I live in the US where even residential streets are like airstrips they’re so huge. I commute partly on a boulevard (two one way streets separated by a strip) which has parking on the right hand side both directions. I ride next to the parked cars and incompetent US drivers seem unable to pass me even when they have a meter of clearance both between themselves and the left curb and me on the right. If I slow down they will pass me as if by slowing down I have suddenly widened the pavement. I find nothing more unnerving than being followed by two tons of steel piloted by someone incapable of passing me with all that available clearance. Oddly, professional drivers in large trucks with less clearance pass me proficiently and with no hesitation.
How do you feel about drivers around you. Some here I think will disagree strongly with me, believing that unicycles and bicycles own the road for some bizzare esthetic or environmental reason. I personally believe that cars own the road in that their drivers paid the taxes to purchase and maintain the roads.
I don’t hav too much trouble with the drivers round here but i know what you mean, some of them seem to enjoy hanging on just behind you, even though you’re no wider than a person walking down the side of the road. Maybe it’s because i live in the country, the roads are not wide enough for two cars to pass at speed, there are no pavements and people are pretty used to encountering things that require a bit of care, like horses etc. I just took my brother’s new racing bike for a ride down the lane and was so wobbly i felt compelled to pull in to let a builder’s truck pass, my usual attitude is that they can damn well wait for a minute until the road is wider.
My car has yet to pay a single dollar in taxes. I, however, have paid plenty, and therefore I’ve earned the right to use the roads with any of my 1-4 wheeled vehicles.
I believe that with a little bit of courtesy, all drivers/riders can use the road.
However, when on a 1-2 wheeled self-powered vehicle, it is sometimes necessary to “take” a little more of the road than cars would like you to have. If you don’t, you’ll often be nudged into dangerous situations. When on roads with lots of parked cars, its important to be far enough in the road that a carelessly flung open door won’t cause you to have a very very bad day.
Since most people in this country think everybody else is an idiot, I assume that when I’m driving bicyclists regard me with as much disdain as I regard drivers when I’m unicycling. Which is a way simply of saying, “no comment” (except, of course, that I did bother posting so come to your own conclusions about what I think).
Drivers had better damn well pay taxes for the order of magnitude more damage to the roads motor vehicles do compared to bikes and unicycles.
I rarely unicycle in traffic - I uni for leisure, and do so away from cars - but the bike is my main form of local transport. Faster roads can be unnerving, especially around here with lots of bends and high hedges, but around town cycling is far more enjoyable than driving; I can get across town far faster by bike than by car, and don’t have to worry about being held up or where to park.
In Minneapolis, especially downtown and many of the first ring suburbs, they have added unicycle lanes. Unfortunately, these unicycle lanes are just wide enough to also serve as parking spaces for cars. So at the moment I am more irritated by parked cars than by moving ones.
In the UK, if there is a solid white line, cars are not allowed to enter. If you come across some foreign object such as a piece of wood or some rubbish, no-one would stop you riding over it.
Technically, assuming you don’t do any damage (well, maybe a cheeky tyre track), is it legal to get all trialsy and ride over the car?
In most places a car legally has to give a bicyclist 5 feet of clearance. The drivers that drive slowly behind you are obeying the law. They really shouldn’t pass you without an extra lane. When you slow down you are giving them permission to pass.
I have spent the last two weeks commuting in Beijing. It makes riding in the States seem like a picnic. The taxi drivers over here are absolutely bug-house crazy, they play chicken with the bikes, of which there are hundreds and hundreds. What I have noticed is that when they see me on my 29er (bikes or cars) they slow down and avoid me. I think because they don’t now what I’m going to do, proabably out of the natural assumption that I couldn’t possibly be in control of that thing. So the slowing down thing is proabably just that, they don’t think you are under control and they don’t know what you are going to do. Either that, or they are admiring your butt.
I may be hard of thinking, but how can a bus cause more damage per rider-mile than cars but less than the equivalent riders in their cars?
I was under the impression that buses were more damaging… the higher the axle weight of a vehicle the more damage it causes, and enough cars to carry a bus-load of people have a lot of axles between them to share the weight, where the bus may only have two or three.
I should’ve ended that sentence with a question mark as I intended to ask the question as a spark to a discussion about the reason for public transport.
I forgot the ? at first and missed the edit window once I noticed it.