Originally Posted by
atbman
It will have the effect of increasing your visibility, simply by reason of being directly in the driver's eyeline. But its main purpose is to oblige the driver to move well out to overtake you. Most will, if required to pull out, move well out, whereas, even if you're wearing hi-viz clothing and bright tail lights but are riding well to the right. many will barely flick the wheel to go round you.
Taking the lane, as others have said, can also be used to prevent a driver going past you when there is oncoming traffic, or other vehicles coming past in the next lane.".
I do not agree. There are drivers that will pull out into the far lane or even oncoming traffic and pass with plenty of room even when I am in a bike lane or protected section of road. And there are those who barely flick their wheels to pass when I am on top of the fog strip with nowhere else to go. If I am out in the center of the lane the only thing keeping a driver from moving well out into oncoming traffic and only putting two wheels over the centerline and buzzing close is his or her conscience. There is nothing you have actually done, by taking the lane, to force a car to pass far away. They pass as close or far as they feel like. As I said, in my area, the road culture is mainly to pass cyclists with plenty of room whether they need it or not. But many don't. I was once driving on a mountain road, at night, in the rain and feeling very overwhelmed because it was an unfamiliar road. It was very late and there wasn't much traffic, but what traffic there was knew the road. They wanted to go faster. Much faster. I was doing the limit but even so every now and then someone would risk death to pull off a hairy pass that they couldn't see around. I was in a car! So, forgive me if I am dubious about a cyclists ability to 'oblige', 'prevent', 'require' or in any way influence what a driver does or does not do with respect to you. If you take a vehicle lane you do it because there is an obstacle or other road hazard that makes it impossible for you to progress safely where ever it is you have been riding, be it in a proper bike lane or shoulder or to the right of the right hand vechicle track. Taking a lane to influence driver behavior is specious.
H
BTW -
AFAIK the Fog Strip is the white line itself. The area to the right of the fog strip is called the shoulder and it may be wide or narrow or non-existent. Fog strips themselves may be wide or narrow but are usually 3" to 5" wide and take somef concentration to ride on. But IMO a road cyclist is not complete without the ability to hold a
steady line for hundreds of feet at a time. Best practice is to look well down the road, not at your front wheel and relax.