Which side of the road?

At that pressure, I’ve notice no significant difference between “The Todd” and it’s predecessor the NightRider. I love the way it handles on the road.

For the record (sorry for the ThreadJack) I always ride with traffic owning my lane like a bicycle. I have a Take-A-Look mirror on my commuter helmet. In high-traffic or roads with higher speed limits, I’ll opt for the sidewalk being ever mindful of cars behind me turning in their driveways.

Good luck! Be careful out there! I wear a bright reflective jersey and have a Planet blinky in the rear with a Frog white flasher up front. My wife runs 8 miles, 3 days a week. I’m her chaperone on my 36" and, if it’s rush hour, on my 29er (in which case I really stick to the sidewalks).

Not much. Input from the uk so far so here’s my input.

Although you see plenty of people running/jogging against the traffic, I find it very rare that you see anyone ride against traffic other than when crossing roads and even then people (motorists) seem not to like it.

I have never rode against the traffic as to me it’s seem to go against everything I know. I understand that you can see them, but your still relying on them moving over but as already stated they have less time to do so due to combined speed.
I would never feel safe riding against traffic.

So I made the switch today and rode with the traffic. At one point, a car was trailing me, I was hugging the curb, the car was still trailing me, so I got onto the sidewalk via a driveway, at which point I UPD’d (nothing spectacular; I held onto the unicycle). The car stopped and the driver asked if I was all right. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I said. “I was filming you,” the driver said.

So that’s one disadvantage of riding with the traffic: idiots with video cameras.

I ride against traffic.

I will usually ride against traffic. I had a bicycle rider tell me that I was riding on the wrong side and that I should be riding with the flow of traffic. After calling him a bunch of names after he rode on, I decided to contact the New York State Highway Safety department and raise the questions with their lawyers. The lawyers will answer your highway safety questions for free. The lawyer told me that a bicycle has two or more wheels in a tandem or tricycle configuration, and my unicycle did not fit in that category. He told me that unicycles are covered under pedestrian laws, which advise traveling against traffic, but it is not an traffic offense not to. Basically you can ride wherever you want.
I will not ride on roads which do not have at least 2 or 3 feet of paved shoulder if I can avoid it, and I ride as far to the edge of the shoulder as I can. With drivers now talking and texting on cell phones, people riding unicyles need to watch out for their own safety, and that means being constantly aware of whats around you.

I try not to ride with or against traffic. Too many idiots texting, talking on cells, bimbos putting on makeup, people without licenses and/or don’t know the rules of the road, drunk drivers, etc. Hundreds of cyclists are killed each year, mostly due to these idiots behind the wheel, barely in control of the 2,000 pounds of metal they are “driving”. It’s just a matter of time before a unicyclist is added to the list. There are plenty of safer alternatives to riding with car traffic.

It’s strange, I’m from the UK and I’d never heard of riding ‘against’ traffic in any circumstance… Even when I’m on the pavement I always tend to be on the side that means I’m going in the right direction :roll_eyes:

Then again, over here, unicycles are lumped into the same laws as bikes (As the laws cover ‘cycles’ [note - not bicycles] which are something like ‘any vehicle with one or more wheels powered by pedals’) And so even if I wanted to ride ‘against’ traffic, I don’t think I’d be allowed to!

I don’t think I’d feel any safer riding against traffic either… Sure you can see the car coming, but that’s not much help if it’s coming towards you head on is it :frowning:

Indeed - it’s something which just does not compute over here, there simply is no culture of riding against the traffic. Though it certainly doesn’t hold for travelling on the pavement for me - notably there are several pavements I use which are designated as two way bike paths (it is a pain using them the wrong way at night though).

Nor necessarily. The law is quite confused on this issue - some mention cycling and cycles, but some bikes see http://www.bikehub.co.uk/featured-articles/cycling-and-the-law/ In reality I think if you’re on the road it’s best to consider you should do the same as a bike, though I’ll ride a unicycle in off-road areas I wouldn’t take a bike.

Those two-way paths are a good exception to my rule (Though it’s not a ‘rule’, just something I notice myself doing!) I shall read up on the laws a bit better though :wink:

always ride with the traffic

riding against flow means that you are simply not going to be seen. How many people turning left (uk)/ right(us) onto a road check that nothing is going the wrong way down the road they are turning on to. By not being where you are supposed to be, an inattentive/tired driver is likely to not see you until too late.

if cycling somewhere with lots of other cyclists riding the wrong way will force people out of the cycle lane and into the path of traffic.

also pedestrians often dont look properly and may step out in front of you (even when on a clearly marked contraflow cycle lane).

Edit. Never be afraid to take control of the entire lane if it makes things safer for you at the time.

Before you rely on pedestrian laws, you might want to check to make sure you’re complying with them. For instance, we have a state traffic statute in Utah that says: “Where there is a sidewalk provided and its use is practicable, a pedestrian may not walk along or on an adjacent roadway.”

I googled this language out of curiosity and saw multiple states in the search results.

Amen to that. I’m a regular bike commuter (working towrds being a uni commuter), and one of the most unsafe situations I encounter on a regular basis is the wrong-way runner/biker (haven’t encountered a unicyclist yet :)). I either have to veer out into traffic, or force that person to do so while not forcing myself into the “door zone”, which can be equally dangerous.

Please, if you’re gonna ride on the road, ride with traffic. It’s safer for you (being seen, relative velocities of vehicles, etc.) and it’s safer for your fellow non-motorized road users.

That’s good to know. Dodging joggers in the street has become something of a challenge lately - on a bike or in a car. Now, how to bring up that topic without being called a bunch of names. :roll_eyes:

Oh, and just in case you’re curious, there is statistical evidence to say that riding the wrong way is more dangerous (at least on bikes). A long-term study of accidents in Palo Alto, CA found that riding against traffic was 3 times as likely to cause an accident as riding with traffic (http://www.bicyclinglife.com/Library/riskfactors.htm).

Many of the factors they cite apply equally to unicyclists and bicyclists. So, let’s ride safely out there!

Oh, come on. You’re in Great Britain. Everybody is riding “against the traffic” there. :smiley:

I just discovered that Ohio law regarding what a bicycle is was redefined this year. It continues to specifically not include unicycles, but now includes anything with multiple wheels if one or more wheel exceeds 14 inches in diameter.

In practice, I ride 36" with traffic, and never on sidewalks. I ride 26" primarily on sidewalks.

My 36er has no brakes and 114mm cranks, so I am generally pretty unable to maneuver around unexpected pedestrian actions, but on a smaller wheel I am confident in keeping myself and others safe on sidewalks.

Though I’d suspect that as hard as they might try to exclude other factors, they can’t get rid of the issue that more experiences cyclists are a lot less likely to ride against the traffic, hence there is inbuilt bias in that study. Not that I disagree with the results, simply that I wouldn’t rely too much on them.

I avoid riding on roads … But when obliged I prefer riding against trafic.
reasons: I prefer riding to the left of the road, I am less stressed by vehicles coming.
BTW: I many street now in France there is a special right to ride against trafic in one-way streets (this is signaled on a street-by-street basis)

I also prefer riding on the left.

On which side of the street are you expected to ride if riding against traffic on a one-way street?

You have a good point, and if the increased hazard of ridiing against traffic was a subtle effect, I’d totally agree. It was a pretty big difference, though.

They did actually address the experience thing, sort of, in that they looked at ages of riders involved in accidents. Going against traffic for riders under 17 (less experienced in some sense) upped the risk to seven times more to be hit than when riding with traffic, whereas on the “riding with traffic” side of things, the under 17 group tracked pretty close to the 18+ group in accident rates. So, age/experience does help one negotiate more hazardous situations of riding against traffic, but only so much. It’s still a more dangerous thing to do.

Interesting - thought clearly there’s more to experience than age (those under 18s riding with the traffic are presumably in general the more confident and competent ones). Not that I disagree with the findings - it’s pretty much what I’d expect to see.

I find the results valid in real-world terms, as they are based on real-world cyclists. Just as there is a high likelihood that someone who causes a (car) traffic accident seems to not have insurance (in the US), wrong-way cyclists are often less aware that there is a side they’re supposed to ride on, and why it makes sense.

One of the other reasons it makes sense is because motorists are more likely to look for you. I remember a recent scare I had when pulling out of my own neighborhood at night. Looking both ways, waiting for traffic to clear on the main road. Last look is to the left, which is where the traffic comes from. As I start to pull out, my head swivels back to the right and an idiot on a bike, with no lights, is riding across just beyond my bumper. Gave me a mini-heart attack. I don’t want to knock down or injure any cyclist or pedestrian, regardless of how much they try to sneak up on me.

I know this has been the rule for a long time, at least in New York. I’m not sure if it applies to the rest of my country, or just New York City. It makes sense though (to me). Cyclists, at least in New York, are going to ride on those streets anyway…