Tuesday 3 December 2013

The "anti-unsafe-pass wobble"


That's what I call it anyway. Not something I like to do every day.

Today, cycling with my daughter in front of me (in much the same situation as is shown in the image above), a car was approaching and pretty clearly moving to overtake, but way too closely even though there was an open lane to the left. In a situation like this, controlling the lane doesn't do the trick - he's hell-bent on leaving us a few inches. Sure, if he does it, I have room to move right, but I don't want him to make me do that, and my daughter may not have seen him.

So before he gets too close I do a quick 2ft jink left - just enough to make him think twice. I've found that if I do this, motorists either give me a lot more room or they slow down and stay behind me. Today, the latter is what happened.

Not sure if it's accepted procedure among the vehicular cycling cognoscenti, but I find it works and is safer than letting them pass too closely.