Originally Posted by genec
So while you are blocking the motorist travel lane... to exercise your "rights," you are abusing the rights of, and irratating mr motorist... just to your right, is an empty accomodation built just for cyclists.
Thank you for answering the question. See, when you actually answer the question, the errors in your thinking are revealed. In this case you apparently assume the existence of a right to speed. I say "apparently" because you don't specify which particular motorist right a cyclist "blocking the motorist travel lane" would be abusing, so I can only assume you refer to a non-existent "right to speed". If that's incorrect, please clarify.
Operating slowly on roads does not "abuse" anyone's rights to anything. There is no such thing as a
right to speed. By exercising our rights to travel on the roadways by bicycle, regardless of how slowly we do it, we are not violating or abusing anyone's right to anything.
By the way, traffic lanes on surface streets are not
motorist travel lanes. And anyone who thinks of them that way does not really believe in "same roads, same rights, same rules" for bicyclists.
No doubt mr motorist will see that very empty accomodation, and he will get right angry at the next cyclist they encounter.
Whether anyone gets angry as a result of their misconceptions about cyclist rights to the road is not a good reason to give up those rights. In fact, that kind of deference to intimidation is exactly how we will eventually lose them altogether.
Just answer two questions... can you ride in that narrower lane without blocking motor vehicle traffic?
No.
Or will you have to take a lane?
I can take the lane, and also easily move into the 6' shoulder to allow faster traffic to pass, which I would do, out of courtesy.
And why is it right for you to slow down others, ...
Anyone has the right to travel at slow speeds on surface streets, even if that slows down anyone else on the roadways. There is no minimum speed limit. Again, there is no
right to speed on these roads.
...but not for you to be slowed?
This question assumes our right to ride on surface streets is based on, or somehow related to, a right to not be slowed on bike paths. That's a false assumption. Our rights to ride on surface streets is not based on a right to not be slowed on bike paths. Our right to ride on surface streets is fundamental and has nothing to do with bike paths.