Near Miss of the Day 232: A festive foursome with one video resulting in driver being fined (includes strong language)

Panslanepaul wrote:

Re Clueless Pedestrians

"Pretty assertive filtering through traffic": you sure are, and bolder than I, but riding the wrong side of a traffic island especially across a split ped x is meat and drink to the anti-cyclist lobby so suggest you tone that down a bit. Also, and here's a topic for debate, does the "give a metre" campaign only apply to motorised vehicles, or should faster cyclists give slower cyclists the same gap? If so, you just posted a classic Near Miss of Day on three and possibly four other cyclists.

Personally, I usually try to give slower cyclists a metre or so when overtaking on my bike, but I don't think it's really necessary, just a courtesy. I think the speed difference is very important, so when there's not much difference in speed, a smaller distance becomes acceptable and conversely if a car is going 30mph quicker than you, you'd want more than 1.5 metres to feel safe.

I also take into account how predictable the slower cyclist looks e.g. if the cyclist is using a phone or has shopping dangling from their handlebars then I'd give them more room (I really don't want to crash into another cyclist).

Also, overtaking cyclists have "skin in the game", so they're unlikely to misjudge a safe distance.

Panslanepaul wrote:

Re Clueless Pedestrians

"Pretty assertive filtering through traffic": you sure are, and bolder than I, but riding the wrong side of a traffic island especially across a split ped x is meat and drink to the anti-cyclist lobby so suggest you tone that down a bit. Also, and here's a topic for debate, does the "give a metre" campaign only apply to motorised vehicles, or should faster cyclists give slower cyclists the same gap? If so, you just posted a classic Near Miss of Day on three and possibly four other cyclists.

Yup, I agree - I was definately in the wrong and almost had instant karmic feedback for my sins!

That bit of my journey is always a bit tricky, as the approach to the ASL at the lights is always blocked on the left hand side (either by a bus or a HGV in this case) and the right-hand lane was near grid-lock, so I tend to follow the scooters on the outside, on the wrong side of the road. Having merged across the slow moving traffic, I saw that the cyclists were practically hugging the kerb and the traffic opened up a bit as the flat-bed was to the right hand side of the running lane, so I knew I could nip past them outside the cycle lane markings - definately a bit cheeky and had they been in the middle of that piss-poor excuse of a cycle lane, I'd have held back.

Having almost been doored further along on that road (passengers opening doors into cycle-lane to get out and walk) I took the advice of getting somes tips for safer filtering from a motorcyclist friend: https://www.bmf.co.uk/news/show/10-tips-for-safe-motorcycle-filtering

Everyone want's to get better right? I'm now a lot less bold along that road, that's for sure!

nwhyte2012]</p>

<p>[quote=Panslanepaul wrote:

Re Clueless Pedestrians

Everyone want's to get better right? I'm now a lot less bold along that road, that's for sure!

That's for sure, and fair play for holding your hand up. We don't always make the right decisions in the split second we have available. I used to ride a motorbike into and out of London from the M4 round the North Circular and I was always a cautious filterer so much so I was always moving over to let the kamikaze brigade through. Happening upon the recently enacted scene of a filtering biker having been taken out by a motorist swapping lanes on the A40 near the Hoover building is not something you forget in a hurry.

Stay safe!