Originally Posted by
spare_wheel
I just had someone angrily lecture me for passing too closely and for not calling out, "on your left". The cyclist was in the middle of a bike lane and I passed in the vehicle lane while climbing (SW Terwilliger in Portland). They were going ~10 mph and I passed at ~14 mph.
1. When a cyclist has a 5-6 foot wide bike lane to themselves and I enter an arterial lane to pass, I am never going to call out "on your left". (I almost always call out, "on your left", when passing in a wide shared lane/trail/mup.)
2. When a cyclist in the middle of a 5 foot bike lane passing ~2-3 feet to the left of the white stripe is a safe pass .
I’m not suggesting that you didn’t pass him via a roughly 4 MPH greater speed during your ascent, as such is well within the realm of realistic
.
However, I can’t imagine it having been much of a “lecture” if you were passing at a speed greater by 4 MPH, as that that would have you gaining an additional distance of 5
.867 feet per second (in essence, gaining a bike length per second)
.
By just 10 seconds later you’d be at least 10 full bike lengths ahead of him, at which point, it would be quite difficult to discern much of anything he was ranting about with a 14 MPH wind noise in your ears, him directly behind you by so many bike lengths, and his audio amplitude significantly diminishing via the ever increasing distance
.
I think it must have been more like, “I heard him ranting in an irate manner as his voice soon enough faded to an unintelligible murmur
.”
I concur that you passed him safely and any lecture on his behalf was altogether unwarranted
.