Originally Posted by Serge *******
Fair enough, but do you agree or disagree with my premise that motorists generally pass with greater care (slower, and with more passing distance) cyclists within their own lanes (who aren't hugging the right edge and hence yielding the right-of-way) than they pass cyclists riding in adjacent/separated bike lanes?
Serge,
I took great pains this morning to track how closely I was passed this morning on my commute in the bike lane and when riding between the center and right tire track of the far right lane of a three lane road with no shoulder and occasional parking. Not a single person drifted into the bike lane, which I think is what you attest to or at least that cars pass right up against the bike lane line. On the contrary, every car that passed me was centered in the lane.
Yet while I was riding vehicularly in far right lane I was usually passed much closer than the 3 feet you have claimed in past posts. And also many of those vehicles accelerated as they passed.
I think your premise is slightly flawed as it is based on the presumption that the only option for obstacle avoidance for the bike lane travelling cyclist is to move laterally into the left hand vehicle lane. What about stopping, moving right, bunny hopping an obstacle? As a VC cyclist you would never just arbitrarily veer right, or would you I presume be travelling so fast that you wouldn't be anticipating upcoming obstacles. Most commuters know every pothole, slick manhole cover and dirty stretch of roadway on their commute by memory. With this knowledge any instance of having to, as you say negotiate into traffic would be anticipated. It is an assumption of ignorance of cyclists who use bike lanes to imagine that their first instinct is to veer into the lane of traffic at the sight of every obstacle.
It is also wrong of you to assume that every bike lane is debris strewn. The lane that runs on Venice from Crenshaw to the Beach a distance of well over ten miles is as debris free as any piece of roadway I've experienced. And further, the only pothole free section of my commute is the one mile of the Venice bike lane that I traverse because it is the only place not destroyed by busses and heavy trucks.
You are right, if a cyclist swerves into the lane of traffic then she is in the wrong, but this is the same if a vehicle did the same thing in a traffic lane. This is a common accident in Los Angeles as drivers swerve around busses and left-turners. You would not assume that the vehicle lane was at fault in this sort of accident, nor is this a problem with bike lanes. Your premise only holds if we assume that all bike lane users are bad cyclists, something you are fond of assuming, but have done little to prove.