Originally Posted by
Chaco
Great video! It raised a question for me, though, down here in much less bike-friendly territory.
There's a stretch of Hwy. 101 in Leucadia(surfer town north of San Diego) that has two lanes and parking alongside the street. There is no bicycle lane at all, and the side of the road is often filled with parked cars. The lanes are big enough for two lanes of traffic, but not bikes too. Cars typically travel between 35 and 50 mph along this stretch, which lasts for about 3 or 4 miles.
If I followed the advice of this video, especially about keeping 4 feet away from parked cars to avoid dooring, I would be taking the lane. This would piss off a lot of motorists, but there's no doubt I would feel a whole lot safer. Am I doing the wrong thing by clinging to the right and hoping that no one doors me?
I would recommend taking the lane and pulling over occasionally to let backed up traffic pass by, assuming they cannot pass using the other lane. You'll probably find that you rarely have to pull over unless the road is very busy with very few places to pass.
[edit]I may have misread. If the road has more than one same direction lane, by all means use the right lane and let people pass on the left. No pulling over required. Just make sure that if you are taking the right lane, you take the full lane. Be centered to leftish to make it clear that you are not looking to share it.[edit]