@Stephan - serious question this time...
Why would contraflow cycling be more dangerous than cycling in any narrow street where oncoming cars can't pass? Or am I thinking too continental now?
On the continent, if you met an oncoming driver on a two-way, single track road, with passing places, would they force a cyclist to dismount/go offroad so that the driver could pass rather than using the passing place on the driver's side?
This happens in Edinburgh.
Now if the driver perceives the cyclist is "going the wrong way" (regardless of legality), how would the driver react on the continent?
I'm guessing that here the driver will force the cyclist off the road, based on my experience, possibly "safely", or possibly through force or causing fear.
In and around the Inch, drivers overtaking parked cars (hence on the wrong side of the road) often expect cyclists to vanish, take to the footway, dismount, or even cross the road in front of the driver to use an offside passing place rather than the driver deviate from their path.
For such reasons, even if driver behaviour is different on the continent, I'd like to have:
1) the tissue of protection offered by oncoming drivers being told, and repeatedly reminded, that cyclists may use the road against the flow of motorised traffic.
2) sufficient width to permit safe passing of oncoming drivers, travelling at the speed limit.
The alternative to 2 is to play chicken with the driver until they stop, then move round their stationary vehicle.
That's my family's approach, but it requires much more assertiveness (and a thick skin for the subsequent abuse) than the average UK resident cares to exercise!
Robert