Originally posted by Spire
The idea is that cars do not travel on the shoulder. Cars have a tendency to wipe the debris off the road, clearing the surface. The same applies to a bike lane.
True. My point was that if it's just "another shoulder" nobody will complain when you leave it temporarily to avoid the debris. In any case, having seen the way the oil has built up over the roads overhere since the drought started, I tend to think cars leave as much debris as they remove.