Commuting safety - faster you go the safer you are

Within reason.

Finally started commuting to work again, reluctantly as I'd much rather prefer just to ride around the countryside for training, however the job and commute mean I only have time for that at the weekend. Turning the 1h 10m train commute into a 1:30 and 1:45 bike ride make a lot more sense from a training perspective and strangeley a lot more enjoyable (even though it's through London). The distance is just over 28 miles each way, which makes for a long day when the start is 6am out the door and 8pm back in the door, however in the mornings it is really nice to ride along with hardly anyone around.

Great ride until you get to the start of London, traffic builds, stress levels increase, stupidity arrives in a 4x4, van or some other clapped out heap with no mirrors and a horse driving (blinkers on).

While getting back to riding after last years illness I noticed one thing, which I thought was quite interesting and have applied it to commuting and all road riding. The slower you go the more likely you are to be pushed off the road and drivers will take more risks with your safety to pass you. Look at it another way and it works out quite well because a driver will stay behind a cyclist at +20mph and only pass them when there is a lot of room.

Riding in to London on Wednesday I had a lorry stay behind me for about a mile and seemed quite content to wait (no reving the engine or dropping to a lower gear) until he had a lot of space to pass. The other aspect is the bus lanes in London seem to have taxi drivers as the main hazard because the majority are that used to squeezing through gaps they will squeeze past you if they could. Solution, ride a bit quicker and in the middle of the bus lane or far enough out to give yourself a lot of safety room if they do decide to squeeze past (you have somewhere other than the kerb to ride into). If they blow the horn at you, just ignore them, don't respond (my temptation is to ride further into the middle and to slow down) and keep riding at your own pace, they don't own the bus lane and neither do you.

Another option and strategy is to wobble more frequently as this has been proven in a previous study to increase the distance that drivers will pass you by. Ride a streight line and you will be brushed by a bus or taxi passing you, waver and they give you more room. Just remember to do it when you have the space and not to wobble into the path of the vehicle. You only seem to have to move by a couple of inches or just stand on the pedals and swing the bike as during night riding it's the movement of the light that matters.

The other amusing element to commuting is riding past a slow moving column of vehicles, especially if it has someone in a Ferrari slowing down and speeding up just to rev the engine. The again I suppose I'd be a bit pissed at spending £100k on a car and then driving it round London at an average speed of 18mph rather than 180mph.