Originally Posted by
Leisesturm
I don't know... if drivers were flashing their lights and yelling things at me, I would wonder what I was doing wrong. Why is this not your reaction?
It's not my reaction because I know for a fact I'm not doing anything wrong. A motorist who might be annoyed but otherwise passes safely is worlds better than the inattentive motorist who doesn't see me, drifts over and takes me out.
Originally Posted by
kickstart
It's a lost cause trying to fathom the logic of those who believe they're safer from inattentive drivers by being in their line of travel rather than off to the side of it in a bike lane or shoulder.
It's a lost cause trying to fathom the logic of those who believe they're safer from inattentive drivers drifting off course be being off to the side, rather than having the best chance of being seen by even those distracted momentarily by being directly in the driver's line of sight.
Nearly all distracted motorists looking down at a phone, stereo, whatever, looks up every few seconds to at least check that they're still in the lane or make minor corrections. Those who don't drift off to the right. I've seen it plenty of times on both interstate highways and surface roads. They're distracted and start drifting off towards the shoulder, the curb, or even dropping off the pavement altogether. Would you like to be a cyclist right there when that happens? Not me. I don't want you to be over there either, because I don't want more people (especially cyclists) to die.