This overtaking lark

If you read many cycling blogs, especially the more London-centric ones (yes, Guardian, we're talking about you), you'd be forgiven for thinking that the entire motoring population of the UK are only days away from strapping sythes to the sides of their vehicles in a conspiratorial attempt to mow us all down.

 In my experience however, UK motorists (North of London, at least) are beginning to show signs of behaving a lot more responsibly around cyclists. This is particularly true on country roads and lanes, if my experience is anything to go by, but even during peak commuting times, I'm noticing a marked improvement.

I doubt there's any one reason for this, but I'm guessing it's largely down to numbers - as the number of cyclists swells, motorists are gradually nudged into accepting a richer texture of traffic.

The situation is hardly perfect - morning commutes still require ultra-alertness. Only last week one of my daughters was knocked off her bike as she cycled to school. The car turned directly into her path, but thankfully was going slow enough not to cause any significant damage. The big difference from a few years ago perhaps, is that the driver was a cyclist himself, so instead of blaming my daughter (just for being there), he was incredibly apologetic - in fact he was more traumatised than my daughter. I have no doubt that his ability to empathise was largely down to cycling himself.

During this weekend's long ride I noticed that far more drivers were waiting patiently behind my friends and me before overtaking; leaving plenty of space; and overtaking at a steady pace rather than accelerating manically.

Conclusion:
Obviously, it's still early days, and perhaps Leicestershire drivers are an exception, but I hope that as more drivers are also cycling themselves, the situation will begin to improve (and of course, even if people don't cycle themselves, they almost certainly know someone who does).

Of course, we still need educate the Jeremy Clarksons of this world...




In case you're interested, here's what the Highway Code has to say about overtaking in general.