Advocacy & Safety - Do you drive on the roads you ride?

I was driving home from the store the other day and was going down a road I usually ride my bike on. I passed a number of cyclist on my way(making sure I gave them plenty of room). I started wondering if the cyclist might still have been a little annoyed by the traffic, it was about 5:40 and even on country roads it was busy. So I'm asking: Do you drive on the roads you ride or do you try to keep them clear for other cyclist.

Since for the most part I ride further than I drive(perhaps odd to some). I usually don't drive where I ride, except in my hometown, in which case I ride the main roads and usually they have wide shoulders so there is plenty of room for the cyclists to be safe.

Ride or drive on the same roads. Share the road is bidirectional.

I don't drive all the roads I ride (there is only one leg of my commute that I both drive and ride), I have driven my bicycling route a few times to get familiar with it and get an idea of traffic density and patterns. Also, my bike route is off my driving path and contains sections that, well, would not be kind to my cars suspension system. ;)

lol, there's no point in leaving the roads i ride to other cyclists as there are no other cyclists on the roads i ride. And yes i do drive them on occasion (i drive rather rarely in the summer).

I generally try to drive on the freeway, unless it is either clogged or significantly out of my way.

Yes, but I don't see many cyclists on them. If these roads did have high cycle traffic I would probably avoid them while driving, just like I avoid roads with high auto traffic while on the bike. Many of my cycling roads are also more pleasant to drive on (lower speed limit, less traffic) compared to the main arterials.

I was driving home from the store the other day and was going down a road I usually ride my bike on. I passed a number of cyclist on my way(making sure I gave them plenty of room). I started wondering if the cyclist might still have been a little annoyed by the traffic, it was about 5:40 and even on country roads it was busy. So I'm asking: Do you drive on the roads you ride or do you try to keep them clear for other cyclist.

I do. For those who live in Boston, I live in Arlington and ride to work in Burlington. I usually do bike path to lexington center and then hancock st, right on Adams and then weave my way thru low traffic roads to work.
However, once in a while I ride rt 3a since it is much faster (6-7 miles vs 9-10 for the long route). Even though it is a single lane most of the way it is wide enough that I rarely have trouble even during rush hour in the morning (evening is another matter, its like drivers lose their collective minds, I rode it home once and decided never again).

Even in the morning, once in a while some driver gives me a really close pass or honks at me. What makes it worse is that when I drive I become aware just how little of an inconvenience cyclists are to drivers. The road has a 30-35 mph limit apart from a section where it has a 40mph limit (and at that point it becomes a 2 lane for a bit). Once in a while when driving I will come up behind a cyclist on a part of the road where it narrows and I will sit behind them for maybe 5 - 8 seconds until they clear the narrow section and then pass then with plenty of room. A few times I've had other drivers behind me honk impatiently.

This shows me that the problem is sometimes road design but most times it is driver attitude.

On the roads closer to home, yes.
For farther away, sometimes.
I also do a lot of exploring of side streets and neighborhoods when I'm riding. A lot of places I wouldn't bother driving into.

Anyway, when I drive I watch out for cyclists and try to give them every courtesy and safety measure that I expect when I'm riding.

I drive on the same roads I drive

I don't drive on all the same roads, but mostly. One of the reasons is traffic just sucks too bad on those particular roads (which is why I ride my bike instead)

I am most familiar with the roads that I cycle on - so when I do drive I take the same routes.

However, there are often obstacles to driving that are not a problem for a bike - parking lots/earthen bluffs/parks and MUP's that make this strategy less useful sometimes.

leaving the road for other cyclists?

wow. That's a concept.

It really must be crowded up there. Out here I mostly share the road with deer

but I do hunt some of the roads I ride, does that count?

... when I drive I become aware just how little of an inconvenience cyclists are to drivers...

+ 1000!

So what gives with all the rage about cyclists? When I drive I just don't encounter that many of them number one and the ones I do encounter seldom pose a problem. And when I do encounter a lot of them- in Cambridge, for example, I always feel like an idiot for driving my car and being in the way- especially as I drive around and around and around trying to find a place to park!

+ 1000!

So what gives with all the rage about cyclists? When I drive I just don't encounter that many of them number one and the ones I do encounter seldom pose a problem.


fat lazy idiots hate the thought of anybody trying to stay fit.

Also people see us as "liberals" because they think we are all about the environment or "anti-car" or something. This is why rednecks are very prone to buzzing cyclists on the road. We become the embodiment of everything they hate as soon as they see us.

combine those thoughts with a drive home from an emasculating job and you have road rage just waiting for an object to vent on.

What makes it worse is that when I drive I become aware just how little of an inconvenience cyclists are to drivers. The road has a 30-35 mph limit apart from a section where it has a 40mph limit (and at that point it becomes a 2 lane for a bit). Once in a while when driving I will come up behind a cyclist on a part of the road where it narrows and I will sit behind them for maybe 5 - 8 seconds until they clear the narrow section and then pass then with plenty of room. A few times I've had other drivers behind me honk impatiently.

This shows me that the problem is sometimes road design but most times it is driver attitude.

AMEN! I have seen exactly the same things... I too drive the roads I bike, so I see the same things from either the steering wheel view or the handle bar view, and frankly I too tend to think that often the issue is the motorists' attitude... especially when it comes to otherwise empty roads and plenty of other lanes and I still get crap from some driver... that tells me they had to go way out of their way to harass me... because it is just too easy drive on by and ignore some lone cyclist.

I think another part of the problem lies in the something in our society that either entitles or encourages drivers "to get there in a hurry," (zoom zoom) this means folks always feel some pressure to drive like they are racing, even on quiet Sunday mornings. This is hard to put a finger on, but it is the only thing I can think of that would cause some motorists to act so aggressively on otherwise open and unobstructed roadways.

Now on the flip side, I do see cyclists acting in dumb ways too... but the frequency of said cyclists compared to motorists acting poorly does not balance out... there is no way wrong way cyclists or light running cyclists are causing the sort of grief that is often expressed by motorists.

"I think another part of the problem lies in the something in our society that either entitles or encourages drivers "to get there in a hurry," (zoom zoom) this means folks always feel some pressure to drive like they are racing, even on quiet Sunday mornings. This is hard to put a finger on, but it is the only thing I can think of that would cause some motorists to act so aggressively on otherwise open and unobstructed roadways."

bingo!

and that isn't going to get better. We are insulated in our modern cars from the road. We don't "feel" the speed like we did in an older car.

Add to that how younger drivers have learned to drive in a world of cell phones and texting while driving. Clearly, we don't feel that we have to pay full attention to driving anymore. We have airbags to do the watching out for us.

All in all, the chances of us cyclists getting killed out on the road are going to go up and not down.

I drive on the same roads I bike on. I drive very slowly(20 in a 25, 25 in a 35, 10-15 under limit on higher speed streets), my way of enforcing the speed limit. And I come to complete stops at stop signs.

Yes, I drive the roads I ride. If they are suitable for one vehicle then they are suitable for the other, and if I'm not driving on them everybody else that was going that way will be. Besides, if I take another route who's to say there won't be a cyclist on those roads?

It's no big deal either way.

I sometimes drive most of the roads I ride. I give cyclists plenty of room and drive near-zero-emissions vehicles, so usually have few worries about spoiling their rides. When it's raining, though, I get a bit extreme about wanting to give cyclists the whole lane even when they are not taking it so as not throw water.

Sometimes, they're even scarier in a car.

Sometimes, they're even scarier in a car.

Yah. On narrow laned roads, I much prefer the bike. Cars take up so much room.