Originally Posted by
zeytoun
You really seem to have misapplied a lot of your safety lessons. Cars and motorcycles and bikes all have different safety strengths and weaknesses.
Bike has more visibility than a car, so looking both ways before an intersection is fine.
Bike is often right hooked, so waiting on the right is a less safe method for handling red-light runers.
Cars get rear ended. When it happens at a red light, it's usually a pain because the front car can't get out of the way. A bike can. It's maneuverable. More so than a motorcycle.
Instead, your solution is to place yourself in a less safe spot.
Everyone has to do their own thing...
I, for one, will never be the first through a straight intersection.
As far as getting rear ended and a bike being more manurable than a motorcycle, maybe but unless you are looking behind every second, you may never see that car that is about to hit you....
I'd much rather pull up past the cars already there and have a safety cushion...
I've been riding in San Diego for a while now and never even had a close call getting right hooked, why? I think it's because I pull all the forward and make sure the cars see me. Also, if there is a right turn lane (or room to make a turn lane i.e. bike lane), I sit to the left side of the turn lane.
to each their own though...