Cycling Etiquette
Kat and I recently co-wrote an article on group rides and how they generate particular types of public sociability. (This paper isn’t publicly available yet but I am happy to send anyone who asks a personal copy). This might be called cycling etiquette – social rules of behaviour – which may or may not conform with the Highway Code’s rules. (Did you know that the Highway Code says that drivers may talk but should not argue with their passengers?)
As with any set of behavioural norms, cycling etiquette changes over time and may be very different in differenct geographical and social contexts. It can both be widely understood and contested – not least by cyclists themselves.
While we were watching the Bristol commuters on Tuesday, I could see rules of cycling etiquette that I thought were both specific to that junction at that time, and more representative of cycling in Britain generally. I was on the East side of the junction, watching cyclists coming South down Gloucester Road under the railway bridge. There is an ASL and then the carriageway narrows, widening again a few cars lengths’ after the box junction has been crossed. This is what happens:
Cyclists coming through tend to position themselves right on the yellow box junction line, meaning that they end up riding close to the kerb. This is to allow motor vehicles to get past, which might otherwise have to wait behind the cyclist until the road widens again. Often this resulted in close passes being made – the car at the front is small and the gap between it and the first cyclist is reasonably wide, but larger cars and even bigger vehicles tended to pass close.
The assumptions being made here by both cyclists and drivers, are that motorists do not need to give cyclists as much room as they would give another motor vehicle, and that cyclists have a responsibility to keep in to the kerb and allow drivers to pass. These assumptions runs counter to advice in the Highway Code and in the Bikeability guidance, but are I suspect common among drivers and cyclists in Bristol and elsewhere (I’ve seen similar patterns of cycling behaviour at junctions in Hull last year).
April 15th, 2011 at 3:00 pm
I’ve made similar observations at the junction between Cheltenham Road and Ashley Road – continue south along Gloucester road for about another minute.
I cross the Cheltenham Road as a pedestrian at that junction most days and wince at the behaviour of cyclists who hug the kerbside edge of the yellow box. The thing is, after this junction the road narrows as it heads down towards the centre and as an observer it is so clearly dangerous.
I think it’s only partly etiquette though. There’s something about the road layout there which really invites hugging the box – I’m thinking of the wide flaring of the Ashley road exit. Unless you’ve seen the road layout as a pedestrian, it might not be obvious to a cyclist (one who hasn’t been exposed to training) coming down Chelt Road how dangerous this is, and following the box might seem the most snesible thing to do.
So I think there’s a combination of social and more cognitive factors (though even as I write that I realise that this is a rather spurious distinction – but you know what I mean don’t you?)
April 15th, 2011 at 3:08 pm
Thanks Martin, Kat and I also observed the Cheltenham Road/Ashley Road junction later while sat in Kino Coffee, and noticed as you say some potentially dangerous interactions where cyclists were going straight on (but cycling in the left turn lane, where the cycle lane is) and motor vehicles turning left. Also there there seems to be an issue with buses there – some of the cyclists were tending to veer left into the entrance of Ashley Road and then coming back into the path of buses which had been going straight on and perhaps assumed the cyclist was turning left.
The junction I posted about doesn’t have those problems (there’s no left turn lane, and few motor vehicles are going left at that point) but still illustrated quite well some underlying assumptions that a lot of drivers and cyclists (not all) tend to make about the allocation of road space and what is reasonable behaviour and positioning for both on the roads.
April 15th, 2011 at 3:18 pm
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