Originally Posted by
-=Łem in Pa=-
It still is a hit with joggers though, a lot of them do it for reasons they perceive
as safety related and also facilitates selfish iPod-ery.
For someone on foot, going against traffic makes sense in that nothing on your side of the street is going to sneak up on you (including a correctly-traveling bicycle) and you can easily step out of the way if necessary.
The problem with cycling against traffic is that there is very little that one can do to control
where a pass takes place. Unless everyone stops, it's got to happen in a very narrow area due to the closure rates and limited options. In contrast, when cycling with traffic it's much easier because the faster vehicle can simply slow down until reaching a safe place to pass (not that they do, but they
could).
I find that I can also control where a pass happens by being observant of what's coming up behind me and speed up to get around the bend or slow down so they catch me on the straight-away. It'd be a lot more difficult to do that if I was riding against traffic (closure rate), and there'd be little option if oncoming traffic showed up and prevented a safe pass.