I expect so, though I do cycle around 100 miles a week for pleasure, usually in the evenings after dinner. It's getting dark early now, and rather cold. Must get lycra..
Doesn't really happen to me either way. Most of my commute is on the motorway, and what isn't is on the wide, open part of the A4 between Reading and Maidenhead so passing cyclists is no problem at all, there's loads of room.
No, they just walk out from the car next to you without warning.. makes no odds IME of cycling, and motorcyling in London. I rode despatch on a motorcycle for 8 months, so I've got a fair idea of what it's like around the smoke on two wheels..
Have you not noticed there's often cars coming the other way, that's why we tend to leave you space on the left instead. Otherwise you end up in the middle of the road stuck, when a bus or truck comes along...
Doubly so if they're taxi drivers, where it's often the precursor to an unindicated U-turn. Of course in that situation being on the offside isn't going to help you much either.
If you can't see through (or over) the car windscreen that the road in front is clear, don't do the overtake. Simples. Pedestrians don't instantly materialise in the centre of the road, they have to get there from somewhere else.
If three feet in the gutter is sufficient space for a cyslist to overtake on the left, then the same three feet on the right are sufficient space to overtake on the right. It also usually has better sight lines, is less likely to be full of pedestrians, and is probably not paved with potholes, broken glass, and drain covers.
Really, as a motorcyclist, would you have preferred the space on the inside? So why do you imagine it's different for cyclists?
"Clive George" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
OK, I'm clearly thinking of something else.
Even so - surely having a small percentage of the population untraceable is preferable to having the entire population untraceable? Especially when the untraceability is going to be both an offence in itself and obvious to a routine automated check whenever spotted by suitably equipped police vehicles?
Daniel Barlow gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
Hmm. I know I'd far rather cycle in three feet of space between stationary vehicles and a kerb than in three feet of space between stationary vehicles and oncoming moving vehicles - even despite...
Ummm, motorbikes have better acceleration and brakes, so can "pick and choose" gaps between oncoming vehicles more easily?
In the space between 0 and 10mph, the greater braking/acceleration potential of a motorcycle is scarcely relevant now is it? And in only three feet of space (my handlebars are a foot and a half wide) you'd have to be a bit mad to be doing more than about 12mph on *either* side of the lane. All it takes is a passenger who decides to get out of their taxi without checking
Daniel Barlow gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
Yes, because it enables you to swing wider around the vehicles, as you'll be back onto the correct side of the road before "encountering" the oncoming vehicles.
Yes, it is, as I can be through a gap and gone on a motorcycle, back on the right side of the road, where I'd still be either behind the vehicle or alongside it with the slow acceleration of a pushbike.
I'm taking about overtaking in the same lane as the cars, at low speed, in the right-hand side gap that car drivers have thoughtfully left for this purpose, and using the gaps between oncoming cars to give me a bit more space. As the oncoming cars approach I may slow down further - perhaps even to walking pace - and pull in closer to the vehicles on my side to give them more room to pass, but usually I don't have to actually stop. At the approaches to junctions where this makes sense the oncoming traffic is rarely moving at high speed anyway, because they have likewise just pulled away from the lights on their side.
You're talking about overtaking using a significant proportion of the opposite traffic lane, probably on wider/faster roads, and necessarily at speed because you need to get back to your own lane before the oncoming car hits you.
Both approaches are valid (though I'm not sure yours counts as "filtering" as the term is usually used). Either approach can safely be performed more quickly than cycling down the nearside (when performed safely) because the lack of warning you get from pedestrians or car door openers means that you can barely get much *above* walking pace most of the time when you're riding in the gutter. If you're a trundly this won't matter as much, but if you've been doing 100 miles a week for thirty years I don't see you as a trundly
I was principally speaking to Mike there, but weren't you the one who said that motorbike acceleration was relevant because it enables you to go wider around the vehicle and then get back on your own side of the road?
Or are you talking about both things at once? Perhaps Duhg will confirm that there are two kinds of filtering
So am I. During this thread, I've been imagining the route I used to ride from Northolt to Hackney, down A40, Euston Rd , Pentonville Rd etc Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a barrier in the middle up until you hit Pentonville road, when of course I would use some of that 120bhp to nip past slow moving traffic on the opposite side of the road, if the opportunity allowed.
Sounds like fun, I don't think. Walking pace, in the middle of the road and having to get closer to cars on your side to allow oncoming ones to pass? Are you sure this is safer than pootling down the inside in a 3ft gap? FWIW , on the motorbike I'd usually filter in betweeen lanes 1-2 on a dual carriageway, or 2-3 on a 3 laner.
We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. I prefer the left hand side. I don't like being near oncoming traffic on a pushbike. I'll quite happily ride down a NSL dual carriageway with cars doing 70 passing me, but in town, in heavy traffic I'd rather be on the left, or possibly filtering between lanes 1-2.
That would be called "overtaking" not "filtering"...
See above :-)
I'd certainley never go down the inside of a random car stopped on the A4 because I *know* someone would be about to get out of it. In town, it's a different matter, though I admit to avoiding riding a bicycle in London nowadays if I can help it, I can't be bothered. Too much pollution, heat, frustation. Give me my airconditioned car any day of the week I used to a lot in the past when i didn't have any powered transport..
I probably am a trundly. I ride for pleasure and fitness, not because I need to get somewhere. I do about 100 miles a week and have done for the past 8 months or so. I used to time-trial but it's nearly 18 years since I did my last one. I discovered petrol power ...-)
That was your mistake. You ought to have been (quite a bit) nearer to the kerb, unless the geometry of the junction would have required you to swing out to the right in order to turn left.
If you don't want to be undertaken, whether to protect yourself, or a potential undertaker, or both, don't invite it.
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