The simple answer here is that you don’t put yourself into this situation. The times I feel the most unsafe on a bike is at dawn and dusk when riding into the sun because I know the cars behind have as much trouble seeing as I do. So, I don’t ride at those times in those places. What I would never ever do is ride against the flow of traffic. Really? You’re going to ride at dusk with, presumably, a white light on your bike so the car driver will see a white light coming their way on the wrong side of the road. This is wildly unpredictable and unsafe, Stop it.
Also, the closest I’ve come to being hit is from cars pulling out in front of me. The only trouble I’ve had with drivers behind me is when they’re intentionally being cunts, but that happens, it’s one of the risks of cycling.
Pedestrians are pedestrians who happen to in the road and should as soon as they see there is traffic approaching get out of traffic’s way and off the road … walking on a curvy road that has traffic coming around bends at 60 mph … don’t do it.
Bicycles are traffic, should be staying on the road with other traffic, sharing the road with other traffic, and are obligated to follow the rules that apply to traffic for the safety of all involved.
Why yes! It is genius! And I bet he pioneered not wearing seatbelts while in a car so that in a collision he would be thrown free to safety!
Another factor in riding the wrong way is urban streets. On this coast of the US there are a lot of narrow streets in cities with two lanes of parking, one driving. If you come up behind a cyclist on one of these streets you can wait to pass when it is safe or not pass at all. Yes, some bad/aggressive drivers may try to force the issue but the point is they do have options.
When you ride into traffic on a city street there are no options. The car much pass you with whatever space there is (and it is not a comfortable feeling for the driver!) and you certainly won’t be able to “dive out of the way” because you’ll be going into someone’s parked car.
I can’t believe we are even having this conversation.
This has happened to me as well. My favorite is on a narrow bike lane where Mr. McStupid is riding the wrong way and waves for me to get out of the way. When we ended up having to stop because of his stupidity he tried giving me grief about not getting out of his way and said he was riding the way he was supposed to. In a less than pleasant voice I asked him which way the arrow was pointing on the bike lane. When he tried to imply that didn’t matter I just exploded and said a whole bunch of nasty things about how he was on a bike because if he drove as bad as he rode he obviously lost his license, “Or drank it away”. God I was pissed off.
What is so unrealistic about using a mirror? A mirror costs 15 bucks. You can put them on your handlebar, helmet, or eye glasses. They are just as effective as car mirrors. I’d argue a helmet/eyeglass mirror is more effective than a car mirror since I can view everything behind me just by moving my head.
You wouldn’t drive a car without mirrors, right? You shouldn’t cycle without a mirror either.
I didn’t read most of the other replies so please forgive me if I’ve repeated stuff.
I ride with traffic.
It’s the law. OK that’s a lame reason, unless the law is actually correct.
Fewer cars passing me. If I’m doing 15 mph and the cars in my lane are doing 30 mph, I’ll get to my destination before a lot of cars have the chance to pass me. Now if I’m riding against traffic at the same speed, then more cars and trucks will by flying by. Think about it.
Given #2 above, getting rear-ended at an impact speed of 15 mph just might be less harmful than getting hit in a 45 mph head-on collision. Also going with the flow gives a driver more time to see and avoid you.
You don’t want to be doing something that can confuse drivers. If I’m at a 2-way stop sign and want to turn right, I’ll look over my left shoulder to really make sure that another vehicle isn’t coming that way. I won’t pay much attention to what’s on the right as by law nothing is suppose to be coming that way. If you are on the bike approaching from my right, I might not see you.
Traffic signals, road markings, etc., are all set up for the flow of traffic. It would be very difficult to turn at a multi-lane intersection if you are going the wrong way. Plus the drivers wouldn’t be expecting you as mentioned above.
I ride my bicycle over 4,000 miles a year and a lot of it out on the road with cars and trucks.
Of course I would prefer to see if the car is moving over to avoid me. That’s why I have a rearview mirror on my helmet.
And as runner pat pointed out, that gives me extra reaction time: the car is approaching at (their speed - my speed) instead of (their speed + my speed). Even if I’m moseying along at 10 mph, biking in the direction of traffic rather than against it reduces the speed they’re approaching me at by 20 mph.
I think with traffic, but have some common sense. There is a guy near me that rides with black overalls (probably for warmth) on a 55MPH rural road at night and I’ve damn near hit him a few times, saw him at the last moment. The last time he was walking his bike along the side of the road, his feet were on my side of the white line.
The road from my town to the capital gets a lot of bike traffic: you sometimes see too-many abreast but other than that they ride properly; the one time I saw someone biking against traffic (an adult and a child about 11), I also saw a cop who was checking drivers’ IDs stop the cyclists, make them switch sides and proceed to throw The Book at the adult.
Due to the fact that roadways and driving habits have changed over the years, I’ll concede that my past riding style is no longer appropriate …
You can all put the pitchforks back in the barn and extinguish your torches, now.
As a small child, I was taught to ride against the direction of traffic on mostly-empty suburban streets with slow-moving traffic. (In the bike lane on the main thoroughfare, I was taught to ride in the direction of traffic.) My parents made a point of telling me that adults had to ride in the direction of traffic, but it was safer for me on back roads to ride on the left so I could see oncoming cars better. In retrospect, it is a wonder I wasn’t killed by a car backing out of a driveway. I solve this conundrum now by not owning a bike.
