Primary Position

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  • #30923
    LetsBePartOfTheSolution

    Seeing these close passes day after day, on NMOTD and in real world…I’m rapidly coming round to a new way of thinking. We should all be cycling in the primary position ( guess that’s why it’s called that ). And we only move to the secondary position when WE judge it is safe to be overtaken. If it becomes the norm, then motorists will get more used to staying in their position rather than going for these ridiculous gaps.
    Obviously many cyclists are already routinely cycling in primary . Whereas I was taught to meekly stay 2ft from the kerb – and it has stuck with me ever since. And presumably many motorists similarly expect cyclists to be out of their way to the point of being invisible – such that they are angered to encounter a cyclists taking the lane.
    If we turn it on its head, and a significant enough number of cyclists switch to cycling in the primary position – it will soon become normal and therefore expected by motorists. That would have the effect of making it safer all round ( at the moment it seems the few who do already adopt primary are sometimes at increased risk of abuse and injury – due to their seemed impertinence )
    What do people think. A totally sensible idea that needs widespread adoption ? Or misguided idealism that will be sent scurrying back towards the kerb by infuriated tailgating motorists ?

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  • #961597
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    wtjs

    I am surprised at how un

    I am surprised at how un-militant I am in positioning, and I am invariably cycling alone. I am usually about 1 metre from the kerb- I have to force myself to move R when traversing the 2 local danger spots for psycho-overtaking- blind humped bridges with well-deserved unbroken white lines which drivers ignore with impunity. They overtake right up to the crest of the bridge with no thought in their tiny minds, already disabled by the delusion that they are god-like titans of the road, that they are approaching drivers like themselves coming the other way at a relative speed of 60+ (often a lot +)- I know that they would immediately move hard L into me to avoid colliding with that other driver, so I want to have somewhere to go except straight over the bridge parapet- although I doubt I would be able to react quickly enough. I know that the F***h would simply agree with the driver that he had to avoid the collision with the other car and so it was necessary to sacrifice the cyclist.

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