Why do some people cycle down a dual carriageway?

  • Thread starter Thread starter HAz
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It's ok, you'd be relieving congestion by not being in the bloody way on a bike! ;)

Erm, if I'm quicker then clearly not.

Traffic moves, on average, at about 12mph in London and I average 18-20mph on my commute.

Don't worry though, lots of people confuse the speed their vehicle is capable of with the speed of their journey.
 
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The alternate route is via the seafront which would take about 15 more mins and is along a 30mph road with lovely views, it makes no sense to me.

Are you talking about past Dawlish and Teignmouth etc? Because that would certainly take more than 15 minutes. I agree though, cycling without lights is madness, as is cutting someone up near the bottom of telegraph hill then trying to ram you off the road at the top of telegraph hill.
 
[DOD]Asprilla;22278291 said:
Erm, if I'm quicker then clearly not.

Traffic moves, on average, at about 12mph in London and I average 18-20mph on my commute.

Don't worry though, lots of people confuse the speed their vehicle is capable of with the speed of their journey.

London problems, no-one outside London cares....

I average 55-60 on the way to my work. Can't do that on a bike no matter how hard I pedal!
 
We don't need taxing of cyclists. We need them trained and insured. They need to be forced to know it's illegal to cycle on motorway before they even try.

And we need HC to ban cycling and 50cc L plated mopeds from all dual carriageway roads with speed limit above 30mph and single carriageway roads with speed limit of 40mph. I know a lot of you will jump in with "why not 40" but just imagine someone cycling on Westway/A40 flyover.

Yesterday around 7pm I witnessed 1 mile traffic from Tower Hill almost all the way to Limehouse Tunnel, turned out to be some a-hole on Boris Bike cycling literally in the middle of outside lane of eastbound dual carriageway shouting "I am allowed to be here!" and spitting obscenities at honking traffic. Found a technicality for his one man war against "the machine" and made it his mission to exploit it. And you know that where there is one, there is more. That type of eco warrior crowd is set to grow.

So either 99% of country lanes are no go areas for cyclists (so no one can realistically cycle in the countryside without breaking the law) or the NSL for single carriage lanes is reduced to 40? I like the latter personally.;)
 
[DOD]Asprilla;22278351 said:
So you have nothing to complain about then.

Jolly good.

Not for my commute! ;)

However I do think that cars and bikes sharing roads is a recipe for disaster and infrastructure is needed to give cyclists their own space that isn't pavement and isn't road.
 
So either 99% of country lanes are no go areas for cyclists (so no one can realistically cycle in the countryside without breaking the law) or the NSL for single carriage lanes is reduced to 40? I like the latter personally.;)

Yup. No cycle lane = no cycling on those roads. It's time to separate 50/60/70mph traffic from potentially any Joe Shmo trying to zig zag up the hill on an argos bike with small torch strapped to their four letters. Both parties would enjoy dedicated lanes too.
 
Yup. No cycle lane = no cycling on those roads. It's time to separate 50/60/70mph traffic from potentially any Joe Shmo trying to zig zag up the hill on an argos bike with small torch strapped to their four letters. Both parties would enjoy dedicated lanes too.

In which case most roads weren't made with motorists in mind. I'm happy for cars to keep to the roads designed for em (basically motorways and dual carriageways) and the cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders can take the rest.
 
I've been driving for 37 years and I can honestly say I've never had a cyclist hold me up or give me any other problems.
I've had millions of cars get in my way though.
 
In which case most roads weren't made with motorists in mind. I'm happy for cars to keep to the roads designed for em (basically motorways and dual carriageways) and the cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders can take the rest.

dont get started on horses that **** all over the road and expect you to slow to a crawl cause you might fight the damn thing
 
The part of the argument I always find silly is motorists (and I am one myself) moaning about Cyclists holding them up.

Firstly, in big cities, especially London, Cyclists are quicker and being in a car is about the worst transport choice for speed there is during most hours of the day. Even Top Gear have proven this. I often see motorists speed past me in London, only for them to hit the next huge queue of traffic at the lights, of which I am allowed to filter through. If anything, its other cars that are holding you up, because you get nowhere overtaking cyclists and just end up wasting fuel speeding and then heavy braking.

Outside of towns and cities, I think most people you see out on bikes tend to people on proper bike rides, who are likely fairly competent cyclists. In which case, if you turn a bend on a country road, or on a single carriageway outside of town, is a cyclist or group of cyclists together causing you to slow down for a short period really that big of a deal? Its no different to encountering a Caravan or Tractor and usually people will make their way past Cyclists anyway due to the size difference. If you are out on country lanes, are you really in that much of a rush to get where you are going to?
 
Cyclists don't hold me up - maybe for a few seconds to make sure its fine to overtake. Old biddies in cars doing 30 in a 50 hold me up.

But on the A3 (where majority are doing 60+ in a 50 zone) cyclists pootling along, I swear those people must have a deathwish.
 
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