDs or retests and yet you pass a driving test and that is it until your 70!

It’s mainly because most
It’s mainly because most drivers don’t actually know their Highway code. It really is that simple. Numerous discussions at work, in the pub and at dinner parties demonstrated that most motorists don’t know the Highway Code especially the bits about cycling. But worse than that they think they do. That’s a very odd phenomenon. Usually people not knowing say tax regulations (we all pay tax after all) just admit that they don’t know stuff they don’t know or are unsure of. So it’s a pretend a bluff so no-one thinks they aren’t a good driver. And because almost none of them know it sufficiently there is a weird tendency to just make up regulations and then say “it’s in the Highway Code” afterwards. And not very oddly, when making up their own rules they always seem to justify their own driving practices.

The TRL or someone ought to do a study of this. I’d be keen to know what level of knowledge there actually is and why people who must know they don’t know all the regulations because they must know that they never ever read them, think it’s ok to make them up.

I was riding with a mate
I was riding with a mate today, 2 abreast doing about 20 on a wide, straight, flat b road, no real traffic.

We’re overtaken by a young looking (20s) guy giving us horn and shouting through the window. I gave him a cheerful wave back, this was clearly a mistake as he decided to stop and reverse towards us.

I moved out of his way as he drew alongside me (I’m now stationary on the ‘wrong’ side of the road) we exchanged a glance before he wheelspins his way down the road and, presumably, to happiness.

Tiffin15 wrote:I have no

Tiffin15 wrote:

I have no problem with accommodating groups of cyclists as long as they give due consideration to the 3/4 ton of steel that is my main form of transport

Seen as you’re in control of the said 3/4 ton of steel vehicle that poses the danger then perhaps you should be the one giving due consideration.

As is the case with most
As is the case with most cyclists I am also a motorist and like most sane drivers I have no problem with accommodating groups of cyclists as long as they give due consideration to the 3/4 ton of steel that is my main form of transport. This weekend whilst driving through what is predominately rural Northern Ireland I happened upon a peloton of approximately 20 cyclists, on approaching the village of Moira traffic reduced to a crawl and the peloton caught up. I was quite surprised to see pretty much all of the slow moving traffic move to the right hand side of the lane allowing the cyclists room to travel in pairs up the hill that the village is built on. This rare instance of motorist co operation was poorly repaid the congestion eased and traffic flow returned only to slow down again, the peloton had found a gap in the traffic and was now travelling 3 and 4 abreast completely blocking the lane this continued for the best part of two miles in this time only two cars were able to pass. Now drivers in Northern Ireland are less inclined to beep horns and shout abuse but the sense of frustration is the same and some less patient drivers will take risks when in a rush which of course leads to accidents. Inconsiderate behaviour by some cyclists tarnishes all of us you may have what you believe to be a justified reason for interfering with the flow of traffic but unless you wear a placard explaining your actions you will be perceived as arrogant or bloody minded. Education must come from within maybe cycling clubs should initiate a competency test for members taking part in group rides, and replica team lycra should not be sold to grossly overweight middle-aged men particularly where they can be seen by children or members of the opposite sex.