Giving Cyclists Room

Not giving cyclists enough room when overtaking is often cited by cyclists as a major reason that cycling in traffic can be unpleasant.


If my cycle trip down Forest Road is anything to go by, this message is getting through to motorists. 


I was cycling down this part of Forest Road, near Ruby Road

Except when I cycled it yesterday, the parking bays were full of cars as people got their fish and chips. The cycle lane was partially blocked by a wide van. So I cycled in primary to stop being squashed between the parked cars, an overtaking car, and the pedestrian refuge you can just about see in the background.


The car behind me recognised the requirement to give space, so overtook completely on the other carriageway. Past the pedestrian refuge on the wrong side. Such was his concern for my safety to give me space he put his own safety at risk by speeding past the turning on the corner just at the refuge on the wrong side of the road.


We should thank motorists like that for putting our safety concerns above all else. Apart from, obviously, the primary concern of getting in front of a cyclist who would slow them slightly for a few seconds until the road opened up again after the corner.


And probably a special vote of thanks should go to whoever designed this road layout to include a narrow cycle lane right next to parked cars on a busy parking bay and then making the road narrow enough with a pedestrian refuge so that cars encroach on the cycle lane. And then doing this on a blind corner, on a road with an endemic speeding problem, and with a turning thrown in for good measure.


Well done everyone.