cycling on the roads

[Tallpaul]

Something i find slightly disconcerting are parents who tow their children behind their bikes in those little two wheeled things...

Accidents happen and surely the child is completely exposed? :?

 

[Lysander]

I cycle loads on't road, but avoid A roads and such like t'plague- aside from safety and increased chance accidents, just the noise pisses me off. Makes planning out a route more fun too.........

 

[retrojon]

Having only started cycling again in the last 6 months, after 15 years of not riding, I found the roads far busier and aggressive than I remembered.

I used to commute by bike in all weather, at night etc. Through the busiest roads in London, slipstreaming buses, cement mixers....

Now I'm just riding in the suburbs and the countryside. It took a couple of months to get anywhere near comfortable on road again.

 

[REKIBorter]

Eye contact, confidence and defensive positioning, thats what its all about

Yup, agree with that. Own the road, show them who's in charge.

I take a group roady ride from work out most weeks, I had real trouble finding routes that avoid busy main / fast rural roads. And, this is in rural Hertfordshire.

 

[mojo]

Friday and Saturday nights seem to be the worst (well, at least as bad as rush hour) - I was going to go for a quick 60k mainly on-road tonight, thought better of it and will probably go out early (early!) doors tomorrow, ie dawn, so I can have the roads to myself without kamikaze taxi drivers, 17 year old chavs in their Halfords-ised Puntos and Corsas or drunken idiots every 200 yards.

 

[Harryburgundy]

No problem riding on the road, quite like it. London cycle courier 15 years ago (blimey...where did those years go :shock: ) so I guess that was my baptism of fire. Great job

 

[Russell]

Time for a Highway Code refresher? Riding two abreast is allowed.

Thats not true... the highway code says

"never ride more than two abreast, and ride in single file on narrow or busy roads and when riding round bends"

refresher over

Explicitly, riding two abreast is allowed. You clipped "You should" from the part you quoted. "You should ... never ride more than two abreast"

The Highway Code uses YOU MUST where a law applies, otherwise it only gives advice. So while there are times when one should ride single file, it's always allowed.

:roll: ho hum, I'm not going to argue semantics with you, the fact is that the highway code states that riding two abreast isn't always a sensible option and recommends that in certain circumstances, it isn't done.

 

[one-eyed_jim]

ho hum, I'm not going to argue semantics with you

Words mean things.

the fact is that the highway code states that riding two abreast isn't always a sensible option and recommends that in certain circumstances, it isn't done.

That's true. It's certainly not the same thing as "riding two abreast isn't allowed". Words mean things.

 

[one-eyed_jim]

London cycle courier 15 years ago

Same here. Who did you work for? I was K36 at Moving Parcels, then W1.

 

[Harryburgundy]

London cycle courier 15 years ago

Same here. Who did you work for? I was K36 at Moving Parcels, then W1.

L27 and at the moment the name of the courier firm escapes me...small outfit....darn...my memory is shite
Remember my first day....completely knackered, then I get a job last thing from Canonbury Villas (Greenpeace) to Chiswick.....think they were testing my tenacity....bar stewards