10 Drivers Every Cyclist Should Stay Well Away From

Car drivers and cyclists are like oil and water. They just don't mix, unfortunately. There's a battle of wills and words at least once during every ride.

Drivers seem to think cyclists should be somewhere else, or at the very least in the bike lane, or the gutter if there's no path. Anywhere they won't be in the way, frustrating the driver's need to be braking behind the car in front.

Cyclists should absolutely, definitely, not be riding two abreast, slowing down the cars behind, forcing a correct overtaking manoeuvre. That's a deliberate challenge to the motorists superior rights, to which they're entitled, by virtue of the road tax they pay.

From the other perspective, cyclists believe drivers should be patient and considerate of the cyclist's problems. The two wheeled, lycra clad athletes believe themselves entitled to ride on the roads, swerve to avoid the craters near the kerbside (left un-repaired by councils, because they don't bother car drivers), ride in groups two abreast so they can chat to colleagues, at speeds of 20 miles per hour, or less, to accommodate the weaker bikers.

Car drivers should absolutely, definitely, not pass by too close or too fast, honk their horns, pull out in front of, or across their path, act aggressively, or make up their own Highway Code.

Too often, the two sides only get to discuss their differences in the heat of a near miss incident, and the cyclist is always going to lose the argument.

That's why the No. 1 principle in anybody's Safe Cycling Strategy should be

'Assume every driver is a blind moron, until proven to be otherwise.'

Of course, generalising about people is a mistake. There are always exceptions which prove rules. For every ill-mannered, ignorant, aggressive driver there's a polite, considerate, generous and patient version.

But wouldn't it be nice if we could know which was which, and ride accordingly?

Personal experience suggests some drivers are more likely to be a danger than others. And they can be categorised by vehicle. You can know which drivers are more likely to be be 'Dickheads' by the car they drive.

Here's my list of the worst offenders:

1. White Vans.
2. Chelsea Tractors
3. BMW's
4. Audi's
5. Mini Coopers
6. Nissan Pickups
7. Old Corsas with big exhaust pipes
8. anything driven by a 'Blonde'
9. any car with a 'Baby on Board' sticker
10. any car with a Mountain Bike on the roof

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• Cyclists fined for not wearing helmets
• Pet Peeves About Bad Drivers
• David Cameron: Motorists need to learn to deal with 'swarms' of cyclists

Mind The Doors Ladies and Gentlemen

Illustration for door zone. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the city cyclist's worst nightmares is an open door - on a car, as we ride by. Drivers and passengers almost never look to see who or what is passing before they open their door.

Any cyclist riding by at the time will get a very nasty surprise - at best being forced to swerve into the centre of the road causing all sorts of mayhem in the surrounding traffic. Even less attractive - they might just crash into both door and emerging person, causing serious injury to at least two people. But worst, they might get knocked off, into the middle of the road and under the wheels of a bus, or truck, or car which is passing the cyclist as the bike passes the car.

That's how the most serious injuries occur.

And it's the reason for one of cycling's most important safety strategies.

'Always give parked cars at least 3 feet of space as you ride by. If you can't allow that much room, because of oncoming or overtaking traffic, then stop, and wait until you can.'

It simply makes sense. Safe cyclists allow for stupid actions by motorists.

The article quoted below provides ammunition for any cyclist arguing with a driver about his right to open his door without worrying about you riding past.

It turns out opening a car door in a way which might cause injury is a specific breach of the law. Not the Highway Code, but The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986.

I wonder which other clauses in these regulations could help cyclists put ignorant drivers in their place?

Sarah Barth reports on road.cc

A woman has been fined more than £130 for opening her car door on a cyclist.

In a rare prosecution of this kind, Tracey McGarrigle, from Abington, Northampton, pleaded guilty to a charge of opening a vehicle door so as to injure a person.

Stephen Evans was about to go past her vehicle in July last year when he was ‘doored’,  and Northampton Magistrates’ Court heard he suffered a chest injury in the incident, as he was unable to avoid the collision.

McGarrigle did not attend court, according to the Northampton Chronicle, but pleaded guilty to both the dooring charge and one other of holding a driving licence where an alteration to the name had not been notified.

She was ordered to pay a fine of £133 for each offence. She must also pay £35 costs and the victim surcharge of £20.

According to the The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986, “No person shall open, or cause or permit to be opened, any door of a vehicle on a road so as to injure or endanger any person.”

Under that law, a collision does not even need to take place for a charge to be brought, but in reality it is very rare for a prosecution to be made successfully.

In May, we reported how Kevin Fallon attempted to sue both the driver and the passenger of a car that doored him in the High Court for £200,000.

Mr Fallon, 48, was on his way to work in 2010 when a door opened on him in Dalston, East London.

Despite wearing a helmet, he suffered bleeding to the brain and says he still suffers headaches, mood changes, and low energy. The injury has also increased his risk of developing epilepsy.

And at the end of last year, we reported the case of a motorist from Surrey who was acquitted of manslaughter at the Old Bailey.

He was alleged to have opened his car door in the path of a cyclist, 25-year-old Sam Harding, without looking, causing him to be killed under the wheels of a bus behind him,

Kenan Aydogdu, aged 32 of Hindhead, Surrey had denied the charge of manslaughter at his trial, in which the prosecution maintained that visibility from the Audi car he had bought a month earlier had been reduced to 17 per cent of what it should have been after he applied tinting film to the windows.

In May this year, Barry Sheerman, MP for Huddersfield, asked the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport Stephen Hammond, how many cyclist casualties were attributable to the opening of a vehicle door in the three years to 2011.

Mr Hammond replied that numbers had increased significantly over the period, from 468 in 2009 to 594 in 2011.

Of those casualties, the serious incidents had risen by 67 per cent.

Related articles

• Ouch: cyclist smashes into car door in Dartmouth
• What the Bike Community is Saying About Cycling Collisions
• Cyclists say more needs to be done to prevent 'dooring'
• Four people charged with manslaughter following cyclist death

Going Back to Abingdon

No matter where one moves to, there's never any going back. It can't make any sense. The reasons for leaving are still there.

That's always been my philosophy. It's worked out pretty well so far.

Well, we wouldn't know if going back would have been better than going somewhere else, would we. We've never done it.

Until now, that is.

Our 13 year holiday in the Highlands just had to come to end, sometime. The reasons for staying in Dornoch had gone away. It was too far - from too many people, from civilisation, from young people with a zest for living. It was too cold - at least a topcoat cooler as the locals would say. The scenery is heart stopping on the north east coast, and so is the weather when venturing outside on the wrong day.

So the decision to move was made, and returning to Abingdon was an option. It turned out to be the only realistic option.

We sold our cherished Links Villa to somebody who wanted to move in within 6 weeks.


So we drove to Abingdon, found a house we could live in, at a price we could stretch to, agreed to buy it, and returned to Scotland - all in less than a week.

The house we'd chosen was in a spectacular location - in the town centre, but on the river - 400 yards from the favourite supermarket, 800 yards from the favourite bike shop and banks and chemists and doctors and coffee shops and pubs, but secluded and private and personal and exclusive. There are no white vans parked around here overnight.

The story sounds sort of golden- told like that. But it wasn't.

The house had been on the market for months. Nobody would buy it. It was a mess.

Full of fitted furniture which had cost thousands, but left no living space for anybody normal.
Blue ceilings, red coving and red shutters on the first floor. Mustard ceilings on the second. All of the walls left with the original magnolia, now stained by pages of newspapers and posters once pasted there. Five plastic cherubs glued to the en-suite bathroom door. Office style light fittings everywhere. An entire wall of the kitchen covered by a mirror.


That's all fixed now. But it's taken three months.

Zappi's Gran Fondo

What an experience this was - the Zappi's Gran Fondo sportive in August 2013.

These pictures show the 40+ members of Outdoor Traders Cycling Club waiting for the start of the 100+ miles trip around Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire

The head scarf, arm warmers and gilet suggest a cold, wet start - which it was.

Within a few minutes the rain started, making the first 50 miles a test of endurance and humour. Later the sun came out and the last three hours, we baked in hot sunshine.

In total, including the rides too, and from, the start, we travelled 125 miles.

Was this the beginning of the OTCC BadAss crew? Probably, but we didn't know it at the time.