Originally Posted by
iamtim
Yeah... until the person in the car behind you gets pissed that you're slowing them down and buzzes past you, taking you down in the process. Which happened to me and many others.
It's all great and wonderful to use high-falootin' terms like "lane commanding" and talking about asserting our rights to the road, but the bottom line is a road-raging driver behind the wheel of a 2000 pound car can plow you down with a minimum of effort. Or thought. Again, I'm talking from experience here. In fact, the lady who plowed me down actually admitted to my (at the time) wife that she was trying to teach me a lesson because bicycles shouldn't be in the road.
And when there's no room to safely pass, such drivers do that anyway. Hell, they do that even when there's plenty of room.
But there are a lot more drivers who won't pass when you take the lane, but who will put you into a much more dangerous situation when you hug the gutter because then they think it's safe.