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Cyclists create more traffic?

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48 members have voted

  1. 1. Ask stated

    • Yes
      15
    • No
      32
    • Other
      1


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Where are the 8 people who voted yes explaining themselves?

 

Anyone who seriously believes that cycles increase congestion should actually be banned from driving.

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Absolutely definitely 100% no. Cars cars cars cars cars cars cars bike cars cars cars cars cars cars cars. What is causing the traffic in that sentence?

 

People overtake me all the time on penistone road, other than at very quiet times, they never get to the end of penistone road before me. They are slowed down by the other cars, I am not. People for some reason can't see this and just focus on the fact that they have had to overtake. They then sit in a queue of cars for ages and i go past them again. If i weren't on a bike I would otherwise be in car making the queue of cars longer.

 

---------- Post added 09-07-2018 at 07:52 ----------

 

So you're driving up a hill, single carriageway and a cyclist in the road, and you don't think he's holding all the traffic up?

 

What about all those people in cars who are holding you up by making you queue for much longer at lights?

Edited by TimmyR

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When I overtake a cyclist, which I can do, I invariably find myself queueing behind another car, which I cannot.

 

I'm resurrecting an old forum phrase: Quoted for truth :)

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So yeah, I expect a bit of backlash from this, but bear with me...

 

In peoples opinions, when there is no cycle lane, do cyclists create more traffic due to the vehicles not being able to pass them safely and creating mini traffic backlogs?

 

The simple answer to the question (taken literally) would be yes, simply because you are literally adding more traffic to the existing volume.

 

If you mean do they cause tailbacks or congestion, I think it depends on the layout and design of the road. In the vast majority of cases I would say no, usually the worst delay you'd get from a cyclist is having to wait back for a number of seconds (which, to impatient drivers, apparently seem like minutes or even hours) until it is safe to pass.

 

There will always be some narrow, busy stretch of road, or some awkward road feature which makes things take longer, but these instances are in the minority.

 

---------- Post added 09-07-2018 at 12:46 ----------

 

Nope.

 

When I overtake a cyclist, which I can do, I invariably find myself queueing behind another car, which I cannot.

 

The person on a bike inconveniences me much less than they would do if they were in a car.

 

That's an excellent observation

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The simple answer to the question (taken literally) would be yes, simply because you are literally adding more traffic to the existing volume.

 

Ah now you make a basic assumption there, that a cyclist = +1 road user, however, in reality it probably equals -1 car and +1 cyclist or at least something close to that.

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Ah now you make a basic assumption there, that a cyclist = +1 road user, however, in reality it probably equals -1 car and +1 cyclist or at least something close to that.

 

I didn't make any assumptions. A cyclist is a traffic factor, add cyclists to traffic and you are (literally) adding more traffic. You can ponder the values and ratios of such an addition if you like but it's of no interest to me.

(Did you even read the rest of my post?)

 

This doesn't mean they necessarily restrict the flow of the traffic, which is what I suspect the OP was trying to get at.

 

---------- Post added 09-07-2018 at 13:04 ----------

 

So you're driving up a hill, single carriageway and a cyclist in the road, and you don't think he's holding all the traffic up?

 

What's preventing you from overtaking?

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So you're driving up a hill, single carriageway and a cyclist in the road, and you don't think he's holding all the traffic up?

 

If you are unable to overtake safely it's because of all the _______ coming the other way. Insert the blank word. If it was only bikes coming the other way you could overtake without a problem.

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I didn't make any assumptions. A cyclist is a traffic factor, add cyclists to traffic and you are (literally) adding more traffic.

 

But you don't add a cyclist. You take away a car and replace it with a cyclist, not always but in many cases and so when you see a cyclist you see a reduction in road space being consumed, therefore less traffic. Your assumption seems to be similar to that of a great many people that cyclists are like a different breed of people that have their bikes physically attached to them and who are not able to travel by any other means.

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The title should be "do cyclists slow up the traffic?", that's surely what the OP meant, but yet 10 people concurred with the notion that cyclists "cause more traffic", lol.

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10 people who don't have the guts to try to explain themselves.

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I didn't expect the aggression I'm feeling in some of these posts, ouch

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I didn't expect the aggression I'm feeling in some of these posts, ouch

 

You're joking? Criticising cyclists on here is one of the subjects guaranteed to create aggression... happens every time :)

Edited by truman

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