Middle of the Road
Whenever a person first discovers I bike, they reply with a story. And it’s always the same story.
“I was driving down [insert any road name] when all of the sudden I saw a cyclist in the MIDDLE OF THE ROAD!” Inevitably it always ends with them saying they “just tapped on their horn” or “squeezed by” or “yelled out to the cyclist.”
And many many times I’ve been the cyclist in one of these stories- the one sharing the road with a driver that isn’t aware of the basic road rules regarding bikes.
What’s worse is that sometimes reasonable people panic at the sight of a bicycle in the lane… and then all that reason flies out the window.
So I wanted to explain it to those who have never biked in the city:
And there’s more. Bikes are small, but they still need space. Cars should give cyclists the same amount of space when passing as another vehicle, at least 3 ft. However, not all roads allow for that, particularly in Boston:
So don’t panic when you see a bike in your lane. Just treat it like another vehicle. If you can pass safely, that’s fine. If not, most likely you won’t be slowed down much if at all. In the city, I find that car traffic slows me down much more than the other way around.
Surprisingly, the locals here in rural Virginia give me pretty good space on the country roads. Worst I’ve encountered was Elizabeth City, NC, where the locals told me I’d better ride on the sidewalks because the traffic wouldn’t respect me–and they didn’t! That was over 20 years ago, but I still had flashbacks when viewing the above cartoons–no exaggeration for that town. I finally succumbed to the sidewalks (which is illegal in most places). In fact, I originally entered a Bible college in that town to co-op and take the majority of my classes through the local community college, but an administrator there flatly refused to assist me in registering when he discovered my mode of transportation. He told a story of a 17-year janitor everyone loved who got creamed on US-16 on his way biking home from work, and said, “No, I will not help you get registered for classes here, in fact, I will oppose you. It is too dangerous.”
In my town you got to be careful because cars don’t ever notice bikes and we don’t even have a bike lane. I usually end up riding on the sidewalks because it is safer there.
-Aaron, recently watched leadville bike race