Overtaking on wide Single Carriageways

[MiniClubmanEstate]

I had a near head-on with some idiot looking down at the wheel on his bike once, I sounded the horn as I'm almost stopped and he kept coming. After sounding my horn he noticed me by the time he was 10ft away on my side of the road and stuck his fingers up at me, I was not impressed!
I have both the legally required lights and the extras on my bike.
I know that the law changed recently allowing for flashing lights to be attached to bikes but I think you still need the fixed ones? The front one I use is pointed down to avoid dazzling other road users, it's amazing what a difference having the flasher makes, people sometimes even see you at junctions.

[notaboyracer]

This post seems to have got distracted a bit, and this is also going to be off topic but I thought i'd ask seeing as there are loads of cyclists posting on this one.

I don't cycle on the road, I was wondering how much room I should leave when overtaking cyclists? I normally leave more room than most motorists do, but often feel like I'm holding people up when waiting for a safe place to overtake and was wondering if other people here get that?

I reckon in a 30 zone I leave about half a car width, increasing up to a NSL about a car width. I quite often see other drivers squeezing through with a foot or less but don't fancy doing that without knowing if it affects the cyclists stability?

The way I see it is I have steel, plastic and big crumple zones around me. The cyclist usually has lycra.

[jont]

I don't cycle on the road, I was wondering how much room I should leave when overtaking cyclists? I normally leave more room than most motorists do, but often feel like I'm holding people up when waiting for a safe place to overtake and was wondering if other people here get that?

I reckon in a 30 zone I leave about half a car width, increasing up to a NSL about a car width. I quite often see other drivers squeezing through with a foot or less but don't fancy doing that without knowing if it affects the cyclists stability?

The way I see it is I have steel, plastic and big crumple zones around me. The cyclist usually has lycra.

What you do sounds perfectly reasonable to me - it's the approach I usually take, and I'd rather have too much space than not enough. If people behind don't like it, tough (having said that if you are slow for a short while make sure you do a shoulder check before overtaking in case there's a motorbike coming through on the outside)

There are 2 main typres of cyclist I come across. First is the regular who has a good road position (somewhat out from the kerb), so you have to move over a fair way to give them space. The second is the kerb crawler who isn't so confident, but through riding in the gutter will be much more prone to wobbling, swerving round potholes etc in which case they need plenty of room so they don't swerve into me.

What I will do once I've moved out wide is to accelerate hard to get past quickly (minimising the risk both to them and me), especially on NSL roads. In my old diesel this used to leave the cyclist in a large cloud of smoke which I always felt slightly guily about :/

[mountainmetman]

As a friend I used to climb with once said, "Lycra is a privalege, not a right!"
My observer used to say to give them enough room that if they fell you'd miss thier head.

Anyway, back on topic... the wide carrageways are used in the south of Scotland and it used to be understood that you'd let people overtake using them, which helped traffic flow quite nicely, but recently the local government have banned that, which slows things down. Not sure what the numbers are on casualty reduction if any.
I do think that there is a danger of inviting risky overtakes as the perception of safety increases.

[Big Err]

the wide carrageways are used in the south of Scotland and it used to be understood that you'd let people overtake using them, which helped traffic flow quite nicely, but recently the local government have banned that, which slows things down.

Where when what who why? Do you mean the three lane single carriageways? The move to reduce them to two, or to use double white lines to prevent suicide manoueves started many years ago.

Allowing faster vehicles to overtake is a theme regularly seen on VMS signs throughout Scotland in response to the 2x Safeways Artics with 6ft spacing scenario frequently seen on the A9, A1, A68 etc etc.

Eric

[SammyTheSnake]

I had a near head-on with some idiot looking down at the wheel on his bike once, I sounded the horn as I'm almost stopped and he kept coming.

I had a wonderful experience coming through Solihull (my sister lives in birmingham and I was investigating alternate routes between my place and hers - Solihul sucks hard for that) on one of those 40mph urban DCs. Two lanes, NS lane chock-a-block and crawling, right hand lane signposted to close in 600m (i.e. nearly half a mile!) and completely empty.

I trundled gently up the OS lane (doing maybe 20-25mph) watching for hazards, especially people coming out of NS junctions. There was one such junction, with a yellow box miraculously being heeded by the stationary traffic in lane 1. I thought soccer mum in her 4x4 might come out, so I made sure I was ready to stop if need be. Sure enough, out she pulled right in front of me looking left as she waited at the central reservation ready to turn right. As she started moving, I sounded my horn to remind her that I was here and had priority and would quite like to continue along the road.

She didn't react.

Realising she hadn't heard my friendly toot, I reapplied my horn and I kept my thumb in place not 3 feet from her head, for about 10-15 seconds, accompanied by flashing my headlight a couple of times. She *still* didn't register that I was there until she turned her head right ready to take the gap she'd spotted, then *shock* there's somebody using the road!? I waved as I released the horn and she hurredly scooted off...

Drivers whose observation skills are so poor they can't hear a horn or see a flashing full-beam from within 3ft, *really* worry me.

Cheers & God bless
Sam "SammyTheSnake" Penny

[Nigel]

In a 30 mph zone I give cyclists about 18", providing they are to the left, like they should be.

On faster roads I'll give them more room, providing it is available for me to give it to them.

I'm of the opinion they should be grateful for the 18", when it suits them they are quite happy to go past the inside of my car measuring the gap with a fag paper !

[7db]

Overtaking vehicle stays clear. I'll give them as much room as I can to be safe and pootle behind if I can't be safe.

Annoys the t*ts off me when they creep through and sit on my front wing at lights etc, but there it is. Deal with the hazards as you find them. Lippy though they may be...