Originally Posted by skanking biker
+1. I found those videos very interesting and informative. I have certainly been on roads similar to that and have taken the lane and survived, but I didn't like it for one second. In fact, if I had to commute on a road like that into work everyday, I would drive my car. While I am capable of riding in that type of traffic, and have done so when I needed to, to me the stress and anxiety of riding in that type of traffic travelling at those speeds is not worth it. Someone as high strung and easily agitated as myself would go insane doing that day in an day out. I know how to shoot a gun but that doesn't mean I am gonna volunteer for duty in Iraq.
Yeah, when I ride in traffic like that I'm worried about getting clipped as I'm passed or run over by a soccer mom doing her eyeliner as she is driving with 2 venti-mocha lattes in her system and suffering from an ambien hangover. Also, accidents do happen---there are potholes, glass, and other debris that could send you tumbling If that makes me "cyclephoebic" or whatever---so be it. I know I'd rather take my chances on a 25 mph city street doing an endo or getting clipped than in traffic like that. And if there were a dreaded "bikeway" available, you bet I'd use it. I like my chances of surviving a cycle to cycle accident at 10-15 mph better than one with a mack truck at 40+ mph.
As to these repeated claims that users of bikeways, MUPS, segregated facilities--or whatever else you want to call them--are unskilled, I respond as follows: Where I have lived, the only people using such facilities at 6:00am are either 1) people like myself commuting into work who know what the rules are or 2) the local college team doing an early morning training ride, who, again, know what the rules are. Sorry, if there were a "bikeway" running parellel with that highway in the video, damn straight I'd use it. If that makes me a coward I'm a coward.
I certainly think learning the skills demonstrated in those videos improve safety and should be learned. However, just because I know how to ride in 40+ mph traffic doesn't mean I want to or should have to do so.
If it's the only way to get from A to B, you have no choice but to ride on it, or drive.
If there is no space to create a separate route for cyclists, then that's the way it's going to stay. Welcome to Long Beach (or so I understand).
In many case the only alternative to vehicular cycling is walking or driving or public transportation.
If we do not preserve our vc rights, if we do not work against efforts that contribute to the eroding of our vc rights, then we are going to end up with more and more situations where there is no reasonable/legal way to get from A to B by bicycle. That is not cycling advocacy; that is anti-cycling advocacy.