Originally Posted by Bekologist
Now, back on topic-
- nightime, saturday night, motorpacing traffic moving 30-ish (MPH) on 4 lane one way road thru downtown. taxicabs, drunks out for the night, buses.
the potential of being overlooked by drivers is real, the potential of being merged into by driver in next lane over is present.
what does the savvy vehicular cyclist do on a multilane road when they and traffic is moving at the same pace? always avoid being alongside another vehicle due potential hooking merge or lane change?
being at near maximum speed (meaning its difficult to pull ahead of a car that is alongslide you)- do you slow down to avoid being alongside another vehicle, wiggle waggle, weave to get noticed, smile and wave, steely eyed glares?
what do YOU do when you're moving as fast as traffic on a multi laned arterial? ride like a vehicle, take advantage of your bike and its unique vehicular characteristics, or pretend you're a tractor?
Well I don't do 29MPH... my sprints rather top out at about 26MPH, and with that speed I can't do the 35MPH that is posted on the flat areas of my commute, but that speed is fast enough to allow me to keep up with motorists from light to light. Frankly I simply ride to the left edge of the right tire track and hold my position on the road, which is lined with parked cars and has no cycling facilities what so ever. Now this seems to irritate the occasional driver. They pass while expressing their grief in some manner or another... and I always catch them at the next light. I wait right behind their vehicle at the light and look right in their rear view mirror.
So in effect I "ride like a vehicle..." I don't filter forward, so I am not taking advantage of the size of the bike. I simply work to hold my place in the traffic. BTW I do the exact same thing (except I don't catch the motorists) when commuting with my heavy bike and panniers and move at 13MPH vice 26MPH. No different.
If I felt that there were a threat of being merged into, I would probably ride in the left tire track to improve my visibility to motorists that might attempt to merge into me.