Originally Posted by noimagination

Going by the video, I have to disagree. In my opinion, the lane is far too narrow to safely share with an automobile.

Unfortunately, I'm conditioned to ride to the far right (in England/Japan/etc., that would be to the far left), and this frequently puts me in harm's way. My experience is that riding "politely" results in drivers squeezing by when they should not, which endangers me, them, and oncoming traffic. If I were paying proper attention, I would have chosen a lane position very similar to the position that the rider in the video chose.

It is upsetting that riding like this exposes one to anger due to attribution - since drivers may not understand why we chose the lane position that we did, they sometimes attribute our actions to various negative motivations (such as: exaggerated self-importance; a passive-aggressive attempt to impede drivers; stupidity; etc.). However, it would be even more upsetting to be injured or killed because an overtaking driver lacked the judgement to make a safe pass. My experience is that the odds of a safe pass are increased when, in situations similar to those shown in the video, I occupy the lane. There is always the chance that a driver could be (momentarily?) insane and deliberately run me over/run me off the road, but the number of such drivers is dwarfed by the number of drivers who are not malicious but who simply fail to use proper judgement when overtaking.

When I'm riding in a manner similar to that of the rider in the video, I'm just trying to enjoy a ride legally and with due regard to the safety and convenience of all road users. It does not give me some sort of thrill to upset motorists. Given the choice, I'd gladly ride on a nice, wide road with room for drivers to safely pass within the lane that I'm occupying. Such roads are few and far between, however, even in the U.S., and roads such as that are usually high-speed roads where the differential in speed between motorized vehicles and bicycles makes them dangerous for cycling.


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