CAR OR BIKE PRIORITY ON SINGLE TRACK ROADS - PARTICULARLY HILLS

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Attitude

Jul 5, 2025
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I daily commute on a 'country lane' single track hill both up and down it. I believe I have right of way as a cyclist and expect any car I meet to pull in as much as it can so I can pass without getting off my bike - otherwise I expect the car to back up/down until I can. Last week I had a stand-off with a van delivery driver who's attitude was that he was the bigger guy and he couldn't back up because he was in a van He threatened me by videoing our exchange on You Tube. I didn't move so he then scraped his wing mirrors all the back up the road and I was beginning to feel guilty. He took so long about it too that I turned round and sped back down the hill as it was quicker to go a different way and I couldn't bear the confrontation as and when I would have passed him. I now think he's going to track me down and kill me - so in the end my principle wasn't worth it. BUT can someone definitely state who does have priority as there is nothing in any forum or in the Highway Code that I can find to defend my actions.
 
Armchair Cyclist

Armchair Cyclist

Moderator
Mar 22, 2010
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Nothing very specific in the highway code that I can see. This seems the closest:
155
Single-track roads. These are only wide enough for one vehicle. They may have special passing places. If you see a vehicle coming towards you, or the driver behind wants to overtake, pull into a passing place on your left, or wait opposite a passing place on your right. Give way to vehicles coming uphill whenever you can. If necessary, reverse until you reach a passing place to let the other vehicle pass. Slow down when passing pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders.
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So it seems that according to the HC it is incumbent on both parties to be alert to opportunities to allow the other through, and bikes do not have any automatic right of precedence. Although you may have had a partial right of way by virtue of going uphill, tbh it was probably much easier for you to get off your bike, squeeze over, and let him pass than for him to reverse. (If there were nettles, etc, that may not have been the case)
 
A

Attitude

Jul 5, 2025
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Thanks for your reply. The conclusion is that the smaller guy doing the right thing by using a bike not a car is must appease.
 
U

Unchained

Sep 5, 2016
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Attitude said:
I daily commute on a 'country lane' single track hill both up and down it. I believe I have right of way as a cyclist and expect any car I meet to pull in as much as it can so I can pass without getting off my bike - otherwise I expect the car to back up/down until I can. Last week I had a stand-off with a van delivery driver who's attitude was that he was the bigger guy and he couldn't back up because he was in a van He threatened me by videoing our exchange on You Tube. I didn't move so he then scraped his wing mirrors all the back up the road and I was beginning to feel guilty. He took so long about it too that I turned round and sped back down the hill as it was quicker to go a different way and I couldn't bear the confrontation as and when I would have passed him. I now think he's going to track me down and kill me - so in the end my principle wasn't worth it. BUT can someone definitely state who does have priority as there is nothing in any forum or in the Highway Code that I can find to defend my actions.
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On two wheels couple of sayings that hold true in @95%+ of the time..
First one
Dead Right
Which means you might have the right of way, legally correct, but you end up getting killed pushing the issue. You yield, slightly inconvenient, but you live to ride another day.
Second
Might is Right
Meaning who ever is bigger gets the right of way, again bikes and motorcycles are normally smaller than big delivery trucks and almost all vehicles.
You might want to do a grand scheme of things perspective.
If you yield every time you can, and sometimes other road users yield to you.. How much time, how much time and trouble are you actually losing?
When I am on 2 wheels I believe in my heart and mind almost always more lucky than conventional vehicle.. If it's bitter cold or raining, I might want to be using 4 wheels. YouTube has thousands of videos of 2 wheelers getting into big tussles..everything from strong words to guns, knives, weapons people trying to run you over.. People getting arrested by police.. It's almost never, never worth roadside courtroom about who is legally right..
View: https://m.youtube.com/shorts/nWqH25HCodQ
 
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awavey

Oct 3, 2021
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its not the time lost, its the principle imo, and I get this so often on country lanes, so many cars and van drivers will literally pass places they can stop in, often places designed specifically as passing places, simply because they believe might is right and you as a cyclist dont deserve to be treated with any respect on the road, its simply get out of my way Im coming through Im a driver, and you end up having to eat hedge because quite alot of them dont bother slowing down either.

Ive had it where the car made it only a cars length ahead from a passing spot on their side of the road, they could have used, on a dead straight road where there was plenty of visibility of me, because I dont ride in the gutter on those roads.

and they go absolutely apoplectic, about it full rage face pressed up against the windscreen. I do not understand how people whose rage threshold is so low, make it through the day its insane how crazy they get.

Ive not made people reverse whilst on a bike, in a car I have, but on a bike no, unless the driver gets really mouthy with you, dont respond to it, simply delaying them is payback enough. such as with your van driver offering to ride back to a passing point you remember seeing on the read instead, but riding really slowly in front of them, youre doing them a favour right, how can they complain to that...
 
U

Unchained

Sep 5, 2016
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awavey said:
its not the time lost, its the principle imo, and I get this so often on country lanes, so many cars and van drivers will literally pass places they can stop in, often places designed specifically as passing places, simply because they believe might is right and you as a cyclist dont deserve to be treated with any respect on the road, its simply get out of my way Im coming through Im a driver, and you end up having to eat hedge because quite alot of them dont bother slowing down either.

Ive had it where the car made it only a cars length ahead from a passing spot on their side of the road, they could have used, on a dead straight road where there was plenty of visibility of me, because I dont ride in the gutter on those roads.

and they go absolutely apoplectic, about it full rage face pressed up against the windscreen. I do not understand how people whose rage threshold is so low, make it through the day its insane how crazy they get.

Ive not made people reverse whilst on a bike, in a car I have, but on a bike no, unless the driver gets really mouthy with you, dont respond to it, simply delaying them is payback enough. such as with your van driver offering to ride back to a passing point you remember seeing on the read instead, but riding really slowly in front of them, youre doing them a favour right, how can they complain to that...
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It took me @5-7 months to become addicted to bike racing. I went all in..abandoned other hobbies, reworked my life completely, spent money I had available, bought things on credit, clothing ,food, equipment, got new position at work to change my hours, to allow training and racing. Majority of feedback was overwhelmingly positive.. Then I entered the real world.. While riding in typical clothing, lycra shorts, shaved legs, and often headphones with music..
The way I looked, and primarily because I was on a bicycle I was hit with lit cigarettes, water, beer, pee, diapers, glass bottles, ice, variety of other things. Run off the road multiple times, screamed at on a regular basis. Not because I did anything wrong, primary reasoning was riding a bicycle, riding that bicycle on the roads, that most road ragedooshnozzles, decided that I had no right to do.. My shaved legs and tight cycling clothes apparently changed my sexual orientation, gay slurs were hurled regularly and always with the angry, enraged person concluding without ever seeing me during sex or with who. Bike, bike shorts, act of riding the bike made me gay and them angry.
I have used motorcycles all my life and was a form of to and from school transportation from early age. As a teen got license and have consistently, constantly used bicycles and motorcycles.
Saying all that I don't know all the deep, deep, deep routed causes that makes the use of 2 wheels makes people act out on the anger spectrum from honking, yelling to actually trying to run me over and kill me. I say none of this with a shred of sarcasm, completely serious. Just riding a bike makes people want to harm, possibly kill you.
Now you need to make multiple choices.. When you come across those people, full spectrum to lightly annoyed to homicidal maniacs ..what can you do? I have done everything from physical battles, breaking off mirrors, windshields, side, rear windows, been beaten unconscious, broken bones, damaged or destroyed property.. with all my first hand, real life, actually lived data..engaging with people who are opposed to you, who you are, what you do, what you ride and they have never met you is a losing proposition.
All countries are not created equal, so in a pursuit of cycling justice to whatever degree can get you shot and killed in my country, it happens weekly if not daily nationwide.. Many people here share your frustration and sense of justice. Many share your opinions.. You are not wrong, but you can't change behavior of random strangers, it never good to try to modify somebody's madness in moving vehicles. Each person you want to engage with, possibly change their mind, that is a noble pursuit.. Problem is for every driver you convert to a more respectful position on sharing the road with 2 wheelers, there are a thousand more in your area who won't get the message, don't want to..
Here's a murder that happened on a road I use multiple times per week.. And used on July 4th..
View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fLPZWa9Lnso&pp=ygUgTW90b2N5Y2xlIGFjY2lkZW50IDgwNSBzYW4gZGllZ28%3D
 
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