"Advisory" cycle lanes - what is the point ?

[Major Tom]

18 years of practice helps
(road user for 27 years - including motorcyles and cars)

30 years of practice (in my case) still doesn't make being stranded in the middle of the road any more a pleasurable experience.

I always pass on the inside unless vehicles have pulled in far enough to prevent this.

Passing on the outside still feels most dangerous, and the only times I've ever been injured on my bike have been as a result of passing on the outside.

 

[maomao]

It's acceptable (within the terms of the Highway Code) to undertake stationary vehicles (otherwise you couldn't pull up to the white line at a traffic light in the left hand lane if someone else had already done so in the centre lane, right?). Bicycles actually very rarely need to undertake moving traffic (it happens, but cars do it too). There are many books written in the 70's with titles like 'Roadcraft' that feature pictures of men with beards in jumpers on raleigh road bikes cycling down the middle of dual carriageways making grandiose signals with their arms. Gentlegreen always makes me think of these books. Fair enough, he's been doing it for decades and hasn't been killed yet, each to his own etc., but this is not a safe way to cycle in traffic.

 

[gentlegreen]

It's acceptable (within the terms of the Highway Code) to undertake stationary vehicles (otherwise you couldn't pull up to the white line at a traffic light in the left hand lane if someone else had already done so in the centre lane, right?). Bicycles actually very rarely need to undertake moving traffic (it happens, but cars do it too). There are many books written in the 70's with titles like 'Roadcraft' that feature pictures of men with beards in jumpers on raleigh road bikes cycling down the middle of dual carriageways making grandiose signals with their arms. Gentlegreen always makes me think of these books. Fair enough, he's been doing it for decades and hasn't been killed yet, each to his own etc., but this is not a safe way to cycle in traffic.

I have to qualify my statements by confessing that 99% of my 30,000 miles or so of cycling has been on the same 4 mile stretch of suburban road at approximately the same time every day, and mostly against the flow of traffic as I live on the edge of town and work in the suburbs ... and not in city rush hour traffic. I'd guess that a good proportion of the drivers I encounter have learnt to anticipate my riding style. I rarely overtake traffic that's in any danger of actually moving. As you say, very nearly all the time I'm either moving in the traffic stream with the cars or being overtaken by them.

.