Fastfingaz

this is more or less a what do you think POST,,my route to work is on a two way paved road, (asphalt) anyway one morning I was driving in my truck to work , on this road there many fabrication yards and shipyards all on the right side from my house, there are only two red lights in a 10 mile span and the speed limit is 45mph, although all the shops are on the right, some have their parking lots on the on the left side of the road, so I'm coming down the road with a car in front of me when a truck in front of him turns on the left hand signal to turn ,but there was traffic coming against him so he had to stop, well this is what I saw instead of the car in back of the truck and in front of me stop with traffic , instead he took off on the shoulder of the road, fast ! now the shoulders are wide, about 8 feet but what if a cyclist or a pedestrian would have been coming or going on that shoulder, that would have been a disaster , and to boot , since it was about 6'00 AM it was hazy or a little foggy out and I have seen cyclists and walkers at that time on those shoulders,,,,,,, just for general discussion

mrodgers

A lot of people do that where I am and if there is a shoulder, it is only about 3 feet wide. People are impatient. If you are turning left, they will go off road to get around you. If you are turning right, they will enter the oncoming lane whether there is traffic or not to get around.

The good thing would be, I've only seen less than 10 people riding bikes on the road in my lifetime.

JanMM

Why would you not go around a car stopped in front of you waiting to turn left, if there is a wide shoulder? That would be standard practice around here. Correct practice would be to do it only if the shoulder is unoccupied and to slow down appropriately.

Fastfingaz

The point of the post is going on the shoulder without seeing what is coming or going ,on the shoulder,, what you call correct practice , well that wasn't followed, as a matter of fact the driver sped up on to the shoulder! I don't think the shoulder was designed for that purpose?

JanMM

The shoulder shouldn't be used for passing stopped vehicles? If it's wide enough, why not? I do it all the time on a bike and occasionally in a car.
Your description of what you saw indicates that the driver was going too fast.

Machka 

+1

Lone

i have thought about how sometimes flat straight roads, particularly on congested coastal areas, are more dangerous than my mountain roads. you could see if you can get a mountain bike to follow a highway. if i was in your situation, i would probably try to invest in many hi visibility items like lights and hi viz color clothing.