[Travel] Close pass

[Stat Brother]

I wouldn't normally bother with this because it's a daily occurrence, but I think the footage does a better job than most to show just how terrifying it is when a driver decides to use his car as a weapon.

[tweet]1206544268309016576[/tweet]


The last close pass I received was 05:45am on a Monday morning in October.
Fortunately I was ready for it as the driver in question had his hand on the horn for the previous 5 seconds

There was nothing coming the other way, but he objected to my being in the road when next to a cycle path which abruptly stops 100 yards further up the road.

 

[Worried Man Blues]

I wouldn't normally bother with this because it's a daily occurrence, but I think the footage does a better job than most to show just how terrifying it is when a driver decides to use his car as a weapon.

[tweet]1206544268309016576[/tweet]


The last close pass I received was 05:45am on a Monday morning in October.
Fortunately I was ready for it as the driver in question had his hand on the horn for the previous 5 seconds

There was nothing coming the other way, but he objected to my being in the road when next to a cycle path which abruptly stops 100 yards further up the road.

Why weren't you on the cycle path then?

 

[Uncle C]

Yeh, get on the bloody cycle path.

 

[mune ni kamome]

Surely the answer is to keep an old fashioned tin opener or similar piece of metal handy to reward and discourage this sort of behaviour

 

[Stat Brother]

Why weren't you on the cycle path then?

Because the path in question ends at the River Arun.
It just stops.
It doesn't become a regular path, it ends at a muddy hedgerow.

This happens to be 100 yards away from a busy 4 exit roundabout.

So were I to be on the cycle path, I need to:-

- Stop
- Get off my bike.
- Place my bike in the road.
- Start riding
- Cross 2 lanes of traffic
- While getting up to roundabout speed.

Also as I'm a confident, safe, law abiding cyclist don't need to be on a not fit for purpose cycle path.

Were the job to have been done correctly I would have been on the path, as I always was all the way through to Bognor.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

Because the path in question ends at the River Arun.
It just stops.
It doesn't become a regular path, it ends at a muddy hedgerow.

This happens to be 100 yards away from a busy 4 exit roundabout.



So were I to be on the cycle path, I need to:-

- Stop
- Get off my bike.
- Place my bike in the road.
- Start riding
- Cross 2 lanes of traffic
- While getting up to roundabout speed.

Also as I'm a confident, safe, law abiding cyclist don't need to be on a not fit for purpose cycle path.

Were the job to have been done correctly I would have been on the path, as I always was all the way through to Bognor.

Come on Cyclist you know the solution that will unite everyone.

Cycling off-road ticks many boxes:

1) You breath fresh air, rather than carbon monoxide
2) No pedestrians for you to run over
3) No red lights for you to jump
4) No blood pressures are raised
5) You get cold mud to soothe your inflamed piles
6) and it's a million times more fun

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

Because the path in question ends at the River Arun.
It just stops.
It doesn't become a regular path, it ends at a muddy hedgerow.

This happens to be 100 yards away from a busy 4 exit roundabout.

So were I to be on the cycle path, I need to:-

- Stop
- Get off my bike.
- Place my bike in the road.
- Start riding
- Cross 2 lanes of traffic
- While getting up to roundabout speed.

Also as I'm a confident, safe, law abiding cyclist don't need to be on a not fit for purpose cycle path.

Were the job to have been done correctly I would have been on the path, as I always was all the way through to Bognor.

One area that does annoy me is the new by-pass at Felpham, which pops out near Bognor Maccies, there are good cycle paths there yet still many stay on the road, more for their own safety than anything I'd rather they used the paths.

 

[Worried Man Blues]

Because the path in question ends at the River Arun.
It just stops.
It doesn't become a regular path, it ends at a muddy hedgerow.

This happens to be 100 yards away from a busy 4 exit roundabout.

So were I to be on the cycle path, I need to:-

- Stop
- Get off my bike.
- Place my bike in the road.
- Start riding
- Cross 2 lanes of traffic
- While getting up to roundabout speed.

Also as I'm a confident, safe, law abiding cyclist don't need to be on a not fit for purpose cycle path.

Were the job to have been done correctly I would have been on the path, as I always was all the way through to Bognor.

As a regular cyclist I know the fallibility of cycle lanes but it does wind up drivers who see cyclists not using their dedicated lanes. There is lane near me that just stops for 100 yards and it's like open season on cyclists then the lane starts again, purely due to the road not being wide enough which is exactly where cyclists need most protection. Stay safe.

 

[Bold Seagull]

5 penalty points effecting future insurance premiums, £540 fine and costs. That is an expensive rant.

Some of the cycle lanes put down by local authorities so they can tick a box in their funding spreadsheet are an absolute joke. Honestly, they just take the piss.

Car drivers are just increasingly frustrated they can't get anywhere fast, and frankly cyclists aren't the fault of that. At some point we will realise that population growth with increased car use can't work. Well, we're at that point now, but some people still want to reduce or frustrate cycling rather than encourage it, so that conversely they'll be likely more traffic on the road, less parking spaces....yes, you're idiots, in case you were wondering.

 

[Stat Brother]

One area that does annoy me is the new by-pass at Felpham, which pops out near Bognor Maccies, there are good cycle paths there yet still many stay on the road, more for their own safety than anything I'd rather they used the paths.

I'm not sure how you'd get round it.

I work in Chichester and cycle the 13 miles, through there, albeit at stooopid oclock in the morning.

I path from Clymping to Felpham.
I would path if it was a 'normal' time onto McD's, but then it all gets a bit sketchy.

To go to Chi you have to cross 4 lanes of busy traffic for a 100 yards until crossing the road again just past Halfords.

To go to Bognor there's no cycle provision from the cycle path until a 1/4 mile past McD's.

There's a cycle path that runs parallel with the A259 onto Chi by the garages but that's just one giant overgrown pothole.


If I finish work at a 'normal' time I ride home one road back through the 6 villages and it is ALWAYS quicker than driving on the A259, and considerably safer, even though I'm on the road for the whole journey.

 

[TimWatt]

Quite frankly, anyone who cycles regularly near Chichester, especially A27, deserves a medal in my book...

WSCC are criminally negligent when it comes to cycle safety, and most cycle paths they grudgingly provide are unusable.

 

[CheeseRolls]

I past my angry motorist exam recently and have obtained my insurance exemption. Am I now legitimately entitled to get angry at other road users, who don't meet my standards? I would really appreciate some etiquette tips from experienced angry roadsters, as I don't want to appear a complete tit.

 

[B-right-on]

You can see that the bike is in the middle of the road before the rant. He goes over the arrow in the middle of the road. Winds the driver up and then complains he gets a rant. No excuse for the rant. But the wind up before is not mentioned.

 

[Notters]

I thought this was about this:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...ramid-vh5-2019-nasa-earth-space-a9237091.html

I've been hit twice and come off once as a result of people driving too close to me.

 

[portlock seagull]

I just don’t understand why people don’t give cyclists a big swerve - terrifies me the thought I could accidentally kill someone on a bike never mind deliberately! That driver ought to be ashamed. No excuse.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

As a regular cyclist I know the fallibility of cycle lanes but it does wind up drivers who see cyclists not using their dedicated lanes. There is lane near me that just stops for 100 yards and it's like open season on cyclists then the lane starts again, purely due to the road not being wide enough which is exactly where cyclists need most protection. Stay safe.

This illustrates a typical British incoherence. First question, where does it say in the law or indeed anywhere that cyclists must use the cycle lane? The answer is nowhere.

Second, nevertheless when I drive a car and there is a cycle lane I expect cyclists to use it and not get in my way on the main highway.

The solution would be to ensure that cycle lanes don't just abruptly stop (plenty round my way like this - I never use them), and to ensure the are maintained (we have some round here that become completely bloked by outgrowths of bramble, stinging nettles etc., not to mention he potholes, and pedestrians wandering along them). Mind you the authority haven't trimmed the outgrowths of shite on my actual road this year, which is dangerous for cars as well as bikes. The new policy on highway maintenance appears to be 'do nothing until there is a serious accident'.

Incidentally, the state of the bridge over Faversham creek....a three day job to inspect it has turned into a month, with repairs apparently needed and a squabble over who should pay, and no sign of it being reopened. So now we have hours of gridlock with traffic diverted up by Bob Geldorf's big house, and traffic lights that are not synchronized so cars are meeting cars head on on a narrow street. The solution seems to be to knock down a big old brick wall and extend the road into the allotment. You have never seen such a bloody shambles.

 

[Arthritic Toe]

So now we have hours of gridlock with traffic diverted up by Bob Geldorf's big house, and traffic lights that are not synchronized so cars are meeting cars head on on a narrow street. The solution seems to be to knock down a big old brick wall and extend the road into the allotment. You have never seen such a bloody shambles.

Its a rat-run - and you've been caught.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Its a rat-run - and you've been caught.

Brilliant

 

[CheeseRolls]

You can see that the bike is in the middle of the road before the rant. He goes over the arrow in the middle of the road. Winds the driver up and then complains he gets a rant. No excuse for the rant. But the wind up before is not mentioned.

Is this when the cyclist moves out, as there is a junction on the left ? Was he supposed to hug the stop line and hope any cars approaching stopped BEFORE the line?

 

[Deleted member 2719]

I'm not sure how you'd get round it.


To go to Chi you have to cross 4 lanes of busy traffic for a 100 yards until crossing the road again just past Halfords.

Are you talking about Halford autocentre?

If so, isn't there a bridge crossing the A27 from Runcton rd?