Richard J. wrote in
:
Colin Rosenstiel wrote:
In article ,
(Richard J.) wrote:
... or the drivers didn't have the nearside mirror properly adjusted.
The mirror check should be done *before* starting to turn; the
articulation of the lorry (or bendy bus) is not relevant.
If the cyclists were riding responsibly, they shouldn't even have been in a
position where the driver of the bus *needed* to check his left-hand mirror
before turning left. The rule is simple: never never even begin to overtake
a vehicle that is indicating to turn towards you. On the approach to a
junction, assume that any vehicle in front of you might be planning to turn
left or that you may not have seen his indicator, so don't overtake near
junctions.
The Highway Code lists "near junctions" as being one of the places not to
overtake a vehicle on the right; it should really extend this to prohibiting
cyclists from overtaking on the left near a junction. Unfortunately many
marked bike lanes extend right up to the junction (eg traffic lights) and so
are seen to be encouraging rather than prohibiting such an action.
Half the problem is that bikes (both pedal and motor) try to take advantage
of their narrow width to get right to the front of a queue of traffic,
rather than waiting their turn like everyone else. And I say that from the
perspective of a cyclist as well as a driver - when I'm on my bike I always
resist the temptation to overtake cars on the left near junctions, because
as a driver I'm aware of how dangerous it can be.