Originally Posted by
Blue Jays
Taking the lane in this specific example would likely rile quite a few motorists and invite additional problems. For those saying the delay amounts to only five minutes following the cyclist....that is only if a SINGLE cyclist is present. What happens if there are ten cyclists and they're separated by a quarter-mile between them? Based on the number of people who must use roadways around our nation, vehicles traveling 15 m.p.h. can't dictate policy all the time. That is the same reason we don't have horsedrawn carts on many roadways.
The wise decision in this situation would have been to *break the law* and ride on the sidewalk. No police officers would even blink an eye. The investigation into the cause/fault of the accident must continue until a resolution is reached.
How often do you ride multilaned roads with a narrow outside lane? If you rode them with any frequency, you'd realize that the delays caused by a slow moving vehicle (a cyclist in this case) are so minimal as to not even be worth mentioning. Any slight delays that are caused are usually the fault of motorists who are more concerned with getting a chance to honk at a cyclist than just changing lanes and passing them (kinda makes it tough for someone to argue that they are in a hurry when they waste 30 seconds honking and yelling instead of just moving over). With more cyclists, that just means that every vehicle that passed on the left needs to stay there a little longer. Remember, we're only talking a mile long stretch of roadway here. Since when is someone's commute to work an emergency anyway?
I have to laugh at your horsedrawn cart comment. Do you really think that faster traffic flow is the reason people don't get around by horse and cart any more? I hope not.
If a cyclist was not comfortable taking a lane on the bridge, riding the sidewalk would be preferable to trying to ride the right edge of the traffic lane. With few pedestrians and zero intersections, the risks are low (although certainly not zero). Using the full lane while on a bicycle to cross that bridge is no less dangerous than doing the same thing on a normal road and anyone who has experience cycling on such roads knows that they can be quite pleasant and safe to ride on (arguably more so than narrow, winding single lane country roads that all the roadies love).
Also, for a cyclist towing a trailer making their vehicle too wide to use the sidewalk, what would you suggest they do?