Originally Posted by gyozadude

In California, we have the California Vehicle Code (CVC) that is the law for on-road/off road of moving vehicles. CVC 21202 states that bikes which are like vehicles travelling at a rate of speed less than the average speed of traffic need to ride to the far right of the roadway as is practical. So folks who think they could hog the lane... well, that's part 1 of the bad news. Part 2 of the bad news is section 3 of 21202, which refers to applicability of the turn-out for slow moving vehicles with 5 or more cars behind them (CVC 21656). This explicitly says that bicyclists must follow that rule too. So if you're slow and blocking traffic, you need to pull over and allow the 5+ vehicles behind you pass. This only applies on two-lane (one in each direction) roads. It does not apply on multi-lane roads with more than one lane in the direction of travel. However, the first rule still applies about riding as far right as is practical.

I believe the law is similar in most states.

Again, it's not cool to get buzzed, but again, it's a lot about common sense. We're sharing the road. If a cyclist blocks the lane and is going to slow and sustains that position forcing drivers to encroach on other lanes to get around, well, that increases by 10X the risk of accident at that point because now the slow cyclist is requiring cars to perform a course correction to change lanes exposing the cars to other cars in another lane who have the right of way. So I think the trick is to pick routes and times that reduce bike/car interaction and/or provide more bike lanes.