Under the new editor - we seem to be getting more informed and well written pieces as to safety led techniques
- and notably
- Richard Peace (who has published a decent guide to some of the best tried and tested scenic suggestions for those all imnportant leisure excursions as well as articles of a similarly informed standard in the Mad Doc's fave cycling rag "Enjoy Your Bike!" :lol) has added to Neil Pedoe's piece last month by looking at road positioning.
Now .. Richard Peace is not saying anything different to what has been posted up on this site by the collective
and myself on this site.
Richard is looking at the hard and fast rules following Dr Ian Walker's findings..some of which . yet to be peer reviewed properly
Richard Peace discusses when to use primary and secondary positioning and indeed - there is, in my opinion, an excellent illustration of how these two positions affect another road user .. with one allowing a safe overtake and the other slowing the traffic
(Not my words .. these appear in the diagram which I could scan - but am mindful of the mag's need to sell a magazine and think this issue worth buying for reference anyway as tons of really useful stuff throughout this month
-
Just to make things plain - we (as in Swiss family and also including the posting collective on the motoring boards and our host, Paul, on this board ) are no enemy of Cycling Plus the magazine nor its publisher and we are all very much safety led and wish to promote enjoyment and skills for all on our roads. There are issues over lack of moderation on the chatroom - and pieces such as these do help distance the publisher from the nutcases it has severe difficulty in purging from its chatroom forum.
)
Richard describes the primary as being in the centre of the most left hand lane on a multi-lane road and the secondary as aroiund a metre to the left of moving traffic bu not more than half a metre from the kerb of the road.
I think Mad Doc posted up an extract from Cycle Craft which advises the same technique. We cyclists do need some space to protect ourselves from road debris which accumulates to the gutter. I did note that the A14 seems to have a cycle lane icon between the grass and the carriage edge lines
I did not notice any cyclists on this road though as I travelled its length from Cambridge to the M1. Phew!
As Richard states - no mention of these positions in the Highway Code - and I agree that they should be
After all.. not everyone reads Cycle Craft or Cycling magazines such as CW and C+. We do.. but then we are lovers of anything on wheels anyway
As with driving - choice of positioning really relies on the COAST skills. Primary position maximises safety and should be used in heavy traffic and the approach to junctions and secondary used for normal riding.. However, if the secondary position compromises your safety and you NEED to BE SEEN AND PROMINENTLY in the face of those in more powerful vehicles.. then you should not be timid - and you should adopt a a primary position on the road.
But - choice of position and safe handling and negotiation with the other road users does depend on COAST/Common Sense skills in any given situation
There is a lot in this article .. so I will chunk it down
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
Members
