A Cautionary Tale

This morning as the North Cheam dozen were making our way to Redhill, I received a very polite telling-off from a lady motorist.  She had evidently been stuck behind us for a while, on the flat road leading to Markedge Lane.  "You should leave gaps for motorists to overtake" she said.   I could only agree.   "You should ride single file when there are cars behind".   Very true.   I apologised and promised to pass on the message to the group, so here it is.

If a gentle soul like her was annoyed enough to wind down the window and have a word with me, just imagine how annoyed some of our less friendly (and more dangerous) motorists must get...   

Sometimes we deserve the bad reputation that cyclists get, which is a shame.

2 Comments:

Lisa 14 August 2014 at 07:31 BST

One problem is that very few motorists appreciate anything about a group of cyclists other than that they are "in my way and therefore shouldn't be there".

Single out and the group is actually no easier to overtake - in fact it's harder because it's longer and the required gap in oncoming traffic becomes enormous. (as potentially overtaking driver I hate it when a group of cyclists in front singles out...)

Leave a gap between groups that is less than 100yds and very few drivers will 'pause' in it, in their overtaking manouvre - again the upshot is to make the entire group a much longer obstacle to overtake.

Drivers have no real depth perception of a group of cyclists, from behind the staggered pairs appear (even to me, who knows the reality is different) as the group riding 4 abreast.

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On the other hand the standard of driving on motorways is abysmal. Lane discipline is rubbish: not just the 'keep left unless overtaking' but actually driving in lane (or maybe the guy I was following yesterday who was blocking the outside lane, yet also drifting over into the middle lane was busy with some sort of in-car entertainment such as his mobile phone).

Many drivers think nothing of changing lanes to overtake, yet they do so when faster traffic is bearing down on them in the lane they have moved into and make no effort to speed up to complete the overtaking manouevre. Often they remain in the outer lane, holding up the line behind them, long after the inner lane is clear again... and then these same drivers share the minor roads with cyclists.


I appreciate that not all cyclists are angels - I am amazed that some of the wobbly wheelers are still alive, based on their complete oblivion to anything that they share the road with... - but drivers are no angels, and they are the ones wielding a lethal weapon.

Simon L 15 August 2014 at 09:59 BST

Lisa, I agree with all your comments: there are a lot of motorists who drive dangerously and some who seem to be provoked to do dangerous things when they're near cyclists. And there are a few cyclists who seem to cycle in a way which is guaranteed to provoke irritation or worse from motorists.

I guess all we can do is to try and ride in a way that *we* think is justifiable and safe. We won't keep every motorist happy but we might avoid creating new enemies.