Do we need driver education on how to overtake bikes?

[slgeo1]

I've noticed on a few rides recently that cars seem to wait until I'm beside a parked car before they zoom past in a flurry if tire smoke. It'd be really handy if they timed passing for a nice SAFE bit of road and pased in full control of the vehicle.

Does anyone else regularly find that "how to overtake a bike" is lacking from driver education?

-- Sarah

 

[dgregory57]

I've noticed on a few rides recently that cars seem to wait until I'm beside a parked car before they zoom past in a flurry if tire smoke. It'd be really handy if they timed passing for a nice SAFE bit of road and pased in full control of the vehicle.

Does anyone else regularly find that "how to overtake a bike" is lacking from driver education?

-- Sarah

Ironically, I just had a letter to the editor published that addresses a similar issue based on a confrontation last week:

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15026748&BRD=2259&PAG=461&dept_id=456223&rfi=6

In this area there is a billboard campaign to combat teenage drinking that proclaims "Teen drinking is an adult problem" to point out they couldn't drink without adult involvement to get alcohol for them. Maybe a campaign that proclaims "Bicycle safety is a car problem".

 

[ItsikH]

Sad to learn that not only in Israel drivers are abusive and aggressive. 2 months ago, a driver talking on his cellular dropped it on the floor and *bent over* to pick it up while driving at high speed (he was probably overspeeding as well). He ran into a group of cyclers well into the shoulders, wounding three, one of them - a good friend, a devoted cycler and proud grandfather - still in coma. A month ago, a bus ran into an escort car and a cycler on an open, straight road, killing the Israel road champion of 2002. Pictures from a ralleigh in his memory today at
http://www.tan.co.il/gallery.asp?dir=picsgolanzal&title=תמונות מהרכיבה לזכרו של גולן שלמון ז"ל

...and a few days ago a friend of mine got hit by a car cutting him off, luckily with relatively minor injuries.

We are being hunted all year round

 

[artmichalek]

Ironically, I just had a letter to the editor published that addresses a similar issue based on a confrontation last week:

That was well said. Not quite the same scenario, but I almost got tagged by an suv a few days ago.. It was on a city street, so I was out in the middle of the lane about twenty feet back from the car in front of me and keeping pace with traffic. The truck pulled onto the main road from a side street, and it was only instinct and good brakes that kept me from getting a shoulder full of door. The driver was so oblivious to my presence, that despite having his windows rolled down he didn't even turn his head when I yelled at him.

 

[shannons dad]

They do. The fact is most drivers do actually care if they scratch their paintwork through hitting a biker. One or two exeptions though get annoyed when they have to slow down and wait till it's safe to overtake because it means they have to go through the long and dreary process of pressing the go pedal and working through their last 4 or 5 gears to get back to 30-40-50mph again. Crazy isn't it. Virtually every government on the planet complains about conggestion on their roads, but hand out driving licences to every Tom, **** and Harry who wants one, whether they have a clue or not.

Bill.

 

[danch]

If only more drivers knew what the go pedal does! I often take a slow start from lights to let them by before we get to parked cars, only to find the driver unsure of whether his vehicle can out-accelerate a fat guy on a bicycle.

 

[slgeo1]

If only more drivers knew what the go pedal does! I often take a slow start from lights to let them by before we get to parked cars, only to find the driver unsure of whether his vehicle can out-accelerate a fat guy on a bicycle.

Have you tried signalling the drivers past? A "wave through" jesture might let them know that you WANT them to pass rather than leaving them uncertain.

 

[DCWD]

Does anyone else regularly find that "how to overtake a bike" is lacking from driver education?
-- Sarah

I think it would be nice for drivers to take a bit of refresher training now and again in the interest of public safety, to protect everybody on or near the road. There's some kind of pathetic statistic how three times as many soldiers die each year from auto accidents as have died in Iraq since we started the war. I'm sure that number is even higher if cyclists and pedestrians are taken into account.

Not entirely related, but there's one particular intersection I pass through every day on my way home from work. Side traffic has a stop sign, but the street is on a hill and there's always a truck parked along the main street, with the bike lane between the parking lane and the traffic lane. I'm always pleasantly surprised when drivers pay extra attention to see me so that they don't pull out in front of me. ...until last week when the city fire truck pulled out and nearly hit me because they didn't check the bike lane before they left the stop sign. Horrible as it would be to be run over by a (heavy) fire truck, the irony of getting clobbered by a public safety official would be a cherry on top of a pretty sweet life.

 

[anthonyjf]

Yeah, and if Governor Swarzenegger passes SB 60, every Julio, Pedro, and Miguel will have one too !

They do. The fact is most drivers do actually care if they scratch their paintwork through hitting a biker. One or two exeptions though get annoyed when they have to slow down and wait till it's safe to overtake because it means they have to go through the long and dreary process of pressing the go pedal and working through their last 4 or 5 gears to get back to 30-40-50mph again. Crazy isn't it. Virtually every government on the planet complains about conggestion on their roads, but hand out driving licences to every Tom, **** and Harry who wants one, whether they have a clue or not.

Bill.

 

[islandboy]

I was on the last leg of a recent tour (towing a bob) when I failed to take the lane in front of a so called "professional" driver. This section of 4 lane highway (2+2 - between Kelowna and Vernon, BC, Canada) had NO shoulder along the curb and I was approximately 1 m away from the curb. The result was that I was run into the curb by a semi pulling tandem propane. Needless to say I took the lane untill I turned off the 4 lane highway 3 km later.

This section of Highway was the worst traffic I have experianced. Proffessional drivers have always been extremely road polite where I have ridden in BC - Vancouver, Victoria, Mid Vancouver Island. It will be a while before I $pend touring $$'s in this area again.

There needs to be better education and enforcement with respect to bicycles in general. Perhaps car drivers should be reminded that we are not adding to the road congestion, driving up the price of their precious fuel, in line ahead of them for car repairs, and (unless they put us there) ahead of them in the hospital line ups due to their sedentary lifestyles.

 

[ItsikH]

I suspect that there are only two kinds of drivers:

Those who don't see, even when they actually hit us.
and those who see... and aim for us.
It's true, I've heard them talk.

 

[cdat]

I recently had an incident where I signaled for a LEFT turn, a car passed me and made a right turn in front of me- I nearly hit her. The police were called due to the insuing shouting match- her excuse- she thought I was waving her around me- she did not know the hand signal for a left turn. When I got my license 20 plus years ago- hand signals used to be part of the test- I guess they aren't any more. I shudder to think what isn't on the test now days.

 

[GucciPucci]

I suspect that there are only two kinds of drivers:

Those who don't see, even when they actually hit us.
and those who see... and aim for us.
It's true, I've heard them talk.

Haha! You've heard them talk to, eh? Darn those plotters.