CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

Embarrassingly simple lesson for drivers

(11 posts)
  • Started 12 years ago by spytfire
  • Latest reply from lastuphill

  1. spytfire
    Member

    I was out for a drive last night (no I was not topping up my tank)
    As I drove and was passing cyclists I had a good hard think.
    Is there an easy way to tell how much room I have in the lane to know how far out I can be?
    Then the thought struck me - the white line in the road is where I want to be keeping my driver side wing mirror within. If I know where my mirror is in relation to the white lines I will know the line to take to leave as much space at all times so I lined the car up on a parking space white line (nice and long, no moving traffic. Noted where the line was along the bottom of the windscreen and looked out the window, repositioned car until I found the sweet spot (somewhere halfway between the edge of the wiper and the corner of the screen)
    Now this will work for any driver in any car (obviously taking into account driver/seat height/position and different srivers in the same car) and could be easily marked on the screen with a tiny bit of tape (maybe one colour for each driver's setup)

    Once drivers know this position on the road they can leave as much space as possible for cyclists when passing them or being passed when cyclist filtering

    Posted 12 years ago #

  2. amir
    Member

    Many drivers seem to use the left hand side alone as a guide for positioning. This does have a benefit as their tyres help to sweep the area where cyclists generally go.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  3. Roibeard
    Member

    I'd advocate putting the tape on the nearside window, lining up with the lane division - surely one wouldn't attempt to overtake a motorised vehicle whilst staying in your current lane...

    :-p

    Seriously though, I understand that you were thinking of keeping as far out of on-road cycle lanes as possible, yet the nearside option works where there aren't cycle lanes and you're giving the cyclist the same overtaking space as any other vehicle...

    Incidentally, I did something similar on the rear window to ace my "reversing into a minor road" manoeuvre during my driving tests - yes, tests is indeed plural...

    Robert

    Posted 12 years ago #

  4. spytfire
    Member

    @Roibeard - Just claim reversing is against your religion...
    Also helps that you then can't go shopping if there isn't a double space you can drive in and out of the other side...
    If you get stuck in a dead end street though you will have to sell the car and buy another one.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  5. Roibeard
    Member

    @Spytfire - LOL

    'Tis the advantage of bicycles - few have reverse!

    Robert

    Posted 12 years ago #

  6. Uberuce
    Member

    You've been on one, mind.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  7. Roibeard
    Member

    @Uberuce - I could barely manage forward on that one!

    Definitely felt there was some question as to whether I was controlling the bike, or it was controlling me...

    ;-)

    Robert

    Posted 12 years ago #

  8. LivM
    Member

    My driving instructor pointed out the "line up with the centre white line not the edge of the road white line" trick to me, when she realised that the narrowing and widening of a road meant I was wobbling all over the place. So I would line up where the centre white line is meant to be in relation to my windscreen/wipers, and sorted out the problem.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  9. Uberuce
    Member

    @Roibeard Oh, please. Your Pino scares me more than my wee cute blue floofy bike could ever scare you.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  10. Nelly
    Member

    Police advanced drivers are taught to line up on middle of road, not left - same reasons as us taking primary, door openers and peds stepping into road. Plus it gives a better view of whats coming toward you.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  11. lastuphill
    Member

    Sometimes 'as much space as possible' is not enough. If you use this method of positioning your vehicle when passing cyclists, there is no guarantee that enough room has been left. This method assumes that every road you drive on would be of a minimum width.

    Surely more important to be spacially aware and realise if you are giving a cyclist enough space or not. If you can not do so then slow down and wait until you can use the other side of the road to pass. You are, after all allowed to cross the centre white line (unless a solid line, when soecific conditions apply).

    Just moving to the right most side of your lane autimatically, without thinking about the variables involved, in my opinion, is fraught with all sorts of problems.

    Posted 12 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.


Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin