A VERY common situation here - big shoulder, easily big enough for 4-5 cyclists side-by side, very safe and clear of debris, on a popular route (foothill expressway in Palo alto/los altos).

Significantly slower rider hugging the left white line. There's absolutely no room to pass on the left without swinging into fast moving traffic. As is, this road is sufficiently trafficked that after 9AM, there's pretty much a regular stream of cars going from 30-55 mph on it. Since there are stoplights, you'll often get a whole row of them, like a minute long of them if you timed them to pass. When there are no cars, it's not an issue -just swing into traffic. However, there is significant car traffic on this road and it's often quite busy,esp in afternoon.

I used to pass these folks on the far right, but am tired of the comments I get from a few of them, who mutter loudly "it's DANGEROUS to pass on the right!" I actually agree with them, but where the heck am I supposed to go when you're 5mph slower than me and there's a column of cars in the way?


The other alternative is to get stuck behind them waiting for that column to pass. I did this the past weekend as well to a few riders and a few of them got annoyed that I was back there, and after realizing it didn't make any move to yield to the right, and gave me the silent dirty look when I finally did go by (on the left) while I happily waved, said "howdy!" and they just glared back.


What would you do on such a road? There are sufficient numbers of cyclists that someone riding at about 20mph on average on the wknd will typically pass no less than 10-15 riders over a 12 mile stretch so it's very common.