Near Miss of the Day 883: Lorry driver shoves cyclist off the road, but police cannot do anything as the truck is registered in the Netherlands

Coolkitty wrote:

I m not taking sides here but why do some cyclists ride in the middle of the road?

Why would you be asking that when this cyclist clearly has not ridden in the middle of the lane (not the road, that would involve riding down the white line), even though they have a legal right to do so, but is riding a maximum of 50 cm off the white line delineating the edge of the carriageway?

Coolkitty wrote:

I m not taking sides here but why do some cyclists ride in the middle of the road?

The usual reason for cyclists riding in the middle of the road is that they are about to make a right turn, more often they will ride in the middle of the lane in order to deter motorists from attempting a dangerous overtake.

At a pinch point, where the road narrows, in a blind bend, to avoid a pothole, to avoid being doored, to deter a senseless or careless overtake, the road splits in L1 and L2 and they want L2.

Also it's the middle of the *lane*

It's now explained in the Highway Code. Perhaps you've not read it for a while?

There's plenty of room on the left - use it and keep out of the way of faster traffic. Use your mirror to see overtaking traffic and act responsibly; for your own benefit at least.

I do wish road.cc would get the comment count back so that it's easier to distinguish between somebody who is actually a regular user of the website saying something stupid and a one-post-wonder troll.

Have you read the highway code ever ?

On a clearly very busy road like this I would be riding next to the white line while watching my mirror to see the approach of large vehicles and reacting to the developing situation.
However, due to the obvious vulnerability of a cyclist on such a busy road I would do my utmost to avoid being on it in the first place.
I'm all too aware that "being in the right" according to the highway code will not stop me being seriously injured or killed.

Not your best option at all.
You do need to be central at times to increase visibility and deter stupid overtaking. Also this gives you an area on the left to escape into.
The radar gives you enough warning that you can move around the road a bit whilst seeing if they are slowing. Others have commented that a wobbly cyclist is often given more room or time.

Utter moron. Cyclists have the right to be in the middle of the lane, as they should be. Other road users (we're talking cars here) have the duty to take care not to hit more vulnerable road users, such as cyclists.

Gosh. Even worse than trollingforbeginners.com?

Is this a technical appraisal?

You're joking right? Unless it's a bridal path there's very few "quiet" roads and the so called quiet roads are usually used as speed runs for local drivers whom often claim they might as well own the road. Best way to deal with foreign logistics is to charge said offending company more every time they enter the country based on every time they commit an offense....let's see how long they want to send their known worst delivery drivers over when a company could be pre charged for being a known danger to ALL native road users (as in born here never known other traffic laws). I was closed passed by a Finnish articulated lorry recently (farm delivery on coming so no space for anyone to move out the way safely) and to my surprise they had a sorry sign the driver lit up after they had little choice to pass me and they didn't speed past either. My response a thumbs up for the courtesy of the cautious pass and the signage.....See it don't always have to descend into a scene from uk mad max!

In NL the vast majority of places where lorries are allowed cycling isn't (much better alternatives are provided).  So Dutch lorry drivers might not be much better in this respect than those in the UK.  Of course, in NL the few places where they might interact would be very clearly marked...

Well, trucks aren't exactly banned from all but motorways over here. I can think of plenty examples at home and near work where all that separates me from a truck is a dashed white line.

Indeed (and some of those cycle lanes there - not paths - offer just as little protection and indeed provoke as little consideration from drivers as they do in the UK).

I was referring to things there being a couple of jumps ahead of the UK.  It's not just "add in some separate cycle lanes on busy roads" (the UK hasn't got there yet - and don't ask us about junctions - which is normally where people die under trucks...).  It's ideas like hooftdnetten and "unbundling" / "unravelling" - not just "oh, we have to squeeze in some separate space wherever the cars go now?"

Obviously that is not everywhere - NL is still evolving of course [1] [2]...

In the UK it's not uncommon to see large trucks all over the place.

Exactly. Queue the many Dutch tourists confronted with cyclists on France's rural roads for example.

It's the part were they don't slow down, wait till there's no oncoming traffic, then go into the oncoming lane for the overtake.

A bit difficult to say definitively they didn't slow down as the closing speed is hard to judge. The driver position, being on the left may also have played a part in the close pass in estimating the room. Not a good pass I agree, but not the worst.