Advocacy & Safety - Cars give me too much room

I never figured on it being an issue, but about 10 miles of my commute is on a rolling and windy road. Single lane each side separated by double yellow lines on most of it. Cars actually cross over the double lines and take up most of the opposing lane.They also show no urgency in getting back over. I stay way to the right and there is plenty of room for me and a car to pass.At some areas of the road it is difficult to see oncoming traffic. I am concerned that some day I'm going to witness a head on collision :( Scary.

I have a road like this on one of my routes, not rolling, but winding. Here's how I handle it.

Before each curve I take the middle of the lane. It's not much of a shift for me, because I normally take the entire right 1/2 of the right lane anyway. Being in front of anyone wanting to pass, I have the better sight-lines. If a car attempts to pass when there's no room to get back in before we're in the curve, I raise my left arm out to the left, fingers extended, palm facing the approaching car and wave it up-and-down. If the driver continues to pass, anything that happens is on him. Many will heed your warning, some will not. Expect this. After we come out of the curve, if there's room before the next one and no other traffic is coming from the other way, I'll reduce the amount of the lane I use to the right 1/4 and wave any car(s) behind me by.

Repeat on next curve. :)

I ride these exact types of roads and I find myself gesturing and directing traffic in the same way as CommuterRun. Palm out towards them says stop. Most heed the warning. Safe to pass, but not passing, wave them through.

Drivers need to be directed at times, particularly on narrow, winding roads. Entering a sharp curve, I will always tell traffic to stop passing, even if the sight lines are long and there is no one coming the other way. It is extremely difficult to hold a line in a car around a flat or off camber, 90 degree turn.

He didn't say he has a problem with people passing him too closely or not at all, or not seeing him. His problem is they pass him way too wide.

I wonder, are you riding a steady line? Is there really that much room or does it only look like it to you? I ride on a road every day, but the other day in a car it really looked half as narrow than I thought it looked on my bike.

It amazes me to see that. I think it's because people really have no clear idea of the size of their car. They also assume you will wobble all over the place like they did the last time they tried to ride a bicycle.

Just put a sign on your back that says something like "ALL I NEED IS 2 FEET OF ROOM".

Koffee

Just put a sign on your back that says something like "ALL I NEED IS 2 FEET OF ROOM".

I'd rather have 3 feet. I think that's the law around here.

I always feel like such a schmuch when people do that; I appreciate them actually gettingover and not running me off the road, but come on, I don't need 10 friggin feet

Like I said earlier, my normal riding position is the right 1/2 of the right lane. All but one of the local highways are too narrow for lane sharing and that one has a 60 MPH speed limit. It is typical of drivers in this area to give me the entire lane when they pass, pulling over completely into the on-coming lane. When I'm towing a trailer they give me even more room. There have been a occurances when I thought the passing driver was going to run his car off the left side of the road. I appreciate being given this consideration and don't want to do anything to change it, but I think the problem Bullethead describes is that many drivers don't know when to not pass at all and will also do this on blind curves. Brian is right in that sometimes drivers simply don't know what to do and need direction.

The flip-side to this is I have driven behind cyclists in the exact same situation on the same road. Cyclists tend to freak-out if I slow and stay behind the them until I have good sight-lines from the car and it's safe to pass. I've had cyclists slow to walking speed and ride the white line. I've had them pull completely off the road and ride the grass shoulder. I've even seen them change lanes into the on-coming lane to let me by.

I would have to say a majority of cyclists and drivers on the road don't visit internet cycling forums, have never read any kind of how to do it safely instructions, have no training and don't know what to do or how to act when in these situations.

I don't mind cars passing me closely if I can catch a nice draft from them.

Bullethead: You make an excellent point! In 15 years of riding two lane Kentucky country roads, I have never had any overtaking car come to close to me, but I have had multiple instances where they gave me too much room and almost went head on into an oncoming car. I don' fear getting run off the road, but cyclists/runners are very vulnerable to having cars crash and get out of control. I use a rear view mirror all the time, so I can see (and hear) what's coming up on me. If I don't hear the motorist slow down at least slightly when they are approaching me, I know I may have a problem. Either the motorist doesn't see me, or they simply don't give a damn. One time in Wichita, Kansas, I was running and some kids in a convertible threw a firecracker at me. They had to stop at a light, and I almost caught up to them. If I had, I would have climbed over the trunk and they would have had a big problem!

A similar thing happens when they give you too much the right of way. Like at a stop sign when it's their move, but they are being too nice and making it obvious they are courteous to bikers. The ensuing "short moment but feels too long delay" at that point I sense as unnecessary and somewhat unnerving.

Let the driver be stupid and possibly get hit.

Maybe they can sue the state for not teaching proper passing technique on corners...namely NEVER PASS ON A CORNER, EVEN IF YOU CAN SEE. There are sound reasons for this, all the way down to control in the event something goes amiss.

One of my friends argued with me over this constantly, until the day he skidded out passing a guy on a very visible turn...he hit a gravel patch that he did not see...that was my point...you might see that traffic is clear, but is the road actually safe to be accelerating and doing the short turns that comprise a corner pass? Pretty much there are two fairly abrupt turns involved in corner passing.

Just wait until the corner has passed, then pass...it's just a few seconds...safety is worth far more than that time lost.


My only concern is that the driver swerves into me if they get into a near-collision. So I do get a bit antsy when they do this, and about everyday some guy nearly gets creamed doing this on the same freaking corner....a corner known for accidents....

...geniuses, all of them....

for me, well I guess because I am a kid, but on my commue route they pass me all the way over on the opposite of the road, almost running off the other side of the road! and a couple people give me no room and me and a truck almost traded paint once though.

Also keep in mind the motorist may be more aware of the road ahead than you were up until the moment you noticed they were passing.

Al

Let the driver be stupid and possibly get hit.



I'm not surprised that someone said it. I guess I should be pleased that so many other positive and responsive posts were submitted before this one came along. :mad:

I always give cyclists a wide berth. Not doing anything stupid in the process, just giving them space-- probably more than they need, but I feel more comfortable knowing I'm not going to hit them.

I have the same "too much clearance" problem on the w-i-d-e road on the last mile to work. I have my own bike lane, narrow but with a white stripe, and each lane is quite wide. The drivers act like they have no idea how wide their vehicle is, and go way over, sometimes all the wat into, the oncoming traffic. This is on an s-curve with 45mph limit and lots of traffic.
The only folks who seem to know how to drive well are the truckers, and even a few of them go awefully wide.
The drivers here are extremely poor all around - but they almost always give me lots of room.

I can't relate to the concept of too much room. I don't think bikes should be hugging the line because there are going to be potholes and things which need to be steered around. If you are hugging the line and being approached or passed when such an obstacle occurs then your only recourse is going off road. I stay in the 1/3 line of the lane, or about where the auto's right hand tire would be. To my thinking the point which is 3' clear of me (not my wheels) is where the vehicle needs to be over the yellow line and into the next lane.

I think that riders that hug the line set up the expectation in motorists that it's where all bike should be, and then they're all honking and angry at those of us who need and use the space we're legally entitled to.

Further, I think the possibility for a motorist choosing a head on collision over running a bike off the road is over estimated at best. Nobody's going to choose that, so when you sense that it might happen get the fingers on the breaks and get ready to swerve.