Cycling on the wrong side of the road ....

Hamsterchops

I have noticed many cyclists in recent times cycling towards the flow of traffic on the wrong side of the road (in cycle lanes)!

Have had several smart words exchanged too + a few rude gestures, as I have correctly cycled in the left hand cycle lane only to be met by cyclists coming in the opposite direction towards me > against the flow of traffic :cool:

Obviously people have always done this to a degree, but it seems to have accelerated in the last few years.

Why?

magicbastarder

because some cyclists do silly things.

ted1

Hamsterchops wrote: »

I have noticed many cyclists in recent times cycling towards the flow of traffic on the wrong side of the road (in cycle lanes)!

Have had several smart words exchanged too + a few rude gestures, as I have correctly cycled in the left hand cycle lane only to be met by cyclists coming in the opposite direction towards me > against the flow of traffic :cool:

Obviously people have always done this to a degree, but it seems to have accelerated in the last few years.

Why?

Are they on road or off road ?

Hamsterchops

They're in the cycle lane coming towards me!
It's usually a case of who blinks first as to who gives way. Crazy stuff if you ask me, but as I say it seems to be more prevalent recently.

smacl

Commonly referred to as salmon. As in they swim against the current although pink coloured road surfaces also seem to attract them.

is_that_so

Aren't there some cycle lanes which allow cyclists to go "against" the traffic?

cdaly_

is_that_so wrote: »

Aren't there some cycle lanes which allow cyclists to go "against" the traffic?

There are but a 'contraflow' cycle lane is often (hardly always?) physically segregated from the other lanes.

cdaly_

I suppose the correct response is to stop, occupying the entirety of the cycle lane and wait for the 'salmon' to go around you.

Lumen

I normally just direct a torrent of abuse at them, in the hope that enough people do it and that changes their behaviour.

It's not ideal.

ted1

is_that_so wrote: »

Aren't there some cycle lanes which allow cyclists to go "against" the traffic?

Off road paths don’t legally have a direction.

Amirani

There are some off-road cycle lanes about that are bi-directional where one direct stops abruptly and reappears shortly after on the other side of the road. Fairly understandable in these sometimes, it's terrible infrastructure design.

Cycling the wrong way on an on-road cycle lane is ridiculously stupid though.

ED E

ted1 wrote: »

Off road paths don’t legally have a direction.

Keep left applies.

Fighting Tao

I find that it’s normally the the food delivery types that do it.

Crippens1

Sometimes (a lot of the time ?) it is the lane layout that is absolutely confusing. In the link below there are two cycles lanes but the inner one (going towards UCD/city centre) just ends on a footpath. Here, mostly, cyclists then take the remaining cycle lane to continue.


https://www.google.com/maps/@53.303388,-6.2081895,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sGoTo3GtXeEoAS-wu-TJn8g!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Wishbone Ash

I see it regularly but, for reasons unknown, it's always inbound on an outbound lane.

Grassey

Crippens1 wrote:

Sometimes (a lot of the time ?) it is the lane layout that is absolutely confusing. In the link below there are two cycles lanes but the inner one (going towards UCD/city centre) just ends on a footpath. Here, mostly, cyclists then take the remaining cycle lane to continue.

Probably just copying the joggers who use it contra flow. {fist shaking bane of my old commute route}

magicbastarder

Grassey wrote: »

{fist shaking bane of my old commute route}

jaysus, if i saw him on the bike i'd find a different route.

Crippens1

magicbastarder wrote: »

jaysus, if i saw him on the bike i'd find a different route.

Looks like Paris-Roubaix on a rainy day.


I guess he didn't make the calculation !


(or however that's spelt in Carrick-on-Suir)

fryup

american students?

they ride against the traffic in the states don't they?

dxhound2005

Driving today I was going to turn right at a junction. I had noticed a cyclist in the wrong lane a bit further back, going very fast. I waited for him to come flying through, ignoring the repeated beeping from the car behind for me to get a move on. I would have wiped the cyclist out, if I had turned.

A couple of weeks back I saw one of them approaching me in the wrong lane. I was approaching a junction on my left and saw there was another cyclist about to come up to that junction to join the main road. I stopped the car a bit back from the junction anticipating what was going to happen. The second cyclist came out from the junction, without checking traffic. Our other friend swerved his bicycle violently into the road to avoid a collision. If I had driven on I would have hit him. It is utter madness to cycle in the wrong lane.

Puggy

As the OP asked, yes I have noticed it more recently, particularly in on road cycle lanes around the Omni. I’m not sure how you could cycle on the road in the wrong direction.
Last summer I was driving home northbound on the R132, just past Independent Pizza, where there is a raised segregated cycle lane. I was stopped in traffic and noticed a guy cycling the wrong way. The guy coming towards him, jumped off his bike to block the other guy. Within seconds a fist fight broke out, two Mamals, kicking and punching each other, on a sunny Friday evening.

I know the guy cycling the wrong way was in the wrong, in my world anyway. But as a casual observer it looked so daft. Two grown men, in Lycra, kick boxing each other.

eeeee

ted1 wrote: »

Off road paths don’t legally have a direction.

Is that true?
I use Chesterfield Avenue on my commute, the whole thing aces the salmon problem is endemic on it. It pisses me off, it's always really wobbly people, that look like they're going to wobble right into ya. It's so easy to cycle on the right side of the road/ path!

Eamonnator

Puggy wrote: »

As the OP asked, yes I have noticed it more recently, particularly in on road cycle lanes around the Omni. I’m not sure how you could cycle on the road in the wrong direction.
Last summer I was driving home northbound on the R132, just past Independent Pizza, where there is a raised segregated cycle lane. I was stopped in traffic and noticed a guy cycling the wrong way. The guy coming towards him, jumped off his bike to block the other guy. Within seconds a fist fight broke out, two Mamals, kicking and punching each other, on a sunny Friday evening.

I know the guy cycling the wrong way was in the wrong, in my world anyway. But as a casual observer it looked so daft. Two grown men, in Lycra, kick boxing each other.

I do hope they were wearing cycling shoes with cleats.

Wishbone Ash

nee wrote: »

.. it's always really wobbly people...

That's my experience of them also - more like pedestrians with bicycles. I've never experienced a Lycra clad cyclist going the wrong way.

triggermortis

I’ve seen it a few times on the R132 near the airport. One guy was riding towards me with a red flashing light on the front of his bike, which took me a while to figure out. Not that easy at 3am after a 12 hour shift!

Wishbone Ash

triggermortis wrote: »

I’ve seen it a few times on the R132 near the airport....

It's rampant along there (seems to usually be airport employees).

Hamsterchops

Crippens1 wrote: »

Sometimes (a lot of the time ?) it is the lane layout that is absolutely confusing. In the link below there are two cycles lanes but the inner one (going towards UCD/city centre) just ends on a footpath.

No confusion in what I'm talking about, one redish-pink cycle lane on the left hand side of the road with a painted bicycle on it > pointing the direction of traffic flow...yet some cyclists cycle against the flow :cool:

Salmon.

Brian

Pretty common on one-way streets on the continent, and seems fair enough. If it's two-way though that's a bit weird.

nak

nee wrote: »

Is that true?
I use Chesterfield Avenue on my commute, the whole thing aces the salmon problem is endemic on it. It pisses me off, it's always really wobbly people, that look like they're going to wobble right into ya. It's so easy to cycle on the right side of the road/ path!

Shouldn't matter what side of the road you're on if cycling on an off-road path. I regularly do it on my commute as one of the paths on the LHS is terrible and ends at a busy junction. Have had a couple of people shout abuse at me even though there is enough space for about 4 bikes.

Cycled in Buenos Aires earlier this year and all the cycle paths are two-way even on one-way streets. Was a pleasure to walk and cycle there, everyone was very courteous.

recedite

The problem arises mostly where there is a dual carriageway or a major road with a central median barrier.

As a cyclist, you can find yourself looking at the shop on the far side you want to go to, and wondering how to get across to it. Or it could be a minor road on the far side you want. The cars are all in the relevant right turn lane, indicating to turn. But to get to that outer lane, you would have to climb over some railings and traverse 2 inner lanes of fast moving traffic.


If you had done the salmon thing from the last major junction/crossing point, you'd be there now, instead of just standing there scratching your head.


So yeah, its a design flaw. Some places should have cycle lanes on both sides, in both directions, or else bi-directional cycle lanes, but they don't.

Hamsterchops

OK, so just to confirm, I'm talking about Ireland where we drive (and cycle) on the left hand side of the road. Not the continent or South America.

I'm talking about a road with a cycle lane on either side of the road, where one expects the cyclists to cycle in the same direction as car traffic on either side of the road, but as I've said, it seems to me that more & more cyclists are cycling on the wrong side of the road, (against the flow) of traffic.

Annoying, and dangerous?

eeeee

nak wrote: »

Shouldn't matter what side of the road you're on if cycling on an off-road path. I regularly do it on my commute as one of the paths on the LHS is terrible and ends at a busy junction. Have had a couple of people shout abuse at me even though there is enough space for about 4 bikes.

Cycled in Buenos Aires earlier this year and all the cycle paths are two-way even on one-way streets. Was a pleasure to walk and cycle there, everyone was very courteous.

I'd say both paths are the same, I don't really see a difference in both tbh and I cycle both (the right way!) every day the whole length of them. I don't cycle in the cycle lane either side from Parkgate Street to the first roundabout as they're in shyte.
I haven't found the left any worse than the right?

recedite

Hamsterchops wrote: »

OK, so just to confirm, I'm talking about Ireland where we drive (and cycle) on the left hand side of the road. Not the continent or South America.

I'm talking about a road with a cycle lane on either side of the road, where one expects the cyclists to cycle in the same direction as car traffic on either side of the road, but as I've said, it seems to me that more & more cyclists are cycling on the wrong side of the road, (against the flow) of traffic.

Annoying, and dangerous?

As mentioned, it depends on how easily they can get across to the far side, or whether they can get across at all when they need to.
In a car, you can easily start indicating any time you want, and move over to the right lane.

nak

nee wrote: »

I'd say both paths are the same, I don't really see a difference in both tbh and I cycle both (the right way!) every day the whole length of them. I don't cycle in the cycle lane either side from Parkgate Street to the first roundabout as they're in shyte.
I haven't found the left any worse than the right?

Sorry, didn't mean that road in particular. My commute is on the other side of the city.

Hamsterchops

recedite wrote: »

As mentioned, it depends on how easily they can get across to the far side, or whether they can get across at all when they need to.
In a car, you can easily start indicating any time you want, and move over to the right lane.

Deep breath, ok again, so let's say there are also several traffic light-pedestrian crossings en-route ...

In other words there is no excuse to be cycling on the wrong side of the road against the flow.....

What more can I say

CapnHex

I've never come across this phenomenon with on road cycle paths. Anywhere that there is a cycle path off road (on pavement), then it happens all the time. Examples are; East Wall Rd towards the bridge to avoid long lights, Old Airport Rd towards Santry to avoid long lights, Clonskea Rd towards the Goat not sure why

CapnHex

I've never come across this phenomenon with on road cycle paths. Anywhere that there is a cycle path off road (on pavement), then it happens all the time. Examples are; East Wall Rd towards the bridge to avoid long lights, Old Airport Rd towards Santry to avoid long lights, Clonskea Rd towards the Goat not sure why. I think it's okay where there are no junctions, but lethal otherwise as drivers often only look for traffic from the right when turning on to a road.

seefin

I don't mind it. On Cork city, there's often only a cycle lane on one side of road . I know how vulnerable you feel as a cyclist so am not going to be bothered if am on cycle lane and meet a cyclist going the wrong way

magicbastarder

Hamsterchops wrote: »

as I've said, it seems to me that more & more cyclists are cycling on the wrong side of the road, (against the flow) of traffic.

Annoying, and dangerous?

mildly irritating and more dangerous than cycling in the correct direction, yes.

Cedrus

I was driving on the N25 last week, 2 Lane Dual Carriageway, Armco barrier and a hedge down the middle. It was going to work time so very busy and suddenly there is a cyclist coming towards me in the right hand lane (his left), there is no hard shoulder on that side of the road, we are all doing 100 kmph.
I can only imagine that he was taking a shortcut across the road but he would only have saved about 200 meters over going up to the flyover.
I don't know if he was drunk, stupid or suicidal but at least the first would wear off.

rubadub

ted1 wrote: »

Off road paths don’t legally have a direction.

nee wrote: »

Is that true?

I also wondered if this is true. If it is then they should not simply have a bike painted on the ground which appears upright to those travelling in the flow of traffic. It should have arrows pointing both ways as a warning. I also still have to hear it confirmed if pedestrians are fully in the right to use cycle tracks, if so they should be called by that name, either officially or whenever somebody talks about "perfectly good cyclelanes"

I can tolerate those doing it who are obviously recognising that they are going the wrong way and get out of your way, even if it is legal they should know they are going the opposite way to 99% of the rest and so give way, I have gotten eejits staying slap in the middle as though you are in the wrong. There was some prick on a giant e scooter who would fly along the wrong way on the N11 slap in the middle of the cycle track expect those going with the flow of traffic to get out of his way.

I am still fearing the day I see or hear about a nasty crash at this spot,
https://goo.gl/maps/z8SBUpp8MeQYwvJEA
due to somebody going the wrong way. It is a blind spot and people can be going at huge speed. Also I have noticed the cool/idiotic people now sit on the mini wall there right before the fence while waiting for the bus.
to make matters worse the lampost is reducing the width of the path and the manhole covers are also adding to the danger. Its like a laughable OTT description/image of what NOT to do when designing such things.

Lumen

Off road cycle tracks MAY be two way, but are not always.

If they are, there must be a broken white line as lane separator and double bike logos, with the orientation of the bicycle indicating direction.

https://www.nationaltransport.ie/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/provision_of_cycling_facilities_ch7_20061.pdf

I challenge anyone to find a better source!