Originally Posted by
chipcom
The cyclist is, in effect, merging into the flow of traffic and therefore must yield to the flow of traffic. Whether it is/was a single lane or not has no relevance.
Example: A car parked on the street pulls out in front of a moving vehicle in the same lane...was the moving vehicle supposed to stop/slow to allow the parked vehicle to merge into his path just because they are in the same lane and the parked vehicle is ahead of the moving vehicle?
It's materially different than a stopped car pulling out from a parking spot. The parking spot is not part of the roadway.
The bicycle is in the roadway. The bicycle is the flow of traffic. Think of the situation with a motorcycle instead of a bicycle.
Originally Posted by
The Human Car
Playing devils advocate for a second, from my experience from days of lesser experience and knowledge this situation has a low probability of a rear end collision and a higher probability of a sideswipe. So if the rear vehicle can safely get beside and take the lead by at least a bit doesn’t that make the cyclist the rear vehicle with the obligation to yield?
So in any sideswipe situation due to narrowing of the lane it will always be the cyclists fault. Agree, disagree? And would you be comfortable with that as law?
If the bicycle and the car were riding side-by-side before the lane reduced in width, I would expect that the best choice would be for the cyclist to yield to the car. Here are a few reasons why: 1) the cyclist is more likely to be aware of the car than vice versa, 2) the car might not be able to slow down enough to avoid the side-swipe, and 3) the car may have less space to manuever.
I am not sure but I think in the event of a sideswipe collision, the car would be at fault legally (barring any other complications).
Originally Posted by
Helmet Head
Great analogy: the single parked car in the very wide outside lane.
Now consider the situation where this lane narrows from the left, and the parked car is the last car in the parking zone.
Does the green car moving slowly in the "parking zone" (note where the red curb starts demarcating the end of the "parking zone") of the very wide lane have the right to proceed here, or is the driver obligated to yield to the driver of the purple car? Is this significantly different from the situation in the OP? How?
Simple. The parking area is not a travel lane. The parked car must yield (but may not).
It's different than the first case because the first car is in the flow of traffic.