Originally Posted by Brian Ratliff
Actually, the way that vehicular cycling is defined in the OP (which is what this thread is about), it doesn't matter what the road conditions are, beyond that those cyclists are in "lane sharing mode" and what you are advising is for them to be in vehicular mode.
Faster, same direction traffic is irrelevent in defining "vehicular cycling". Vehicular cycling is a tool in the tool box that you might pull out in the presence or absence of faster same direction traffic. But application of that tool to specific road environments is best done in a different thread.
I think the problem with the term "vehicular" is that the only (non cycling ) "vehicular" experience the vast majority of the public has had does not include operating a slow moving vehicle. Therefore, to them, the legitimate behavior of drivers of slow moving vehicles, including moving aside, using shoulders and sharing lanes in order to allow faster same direction traffic to pass easier, when safe and reasonable to do so, does not seem "vehicular". But such behavior for drivers of slow moving vehicles is most certainly
vehicular, and most if not all legal manifestations of the vehicular rules of the road mandate it. To eliminate it from the "definition" of "vehicular cycling" does reflect the common sense interpretation of the term vehicular, but ignores the operational and physical characteristics of the bicycle that make the vehicular rules of the road that apply to drivers of slow moving vehicles so relevant to bicyclists operating in traffic on roads in accordance to the vehicular rules of the road.