Originally Posted by
FBinNY
I don't have a hard and fast rule. It's more of a speed, speed difference, and road conditions kind of thing. Riding in NYC I'm used to working down to the last few inches, and have ridded for decent distance in a roughly 3' aisle between two buses.
But given that some did seem close, especially that bus that was wedging back to the road while overlapped.
I don't want to get into the "take the lane" VC thing, but you might not be doing yourself a favor riding close enough to the edge to allow a pass with oncoming vehicles. Try riding farther out so they have to commit and move over to pass rather than sneaking by.
I ride about 1 meter in from the edge, which gives me some room to give when squeezed. I also try to use my lane position to show when to pass and when not to.
As I said, I don't endorse the "take the lane" approach, as much as a share the road, where you use position to control your destiny, but give way if when it's safe.
There'a no hard rules, just strive for a balance between your needs and those of the other road users. After a while it becomes natural and you rarely think about it until a logging truck passes with the overhanging load passing above your head.
I'd second this. I'll often shift position on the road to aid or hinder cars behind passing me. If the road is narrow and windy, or there are obstructions in the road ahead, I'll move out. If there are things like the islands in the middle of the road for pedestrians to cross nearby, I'll pull to the middle of the lane. If the lane is narrow enough that a car can't safely pass without crossing the white line down the middle, I'll pull across a bit so they know they have to wait for the oncoming traffic.
If it's a busy road, wide enough for traffic to pass safely, and I can see far enough ahead to be confident I'm not going to guide myself into every pothole in the area, I'll move further to the side to let the traffic go by. If it's the kind of road where I struggle to maintain a decent speed and there's traffic building up behind me, sometimes I'll pull off the road completely into a driveway or similar to let it get past. As far as I can tell there's little if anything in the way of legal obligation to do that sort of thing, I just figure "share the road" goes both ways.
There are a couple of roads near me with a 20mph speed limit and which are flat enough that I am usually doing 20mph along them. Roads like that are residential so they have a 20mph limit for a reason. If someone is revving their engine behind me on a road like that I just leave them to wait. Usually if they do manage to squeeze past they don't get very far before they have to wait for something else (in which case they hold me up, because a bike and car can fit through a space two cars can't), so I position myself to make it very clear they aren't coming through.