Originally Posted by
Leisesturm
Why is that so stupid? You, the o.p. and others in this thread way overestimate the likelihood of a right hook collision in this type of scenario. There is such a thing as convention, and whether you all want to admit it or not, the convention that prevails in most cities is that cars pass cyclists on their left! Moving to the left side of a lane so cars can pass on your right confuses them, annoys them, angers them. In the best case they simply won't do it. They will simply sit and stare. If that's what you want, fine, but don't think you are helping anyone out when you go against convention.
Cars generally pass cyclists on the left
in moving traffic except for special cases, won't debate that.
At stop lights, if I can get the driver's attention and wave them forward, they will move up and make their right turn and give me a friendly wave. They otherwise seem content to wait. Maybe I'm clearer at doing it than others.
There are only two kinds of right lane at an intersection: a right turn only lane, and a regular right lane for either straight through or right turn. If it is a right turn only lane and you as cyclist do not intend to turn right, you have no business in that lane, so we don't need to discuss that situation any further. In even liberal cycle friendly cities like Portland, the rule is that cyclists stay to the right of other traffic. When you are at the corner waiting to go straight through you will be at the right side of the lane. If you wave a car by to turn right he will pass by on your left and turn across you while the light is still red. He cannot right hook you unless you are actually forward of the intersection and in the path of crossing traffic. Why would you be there? If he is pulling a long trailer that narrows the distance as he turns you should have noticed that!
I (and others) have also learned to stop a couple of car lengths short of the corner which sends a clear message to traffic in the right lane that you do not intend to turn right and so they should pass you on your left and do what they have to do. It's simple, and works well. Anything else is non-standard and causes confusion. Some cyclists revel in all the confusion, contention and cussedness that they can cause.
For busy enough roads, that's probably the best you can do. Whenever possible, I'll just take the lane approaching an intersection to get rid of the ambiguity until we're out of it again. If that makes people mad, they're not indicating it to me. Trust me, making other people confused and angry is rarely my goal.
