HOHIMER

jerry said:
" I can't think of any other reason for them to make the moves they do."
I can......Vodka!

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Speaking of watching crashes, Jerry, whatever happened to Demolition Derby?

neillaubenthal

In many states…the bicycle laws say that they should follow the vehicle laws unless it is in their view unsafe to do so…in which case they may violate them without penalty. It is all based on the light bike/heavy car principle.

For instance…in my area I need to go about a half mile down US 41 before I get to the paved sidewalk area…there are marked bike lanes on both sides of the road but in my view riding opposite the flow of traffic is safer since I can see the cars coming and bail to t(e ditch if needed. The law says that one should ride with the flow of traffic but that’s never made any sense to me as you will never see the problem until it hits you. It isn’t a separation issue…the bike lanes re the same width…and the speed limit is 60 so no matter if I’m doing my 18 with or against the traffic…a hit at low 40s is just as bad for the biker as one at mid 70s.

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

In PA we are supposed to give a cyclist a 4ft. cushion. On some narrow roads this means crossing a double yellow line. I guess we just have to decide between breaking law #1, or law #2!

berchman Loc: South Central PA

You're making a big mistake.

QUESTION: I’ve been noticing in the last couple years that more and more adults and kids are riding their bicycles toward traffic. I thought the rule is that a bicycle should be riding in the right lane with the flow of traffic. Is that correct?

ANSWER: The simple answer is yes, you’re correct. Washington state law requires that when cyclists ride in the road they obey the rules of the road. One of the most fundamental rules is that we drive (or ride) on the right side of the road.

The bigger question is why people would do it.

Sometimes what feels safer and what actually is safer are two different things. Some Inexperienced (and even some more experienced) cyclists will say that the reason they ride the opposite direction of cars is so that they can see who is coming.

It seems like with increased concerns about distracted drivers some bike riders don’t trust that drivers will see them, so they ride against traffic hoping that it will give them more opportunity to spot and avoid dangerous drivers. It’s the, “I want to see who’s going to run me over” philosophy. Unfortunately, their reasoning doesn’t stand up against the data.

A study in Palo Alto, California, found that cyclists who ride against traffic are nearly four times more likely to be killed by a car than cyclists who ride with traffic.

The results of that study aren’t surprising; there are so many reasons why riding against traffic is a bad idea. In the interest of brevity, I’ll just cover a few of them.

SPEED DIFFERENTIAL: If you’re riding with traffic at 15 mph and get struck by a car traveling 25 mph, there’s a speed differential of 10 mph. If you’re riding against traffic at the same speeds, the speed differential is 40 mph. A person who is struck by a car at 10 mph has a 98 percent chance of survival. At 40 mph it’s almost 50-50.

REDUCED REACTION TIME: This works off the same principles as speed differential. Given the same scenario as above, the closing distance is four times faster when riding against traffic. That gives drivers one fourth of the reaction time to respond once they notice a cyclist.

If a driver doesn’t notice an oncoming cyclist until there’s less than 100 feet between them the driver has about 1.5 seconds to react. If you’ve read my article on tailgating you know that 1.5 seconds is at the margins of a human’s ability to respond. That’s why we we’re taught in drivers ed to leave at least two seconds between us and the car in front of us.

If a cyclist rides with traffic, that same driver would have six seconds to decide how to respond; plenty of time to slow down or safely maneuver around the bike rider.

NO ALTERNATIVE TO PASSING: As long as you ride the same direction as cars travel, if a car catches up to you on a narrow road at the same time as an oncoming car approaches, the car behind you can just slow down for a few seconds and then pass after the oncoming car has gone by.

If you ride against traffic and there isn’t enough room for a driver to fit between an oncoming car and an oncoming bike and you’re forcing that driver to pick between hitting either you or another car. Our innate survival instincts compel us to make the decision that’s least likely to kill us, so a driver will almost always pick the cyclist.

ENCOUNTERS WITH CYCLISTS OBEYING THE LAW: If you ride against traffic you’re eventually going to encounter a cyclist following the rules and one of you is going to have to get out of the way of the other. In this situation someone on a bike is either getting forced into traffic or into a ditch.

CARS WON’T SEE YOU: Drivers look for hazards (like oncoming cars and bikes) where they expect to see them, and they don’t expect them in the wrong lane.

There’s also a misconception about the actual risk of being hit from behind. I think it stems from being more afraid of what we can’t see than what we can see.

Take, for example, sharks and bears. In North America bears kill twice as many people as sharks, but we all know sharks are still scarier. How do we know? There’s no Bear Week on the Discovery Channel. Why are they scarier? Because we know they’re out there but we can’t see them coming.

Cycling fatalities are similar – even though many cyclists are most of afraid of getting rear-ended, according to Cornell University only about five percent of car-bike crashes are caused by a motorist striking a cyclist from behind, while about one third of all car-bike crashes involve a wrong-way cyclist.

Ollieboy

So then you have no objection to paying more taxes since you have a bicycle and most motorists don't. You are not entitled to your bicycle lane without paying for it. Bicycles belong in a parks and NOT on city roads blocking motorists who have had lanes confiscated for their selfish joyrides.

berchman Loc: South Central PA

Selfish joyrides: "It provides estimates of how many people use a bicycle for daily commuting trips to work. According to an average of the last three years of Journey to Work data (2015- 17), there are approximately 48,800 bicycle commuters in New York City who take 97,600 trips daily (assuming that each commuter takes two trips)."

https://www1.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/cycling-in-the-city.pdf

SteveR Loc: Michigan

I live near a lake that is about 10 miles in circumference. It's great for biking and has a separate trail for running and walking. I used to ride 20 miles three times a week. It was a safe place to ride. There were times that I would see cyclists riding on a busy four lane street, where cars would travel at 50 mph or more when they could have ridden a parallel side street in the same direction. It wasn't a smart decision, although they had every right to do so. There could always be that time when a large vehicle (truck, SUV) would pass them and the car behind would not be able to see them. When riding a bike you always have to think safety. Otherwise, it's just to easy to get killed or maimed.

CWW Loc: North Jersey

Bike lanes? What good are bike lanes if the bikers are riding three abreast?

PhotogHobbyist Loc: Bradford, PA

Giving priority to motorized vehicles on the roads would be a great step forward. In my state they have passed a law which basically states that motorized vehicles must keep at least ten feet from a bicyclist on the roadway, even if the vehicle must go into the next lane. If the government is going to give that much "right" to bicycles, I suggest that bicycles be required to have mileage recorders and pay an annual fee based on the number of miles traveled by that bicycle each year. I also cannot believe the law that states vehicles must yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. A 200 pound human walking at two or three mph can certainly stop faster and easier than a 1 to 2 ton (or heavier) vehicle travelling at 25 mph.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

No disagreement from me. The colorful riders I see around here are out for a ride. They're not saving gas or the environment.