Etiquette for Lycra Clad Nutters?

Caporegime
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Had a nasty one a few days back - video doesn't really do it justice as it doesn't really show just how many things I was having to take into account as well as reacting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMkQEVdluro

Amongst other things with vehicles coming up (very) fast behind me in both lanes who also hadn't seen the hazard - we were accelerating out of a change from 30 - NSL on quite a steep hill I had to think about my braking and changing lane. The vehicle ahead indicating out didn't clue me into there being a hazard there as there is an exit on the right coming up which my first thought was they were pulling out to take.

Additionally if he'd been wearing a hi-viz and had proper lighting it could have very well made the difference between life and death if I had been going a little bit faster - albeit I wouldn't have seen/reacted hugely faster but the dark clothings and poorly working red light on his head delayed me processing what I was seeing by a potentially crucial half second or so. (If it wasn't for the white socks TBH I'd have probably been another half second slower reacting as well - the red light on his head either went out or was angled away from me in the middle of processing what I was seeing which further delayed my reaction).
Reminds me of the police program from ages ago. A girl hit an ‘animal’ in the dark on a similar sort of road but drove home before realising how bad her car was damaged. Police turned up as at the same time they found a body on the side of the road. Cyclist in black with zero lighting.

Darwin at its finest but the poor girl has to live with the fact she killed someone for the rest of her life.

I’ve stopped a few times and informed cyclists of their poor clothing choice. A light on the helmet is no good. Especially if they look down !
 
Soldato
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Part of the joy of cycling on a beautiful sunny day is to take time to actually notice the scenery and the nice cars which come out of their cotton wool wrapping for a few days a year. The more exhaust noise, the better! The roads around Stratford Upon Avon are excellent for this!

People get too close to cyclists, but I figure as long as I don’t actually get hit by a car then it’s probably ok. If it’s too narrow for a safe overtake (more often in towns with parked cars etc) I take a more dominant position in the road on my bike. I give cyclists plenty of room in the car because they tend to scratch your paint if you crash into them.

I’ve had more horns and flashing lights from other road users when I’m in my car than when I’m on my bike... a sports exhaust tends to wake the coffin dodgers doing 40 in a NSL when you overtake.

You’re never going to please everyone in this world. OP sounds like they took reasonable care to keep the more vulnerable road user safe. Said vulnerable road user did not repay the courtesy when they took out their phone and caused them to have both a distraction and reduced control of their vehicle.

Cycling is great, it keeps the miles off my car, creates an extra parking space at work, reduces the traffic at rush hour and keeps me slightly fit.
 
Soldato
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Reminds me of the police program from ages ago. A girl hit an ‘animal’ in the dark on a similar sort of road but drove home before realising how bad her car was damaged. Police turned up as at the same time they found a body on the side of the road. Cyclist in black with zero lighting.

Darwin at its finest but the poor girl has to live with the fact she killed someone for the rest of her life.

I’ve stopped a few times and informed cyclists of their poor clothing choice. A light on the helmet is no good. Especially if they look down !

Many people would have still just thought it was an animal and never reported it. Got the car repaired (or just scrapped if it's a banger) and moved on. Never knowing they mowed someone down.
 
Man of Honour
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Cycling is great, it keeps the miles off my car, creates an extra parking space at work, reduces the traffic at rush hour and keeps me slightly fit.

We really need some significant overhaul and increase to the cycling infrastructure - for instance (albeit I expect lots of problems due to land ownership, etc.) there is a disused railway line along a good part of once of the worst places I drive for the mix of cycles and motor vehicles that could be opened up as a cycle path and through a couple of places there is a nice bit of verge and a couple of disused tracks which could be used for cycles but instead they've squeezed in cycle lanes alongside traffic on layouts that are already struggling with vehicles.

EDIT: Another area there is a huge castle estate with internal link roads and tracks - I can see that being a bit contentious but plenty of opportunity to put a cycle way through and move them away from a nasty stretch of main road.

Many people would have still just thought it was an animal and never reported it. Got the car repaired (or just scrapped if it's a banger) and moved on. Never knowing they mowed someone down.

I'm not really sure how that happens - I might have problems avoiding someone in those circumstances especially if they came out of the side infront of me suddenly but I'd have to considerably switch off attention to not realise it was a person instead of an animal even in the dark with them in dark clothing.
 
Soldato
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I'm not really sure how that happens - I might have problems avoiding someone in those circumstances especially if they came out of the side infront of me suddenly but I'd have to considerably switch off attention to not realise it was a person instead of an animal even in the dark with them in dark clothing.

Yep, but it happens. Usually with lorries. Their trailer can clip someone in the dark and they would never know.

But also people cover it up to avoid police trouble. There was a cyclist killed right outside where I work in broad daylight. No witnesses, no one came forward, driver was never found :/
 
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Soldato
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He can't of been much of a cyclist if something so trivial bothered him that much. Being overtaken by fast, loud cars dropping gears and sometimes unnecessarily, is common place. In my experience, it's the ones creeping past in the wrong gear going too slowly I worry about. They also tend to leave less space.
 
Soldato
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In this case too, the op did have the possibility to stop + hear what the cyclists accusation was, other cars are in the vicinity and you can keep the doors locked ..
I would have been intrigued.

Had two incidents where in slower traffic someone had skimmed past me on my bike and I swore at them and they then stopped further down the road,
I told them why, they did not seem to understand their error even when told, and had to cycle off before any further escalation.
A further incident (threaded) was a police car, which I reported, but the local **** (insert some derogitory term for police) could not identify their car. - yes really - don't have much respect now.
Have been a passenger several times when driver had to be reproached for passing too close .. it's instructive to have others comment on your driving.
Unless motorists cycle themselves on NSL roads, I would say they have little grasp of whats a near pass, you need to remember it could be your relation ...


Amongst other things with vehicles coming up (very) fast behind me in both lanes who also hadn't seen the hazard - we were accelerating out of a change from 30 - NSL on quite a steep hill I had to think about my braking and changing lane. The vehicle ahead indicating out didn't clue me into there being a hazard there as there is an exit on the right coming up which my first thought was they were pulling out to take.
watching it again ... would have to ask why you didn't brake .... next time I guess.
the usual fault I observe as a cyclist and motorist .. is that people just run out of road space and decide to squeeze past the cyclist, go for it, rather than slowing down.
what is it - you should be able to stop within the limit of your visibility
 
Man of Honour
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watching it again ... would have to ask why you didn't brake .... next time I guess.
the usual fault I observe as a cyclist and motorist .. is that people just run out of road space and decide to squeeze past the cyclist, go for it, rather than slowing down.
what is it - you should be able to stop within the limit of your visibility

There was quite a lot going on that the video doesn't really portray also the cyclist was also even less visible than the camera shows as it has a feature to boost visibility in recorded footage - the sky for instance wasn't actually visibly blue as in the footage - "WDR technology automatically adjust exposure to provide a better view in dark environments".

Initially my focus was more on the possible interaction of the slower moving car ahead moving into lane 2 (which I thought was indicating to take the exit coming up on the right) and the BMW behind me which was going v. quickly and wondering if the interaction of the two would affect me - the very first moment the cyclist came into view coincided with me flicking my eyes to the wing mirror.

As I was realising there was something there also unfortunately coincided a moment later with the cyclists red light fading out (not sure if a mode or faulty) which meant that in the middle of recognising there was a cyclist there* I was interrupted with the thought of "what did I actually see?" - if he hadn't have been wearing white socks I'd have probably been delayed even longer in reacting as the rest of him was pretty close to invisible in the gloom unless you were directly looking at him.

I did actually brake but not hard as the combination of exiting a 30 limit into NSL and the steep hill means people often accelerate hard along the straight there and I had vehicles flying up behind me in both lanes much quicker than I was going who hadn't seen the hazard (my pickup was probably blocking the BMW from seeing the cyclist initially but he did slow down considerably when he realised it was there). While it would have been better to risk a vehicle collision than run over a cyclist it still took a moment to process that. I don't really want to go overboard but situations like that make me wish I had a rear facing camera as well (as it was the guy directly behind me got pretty close).



Funny enough this is the same location I mentioned awhile back about seeing 2 cars make contact avoiding a cyclist while I was coming the other way - literally the exact same spot and in that case the one going v. fast in the outside lane was a BMW as well! I can understand why it happened now as the car in my position either didn't have enough room/time or didn't look before pulling into lane 2.


* Not sure if the audio is working for you but you can hear where I lifted off when I realised something was there - for some reason audio from my dashcam doesn't play nice with YT and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't - will have to reprocess it in future into a format YT likes better.
 
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Soldato
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Probably made him jump with the exhaust noise. When you ride a bike you sometimes dont hear a car coming due to the wind noise in your ears until the cars gets close to passing you and if it goes past at high revs, it can make you jump. So long as it’s a safe pass which it sounds like it was, it wouldn’t have a problem for me if I was out on my bike
 
Soldato
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Had a nasty one a few days back - video doesn't really do it justice as it doesn't really show just how many things I was having to take into account as well as reacting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMkQEVdluro

Coming out of Yeovil? Horrible bit of road if it's even slightly busy, I just take the lazy way out now of 'boot it past everyone as quick as possible'

It's also much steeper than the video makes it look, you get some very big differences in traffic speed between cars, nevermind a bicycle trying to puff his way up the dual carriageway.
 
Soldato
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Do you have led lights on your vehicle ? picking out that cyclist ASAP, I wonder if their range could be a significant safety advantage ?

Coming out of Yeovil? Horrible bit of road if it's even slightly busy
as a cyclist(or motorist) I keep forgetting to look at the Cambridge accident blackspots map ... so you can see/confirm which places are 'bad'
 
Man of Honour
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Coming out of Yeovil? Horrible bit of road if it's even slightly busy, I just take the lazy way out now of 'boot it past everyone as quick as possible'

It's also much steeper than the video makes it look, you get some very big differences in traffic speed between cars, nevermind a bicycle trying to puff his way up the dual carriageway.

Yeah its Babylon Hill - I do that bit of the A30 on a semi-regular basis - not much fun with the mix of traffic if it is even slightly busy and the brain-dead parking on the road through Sherborne and Milborne Port.

Do you have led lights on your vehicle ? picking out that cyclist ASAP, I wonder if their range could be a significant safety advantage ?

It is a really steep hill - more than the video portrays - so headlights tend to be angled wrong for picking out stuff ahead. If he'd had better lights or hi-viz it would have really helped in that situation.
 
Soldato
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