This quite effectively describes my morning commute. The same trip takes nearly half the time if I do it in the evening when there are significantly fewer cars on the road. It surprises me that more drivers don’t share this experience and agree that
Oh, pet peeve! We have a road map that is specifically for long-distance road cycling. It includes symbols to tell you the nature of the traffic that you can expect along the various stretches. For example a road with a designated bike lane might end on Main Street and suddenly traffic is much heavier and that sucks, but at least you know what to expect as you get to the town. Fine.
But it’s a real pisser when you’re following the mapped route and suddenly the road turns to shit. We were going along a nice wide road, with a big paved shoulder, then we had to turn left onto a terrible road that had no shoulder and that led to a popular cottage country destination so city folks were driving well over the speed limit. We went several miles out of our way to see if the next road was any better (it wasn’t). If we’d known we wouldn’t have chosen that route. And usually what happens is you optimistically think, well it’s probably only shitty for a few hundred feet, right? The map wouldn’t recommend this road if it was shitty the whole way, right? :rolleyes:
Another time we ended up cranking to the top of a very long hill on our road bikes and about a third of the way from the top, the road turned to gravel. No mention of this on our “detailed” cycling map. :mad:
No. The cars have the potential to go traffic spead. When other vehicles can’t, they shouldn’t be on the road.
So you think tractors etc shouldn’t be on the road either? I can see the argument when you’re talking about highways etc (here in the Netherlands tractors, bicycles etc aren’t allowed on highways - where highways is basically every road with a speed limit over 62 miles/hour). It doesn’t work when you’re talking about general roads, since it would mean you won’t be able to get anywhere at all in anything but a car.
The Mennonites and Mounties here in Canada might have a beef about that.
Those “other vehicles” are also traffic.
I can’t cite chapter and verse, but I was taught that a car holding up 5 vehicles should pull over and let them pass (California). Assuming for a moment that this is correct, the same rule would apply to a cyclist.
I think part of the problem here and in other threads is that we are talking past each other. When I am thinking of these bikes I am thinking of a 55 mph road where traffic is whizzing along and some asshole biker comes along taking a lane and going 20 mph.
However, I think everyone thinks of slow, creeping downtown traffic when they read what I say.
I’ve already said in other threads that if it is like downtown area where traffic normally is going 15 mph then the bike should take a lane. I would have no beef with that because I would prefer they be on a bike than in another car.
If you are telling me that it is perfectly ok for bikes to take up a lane or lanes of a highway with traffic bunching up behind them for miles then, you sir, are an asshole if you do this and you deserve to be dusted.
Cars don’t do 45mph on twisty narrow roads. If they’re going that speed then the road can’t be very twisty, either that or they’re complete morons. That’s not to say that the speed limit might not be 45mph.
The problem with all these discussions is that the OP is pitting a relatively limited group based on a specific instance, and everyone else is arguing a general position based on their own experiences which aren’t necessarily relevant to the OPs situation.
Personally I’ve never held up a car while on my bike for more than a few seconds (I’ve made a car slow down prior to passing me, but they’ve never had to sit behind me.) I’ve also never been held up by a bicycle. I actually find that very slow vehicles, tractors and the like included, are much easier to pass than slightly slow vehicles because you need very little longitudinal space to pass them. I’ve had much more trouble getting stuck behind a car that’s going 5 mph slower than me than getting stuck behind bicycles, tractors, graders, etc.
Ultimately car drivers need to be alert, drive to the road conditions, don’t assume anything, and proactively look for unusual traffic such as bicycles, motorbikes, pedestrians, etc. For their part cyclists should assume they’re invisible and ride accordingly.
Tractors are not a problem during metro traffic that I have seen in the past 20 years.
I’ve lived in rural areas…traffic is not a problem. I just go around the tractor.
Myself, I see the issue less one of danger to the cyclist and more one of holding up traffic. On that sort of road there aren’t many opportunities to pass a slow-moving vehicle safely. Even when traffic is low it’s chancy.
OT question for bikers–is it normal to have a bike lane down the middle of a one-way street? There’s a two-lane road downtown with parking on both sides and a bike lane down the middle. I’ve never seen a biker using it, but a driver can’t change lanes without crossing the bike path. It’s never struck me as a particularly good arrangement.
Just wanted to make the point, if I may be excused for gratuitous niceness in the Pit, that this has been my personal experience too. In about 30 years of local and long-distance bicycling activity, as far as I can tell, there’s never been a driver who’s deliberately endangered me or even expressed hostility towards me (I think we XX-type cyclists get a bit better treatment in that regard than the XY ones). Most of them have gone out of their way to make sure they could drive around me safely.
Of course, I do my part too, always riding as much to the right as I safely can, obeying traffic laws, trying to use routes with lower traffic and better room, being properly visible, etc. So I don’t think I’m inconveniencing drivers too grievously. Still, I appreciate their caution and courtesy towards me, and I’d like to thank them for that.
(Oh, and that family in a station wagon who cheered me up a steep hill in the rain on my way back north along the Hudson last summer and stopped at the top to split their kids’ PowerBar stash with me? Mwah mwah mwah smoochy smooch I love you.)
Just as I have every right to dress up in my finest business attire and stroll through the bad part of town whistling and counting my bankroll of bills, it is still stupid, risky, and dangerous and I only have myself to blame if the increased risks materialize into genuine harm when I could easily have chosen another path to minimize my risks.
Same thing for cyclists on an obviously dangerous road. I cycle regularly, and plan my routes to avoid dangerous roads. There is a twisty, hilly, blind-corner, no shoulder road near my house that I do not ride on, yet it is incredibly popular with Tour-De-Roadkill wannabes in “Team Microsoft” jerseys biking up and down it at all hours. I’m a cyclist, but these guys are idiots and their risk of ending up wrapped around someone’s bumper is easily avoided no matter how much they whine and cry about road rights equality.
So its all about ‘potential’, then? Not actual speed obtained? Seems like a slippery standard designed to convenience you.
No…it’s just not ‘personal’.
Its just only applied by you when it conveniences the driver. Gotcha.
I’d like to think that our nation’s roads are not zones of lawlessness and disorder. As many awkward encounters as I may have had with careless drivers I’d still like to think it was mostly unintentional (barring the couple of cases where it obviously wasn’t) and not the antics of criminals.
I would wager that if you were to compare your walking through a bad neighborhood scenario vs. riding on a road as described in the OP your survivability would be much, much greater with the latter.
If the time comes where cars routinely bunch up bikes behind them because they cannot keep up for the bikes…then the car driver can pound sand and get off the road.
So why don’t they get off the roads I use? They sure as heck slow me down no matter what their ‘potential’ speeds might be.
Because it is not a common sight. You are probably unique in your delusion er situation.