All good points, but I know from experience that drivers will instinctly swerve to the nearside if they suddenly think an oncoming vehicle is going to hit them, even if there's a vulnerable road user on that side, because I've been in that situation plenty of times.
So if, as the oncoming vehicle, I remain assertive about my road positioning even after they've twattishly started to pass the bike on their side of the road, there's a good chance they'll hit that bike. I've even been in this exact scenario, and seen the oncoming cyclist have to panic brake and try not to fall off as they're squeezed into parked cars.
If a cyclist in that situation was killed/seriously injured, part of me is going to be thinking 'yes, the driver was a complete cunt, but if I'd just moved left, they wouldn't be fucked up now,' and I'd also imagine that the authorities would go with the driver's assertion that "he was cycling in the middle of the road and forced me to swerve and hit the other cyclist", knowing how much they seem to favour absolving drivers over protecting cyclists.
All good points, but I know from experience that drivers will instinctly swerve to the nearside if they suddenly think an oncoming vehicle is going to hit them, even if there's a vulnerable road user on that side, because I've been in that situation plenty of times.
So if, as the oncoming vehicle, I remain assertive about my road positioning even after they've twattishly started to pass the bike on their side of the road, there's a good chance they'll hit that bike. I've even been in this exact scenario, and seen the oncoming cyclist have to panic brake and try not to fall off as they're squeezed into parked cars.
If a cyclist in that situation was killed/seriously injured, part of me is going to be thinking 'yes, the driver was a complete cunt, but if I'd just moved left, they wouldn't be fucked up now,' and I'd also imagine that the authorities would go with the driver's assertion that "he was cycling in the middle of the road and forced me to swerve and hit the other cyclist", knowing how much they seem to favour absolving drivers over protecting cyclists.