On 03/09/2011 08:40 PM, Dan O wrote:
On Mar 9, 9:03 am, Frank wrote:
On Mar 8, 10:42 pm, Dan wrote:
On Mar 8, 3:08 pm, Frank wrote:
Seriously, isn't this your big chance? There may be a bike lane I
(and others) would say we'd like, one that's truly valuable beyond
it's added width. Why not post a photo?
I don't have a pic handy, and it wouldn't matter anyway, since it's
traffic dynamics that make a bike lane worthwhile, but the one I'm
thinking of runs along the gutter of what was at one point in time the
very busiest road in the state. Most "cyclists" are scared ****less
to ride the road at all (this "fact" is published), and I've had my
share of close calls there, but since it's the only best most direct
route for along way to where I need to get to, I ride it regularly.
The bike lane is rough and debris-strewn and has some nasty standing
water and buses stop in it and there are like a zillion driveways with
lots of traffic pulling in and out, but without that bike lane
allowing me to stay mostly out of the way of a million impatient
cagers, I would go another way. Take it FWIW.
I think you missed the phrase "beyond the added width." If you remove
the stripe, you have as much pavement in which to "stay mostly out of
the way." You'd have less debris too, which probably means more
available room. The stripe adds no room.
I don't know how you could be more obtuse. Width is not the issue.
Sharing the lane is the issue.
Bike lanes wouldn't do much good on most roads IMO, but the bike lanes
on this particular road - a road and traffic that I know intimately
and you don't at all - are highly beneficial to the cooperative and
harmonious flow of traffic.
I have pretty much no problem sharing the road. What I have a problem
with is motorist hostility.
What is one of the most fundamental tenets of driving a car on the
road. Keep it between the lines, right?
Sharing the lane to pass a bicyclist in the same lane - no matter how
wide it is - presents drivers more of a stressful conundrum to drivers
than simply keeping it between the lines.
Many drivers will simply refuse to pass until they *can* move to the
next lane. On such very busy roads, just changing lanes can be a
stressful endeavor if feasible at all. Traffic stacks up traffic
behind, fomenting still more impatience, stess, frustration,
resentment, anger, and hostility in still more drivers. And to whom
will these drivers direct all of their pent up anger? That's right -
the bicyclist, who they feel is "in the way", and whom they are about
to take *their* crack at in this lane sharing gang bang.
I think that likely most often happens on narrow rural two-lanes...
reluctance to stripe for passing lanes might have something to do with
it; also laws explicitly allowing motorists to briefly straddle the
double yellow to pass a cyclist when safe to do so might go a long way.
The latter is explicitly illegal in Virginia (§ 46.2-804), although I
have to admit to having done it, because of the reluctance of the
authorities to stripe for passing zones and also because it takes far
less space to pass a bicycle going 15-20 MPH than it does to pass a car
going 40-45ish, so a straightaway that may be too short to pass a slow
moving motor vehicle is more than sufficient to pass a bicycle (or farm
tractor, or what have you.) A willingness to use the loud pedal helps,
too, unfortunately many motorists believe that using its full travel is
somehow de facto unsafe. I can't find anything authoritative, but I
believe that it is also technically illegal in Virginia to temporarily
exceed the speed limit while passing, so there's yet another instance of
laws not being aligned with common sense and best practices for safety.
I dunno about you, but if I'm on a 55 MPH two-lane road following a
vehicle doing 40, and I feel the need to pass and I am legally able to
do so, I'm going to mat it until I am moving back into my correct travel
lane to minimize my exposure time. (well, OK, maybe not if I'm driving
a 427 Cobra or something with a similar power-to-weight ratio, but I
haven't had the pleasure of that experience.)
In Virginia there is also a two foot clearance rule, meaning that in
many cases it is simply not possible to completely legally pass a
cyclist on a striped two-lane, even if the cyclist is "as close as
safely practicable to the right curb or edge of the roadway."
nate
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