Taking the lane

John_Rambo

Hello cyclists. I'm a sporadic fair weather commuter cyclists, but essentially a car driver.

I was driving from Howth Yacht Club in Dublin and decided to take the scenic route over the hill and drove along the Harbour Road (coastal road, sea on the left) and came up behind a cyclist cruising along at about 30kph.

Busy day, tourists, kids, dogs... There was room to overtake, but for some reason I decided to hang back. Experience, intuition, not in a rush... I don't know..

There was a cyclist in front of me riding less than a half a metre from the wing mirrors of the parked cars. The car behind me was starting to get close and move out, obviously annoyed at my Sunday driving when a tourist (student) stepped out between two vans (no visual warning) right in front of the cyclist, I mean inches from him, I was amazed the rider avoided him, he had to swerve suddenly to the middle of the lane, if he swerved any harder his tyres would have come off his wheels.

If I had earlier checked my mirrors, indicated, hit the gas and maneuvered the cyclist would have been under my front wheels. No doubt.

100percent I would have hit the cyclist

Food (gel bars) for thought.

Not sure if it was a boardsie on the bike. He seemed fairly unfased by the incident, he certainly wasn't aware that I was behind him (I have a quiet petrol engined car)

In a busy, village, town situation like that (in my opinion) you're better off taking the lane, making it your own and forcing drivers to act and behave accordingly.

I know this has come up again and again on these forums, it's old news, but I thought I'd post anyway. Feel free to repost on the motoring forums.

In the end, I turned right to head up the hill and the cyclist went on towards the East pier.

Just sayen!! Hope you all had a good weekend.:)

arybvtcw0eolkf

Hey Rambo, long time pal.. As you know I'm from out these parts and well, you're right.. But the problem we have out here in summer is a sudden influx of cyclists who aren't seen the rest of the year, plus the DART feeding tourists into the harbour area.. I always allow for the tourist first checking LEFT then RIGHT instead of the Irish/UK way of RIGHT/LEFT.

Bearing that in mind I'll sit out a little into the lane and the car/motorcycle users be damned.

How have you been, hope you've been good and are you still wind surfing in Portmarnock these days?.

iwillhtfu

Just to pick up on your slowing and waiting for a safer time to pass. The wife was recently in a situation where she came upon a couple of cyclists on a winding country road. Her being local new it straightened out about 500m ahead so decided to wait to pass till then.

Low and behold a few hundred metres later one of the lads veered into the middle of the road and stopped forcing her to have to stop albeit in a controlled fashion. The cyclists then began to hurl abuse at her for not passing and saying she was holding up traffic and a number of other expletives. I wish I had been there myself but anyway. I've chalked it up to some cyclists are absolute gob****es unfortunately.

Sometimes you can't win.

neris

Howths a mental case these days. Spend alot of time out there for social & sailing and use it for training on the bike. The pedestrians and tourists are lethal to both bikes and cars especially at the turn off into the harbour. Also opposite beshiffs where they walk out onto the road. Wife nearly hit some day dreamer last weekend on the bike at the waterside who just wandered out onto the road coz they didnt hear a car.

Alek

pedestrians [...] are lethal to [...] cars

I agree with what you are saying, but still I would put these words in slightly different order.

John_Rambo

Nathaniel Lazy Computer wrote: »

How have you been, hope you've been good and are you still wind surfing in Portmarnock these days?.

All good Nathaniel Lazy Computer, still spending lots of time in and on the water!! Kitesurfing now. Hope you're good and still fighting people!

arybvtcw0eolkf

John_Rambo wrote: »

All good Makikomi, still spending lots of time in and on the water!! Kitesurfing now. Hope you're good and still fighting people!

Oh still fighting lol, I fecking well love it. I love looking at the kitesurfers, looking brilliant.

I know its off topic, but I'm often amazing at the speed of the guys ~ whats the fastest speeds you'd be hitting out in the bay?

John_Rambo

Nathaniel Lazy Computer wrote: »

I know its off topic, but I'm often amazing at the speed of the guys ~ whats the fastest speeds you'd be hitting out in the bay?

Me - 35kph, but a friend clocked himself at 63kph recently!

Bit like cycling, the better they are, the faster they go.