Originally Posted by genec
Well the easist example I can give is regarding the major route near my home. 35MPH road, cars parked along both sides of this 4 lane divided road. No bike lanes, and not wide enough to share... so cyclists typically ride the sidewalk.
I ride the street. I ride in the right tire track of the right lane... avoiding parked car doors. I often am honked at, and yelled at, or tailgated and then "brushed" by motorists that evidently feel I do not belong on "their" road. There are no alternative routes as canyons break up any other possible thru streets.
Any road where cyclists are not banned accomodates the needs of cyclists. It may not accomodate the need of motorists to pass slower traffic easily, but that's not an example of not accomodating cyclists.
The fact that our culture teaches cyclists to not feel comfortable riding on roads where they are accomodated, but easy passing is not accomodated, is a separate but related issue. The solution is not to reinforce the notion (by adding facilities to make it easier to pass cyclists) that roads that do not accomodate easy passing of cyclists by motorists do not accomodate cyclists, but to dispell the notion, and replace it with the understanding that roads that do not accomodate for easy passing of cyclists are the problem of motorists, not the problem of cyclists.