Originally Posted by
jackb
As a cyclist and a driver of cars, I can understand the position of GetupnGo. Biicycles do, indeed, have a right to the road, but obstructing traffic when it would be just as easy to ride single file is not a good choice. The natural flow of traffic on country roads is far in excess of 15 or 20 mph. When I'm cycling on a narrow country road I stay to the right as much as I can to allow cars to pass. It is the courteous thing to do. Why piss people off by staying in the middle of the lane and not allow them to pass? If I were in a car I wouldn't drive at 20 mph and prevent other cars from passing even though I would have "a right to the road." Courtesy goes a long way to keeping people civil to one another.
Although this has been answered many times in various places on these forums, I just thought I would do it one more time. When I am in the middle of the lane on narrow country roads, or any road for that matter, I am there for a reason. Sometimes, the reason is a road hazard that is not visible or even relevant to motorists. Sometimes it is because the lane is about to become too narrow for a motor vehicle to safely pass me while sharing the lane and I am communicating that fact in advance. Most often, the lane is simply too narrow for a motorist to safely pass me without moving into the next lane.
Sadly, most motorists will attempt to pass a gutter-hugger when there is insufficient room to do so safely. In a perfect world, motorists wouldn't buzz (or hit) cyclists. In that world, cyclists could safely move further right than is safe to do now. Until we reach that wonderful state of happy co-existence, high-mileage cyclists will take the lane whenever it is not safe to share it, since to do otherwise invites a dangerous "sharing" maneuver by careless or ignorant motorists. We're not trying to piss anyone off. We're just using a tried and true technique to stay safe, a technique that is in the vehicle code of every state that I have lived in.
It's funny how when motorists are stuck behind a large truck going up a hill at 20 mph, which is likely as fast as that truck will go, no one gets too upset. Put those same motorists behind a cyclist going 20 mph, and suddenly their blood pressure goes off the charts.