Give Way - Biker

You see a different side of car drivers on a bike.
Like any other road user, my daily encounters run through the whole spectrum from Redbull’d yoof in a slammed French hatchback, through to the octogenarian gently succumbing to old age at a ‘T’ junction behind the wheel of their Ford Fusion.

On a bike, when most other road users have the potential to do you serious injury, looking for little warning signs becomes both second nature and something you pay plenty of attention to. There’s usually something about the ‘body’ language of the car that indicates dangerous aggression or a distracted driver, and I can usually spot the signs telling me who to be wary of.

Does that car I’ve just encountered on a fast ‘A’ road see my fast approach as throwing down the gauntlet, or will they……..oh hang on a moment, they’ve just driven into the gutter to let me go past.
That’s another one.

Its a trend I've noticed more and more recently, in fact I've followed cars that have hit the kerb in their haste to let me slide past. At the weekend almost every car I approached clocked my presence and very clearly moved aside to let me pass. It didn’t seem to matter if it was on 'A' roads, through towns, or on heavily trafficked roads with double white lines. In fact the main problem was that if it's ok with you, I'd like to decide when I overtake or not, but thanks anyway.

And no, I don’t mono-wheel up to their rear bumper at 150mph on open pipes and putting the fear of God into the poor little mites. Nor does my bike have ‘Polite’ signs and dayglo stickers – although it is a physically big old thing.

Is it me, or has something happened?