New Rule H3

Rule H3 - Rule for drivers and motorcyclists

You should not cut across cyclists, horse riders or horse drawn vehicles going ahead when you are turning into or out of a junction or changing direction or lane, just as you would not turn across the path of another motor vehicle. This applies whether they are using a cycle lane, a cycle track, or riding ahead on the road and you should give way to them.

Do not turn at a junction if to do so would cause the cyclist, horse rider or horse drawn vehicle going straight ahead to stop or swerve

This is part of the new HC rule. There is no new legislation, and it was clear to me that various police forces across the country will have worked out in advance how they're not going to do anything about it- that certainly includes Lancashire. The photo I'm about to post is a non-ideal test case which I knew would be NFA'd- I'm placing the topic for information in the hope better cases will be reported and we'll all benefit from knowing the various dodges the police will employ to justify NFA. The important point is that the police did not use the dodge that the exit from a private drive or road onto the main road is 'not a junction'. Finding a definition of a junction is not easy. In this case, the car waited on the private drive while several cars passed then pulled out in front of a cyclist travelling at over 20 mph. I had no trouble in stopping, thanks to excellent cable disk brakes, but the question for people to ask themselves is what does 'priority to cyclists' actually mean? Does it, in practice, still mean that the cyclist must give way to the driver anyway? My assumption is that no action will be taken unless the driver turns left or right immediately in front of the cyclist travelling straight ahead and a collision results, and the police will continue to believe that drivers are entitled to assume that all cyclists are travelling at less than 10mph all the time, because the police simply won't accept any evidence to the contrary- including the video itself. The police will then look for reasons to blame the cyclist for not stopping, and so would some people on here. So the situation would be exactly the same as 'before the new HC changes' and priority to cyclists is fictional.

I think Rule H3, like all the other new rules, will change police thinking not at all. If anyone can do better with their local force, let us know. I'll be looking for a better case, but you have to keep the camera running!