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Old 05-17-17 | 01:45 PM
  #24  
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Andy_K
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From: Beaverton, OR

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Originally Posted by caloso
I was right. In 3.8 miles, 17min of moving time, I was passed by a car 23 times. I passed a car 61 times. (Some of these were the same car, and in one case, I passed and repassed a car 5 times.)

That's a net of 38 cars that I passed on my way home last night.
That's pretty sweet! I pass a lot of cars on the first road out of my office because about 3000 people work at my location and there are only two or three ways out. If I leave at the peak traffic time the cars can be backed up more than half a mile to the first traffic light. I didn't count those to subtract them. For the rest of my commute traffic flows pretty smoothly and I don't pass anyone.

On the other hand, the reason I was wondering about this is relative safety. The part of my commute where I'm zipping past a long line of stopped cars (with me in a bike lane) is probably the most dangerous part of my commute because I have to be super alert for someone leaving a gap for a car coming the other way to turn left across the line. My experience is that the cars turning left in this scenario never, ever, ever see me or expect moving bikes to be a possibility.

By contrast, I think the part of my commute where I'm getting passed by a lot of fast moving traffic is pretty safe because the cars have their own lane and they need to stay somewhat alert to avoid hitting one another. Most of the heavy traffic parts are arterial roads bypassing the endless maze of suburban cul-de-sacs so there are very few places for them to turn and most of those are controlled by traffic lights.

I think the situation in which I'd feel least safe is a rural road with no shoulder and sparse traffic. With nothing to keep drivers engaged or slow them down driver error seems a bit more likely.
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