10.2 Bicycle Riders, Motorcyclists, Horses and Sharing the Road

10.2 Bicycle Riders, Motorcyclists, Horses and Sharing the Road

Quick Summary / Key Rule: Bicycle riders have the same rights and responsibilities as drivers, and NSW law sets a minimum passing distance of at least 1 metre. You are permitted to cross centre lines and lane lines where necessary to provide that distance, provided it is safe.

Vulnerable road users are the ones a heavy vehicle driver is least likely to see and most likely to kill. A bicycle in the near-side blind spot of a left-turning truck, a motorcycle sitting in the mirror shadow, a horse spooked by air brakes — these are all situations where the law asks more of you precisely because the other party has no protection.

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Bicycle Riders

The minimum passing distance

When passing a bicycle rider you must leave a minimum lateral distance of at least 1 metre. To provide that distance you are permitted to cross a centre line, a dividing line or a lane line where it is safe to do so — the passing-distance rule takes priority over the line-marking rule. What you must not do is squeeze past inside the minimum distance because a line is in the way.

In a heavy vehicle, treat one metre as the absolute legal floor rather than a target. A truck passing at speed generates a pressure wave and then a suction draft that can pull a rider sideways into your rear wheels. Give considerably more room where the lane allows it, or wait.

The rest of the bicycle rules

• Bicycle riders must obey the road rules. They are not exempt from signals, signs or give-way rules.
• Bicycle riders have the same rights and responsibilities as drivers and motorcycle riders. A rider is entitled to occupy a lane.
• Overtake a pedal cyclist the same way you would overtake another vehicle — check it is safe, signal, allow room, and return only when you can see the rider in your mirror.
• A bicycle warning sign means watch out for bicycle riders along the roadway or crossing ahead.

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Motorcyclists

Motorcycle and bicycle riders have the same right to use the road as other motor vehicle drivers, but they need extra care from you for two specific reasons: they are harder to see in traffic, and they do not have the same protection as someone inside a vehicle.

Practical consequences for a heavy vehicle driver:

• A motorcycle occupies a small fraction of the visual area of a car and disappears completely behind an A-pillar or a mirror arm.
• Your near-side mirror shadow on a left turn is large enough to conceal a motorcycle entirely.
• A motorcyclist's braking and swerving ability is far better than yours, so the gap you think you are leaving them may already have closed from their point of view.

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Horses and Animals

• If you see a horse and rider on the road, slow down and give them plenty of room. Do not use the horn, do not use engine brakes near the animal, and do not accelerate hard as you pass.
• An animal warning sign (kangaroo, cattle, wombat) means there may be animals on or near the road ahead — drive carefully and watch out for them.
• In a laden heavy vehicle, do not swerve violently to avoid an animal. A rollover or a head-on is a far worse outcome than striking the animal. Brake in a straight line as hard as the load allows.

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Buses and Bus Passengers

• In a 60 km/h zone with only one lane for traffic in your direction, you must slow down and give way to a bus that is signalling to pull out from a bus stop. The bus has priority in that circumstance.
• If you are driving a bus displaying the give way sign on a road with no street lights or houses along it, you do not have right of way when you pull out — the priority rule applies in built-up areas.
• Watch for passengers stepping into the traffic lane in front of and behind a stopped bus.

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Emergency Vehicles

• If you hear the siren of an emergency vehicle approaching from behind, move into the left lane and let it pass.
• Generally, if you hear a siren, pull over to the left until the emergency vehicle passes.
• Take whatever action is safely necessary to make way — but "safely" matters: a 40-tonne combination braking hard on a wet freeway to clear an ambulance can cause the crash the ambulance is heading to.

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Scanning: The Skill Underneath All of It

To drive safely you need to continually scan the road — looking ahead, to the sides, and checking your side and rear-view mirrors. This is the single behaviour that connects every rule in this section. Vulnerable road users are not detected by a glance; they are detected by a repeating scan pattern that covers the near-side blind spot before every left turn and every lane change.

For a heavy vehicle the scan has three heavy-vehicle-specific additions:

1. Before moving off, walk the near side of the vehicle or use the kerb-view mirror. A cyclist stopped alongside your trailer is invisible from the seat.
2. Before every left turn, check the near-side mirror twice — once on approach and once immediately before the wheels begin to turn — because a rider can arrive in the gap between those two checks.
3. Before opening the door, check mirrors and blind spots for pedestrians, bicycles and other road users. You must not open a door if you are likely to cause danger.

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Worked Scenario: The Left Turn With a Cyclist

A driver in a rigid tipper is turning left from a 50 km/h urban road into a side street. A cyclist is travelling in the same direction in the kerb-side bicycle lane.

1. The physical problem: the tipper is 9 metres long, so its rear wheels will track inside the path of the steer axle. That sweep passes directly through the bicycle lane.
2. The visibility problem: as soon as the steer wheels begin to turn, the cyclist moves out of the near-side mirror's field of view.
3. The rule set: the cyclist has the same rights as a driver and is lawfully in the bicycle lane. The driver is the one changing direction.
4. The correct action: check the near-side mirror on approach and again immediately before turning, hold position behind the cyclist if there is any doubt, and let them clear the intersection before beginning the turn. Turning "around" a cyclist in the same manoeuvre is how left-turn cyclist fatalities happen.