On 23 Oct, 13:01, Boltar wrote:
On Oct 23, 12:51 pm, MIG wrote:

On 23 Oct, 11:03, Boltar wrote:

On Oct 23, 10:52 am, MIG wrote:

So that you can get past the junction before they all turn left into
you, or veer towards the kerb etc etc.

Why would they turn left into you if you stay behind them?

Because the queue continues to build up and many of the drivers in it
won't have seen you. *Or do you suggest scooting backwards till you
are at the back of any possible queue?

Err no, you act like any other vehicle and stand in the middle of the
lane so cars can't pass you while in the queue or head up the right
hand side to the end of the queue then sit at the head of it so
everyone has seen you including the vehicles at the front.

Let me just explain what really happens, day after day, junction after
junction.

You are cycling along a reasonably wide road, keeping left (not in the
gutter) and motorised traffic is overtaking you at, say, 30 mph on
your right. Let's assume that there are no parked cars. In that
situation you are effectively in your own lane.

At the approach to a junction, the traffic to your right slows down,
and the gaps between vehicles decrease until there is an impregnable
queue to your right. In nearly all cases, you continue in your own
lane to the front of the queue and there will be enough space to do
so.

To be in the middle of the lane that cars were using you would have to
have either been restricting all traffic on the road to the speed of a
bicycle or else effectively changed lane by veering into the narrowing
gap between moving vehicles at a point when you judged that they were
slowing sufficiently. I think that would be reckless behaviour.

In a narrow country lane, you might well be in the same lane as the
cars in the way that you describe, but this is rarely the case in main
roads in towns.

This will probably attract more abuse from those who believe that
bicycles should be driven as if they are cars and take up the same
road positions as cars, but in the real world I'm afraid that we don't
have the same performance characteristics and have to recognise our
limitations.