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Ban for close passes during lock down?
There is virtually no traffic on the roads and still I'm being close-passed. If people can't drive safely when there's nothing except their own vehicle and one bicycle to deal with, how can we expect them to cope in normal circumstances. In the absence of any mitigation, would it not be reasonable to ban anyone who close-passes now for being demonstrably incompetent?
One a day so far, on predominantly rural roads, including a van driver who decided to overtake level with a parked car, a driver forcing her way past on a single track road, a scaffolding lorry driver who couldn't be bothered to move over at all, etc. It's worse than my normal daily ride into London.
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Had another ridiculous pass at 0730 yesterday on a dual carriageway by a Sainburys delivery driver who couldn't be arsed waiting for a car in the outside lane to pass me at the same time so decided to squeeze past.
Bascially motorists don't give a toss whether it's lockdown & the roads are quiet or not, if they want to pass they will & stuff the consequences.
I could send the footage to Sainsburys but what's the point? IME nothing happens anyway.
Please send it to Sainsburys, their drivers seem to kill too many cyclists.
I went on their website yesterday but the contact us section was a minefield so gave up.
There is an email address customer.services [at] sainsburys.co.uk that comes up on Google so could give that a whirl.
Got a 'punishment pass' riding through a deserted Corsham, Wiltshire yesterday (Black VW Golf). Expressed myself with a customary hand signal, driver stopped 50yds further down (must have known what he was doing if he was looking in his mirror) to tell me that "the last c#nt that did that to me; I knocked him off his bike", and off he went. Just laughed at him but wish I'd had cameras fitted; wouldn't have bothered with them but now thinking twice as the speeding motorists are horrendous at the moment.
I am of the same opoinion having been close passed at least once on each of my last 3 outings. Cycliq 12 CE price has dropped significantly so mine is due today.
Hopefully you are in an area where the police will take you on.
Unfortunately I'm not but I still have a GoPro for my own safety in case something major happened more than anything else.
and as you give a thankyou wave= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaU-77HH6cs
i had the best pass today, i think ive ever had. Wide road with no traffic coming the other way, equals mini probably at least three metres away from me. No excuse for coming too close if this guy can do it so well!
Nice! That's restored my faith in Mini drivers! In my experience, more often than not its the Minis which try and squeeze past, but maybe there's just a disproportionate number of minis where I live!
I've been out on one of my shorter runs this afternoon, and it was lovely - great to see so many walkers, families out cycling together that at all other times are suppressed by the presence of the car on country roads, going too fast and expecting everything and everyone to get out of their way or not be there in the first place. The few cars that were out didn't seem in too much of a hurry, so well done most people for cutting out all those non-essential trips.
We're all longing for this crisis to be over - is there any way that we can hold on to what's been gained here?
I can't understand why everyone seems to know what the 2 meter social distance is but in a car they can't work out 1.5 meters.
My empty road close pass experiences usually involve flat caps and Hondas. Not fast but just the usual Boris and Doris going for a pointless drive.
A ban on close passes. Period.
it's not been a better time cycle or even walk or horse ride, but car- borne idiots unsurprisingly, yet surprisingly are still out there.
In my recent experience as a professional driver only the polite and considerate drivers have taken themselves off the roads. All the mgif's, tailgaters, speeders and close passers are still out there. There just seems to be more of them in with the absence of the nice guys (and gals).
I notice too that the balance of road traffic has moved significantly up market with a higher proportion of Porsches, Range Rovers, AMG Mercs etc on the roads, are they all REALLY key workers? Now I concede that a lot of doctors and such do drive these motors, quite rightly but the shift in balance is very noticeable.
If the Merc etc is doing a close pass it's probably not being driven by a Doctor.
Why not, I've had "discussions" with a cancer medic about why driving whilst tired could possibly be dangerous, the same medic needing "proof" that using a mobile at the wheel was extreemly hazardous and refusing to look at it when found, and I've seen nurses in uniform staring at smart phones when in motion in their cars.
Driving does something to people. It can turn wonderful people whose interest is saving lives into monsters who take them.
Umm... Cycling Mikey
https://youtu.be/tMckoqLbCs8
Have to admit I've been driving into the office for the last nine days (is it only nine f-ing days since Johnson said to close everything down?), and it's the most I've driven a car in years.
What I've found difficult is driving along obeying the speed limit when you see a car come speeding up behind you, then sitting a few feet off your rear bumper.
Out of the city, when this happens, the following car then usually overtakes and disappears into the distance.
I've said it elsewhere, but there are a lot of motorists who think that the mostly-empty roads mean that they can finally drive like they're in a car advert...
Why don't you just pullover for a few seconds? There must be plenty of space for this.
More pertinently, why don't people who are speeding stop speeding?
If I had to pull over every time some numpty came hammering up behind me way above the speed limit, I'd never get anywhere.
Yes, in normal times.
Given the massive reduction in traffic, seems a far easier solution to the problem in the current circumstances.
They probably think you shouldn't be there - even more so than normal - and you need to be taught a lesson.
Round my way, most road users are being quite well behaved but speeds seem to have gone up, and a few drivers are already slipping in to the 'not expecting there to be anyone else about' mode.
This is certainly true in some cases.
I was out on a (local & solo) ride yesterday & a van on the other side of the road was beeping his horn & shaking his head at me.
yes my experience so far has been the close passes Ive had, which fwiw are way down from normal but thats just lack of traffic around imo, are of the deliberate scare you to teach you a lesson for being there variety, not the normal lack of attention ones.
Perhaps it's just me on my big ol mountain bike and tending to the baggier side of clothing, but I seem to be getting only the ignorant and idiotic close passes rather than the obvious punishments. Mainly sticking to the now very dry bridleways and byways, with really quite a lot of cooperation on the little roads. Big roads I'm still encountering a bit of impatience.
So far it seems more freindly than say school holiday commute time, where the emptier roads seem to encourage more impatience, but I do fear as it continues, both the volume of motor traffic will increase (I see from some stats it already has) and some of the niceness will disappear.
Agreed about the volume of traffic increasing. I have noticed a gradual increase over the course of this last week. Except in the city centre (Leeds) where it is still quite delightfully traffic free.
its funny as I had thought today maybe I should try that approach,go more MTB style, look less of a roadie & blend in more with all the new people on bikes
but didnt in the end and fwiw no real issues this ride, but I probably only encountered a handful of cars in a couple of hours.
Our local cycle path, following a by pass, is covered in bags of dog shit. My wife says it needs some bins!
I've noticed that there is now a significant proportion of drivers on the country lanes who - believing that they're the only ones on them - are using them as practice for rally racing. Knobs.
At the moment, where I live it seems to be the sudden increase in joggers who are the ones doing the close passes. As my one form of exercise is currently taking the dog for a walk, I'm regularly seeing huffing puffing joggers who don't budge an inch.