Originally Posted by Brian Ratliff
I dunno. I ride in that 2-3' "dead" area regularly, without problems. From noisebeams video, I believe he does also. I think the 2-3' zone is a contrived grievance. 17' is 17' is 17'.
Of course I do sometimes, but I mostly try to be either fully in our fully out of the BL. To do this one must be at least 3' into primary lane or well into BL. I think the only BL riding videos I've shown are demonstrating static use of BL, then I guess I ride close to the line inside BL due to my discomfort with riding closer to curb. This puts my shoulder over the stripe.
But yes, it is prime space to be cycling. Most other cyclists I observe ride along the stripe too.
It is strange to me that the stripe is intended to define a bike lane to be used like other vehicular lanes, yet a significant portion of cyclist ride the stripe, a non-vehicular (and like I said probably technically illegal) use of lane striping.
This is of course alternately a reason to make the minimum standard for a BL width to 6'. 4-5' doesn't cut it.
Al