twahl

I see this is some areas, but not in others. In particular, The W&OD trail runs 44 miles (I believe) from just outside of Washington DC out west into horse country. Real close in, most people will look out for people crossing the trail, but most are just looking out, not yielding the right of way. A little further out, people will drive you nuts because they will stop even though you have the stop sign and they don't. Once you get out in the country, most drivers seem barely aware of you so you better be watching out for yourself. There were two deaths out there last summer, both with the bike riders blowing stop signs crossing roads that generally have little regular traffic.

Now where I am, there are no trails and only a couple of bike lane areas in town. You're pretty much on your own but if you ride like you belong in traffic, and with traffic, you have few problems. We have a couple of major roads that connect one end of the county to the other, that have MUPs along one side. Crossing intersections along there is tricky. There are a few where people tend to watch, but for the most part they come on out, only looking for cars, and being waved through is rare. I think it's compounded by the fact that there's only trail on one side, so if you are coming from the driver's right, they are never going to see you. As mentioned in another thread, the right on red turners often barely pause, if they think they can make it, they are coming out, and they aren't looking for bike traffic from the right.