Cars overtaking while you're in the middle of the lane

Turbulent Bill · 27-02-2009 1:29pm #1

On three occasions (twice this morning and once last night) I've been overtaken by cars while I'm cycling in the middle of the lane. Today's epsisodes both happened while all of the traffic (including me) was stopped, then started moving and the car behind overtook to take the small space ahead of me. I don't hang around and the traffic wasn't moving fast, so there wasn't much of a gap - the traffic was also stop-start so we were all stopped again within a few seconds.

Last night I was overtaken while about to take a right turn into an estate (clearly signalled the turn). The car overtook me and immediately took the same turn.

Is there anything you can do to stop this? The queue-skipping in traffic is somewhat understandable, albeit pointless, if the overtaking is done safely (I do the same on the bike), but the right turn thing is scary. Should I just get on with it and chalk it up?

Caroline_ie · 27-02-2009 1:34pm

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

Is there anything you can do to stop this?

... Let me try to rub my magic lamp and ask the genie ...
... genie says NO

me_right_one · 27-02-2009 1:37pm

I know how you feel. Same on a motorbike. There are just some ignorant drivers out there.

short circuit · 27-02-2009 1:48pm

I went for a ride today morning around the small roads of Meath .. on one of these roads, a car over took me on a blind turn .. and stopped as there was a car coming from the front as the road was only wide for 1 of them ... cue .. Mucho staring down to decide which car would pull over ... they come side by side ... cue ... some strange 2 finger salute ... some choicest of words ... and then the guy who overtook me decides he is going to damage the other car ... drives into the side of it and goes off.

I offer to tell the girl in the other car the registration details of the hit & run driver, but she looks at me strangely and goes ... I am going after that b******. I decided to stay back till she completed her 3 point turn and went after him .. didn't want her coming up behind me ...

Why am I typing all this ... for no reason what so ever .... just that people and their motivations especially when they are behind the wheel of the car cannot be easily understood.

For the short anwswer ... ask Caroline's genie ... I believe in Caroline's genie ...

Turbulent Bill · 27-02-2009 1:52pm

Caroline_ie wrote: »

... Let me try to rub my magic lamp and ask the genie ...
... genie says NO

Can you try the magic 8-ball too? Genies are known to be unreliable...

Chips Lovell · 27-02-2009 1:52pm

Some drivers seem to think it's fine to overtake a bike on a corner and it can often lead to a dangerous situation where there's shrinking amount of space between you and the kerb. It's often on particuarly corners this happens and invariably I end up taking the lane rather than have anyone try and squeeze by.

Caroline_ie · 27-02-2009 1:56pm

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

Can you try the magic 8-ball too? Genies are known to be unreliable...

Lumen · 27-02-2009 1:59pm

el tonto wrote: »

Some drivers seem to think it's fine to overtake a bike on a corner and it can often lead to a dangerous situation where there's shrinking amount of space between you and the kerb. It's often on particuarly corners this happens and invariably I end up taking the lane rather than have anyone try and squeeze by.

+1

I almost always take the lane on blind corners, so as to be more visible.

dcRoadie · 27-02-2009 2:02pm

That reminds me of the time last year when cycling down to longford to visit my mother. Coming towards a roundabout outside Kill, took the middle of the lane as I could hear a truck behind me and I wanted to make my intentions clear, there was only one exit anyway so he knew what I was doing. The mofo took it upon himself to pass me out just before roundabout then squeeze into the lane between the kerb and the little island thingy, he forced me into an emergency dismount and damn well nearly killed me.

I've been shot :eek: by pellet gun from a car, had water thrown on me, had cars aimed at me and this was the first time in my life I actually called the Gardai to report an incident..of course nothing happened thereafter!

GeeNorm · 27-02-2009 2:04pm

Lumen wrote: »

+1

I almost always take the lane on blind corners, so as to be more visible.

Yeah, I have found through trial and crashing that agressive cycling is the best way to get about. I dress like a courier and take the full lane whenever its in my interests. If you look like your handlebar might scratch along the side of their car, cars tend to avoid you.

blorg · 27-02-2009 2:44pm

I've had that all right, middle of the lane with my hand sticking out to take a right turn and just as I'm turning a car overtook, almost came off the bike. I caught up with her, she was only going 100m up the road, and her response was "you shouldn't have been in the middle of the road, besides if I'd hit you I'd have a scratch on my car and you'd be the one who would be dead."

Turbulent Bill · 27-02-2009 3:00pm

blorg wrote: »

I've had that all right, middle of the lane with my hand sticking out to take a right turn and just as I'm turning a car overtook, almost came off the bike. I caught up with her, she was only going 100m up the road, and her response was "you shouldn't have been in the middle of the road, besides if I'd hit you I'd have a scratch on my car and you'd be the one who would be dead."

This is the kicker - idiots seem more likely to do this the less the advantage is. The guy turning right last night saved a maximum of 3 seconds by overtaking me at the turn, pretty shoddy return considering he could have killed me.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Stark · 27-02-2009 4:03pm

blorg wrote: »

I've had that all right, middle of the lane with my hand sticking out to take a right turn and just as I'm turning a car overtook, almost came off the bike. I caught up with her, she was only going 100m up the road, and her response was "you shouldn't have been in the middle of the road, besides if I'd hit you I'd have a scratch on my car and you'd be the one who would be dead."

Got beeped out of it the other night doing likewise by a car who went to overtake me even though I'd taken up position in the middle of the lane with my arm outstretched. Nothing coming against me either so it wasn't like I was slowing him down by more than a few seconds. Nearly took me out of it too as he overtook as I was making the turn.

Tristram · 27-02-2009 4:09pm

Cycling in Ireland is like playing Russian Roulette. Just be glad you're still around to post!

Trojan · 27-02-2009 4:13pm

Has happened me countless times, there's one particular place on my commute that's bad.

blorg · 27-02-2009 4:48pm

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

This is the kicker - idiots seem more likely to do this the less the advantage is. The guy turning right last night saved a maximum of 3 seconds by overtaking me at the turn, pretty shoddy return considering he could have killed me.

Unfortunately I think this is the core of the problem, you would be the one dead, the driver doing it does not perceive any risk to themselves. Generally these idiots would not try the same with another car.

Caroline_ie · 27-02-2009 4:54pm

Tristram wrote: »

Cycling in Ireland is like playing Russian Roulette. Just be glad you're still around to post!

What a useless argument ...

'be careful if Do Not work in a bank, you could end up in a hostage situation, you wouldn't want to make your family go through that'

Civilian_Target · 27-02-2009 6:40pm

I must admit, you guys describe these situations as if you deal with them very calmly.

Personally, I have been known to pull up beside that car 100m down the road, open the driver-side door, and shout them down, livid with rage.

I'm not a small guy, and I bet that added an element of personal risk for the driver!

EDIT: I don't advocate doing this BTW.

Ryaner · 27-02-2009 10:32pm

I regularly take the right hand side of the lane on blind corners. Have found that just going in the middle isn't enough to get them to stop over taking.

What really annoys me though is cars _under_taking while on roundabouts. Even while signalling it happens which really makes you wonder how blind / misinformed some drivers are. Perhaps people don't understand what a cyclist is doing with an out stretched arm?

mikemac · 27-02-2009 10:36pm

Ryaner wrote: »

Perhaps people don't understand what a cyclist is doing with an out stretched arm?

Well hand signals are well covered in the driving test so I'd hope most would know it.
I'd go with they know exactly what they are doing but nooooo, you can't slow them down for 5 seconds!!

OP, just to let you know it doesn't just happen to cyclists. Motorcyclists and especially moped riders deal with this every day

Ryaner · 27-02-2009 10:39pm

mikemac wrote: »

Well hand signals are well covered in the driving test so I'd hope most would know it.
I'd go with they know exactly what they are doing but nooooo, you can't slow them down for 5 seconds!!

The hand signal section is just for in car ones though right? And only in the rules of the road, not actually checked in the test? (My test is a little blured in my memory)

mikemac · 27-02-2009 10:44pm

I've done the B car test and A motorcycle test and hand signals were covered in both.

The tester asks you a few of them in the test centre before ye head out driving. You'd be asked a few for sure so you it's something you need. to study. If you don't know them it'll count as a fault and they are in the ROTR book so no excuse for not knowing them on test day

jlang · 27-02-2009 11:17pm

Hand signals that you give as a driver to a pointsman or other car drivers are covered. Recognising signals that might be given by cyclists is not tested in the car test (AFAICR).

me_right_one · 28-02-2009 7:37am

Certain hand signals are not covered in ANY book

blorg · 28-02-2009 8:37am

Whether it is specifically in the test or not I cannot accept that a cyclist with their arm stuck out is in any way ambiguous. They know what you mean, they just choose to ignore you.

SerialComplaint · 28-02-2009 1:44pm

I often experience a variation of this on the roads on my commute that have speed bumps, where the driver speeds up to get past me on the gap between the bumps, and then pulls in and slows for the next bump, forcing me to slow down to avoid them. Often, I catch up on the car in traffic within a few seconds and have a few words to let the driver know what they've done. There is a specific offence about overtaking causing inconvenience to another road user, but I haven't got down this road - yet.....

Raam · 28-02-2009 11:09pm

SerialComplaint wrote: »

I often experience a variation of this on the roads on my commute that have speed bumps, where the driver speeds up to get past me on the gap between the bumps, and then pulls in and slows for the next bump, forcing me to slow down to avoid them.

I get this a bit on a short stretch of ramps on a part of my commute. It's on a downhill section so it's not like I'm hanging about. I think some drivers feel compelled to overtake a cyclist at all opportunities.

Cars overtaking while you're in the middle of the lane

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