Advocacy & Safety - You guys are gonna love this one...

Share the Road. (http://www.sharetheroad.us/)

These people are "cyclists" but you'd think they were drivers that are posing. I think they are actually serious.

those people aren't advocates. i didn't watch any of their videos. i bet it is just a snappy name.

i get 'share the road' yelled at me out of car windows, and also 'same roads, same rules' from jackstraps in cars a lot.

sometimes from people with bike racks on their cars, self identifying as 'bikers'.

like "I"m a bicyclist too, and it's 'same roads, same rules.'" i got that about a month ago downtown from some asshat when he buzzed me up to a light because of some transgression or infraction on my part. i guess he was a bicyclist even though he was driving at the time (remind you of anyone, helmet head?)....i was inspired to harass him for about 8 more blocks of city traffic, out my way mind you, because I'm a bicyclist too, and an angry one when i get buzzed by smartasses in cars.

bikers that yell 'share the road' out their car windows usually just look like gashuffing, angry drivers yelling at the actual bicyclist.

to some people or most people bicycles aren't regarded as actuall utility vehicles more as something like skiis that get strapped to the top of the auto for the weekend

Their “Hug the line” PSA #4 really bugs me.

I love all the Cindy Sheehan wannabes in the Napa Valley vid.

Their “Hug the line” PSA #4 really bugs me.

It shouldn't be surprising, what with all those cyclists out riding around as if they are invisible. It's the typical "Stay out of the way and you'll survive" message. My favorite part is where the guy says that even if a car is only going 25-30mph that it's really hard to stop if the driver comes up on a cyclist around a turn. Some people really don't have a clue.

guy says that even if a car is only going 25-30mph that it's really hard to stop if the driver comes up on a cyclist

What if they come upon a streetsweeper, or a cruiser pulled over, or a schoolbus at a stop, or a farm tractor, or, or, or....

What a flippin idiot.

"I'm a bike rider myself, and I try to stay on the white line or to the right of it as much as I possibly can. Sometimes rocks and things get in the way...."

Man-o-man... George is a noob.

Well "Hug the Line" sucked, but the one about avoiding doors and the one about not running lights and signs was OK. The first one about avoiding right hooks was fair.

The avoiding doors one had a good point but their demonstration of taking the lane needs work. The cyclist signals for a very short time and then swerves in front of a same direction car with barely enough time to avoid rear ending the parked car. If he had chosen a centerish position to begin with, that merge would have been completely unnecessary :)

The avoiding doors one had a good point but their demonstration of taking the lane needs work. The cyclist signals for a very short time and then swerves in front of a same direction car with barely enough time to avoid rear ending the parked car. If he had chosen a centerish position to begin with, that merge would have been completely unnecessary :)


Agreed.

Looks like it is just a site to highlight bicycle crashes, probably in a humorous way. Notice that they have the Bush crash video there as well.

The "PSA's" struck me as "how motorists think bicyclists should ride."

"Hug the line" went out in the 70's. Look carefully at the "don't pass on the right" video. The cyclist is maintaining a straight course and a consistent speed. The motorist passes him, then quickly turns in front of him. The voice-over has the slant that it's "really" the cyclist's fault -- there's no way the driver could have seen him. Come on -- you just passed the guy ten seconds ago. Did he magically disappear?

The fault of the cyclist here is not that he is passing on the right -- it's that he's "hugging the line" like he was taught in the other PSA.

"I'm a bike rider myself, ...

Whenever I hear someone starting off like that I cringe as something not cool is almost certainly emanate. If you are giving good advice you don’t need to start like that.

Just look at his “One of Those Times” video. He can not even hold a line on the MUP. And would you trust someone on a Tri-bike with their saddle set that low.

The only video that I though was OK, for general viewing, was PSA5 the Road 1 Class Video. All the others showed poor riding or blamed the cyclist for all evils on the road. Too bad that it does not appear that the web site creator has not taken (on learned from) the Road 1 Class.

Thankfully, the web site looks like it is more for fun rather than trying to really teach cycling.

The "Hug the line" one was the worst. When I ride, at my normal cruising speed, my rule of thumb is one arm length from the right edge of the rideable portion of the road. Sometimes that's on the line, sometimes it's over the line, sometimes it's well within the line. I ignore the line.

The "Hug the line" one was the worst. When I ride, at my normal cruising speed, my rule of thumb is one arm length from the right edge of the rideable portion of the road. Sometimes that's on the line, sometimes it's over the line, sometimes it's well within the line. I ignore the line.

What advantage does "hugging the space 1.5ft/0.5m from the edge of the road" (does that aptly describe your style?) have over "hugging the line?"

Some dickhead yelled at me the other day to "hug the gutter." I caught him at a stoplight and asked what he meant. He was having a hard time speaking and smoking his cigarette at the same time but mumbled something about squeezing to the right so he can squeeze on by. I politely informed him that it is illegal to pass bicycles without adequate clearance in this state, and dangerous for me to 'hug the gutter' too closely because of parked cars and all that. I'm not sure it made a difference. But it makes me happy that I have bicycle advocacy groups here that pass legislation for bicycle and pedestrian safety.

Not 1.5 feet, more like 3 feet. The line on the road around here can be anywhere from a 8 inches to 4 feet from the edge of useable pavement. And it isn't a hard and fast rule either. If I'm going near the speed limit or above, I'll take the full lane. If I'm coming to an intersection, I'll take the lane. Hugging the line around here is a bad idea because there won't be enough space on the right to react to road hazards.

Back to the videos...
That Golden gate bridge one tripped me right out.
There's no way I could ride a bike across a bridge if it was doing that.

Not 1.5 feet, more like 3 feet. The line on the road around here can be anywhere from a 8 inches to 4 feet from the edge of useable pavement. And it isn't a hard and fast rule either. If I'm going near the speed limit or above, I'll take the full lane. If I'm coming to an intersection, I'll take the lane. Hugging the line around here is a bad idea because there won't be enough space on the right to react to road hazards.

So what makes the edge of the road a better arbitrary point of reference than the fog line? With a wide variance in road width that would mean you'd be sometimes in the way, sometimes barely in the way, and sometimes out of the way. That doesn't seem much better than trying to "hug the line" where sometimes you'll be barely in the way and sometimes out of the way. Do you count driveways and other minor entrances to the road as intersections?

So what makes the edge of the road a better arbitrary point of reference than the fog line? With a wide variance in road width that would mean you'd be sometimes in the way, sometimes barely in the way, and sometimes out of the way. That doesn't seem much better than trying to "hug the line" where sometimes you'll be barely in the way and sometimes out of the way. Do you count driveways and other minor entrances to the road as intersections?

Because there is a wide variance as to where the line is in regard to the actual road. There are sections where the line is about 6" from the edge of the road, and that 6" is loaded with debris and broken pavement. If there was a pothole or other obstruction to my left, and I hugged the line, I'd be forced off the road. As for intersections, it is pretty obvious. A stop sign, a stop light, that's an intersection. When I approach those things, I tend to take the lane, or slide in behind waiting traffic(again, taking the lane in the process).