Originally Posted by
FBinNY
I've never understood the idea that moving left will magically prevent close passes. It might if there's approaching traffic, and passing between you and the oncomers is physically impossible. But if there's room to pass, drivers here will pass with roughly the same clearance wherever you are.
So all moving left does, is making passing more dangerous for everybody by increasing the distance the driver has to move left, and the time before he can come back into the lane.
Maybe this is an East/West thing, and maybe drivers out west treat lanes digitally, either changing or not. But here in Metro NY area drivers are more analog and take lane markers as only a suggestion. They have no problem flowing around cyclists, and it's easier for everyone if they only have to flow half a lane across.
This isn't to say that I suggest curb hugging, which would give no room to maneuver, but to remind people that the roadway is a shared resource, and it's possible to share it safely to everyone's benefit, including your own.
Even here in upstate NY I've found the difference between riding around Rochester and NYC to be quite significant; we have a *lot* of fairly narrow roads that have never been realigned since they were farm tracks, which means there are plenty of curves and poor sightlines. So it makes far more sense to be as left as possible simply to open up the sightlines a little more for the guy who's barreling up behind you at twice the posted speed. Most drivers won't try to pass you under those conditions unless they're patently suicidal. ( Which, granted, some appear to be... )