I think the fact that all pilots have to maintaine some currency and be trained by an instructor helps a little.
The driving standards changed a LOT in last 20-25 years and I’m not sure people have driving with an instructor regular at all (I did drive with an instructor a few times, years after passing the test, just to understand my bad habits).
I’ve passed my driving test a decade ago and every man and it’s dog was telling me that it’s now MUCH hard to pass a test on a first go.
I’ve taken many various driver’s license tests over the years – probably more than 6; passed each on first attempt, including one this year… Don’t really consider them any harder than they were when I first started. Either you can drive, or you shouldn’t drive. Same with flying, not that I can fly, I’m only beginning to learn.
Ibra wrote:
What’s the average speed in Croatia? 70kph?
I don’t travel to work, so I’m behind the wheel mostly on highway where the average speed is 130 kph. BTW car computer says 80 kph average for last 5000 km.
arj1 wrote:
Peter, there are great many really bad cyclists – perhaps 50-100% (ask any driver). :)
The difference is a really bad cyclist is really only risking him/herself. A bad driver is risking other people, e.g. that driver most of us seem to know “who has never crashed, but seen thousands of crashes”.
arj1 wrote:
Typically, they are in the middle of the road (“they are” – regularly two cyclists ride together side by side)
This is quite often done where it is unsafe to overtake. If a cyclist rides in the gutter (which they should never do, by the way – the puncture fairy lives in the gutter and you’ll have a bad time riding in her home), drivers will often fall to the temptation to squeeze past leaving the cyclist very little room. From time to time you have to “take the lane” to force drivers to overtake safely (and give yourself an escape route should they still try to squeeze past) – basically to stop drivers from trying to kill you.
As for cyclists side by side, this is a common and often wrong complaint by motorists. This infographic points out why:
Just this Friday afternoon, while riding home from work, I had a driver overtake me in the face of the only oncoming vehicle, forcing the oncoming driver to come to a complete standstill and me to consider going off into the verge (they literally would have had to wait 5 seconds and it would have been clear and safe to overtake). Remember when you’re in a car, you are in a climate controlled cocoon in extreme comfort, and you merely have to move your right foot slightly and your steering wheel a few degrees, so waiting 5 seconds to overtake is not exactly a massive burden.
The extra CO2 produced by trucks slowing down to 15 mph for 10 minutes before passing a cyclist must be a big volume on busy single carriageways, which are most of the roads I drive. And everything else behind them.
I must admit I’ve never seen a 4×3 block of cyclists tyre to tyre when driving about. I thought cyclists would prefer to form a line for better aerodynamics?
Both can command your attention very quickly if things occur. However if you’re current enough I do not see a great difference in difficulty.
@Alioth, these are the ideal situation reviewed here. Often you have not two lanes, but two and a half. Enough space for a cyclist even to fall down and not end up under a car, if it rides fairly close to the kerb (yes, I know that they are now taught to right in the middle of the road). But if you add a second cyclist – it does not work. It is OK in London with dedicated cycling lanes or well outside large towns, where there is no much traffic, but where I live all I see is that very few cyclists are courteous. And sometimes there IS a cycling lane and sign to move there (and the road markings!) but the cyclist still rides on the main road and is heavy traffic.
Maoraigh wrote:
The extra CO2 produced by trucks slowing down to 15 mph for 10 minutes before passing a cyclist must be a big volume on busy single carriageways, which are most of the roads I drive. And everything else behind them.
@Maoraigh, that is my biggest beef with those that say “cycling is always greener” – when I drive to the nearest town, I’ve noticed that my MPG is 20-30% worse if I had two-three cyclists going in the same direction (unless there is no other traffic). And if you are “lucky” to have a large truck (aka lorry) and a milkman (hate those), then you could get 50% worse mpg. What is green in that?
arj1 wrote:
there are great many really bad cyclists – perhaps 50-100% (ask any driver)
From personal experience. When in a car, I hate cyclists. When cycling, I hate car drivers (and pedestrians for that matter 
)
arj1 wrote:
when I drive to the nearest town, I’ve noticed that my MPG is 20-30% worse if I had two-three cyclists going in the same direction (unless there is no other traffic)
I’m extremely skeptical of that claim. If it’s true then your car needs to be repaired, it’s broken! (Or your driving style is incredibly unsympathetic to the machine).
Switching to metric because it’s easier, let’s assume it’s 10km to the nearest town, and the car does 35MPG (typical for a mid size car), 30% worse of this would be around 25MPG. 35MPG is 6.7L/100km, and 25MPG is 9.4L/100km. Driving 10km at 6.7L/100km will require 670ml of fuel, and at 25MPG would require 940ml of fuel. If overtaking two cyclists is really costing you 270ml of fuel (about 8.8 megajoules) on a 10km journey, there is definitely something wrong with your car. In reality, the extra fuel used to overtake a cyclist in a typical car amounts to about a table spoon’s worth.
Maoraigh wrote:
The extra CO2 produced by trucks slowing down to 15 mph for 10 minutes before passing a cyclist must be a big volume on busy single carriageways
If trucks really are having to slow down to 15mph for 10 minutes, then they will be using much less fuel (trucks are very un-aerodynamic). In any case the reason they can’t overtake is that there are too many cars coming the other way, many of these being driven on very short journeys that could be cycled/walked . Of course, the oncoming motorists get a free pass as they are part of the “in” group, regardless of how trivial their journey is, it’s those pesky cyclists that are causing all the problems!
alioth wrote:
I’m extremely skeptical of that claim. If it’s true then your car needs to be repaired, it’s broken! (Or your driving style is incredibly unsympathetic to the machine).
32 mpg vs 39-40 mpg for around 10 miles, oncoming traffic does not allow me overtake, if you drive during a relatively busy time.
Yes, of course if all people walk/cycle they you could overtake. Or if all people just stay at home and don’t go anywere.
But do I HAVE to stop using my car?!
As I pointed out in my previous posts, under current circuimstances it does not work and cyclists make me to slow down more often than not.
Yes, some of cyclists just park into those small parking areas on the side of the road and let 10-20 cars through (just like was doing when I had a puncture and drove on a low-speed spare, 40mpg max), but not all them do that. And I will again point to the sutuation when the cyclists don’t use the cycling lane but ride next to it on the main road. Can’t justify this at all, other than they do it out of spite.
