Originally Posted by
noisebeam
When I was a novice to high traffic riding my stress was left turns. I planned all my routes ahead of time to avoid left turns on multilane and/or busy streets. This happened to result in routes that had far fewer bike lanes where I naturally/instinctively ended up 'taking the lane' at intersections. Then when I did ride on routes with bike lanes the stress was in how to deal with intersections where I thought I should to stay in the bike lane. I also found left turns to be a bit harder compound by the initial difficulty in getting cooperation when needed to merge out of the bike lane.
It's normal and understandable to be concerned about left hand turns, especially when beginning to ride in traffic. I've found that just doing it, makes it easier and more natural. Most motorists are rather timid. They move to the right lane a mile before they need to when they want to make a right hand turn, often leaving the inside lane free.
For example, this morning during rush hour, I was hustling to a 7 am meeting in a 40 mph arterial. Long line in the right lane, waiting to enter a roundabout, because 200 yards from the roundabout most traffic wanted to take the right hand turn to the freeway entrance. I was going to turn left in 100 yards, so rather than hug the right side of the right lane, I cut thru and took the left lane of the roundabout. Not only no problem, but I was able to move through much quicker than the cars since they were all jammed in the right lane.
BTW, no bike lanes or sharrows; none needed.
