British Cycling Bikeability Tips

British Cycling have started to include Bikeability tips in their members newsletters. The latest one is for "turning into main roads". I've cut and pasted it in as when I followed the link from the newsletter I had to log in to the BC site and I don't know how many of you are members.

Left turns
• Move into the primary position (see link below) before the junction as soon as it is clear to do so.
• Look behind for following vehicles and signal if necessary returning the signalling hand to the handlebars before performing the manoeuvre.
• Look into the road you're turning into for parked vehicles and passing traffic.
• If there is traffic passing from the right on the major road, give way at the mouth of the junction, if there is no traffic continue onto the main road.
• Turn the corner remaining in the primary position, returning to secondary position (link below) after the junction if it is clear to do so.

Right turns
• Move into the primary position before the junction as soon as it is clear to do so.
• Approaching the junction, signal if there is traffic behind making eye contact with following vehicles.
• Stop to give way to traffic on the major road from right and left at the junction mouth if necessary.
• If you need to, wait at the mouth of the junction on the give way line, check behind for traffic attempting to overtake and signal again if necessary, then proceed when clear.
• Turn into the major road crossing straight over the junction mouth remaining in primary position. Move back into secondary position once away from the junction if it's clear to do so.
Using these procedures for the turns mentioned above enables the cyclist to ‘control' the lane and should prevent them being overtaken whilst actually turning. In heavy traffic conditions, we'd alwaysit's adviseable to someone to ‘take the lane' sooner rather than later.

What do people think?

Not great. It doesn't give enough detail or account for variations in conditions.

If it's aimed at the casual end-user, surely less detail would be better?

What I understand from British Cycling at the moment is that their membership is expanding with new and returning leisure cyclists being encouraged onto bikes by various local and national initiatives. Understandably, safety on the road is a major concern of this group and I think that's what has prompted these Bikeability Tips to appear.

What has concerned me a little with most of the tips I've seen so far - and particularly with this example - is that I think they should be pitched at about level 2 understanding for novices but they may actually be too far advanced to help the target audience.

Adopting primary position in preparation for a left turn is not something I'd be recommending for novice riders.

Turning right onto a main road and maintaining primary position on joining the new traffic flow is another tactic I'd leave to a more advanced discussion.

The reason for posting was to gauge if I was perhaps being a bit over cautious in what I'd instruct without the benefit of trainer / trainee interaction or if others would have similar concerns with this form of presentation.

From what you're saying about the intended audience, I have to say that how many of these users would know what 'primary' and 'secondary' positioning even was? I agree with you that I think that it's pitched a bit too high. Is there a consultation on this where we can chip in?

In fairness one of the earlier "Bitesize Bikeability" topics was road position and they do link to it from the article.

There is no consultation unfortunately and I don't know where BC are getting their ideas from as no-one is credited in the pieces. Generally they seem a bit too primary position happy to me and don't place sufficient emphasis on working with the traffic flow or the dangers inherent in making a poor judgment at a critical time. I've just reviewed their turning left into a side road item which is accompanied by this picture and the instruction to "aim to ride where a car would be".

Not covering the brake... bad shot.

You can't really reduce riding to a set of hints. The dynamic nature of the beast requires a dynamic delivery. We don't want automatons following lists of instructions. Using the primary position at junctions is a good idea, sure.... but just knowing that isn't enough. IMHO

Personally looking at that rider and that junction I don't think primary position is appropriate. I wouldn't be in primary there and you have to ask how the young rider got from secondary to primary in this scenario. Also, how does this look to the following driver?

Effectively he has moved out from secondary to primary in order to turn left - potentially impeding other road users and unnecessarily putting himself in greater harms way. This may be appropriate to ensure your visibility and right to be there if being followed a little too closely by a vehicle but I don't agree it should be the norm. I don't think young riders at L2 are equipped to make these decisions and it would be safer to teach that primary position is an advanced technique for right turns at L2 and then further for L3.

Similarly, in the original example above of turning left onto a main road, I struggle with the concept that the normal way to approach this scenario should be in primary position. Again, this potentially impedes other taffic trying to turn right and in the worst case endangers yourself by tempting left turning traffic to undertake in flared junctions.

I believe that our road position should clearly communicate our intentions to other road users. I don't think that moving out to primary position before a junction clearly communicates that I am about to turn left.

I've been surprised by the responses to this post in so far as nobody has made the same observation regarding road position as this is my main concern with the BC advise.

"wait at the mouth of the junction on the give way line" -- oopps.

What if you can't see from there? Blah blah... Fixed rules arn't where it's at baby! BC need to get hip to the program dawg...

I don't think that moving out to primary position before a junction clearly communicates that I am about to turn left.

It puts you in a position where you CAN clearly communicate. Lists of hints totally fail to capture the dynamic...

Primary position is in relation to the traffic stream. In a wide lane turning traffic (could just be the sole cyclist) forms a new traffic stream. The primary position in the left turning traffic stream is likely be about the same absolute position as the secondary position in the wide lane before the preparation for the junction starts. I would say the kid in the photo is in the primary position in relation to the straight thru traffic stream and should be more left forming a left turn traffic stream and taking the primary at that.

What rings alarm bells with me is there is no clear instruction to look before moving straight into a primary position...'as soon as it is clear to do so' is not the same as telling someone to look over their right shoulder. It's amazing how many trainees how no idea where or how to look.