Originally Posted by Helmet Head
You did not answer my question. Are you familiar with the negotiation techniques that vehicular cyclists use to merge left across multiple lanes of fast and busy traffic?
However, given your lack of a direct answer, plus the implied attitude that views the need to negotiate with faster traffic as "competing" with cars, I'm going to have to assume the answer is "no".
FYI, the negotiation techniques that vehicular cyclists use to merge left across multiple lanes of fast and busy traffic are based on cooperative concepts, not competition. In particular, vehicular cyclists recognize and respect that faster traffic has the ROW in the lanes they wish to cross, and, in order to get across, they must coax them to yield the ROW to the cyclist.
Serge
I think that in general that is a fine method of getting across, but sometimes it is better to ride the sidewalk.
There is a stoplight before the troubling section, then a blind curve, next down 300 foot ramp, and it becomes 2 lanes at that point. If I where biking this way, I would just pull infront of the first car, who then is constrained (hopefully) by the law to not rear-end me.
No need to actually merge left for a mile and a half. But then I am on a pothole ridden roadway going about 24 mph with an anxious driver 50 feet behind me. Next I want to get over to the left but cars are now passing that car +25mph, so I "issue a request" then look back hoping that I dont hit road debris and look for a sign--like sudden deceleration. At 30 - 50 fps faster, there really can't be any eye contact so I would not call it negotiation.
If you look at the pdf, I am talking about the point where 19 joins 837 towards the bottom of the map. I think that if the first car let me go at the light or not, most other drivers who saw that a bike was ahead would just try to speed up and get ahead of the "mess". Trouble with this area is that the car drivers hate it, are often confused about what they should be doing, which lane should I be in to get to x, are of course talking on the phone, thinking about the spouse-- I dont like trusting them. I would much rather keep an eye on the few driveways that cross the sidewalk in this area.
I have heard this dogmatic attitude about staying off of the sidewalks before-- by a person who was cut off on the street and injured and now he does not ride. Of course that is adectdotal evidence, but I think that most reasonable bikers would say-- "well yeah maybe there are some places/times settings where you should get off of the road and ride the sidewalk." Trouble with saying, never is that it only takes one good contradiction to force a change in philosophy.