What have people got against cyclists?

[LEE]

Can you actually point to an example of how an out group has been received better by ingratiating itself with the majority group?

The whole point is the majority expect people to change to be like them. There is no expectation of compromise.

We got our fingers burned the last time we tried to help minorities.

You won't find a better example of the majority trying to build a bridge to a minority than the Black & White Minstrel Show.

I mean you bend over backwards sometimes but did they thank us?  No. "Offensive" apparently.

And what about Lesbians?  I only asked if I could watch for ten minutes!!

Last time I try to "understand" people.

[Kim]

I'm not a fan of filtering either (don't get much practice out here), though I can see the appeal of being on the left. On the right if you don't time it right yu can get stranded a line of cars accelerating past you on either side.

I am a fan of filtering, tbh there's not much choice unless you want an 18k commute to take 2 hours. I always prefer filtering on the right, it just seems to work out better. It helps when you can out accelerate a lot of cars as they make that pause between first and second gear, but as others have said its really about picking your gap in advance, mobile phone users create plenty of them.

Agreed about spotting the gap in advance, assuming there is one.

Like most things vehicular cycling, it's not so good when you can't out-accelerate cars (hence I pretty much never filter if I've got a heavy load).  And do you really want to be in front of a driver who's using a mobile phone?

[Si_Co]

<snip> And do you really want to be in front of a driver who's using a mobile phone?

IME its endemic^*, so I guess I might as well get some benefit from it

* to such an extent that last night I saw a woman driving repeatedly round the 70% empty car park of Evans holding her phone to her ear while she waited for her friend to finish work 

[caerau]

Wow, I seem to have sidetracked the conversation nicely.
 I can quite easily keep up with traffic usually and am pretty confident in it.  I almost never filter to the left.  I guess that's just me though.

[Veloman]

Interestingly (or not!) the only way to legally enter an advanced stop box for cyclist without stopping is on the left hand side of the traffic.

[caerau]

?  Surely it's legal for a cyclist to ride on whichever part of a lane they choose.  How is it illegal to enter it from the right hand side of a vehicle?

[hatler]

It's illegal to enter the ASL over an unbroken white line (when the light is red). The idea is that the 2' of dotted line to the left is the only legal way to get in

[hatler]

Nonsense, of course.

[Si_Co]

Interestingly (or not!) the only way to legally enter an advanced stop box for cyclist without stopping is on the left hand side of the traffic.

Actually in Manchester its impossible to enter 90% of them legally because the first stop line runs across the whole lane

[jsabine]

VM's post should include "when the lights are red" - the stop line at the start of the box applies to bikes just as much as it does to motor vehicles, so legally cyclists are supposed to enter it through the dotted entry lane. Normally that's in the gutter, though there are some junctions where there's a central feeder (and inevitably, there are some without one at all, which it's therefore technically illegal to use for their intended purpose).

(Crossed with hatler and Si, inevitably ...)

[caerau]

Ah, didn't know that, thanks, I shall continue to be oblivious

[spindrift]

Angela Epstein's pouring petrol on the fire in today's Torygraph. No linkie cos it's just stupid.

(She ghost writ Mr Loophole's book)

[Regulator]

VM's post should include "when the lights are red" - the stop line at the start of the box applies to bikes just as much as it does to motor vehicles, so legally cyclists are supposed to enter it through the dotted entry lane. Normally that's in the gutter, though there are some junctions where there's a central feeder (and inevitably, there are some without one at all, which it's therefore technically illegal to use for their intended purpose).

(Crossed with hatler and Si, inevitably ...)

IIRC that anomaly no longer exists.  The Gubbermint changed the rules and an entry lane is no longer required.

[jsabine]

That rings vague bells, now you've prompted me.

[contango]

Relating the original question to this stuff, one thing British people tend to hate is queue jumpers. It's in our psyche. If you thread your way around standing traffic then plonk yourself in front of the centre of the bonnet of a car whose driver has been waiting for a while, you will not be greeted with warmth and affection. Brits, for better or worse, hate someone pushing in, regardless of vehicle type.

IN theory I'd agree with you but in practise I've often had cars move to one side when they are stuck in stationary traffic so I can get through. That's happened far more frequently than the very rare motorists who seems to think the best approach is to move left to stop me getting past, only to then appear even more irate when I just go around the other side.

Where filtering is concerned it's much like anything else on the road where there's really no single correct answer. To me the advantage of filtering is that it means I get through the lights in one cycle, rather than necessarily getting right to the front of the queue. There's really not much point weaving to the front of the queue if all it means is that as soon as the light turns green I've got a dozen cars trying to overtake me again, on a narrow road. I know it would be nice if people did leave enough journey time to absorb a bit of delay but there's a time and a place for making a stand on things like that, and when I'm the squidgy bag of bones in front of their two-tonne metal box generally isn't it. Even if it's 100% their fault if we collide, and it's confirmed by witnesses and they get the book thrown at them in court, that isn't going to help whatever's left of me to get on with life.

This reaction is (I hope) more muted where there is an advanced stop line for cyclists, since that is where we are supposed to be.

Ah, I think you've got that bit wrong. The advanced stop line is intended for drivers of Audi Q7s, so they can save a few nanoseconds when the lights turn green. You can tell the ones who are sufficiently important to save a few more nanoseconds because they stop slightly further forward still.

[P Walsh]

I stand corrected on the subject of Audi Q7s. It all makes sense now you put it that way.

[caerau]

It's reserved for buses, taxis, police cars, ambulances in Cardiff.


Or it just what I originally thought that the big red/orange box is a prize special place to park in when you arrive at the traffic lights first?

[arabella]

Sligtly OT.  I was chatting to a bloke at the greengrocer's while we waited for the rain to stop.  He mentioned cyclists cycling 2 abreast so I was able to educate him on that being OK according to the highway code (apparently he thought it was forbidden).  I also pointed out that 2 cyclists abreast take less time to pass than 2 cyclists in singe file.  I threw in the fact that any overtaking manoeuvre shoul assume that it was overtaking a car-width objct and explained why.
I was also able to point out that the wannabe Bradley Wigginses were ikely to be the same people as the wanna be Jensen Buttons, but it was better for the rest of us that they stuck to being Braley.
Fortunately for him the rain stopt before I could move on to point out that the reaction required on coming round a blind bend and seeing 2 cyclists was no different to that for coming round a blind bend and seeing a motor car.