Near Miss of the Day 168: Van driver crosses solid line, forcing cyclists out of way

atgni][quote=ChrisB200SX wrote:

And the cyclist decided to plough on

Translation: the cyclist exercised his lawful right to continue in a straight line in the lane which he had been occupying for the past half mile.

How fucking dare he?

atgni wrote:

hirsute wrote:

atgni wrote:

hirsute wrote:

atgni wrote:

Looking for conflict there me thinks. Clearly avoidable. Van indicating for some time before turn.

Obviously trying to force your way into a mandatory cycle lane will cause conflict and was clearly avoidable.

Van indicating for some time before turn - I find that too when I am at a side road trying to turn right. What's your point?

Share the road. Slow for 2 seconds and don't go up the inside of something indicating.

What you are saying then is that there is no point in any cycle lane, as it is not permissible to underake any cars who are queuing in their lane. This would extend to normal roads where there are 2 lanes and so the road user in lane 1 should not 'undertake' any user in lane 2.

Do you know what a mandatory cycle lane is?

No. And they weren't queing in this case. And yes. I didn't say the van was right. I said the bike could easily have avoided the conflict.

Oh of course the cyclist could 'easily have avoided the conflict' if only he had accepted that on Britain's roads, he is dirt, and he needs to get out of the way of all motorised traffic, as soon as a driver indicates - or even doesn't indicate.

Dbl.

atgni wrote:

Looking for conflict there me thinks. Clearly avoidable. Van indicating for some time before turn.

i wonder if the van driver would have done the same thing if it have been an HGV rather than a cyclist. I mean he had his indicators on which apparently gives him right of way, which is news to me. I always thought you still had to wait for the lane to be clear before making your move. 

Housecathst wrote:

atgni wrote:

Looking for conflict there me thinks. Clearly avoidable. Van indicating for some time before turn.

i wonder if the van driver would have done the same thing if it have been an HGV rather than a cyclist. I mean he had his indicators on which apparently gives him right of way, which is news to me. I always thought you still had to wait for the lane to be clear before making your move. 

Nowhere did I say right of way.
Share the road.
Slow for 2 seconds and don't go up the inside of something indicating.

atgni wrote:

Housecathst wrote:

atgni wrote:

Looking for conflict there me thinks. Clearly avoidable. Van indicating for some time before turn.

i wonder if the van driver would have done the same thing if it have been an HGV rather than a cyclist. I mean he had his indicators on which apparently gives him right of way, which is news to me. I always thought you still had to wait for the lane to be clear before making your move. 

Nowhere did I say right of way. Share the road. Slow for 2 seconds and don't go up the inside of something indicating.

so does share the road also apply to white van drivers or just cyclists. You could say the same thing to the van driver couldn’t you ? 

There also the fact that the van driver should give way to the person already in the lane too, but we’ll ignore that for now.

Housecathst wrote:

atgni wrote:

Housecathst wrote:

atgni wrote:

Looking for conflict there me thinks. Clearly avoidable. Van indicating for some time before turn.

i wonder if the van driver would have done the same thing if it have been an HGV rather than a cyclist. I mean he had his indicators on which apparently gives him right of way, which is news to me. I always thought you still had to wait for the lane to be clear before making your move. 

Nowhere did I say right of way. Share the road. Slow for 2 seconds and don't go up the inside of something indicating.

so does share the road also apply to white van drivers or just cyclists. You could say the same thing to the van driver couldn’t you ? 

There also the fact that the van driver should give way to the person already in the lane too, but we’ll ignore that for now.

Yes sharing the road applies to both.

atgni wrote:

Housecathst wrote:

atgni wrote:

Looking for conflict there me thinks. Clearly avoidable. Van indicating for some time before turn.

i wonder if the van driver would have done the same thing if it have been an HGV rather than a cyclist. I mean he had his indicators on which apparently gives him right of way, which is news to me. I always thought you still had to wait for the lane to be clear before making your move. 

Nowhere did I say right of way. Share the road. Slow for 2 seconds and don't go up the inside of something indicating.

Oh God, that weasel-phrase 'share the road' (translation - 'the road belongs to the motorised'). 

Your basic argument doesn't make a lot of sense.  The van driver was indicating that he wanted to break the law and drive into the mandatory cycle lane.  Aside from the fact he had no right to do that anyway, at the very least he ought to wait till it's clear.

  Indicating doesn't mean 'you have to get out of my way I'm coming through regardless'.

If he'd been indicating he wanted to drive onto the pavement would that make it a pedestrian's fault if he'd then driven onto it nearly hitting a pededestrian?

Housecathst wrote:

I always thought you still had to wait for the lane to be clear before making your move. 

You do.  You complete your manœuvre when it is safe to do so, not when the road users occupying the space you want are small and soft enough that you know they'll get out of your way.  

atgni wrote:

Van indicating for some time before turn.

I love how people think merely using their indicators is all they have to do.  There is a lot more to driving properly than turning your indicator on...

Daveyraveygravey wrote:

I love how people think merely using their indicators is all they have to do.

Many don't even bother doing that. I've also seen many cars with steering wheel activated indicators, only coming on just as the turn is initiated.

Back to the video - when cycling on busy roads, indicating is part of negotiating your way into a space.  Cyclists do it all the time - signal and position yourself for a move, negotiating a safe way to join faster traffic.  We do it because we can't force our way into moving traffic if nobody yields, which is what the van driver has chosen to do.

Being honest, I think my reaction would have depended on what mood I was in. Was my last ten minutes of cycling safe and pleasant?  Slow down and let the van in.  Was this the fifth time in a mile that someone had tried to bully me with their vehicle?  I'll continue on my course and suffer a close pass to make a point, which seems to be what happened here.  I might also not have been expecting the van to cross the solid white line and calculated that I could safely proceed and clear the front of the van before the dashed lines began.