A "Fun" Encounter Today
 

Today as I was coming home from my usual (albeit slightly shortened) ride. I was stopped at a red light. When I have a rather impatient gal pull up behind me wanting to make a right hand turn on red.

She starts both honking her horn and trying to inch up on me. I guess she thought that she could intimidate me into moving out of her way. At one point I just turn and say "Where do you want me to go?" She responds with "I'm turning."

Had she been both polite and patient about it, I would have been willing to move ot my left to allow her to pass. But given her behavior I was not inclined to make things easier on her by moving from my position.

She resumes both her honking and inching forward. Finally she has inched forward enough to make her right turn. Given the slow speed with which she was "forced" to make her right turn I knew that I was in no danger from her and her close passing of me.

I just had to laugh at her inpatients and how she was the cause of her not being able to make her turn when she felt that she had the "right" to do so.

The "fun" part is I can only imagine what story she told to her friends and family about the "rude" cyclist who didn't allow her to make her turn.

See? This is why I don't like riding too far left in the lane. :P

I usually take over the left side of the right lane at stoplights. It prevents my getting trapped in a right hook and gives drivers room to make a turn while the light is red. Of course,I usually have to wave them past and they always look surprised, but if they are rude-- screw 'em!

Marc

I have an intersection on my ride where about 80% of the traffic turns right, but I go straight. I always take a far left position, just to the right of the center line, at the stoplight. This allows people to turn right. At most intersections I'll be more centered, but never too far to the right because that invites people to pull around you then turn right in front of you.

If people use their turn signals I'll scootch over if I can. If they pull up behind me and have no turn signal on I assume they're going straight, and I'll maintain the center of the lane until I get through the intersection then usually move to the right tire track (depending on conditions and traffic).

Depending on if the intersection will accommodate it, I will position myself to the left of the lane so motorists can make their right turns while I'm waiting for the light to change. So far, I've only had one motorist continue straight through the intersection, passing me on the right when the light changed.

I once had a motorist, who was trying to make a right turn, intimidate me in the same manner as DC's while I was stopped in a bike lane waiting on a traffic light.

i do this myself. quite frankly, i can't think of a reason NOT to. i'm a believer in cooperating with motorists when possible; i don't take the full lane unless i NEED to, not simply because i'm entitled to it. also, positioning myself at an intersection such that cars can make a right on red, in my opinion, goes well in the direction of creating goodwill with motorists. why not do that when we can ? we're the ones who benefit ....

When it comes down to motorists and cyclists on the roadway, there's a fine line between cooperating and being submissive. Depending on the traffic conditions, I usually take the full lane every chance I can get, rather only when I need to.

I like taking the full lane since it keeps me out of the debris zone on the side of the road, has helped reduce motorists from squeezing by me at high speeds, with inches to spare, and all the motorists that I've encountered, seem to be better at knowing where the front of their vehicle is than the right side of their vehicle.

I cooperate with motorists on a daily basis, but only after I've weighed all my safety options first.

^^^This. Another benefit of defaulting to the center of the lane is that it gives you and drivers better sight lines, enabling everyone to see each other sooner in many situations.

Oh, and DC you gave us plenty of details except for the most important one. Was she hot?

I usually don't keep the left of the lane at an intersection.

I tried it once, so that right turners could make the right turn. I had a motorist pull up to the right of me and follow me straight through the intersection. I wound up on the yellow line.

Screw that, I'm taking my place in queue.

I've had that happen to me as well, but I've had far more motorists make their right turn as expected. If motorists pulled a straight through stunt on a regular basis, then I'd pull to the center of the lane and block them, but I've only had one so far in many years of riding.

I usually find it very easy to make room for right-turning vehicles and in doing so reap one of the many benefits of cycling.

I usually stop in a position in the middle or slightly to the left of the "through lane" traffic line. If someone is going straight, they have to tuck in behind me. If there is enough room to turn right behind me, fine. I usually stop far enough back that I can move up and to the left if someone approaches from behind with their right blinker on (I watch in my rear view mirror). No blinker? I assume the car is going straight and I won't move. Too bad, so sad.

This is a road with a substandard width outside lane, and I was both the first vehicle in line, as well as in the center of the lane. No matter where I would have been positioned she would have had to try and squeeze past me to make a right on red.

Also if you look at the map you can see that there is a "island" of sorts that right turning traffic has to stay between and the curb.

Marc,

IF the lane at the intersection is wide enough I try to do that as well. However as the link in my last post shows this lane isn't wide enough to allow that.

Agreed, as I said (if they're polite and have their turn signal on) I'll try to accommodate them IF it is safe to do so. A few years back I was headed to an appointment with my massage therapist when I had a gal (a "soccer" mom) come up along side me and politely ask if I could move a little to the left so that she could turn. For her I did, because she was polite about it.

The gal from yesterday given her actions I was not inclined to budge a mm.

As I said normally I do so myself, but this is a road with a substandard outside lane and pretty much no matter where I position myself a right turning car isn't going to have much room with which to pass a cyclist who is the first vehicle at the light.

Also as I had said had she been more polite about it I would have been willing to move further to the left side of the lane in order to try and allow her to pass. Also had I been in a car or on a motorcycle she still would have had had to wait for the light to change before she could turn right.

And just because we're riding a bike that is stopped at a traffic light why should we be treated any differently than any other vehicle that was first in line?

Agreed, and if we don't stand up for our rights, do we really have them? I agree with that as well. Usually I ride in the right hand i.e. passenger side tire track. I take the lane if it is a road with substandard width lane.

Agreed, taking the lane or at least riding in the right side/passenger side tire track keeps one out of the debris zone on the side of the road. And as you noted it helps to reduce motorists from squeezing past us at high (or even low) speeds with inches (or less) to spare.

Agreed, our safety comes first and if by cooperating with motorists it puts our safety in danger than we don't need to cooperate with motorists, as our safety comes first.

Not really.

I had that happen to me a couple of years ago with a red pickup truck. I was stopped at an intersection as the first vehicle in line, and allowed what I thought was enough space for right turning traffic to make it's right turn. When the light turned green the truck proceeds to go straight on my right side.

And was advised at that time that I was "at fault" for not taking the lane. Because I'd given the driver of the truck "too much" space.

Exactly! And I hate it when a car squeezes by a line of cars by driving in the bike lane and then encounters me at the limit line. They act like they have the right to drive in the bike lane but I don't have the right to be stopped at my own bike lane limit line.

However, based on your picture I might (just might) have rolled through the cross walk and waited next to the little island between the straight go-ers and the turn lane. Not that you should have to, but it would make it easier to take the lane on the other side of the intersection because there is no bike lane and no room to share the lane.

Edit: And I mean rolled up to the island initially, not at the promptings of an ***hole!

Exactly, if they're going straight they have to wait their turn for the light to change and for me to start moving before they can start moving themselves. If the lane is wide enough I'll position myself far enough to the left so that right turning traffic can safely make it's right turn.

IF however the lane is not wide enough and/or the driver is behaving like a horse's ass, I am not going to accommodate them. They can just sit there and wait for the light to change like they would if I was in a car or on a motorcycle. And just because they're in a hurry that doesn't mean that I am going to put my safety at risk.

Car drivers seem to want us all the way in the gutter on the right, except when they want us all the way on the yellow line in the center. And they want us to obey the traffic signals except when we're in their way, in which case they want us to run the red lights and get out of the way.

Agreed, or they feel that they can park their car in the bike lane. I've seen that as well. And I'm not talking about someone who has just pulled over to pickup or drop off a passenger, but a car that is parked in the bike lane. A year or so ago I saw a guy who had pulled over into the bike lane so that he could use his cell phone. Granted he get's points for pulling to the side of the road before using his cell phone. But he looses most if not all of them for stopping in the bike lane. Particularly considering there was on street parking just before where he'd stopped to use his cell phone.

Actually there was a "gutter bunny" who had done just that. At first I thought that he was planning on just running the red light. Which eventually he did do. The left turn arrow lit up and traffic made it's left turn. And before the light turned green he proceeds through the intersection.

I got that. As I said had she been polite I would have been willing to try to accommodate her, but because she was being a rude horses ass I didn't feel the need to try to accommodate her.

Exactly, as many of us have said in the past. It seems that most motorists idea of "sharing the road" means that we as cyclists have to:

a) get out of their way as soon as we hear them coming
b) that we have to "cower in fear" in the gutter pan/shoulder until they pass

Which is what I would have had to do in order to clear the way for her to make her turn.

Catch 22 there, run the red light, motorists get pissed, sit in front of them at red light, motorists get pissed. Facing that scenario, a cyclist should make the call based on what they perceive as safe, and not on motorists' emotions