Who drives best around cyclists?

We have an extremely unscientific study in the making as we bimble about. Which nationals drive the best around cyclists?

We get passed by cars, trucks and many, many motorhomes in Norway. Not least because we are insanely slow at cycling up hill…and we’ve been doing an awful lot of that.

In reverse order, without prejudice, based on our experience thus far:

• Latvian drivers - too many shocking passes to be coincidental? Including our worst to date, as one forced me and Beck into a barrier while we were cycling up a 16% climb, with a passing space just up the way. Bah!
• Czech drivers
• Polish drivers
• French drivers
• British drivers
• Danish drivers
• Norwegian drivers
• German drivers - in keeping with our lack of scientific rigour here, it’s hard to tell if this is because of the higher proportion of German drivers driving motorhomes but we’ve had cause to thank more German drivers than any other. We always try to raise a thumb at a good pass, though sometimes the gradient makes that hard…

Of course, as a rule, we’d rather ride places where bikes and motor traffic don’t co-exist. We’ve done plenty of that on some stretches of Norway’s excellent cycling infrastructure, and by choosing tracks etc. Sometimes it’s just not possible though and in those cases, we are very grateful for those who take care around us. Vielen Dank!