Originally Posted by Roody
But I do wonder why we often think it's safer to ride on a road like this when traffic is lighter. If you think about it a different way, maybe cagers are more careful when the traffic is heavy, and that's really a safer time to ride? I really don't know, but I wonder what you and others think of my contrarian idea.
I think it all comes down to when the cager sees you and the time they have to plan the route around you. When traffic is light, they see you far in advance (1000+ ft on straight roads) and can then check other lanes and switch without any stress. When traffic is heavy, many times, cyclists are not seen until the car in front of them changes lanes. Many times, they only have about 100 ft to react and the other lane is quite busy and the stress level goes way up. Nothing good ever happens when the stress level goes up in just about any situation.
I don't have alot of experience being the cyclist in this situation, but I have been a cager many times. What goes on behind the cyclist is just amazingly chaotic and I don't think the cyclist ever realizes since all the chaos is behind them.
The situation I'm talking about is when traffic is practically bumper to bumper in both (all) lanes and is flowing at 45+ mph.