Originally Posted by John Forester
You appear not to have been reading the VC lists, bekologist. I repeat my standard instruction. That is, ride in the proper place for whatever you are doing, regardless of the presence or absence of a bike-lane stripe.
Trust me, John, he's heard it repeated many times before here on this forum.
He can't seem to accept that means you sometimes ride in the bike lane, you sometimes don't, it just depends on the normal factors and conditions, and has nothing to do with the presence of the stripe.
My answer to the question is : it depends. It depends on the current factors and conditions, which include:
- the presence or absence of same-direction traffic, and how fast it's moving and with what volumes.
- If same direction traffic is present that is faster than me, whether 5' from the edge of the cars puts me in or outside of the bike lane (hard to tell from the photo).
- Whether there is debris in the bike lane.
- Whether I'm riding into the sun or not.
- How wide the adjacent lane is.
- If faster traffic is present, where 3' to the right of them puts me. If it puts me outside of the bike lane, that's probably where I ride. If it puts me near the stripe, that probably where I ride. If it puts me in the door zone, I take control of the lane by riding further left, well outside of the bike lane.
- etc.