Re:Things people blamed on bicycles
by ndsipa_pomu on Wednesday August 24, 2022 @05:33AM
(#32576981)
The problem is that drivers don't seem to understand that they need to leave enough room so that they don't just drive over the cyclist if they lose control due to a pothole or similar
Are you implying I don't know that? I'm always at least partially in the second lane when I pass them. IIRC the recommendation is a metre and a half of space which is what I go for.
It's still a lot easier than passing a tractor.
This is some seriously counterproductive absolutism, and I cycle everyday and don't own a car.
It's literally the guidance that every police force in the UK work to, you need to leave a space of 1.5 metres between your car and the cyclist when overtaking at 30mph. It might be that our road lanes are narrower than yours of course.
See https://www.northants.police.uk/police-forces/northamptonshi...
It’s the same in Germany.
Also, cyclists have to keep roughly the same distance from parked cars (“reasonable distance”, OLG Düsseldorf ruled 2018 that this means 1.5 meters from parked cars or 80 cm from a curb if there are no cars).
With those two rules combined, in most city streets bicyclists require a full lane.
A safety rule every cyclist understands after a close call or two. Don't ride too close to the curb and especially not if there are cars parked. Very nice you have that codified in law.
Re:Things people blamed on bicycles
by machinawhite on Wednesday August 24, 2022 @05:23AM
(#32576900)
Yeah I've had a police car leave a space of maybe 1.5cm between me and their VW transporter. They don't care either
The police are just people. They employ some bad drivers, just like they employ some bad people.
It's the law in Britain: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-43146515
But in traffic and the laws lane usage is binary. There is no such thing as half lanes, you cannot use the second lane "a little". You either need it, or you don't.
So overtaking a bicycle, a motorbike, a pedestrian on the road or a tractor, etc. it is all the same.
What I'm trying to say is, where I live people forget that all the time, and then they think they can "squeeze by", endangering cyclists, motorcyclists and most of all the opposing traffic. I see this multiple times a week in the summer.