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.
This exactly. Its nice to know that someone else gets it. I've just been back from a week on the Oregon Coast. If a cyclist riding 101 thinks that they are going to take the lane for any reason and live peacefully... ... but in seven days of driving up and down the coast I didn't see any cyclists do that. Many, many times it simply wasn't possible to even put one set of wheels over the center line when going past a cyclist struggling up one of those 6%'s with a loaded trailer. I always tried to, but I would look in my rearview mirrlor and see that the car behind me would simply blast by the biker without moving over so much as an inch and call it good. What you guys call buzzing is... ... reality. I was thinking about this thread all week as I saw all those Oregon Coast cyclists dealing with the reality of multiple close passes day after day and I doubt many of them are posting or blogging about it. I've yet to see a cyclist "take the lane". I've said that here before. I didn't witness it, but there was a head on collision on 26 as we were coming back yesterday. My SO and I heard the BOOM and we came around the curve and cars were all over the road. One car was on fire and the other one had its front end completely sheared off. That double yellow center-line is DEATH to anyone who isn't properly respectful of it. Cars and trucks that would NEVER go over the double yellow to pass a slowpoke in a car, no matter how much s/he was annoying them, will slide over it and blast by a cyclist without a second thought. They think the cyclist is going so slow they can get around him or her in plenty of time to avoid disaster. Often they can, but if it were a car they would have given a lot of thought to how they were going to make the pass safely. When its a bike they do not. They do not scan the road ahead they just go for it. Cyclists have created this state of fear that causes drivers to think that they have to be passed with 3' of clearance and other niceties... ... ok if you are a cyclist (and I am) but... ... there is a downside. I don't know if that car was passing a cyclist when he collided with oncoming traffic but he could have been. There is a lot of anger around here about drivers that cross the center-line to go around cyclists. Just saying. Really, be careful what you ask for. In many places, Portland Oregon, and environs, drivers are extremely bike aware and treat cyclists very courteously... to their own detriment. That will have a backlash. Advocacy is good. Entitlement is not. Learning to hold a line, learning to
share the
lane, these are skills more cyclists need to develop.
H