CSOM
Some level headedness from our local traffic reporter this morning... Nice piece, including a warning to cyclists making illegal manuevers. Should make for interesting responses though:
"Sharing the road
Biking enthusiast Peter Wang gets more than his share of ink here, but his latest message deserves repeating.
Wang had stopped at a red light while pedaling to work. Because he wanted to continue straight ahead, and the right-hand lane was not marked for turns only, he stopped his bike in the middle of it and waited for the light to change.
That prompted a "person in a high-end BMW," obviously wanting to turn right on red, to honk at him to get out of the way.
Texas law requires cyclists moving slower than other traffic to ride as near as practicable to the right curb, but there are exceptions, and one of these is if the lane is too narrow to be safely shared with a car.
Wang says that if the lane had been marked as a forced right turn, he would have moved over to the second lane, but turning was optional, so moving over would have violated the rule about staying to the right.
He also says safety required him to be in the middle of the lane because riding on either edge of it would invite motorists to blow past him at a dangerously close distance.
While the law doesn't require staying in the middle of the lane, it supports his right to. The Texas Driver's Handbook says that "a bicycle is a vehicle, and any person riding a bicycle has the rights and duties applicable to a driver operating a vehicle."
While we're on the subject, let's also emphasize the "and duties" part. One duty is to refrain from darting in and out among vehicles stopped at a light.
We're not talking about Wang here, but cyclists who ignore the law themselves have no grounds to complain when drivers ignore their right to the road."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/moveit/5566601.html
"Sharing the road
Biking enthusiast Peter Wang gets more than his share of ink here, but his latest message deserves repeating.
Wang had stopped at a red light while pedaling to work. Because he wanted to continue straight ahead, and the right-hand lane was not marked for turns only, he stopped his bike in the middle of it and waited for the light to change.
That prompted a "person in a high-end BMW," obviously wanting to turn right on red, to honk at him to get out of the way.
Texas law requires cyclists moving slower than other traffic to ride as near as practicable to the right curb, but there are exceptions, and one of these is if the lane is too narrow to be safely shared with a car.
Wang says that if the lane had been marked as a forced right turn, he would have moved over to the second lane, but turning was optional, so moving over would have violated the rule about staying to the right.
He also says safety required him to be in the middle of the lane because riding on either edge of it would invite motorists to blow past him at a dangerously close distance.
While the law doesn't require staying in the middle of the lane, it supports his right to. The Texas Driver's Handbook says that "a bicycle is a vehicle, and any person riding a bicycle has the rights and duties applicable to a driver operating a vehicle."
While we're on the subject, let's also emphasize the "and duties" part. One duty is to refrain from darting in and out among vehicles stopped at a light.
We're not talking about Wang here, but cyclists who ignore the law themselves have no grounds to complain when drivers ignore their right to the road."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/moveit/5566601.html