Originally Posted by
jpatkinson
If you are at the (rare) intersection where you don't have a bike lane before the light, and have a bike lane after the light, option B seems reasonable.
If you are at the (I expect) more common intersection where you have a bike lane before and after the light, then you should stop behind the cars turning right (which, in California, are supposed to be occupying the bike lane).
If you are on a road with NO bike lane, then you should stop at the end of the line. Otherwise, you are just passing everyone on the R (never a bright idea) so that they can pass you on the L once the light turns green (which makes NO sense to me). Your arrival at the destination won't be affected (assuming you make the light).
- JP
I usually
am in a hurry but I don't find that pulling to the front of a line of cars and trying to jump in front of them helps make me any faster. Like you said, it makes no sense to me to get passed by the same group of cars over and over again. I stop at the end of the line and hope that I'm the last vehicle through the intersection.
That's the sweet spot! The cars in front of you clear out quickly and you don't have cars behind you. Open road, baby!
I'm not a fan of bike lanes that are continuous through intersections, either. Too often, cars turn across those lanes without signaling. They are right hooks waiting to happen.
If an intersection has lots of traffic, I still get in behind the last car in line. However, the next time I have to go through that intersection, I find another intersection with less traffic. There are just too many parallel routes in the world to spend time jousting with traffic.