It would seem to make sense to pick up and drop off kids as close to the door as possible, but it's actually a terrible idea because of the congestion and insane behavior that results. I would like to see day cares and schools have a no loading/unloading zone right near the door. Some places should have very big zones like this, depending on how busy the loading and unloading is. I know walking is inconvenient, but that doesn't give thought to how inconvenient and unsafe it is to have thoughtless parents blocking traffic, zooming dangerously close to children, and opening doors dangerously.

Well, I can dream, can't I?

The street I live on has dedicated bike lanes and I'm always amazed at how many adults continue to ride on the sidewalk. It's not even a busy street, so it would still be quite safe without the bike lanes.

call up your local authorities.

Okay, which bozo thought it would be a good idea to flip the gear shifters so that my right thumb gears down, and my left thumb gears up? I'm constantly getting them mixed up, and it's ANNOYING.

Aaah, I feel better, thanks.

yeah, I got passed by a cpl cars yesterday before a light. I filtered to the front and put a foot on the curb. we all waited together. when it turned green I waited for everyone to go before launching myself. just seemed easier than making everyone pass me again

Often times just wait at the back of the pack of cars, rather then riding up the shoulder. Just repeats every intersection. I will pass on right if I know the next part of the road has a decent shoulder where I'm not in the lane.

As well if I know the intersection, I might hop the light to get out of the way of anybody behind me. The cop "might" understand !

If you're going to let the cars go anyway, why not just stay behind them in line so that they stay in front of you? That pretty much eliminates any and all risk of turning conflicts.

I do that sometimes, but it's more rare. every situation is different

there's a light I know, (two lanes of traffic) where the green light lasts 2 seconds longer than the opposing traffic. and if you're making a left, it's just enough time for 2 cars to go, then everybody waits for the opposing traffic to clear before any more can take a left. sometimes only two cars squeak out. I always filter to the front and go on the tail of the first car, or if I get there first they are waiting for me. as soon as I clear the intersection I expect them to pass me. seems to work out fine and no one gets mad. if I wait back in line it's dangerous cuz the right lane is going straight and moving right away so I'm wedged between the two lanes, kinda sorta. I don't take the lane while stopped.

Why are motorist passing a cyclist to race up to the red light when they all end up waiting at the same red lights over and over again. It means that the motorist and cyclist are all traveling at the same average speed.

If the motorist would just relax a little and travel at the cyclist speed, they would not have to wait at the red lights as long (if at all) and they would save a fair amount of gas. Although the draw back is the motorist do not have as much free time to spend on their phonetoys at the red lights.

that particular stop light was right before a highway overpass with speedy traffic. right before the light it is 5 lanes wide, 3 on my side 2 on the opposing side. the little island at the light is a kind of sanctuary I felt safe at

Because drivers are inherently selfish. Protected in their box, they don't have to have social interaction with other drivers and so it's all me, me, me. *I* have to be in front, *I* have to be first. Who cares, I'll never see them again!

Driving really does bring out the worst in people.

OP: Sorry for your bad interaction, however I think you were partially at fault. As other's have said, I would have have passed a car that just passed me. In that situation I'd stop next to the most recent car that passed me if I hadn't taken the lane.

It's how the derailleurs work (now-a-day.) Tightening the cable makes the rear shift to lower gears and the front shift to higher gears. Things like rapid rise derailleurs do exist which reverse this for the back, but they're more of a pain than you think. Some old front derailleurs also shift backwards (cable tightening shifts to lower gears.)

People have been saying that for thousands of years...

Just a short whine. I have a bike that I love, a 45 min. lunch break, gorgeous weather, and heavy traffic in all directions. *sob*

guess that's what "to hell and back" means

Tourists, bless their hearts, I know they are important to the economy, I know we don't make it easy to navigate in Boston, but seriously please take the T (or rent a Hubway!). Guy ahead of me on the way home chose the wrong lane for two intersections in a row, made a last minute merge in front of me at the second light, and then complained that I was in the left lane. I know I am in the left lane. I am turning left! The difference is that I figured it out half a block ago.

Pretty impressed that the thread has lasted this long. Regarding the original OP's post: In DC (and probably other places) I find that it's good to constantly switch between aggressive and defensive riding and be able to completely switch each type of riding on and off quickly, however this was difficult at first. Another thing that the line you ride shouldn't change quickly or dramatically, you should try to be predictable so that cars aren't surprised by a sudden change. For instance when you are on a one lane road due to parked cars and that lane turns into two due to no parking up ahead and you go into the right lane don't shift over super quickly and vice-versa going right to left. The difference between a quick and a gradual line change is a couple seconds, the difference in your predictability to a driver is enormous. There are times when you have to take a lane and can't worry about what the driver thinks. Going under a bridge is a great example since you can't risk clipping a curb and the space is too snug to risk having a car push your line to far to one side. On the other hand if you have a decent straight away with minimal cars parked on the street to the right of you then you should get the hell out of the way.

It's good to get defensive and cool it in DC when you see either MD plates or plates from other states because (a) MD drivers take their driving test in a parking lot without traffic which shows when they get into actual traffic and subsequently, honest to goodness, suck at driving, and (b) a lot of other drivers from other states are decent at driving but probably don't deal with bikes like drivers that live in DC do on a day to day basis [gross generalization] so they just don't have the awareness or aren't thinking about dealing with bikes at the same time that they are trying to figure out where they are trying to go or how to actually get there. I find that local DC drivers are actually pretty friggin good at sharing the road (assuming they aren't driving a cab, bus or Uber car).

The other thing to do is to always keep an eye way out in front on the right where cars are parking or parked on the side of the road. If you see a brake light up ahead it might mean that the person just parked their car and is about to open their door. I almost got doored last week by a dump truck! I barely anticipated it by checking to my left before avoiding the door. The driver was quite apologetic and I'm guessing it would have hurt to run into his door.

The biggest thing is to ride with a lot of finesse. One of the coolest things to see when you start riding in DC (and probably a lot of other places) is seeing a rider with a lot of finesse that isn't working nearly as hard at riding as you are yet they end up way ahead of you in traffic because they knew when to take the lane, ride between lanes, get an edge right before the light turned green or right before the light turned red, or anticipated some stupid thing that a bus was about to do and got out of the way (I swear to God a lot of these riders are women on sub average bikes - maybe I should have not written any of this and just said that you should learn to ride like a woman).

Lastly, if your light is about to turn green and perpendicular traffic's light is already red and you are thinking about getting a head start on your light (which I'm sure none of us ever contemplates :)) and there's a cab in perpendicular traffic about to reach their red light then don't jump your light because the cab is going to run his!

Regarding the woman that yelled at you - don't worry about it, she probably had a MD plate.

EDIT: After re-reading the original post after I posted this it appears that (a) OP was correct in taking the lane, (b) lady had it coming to her, (c) hopefully the child didn't hear any curse words, (d) OP seems to already be pretty proficient (not being sarcastic btw) and doesn't need to read anything above.

Maybe suggest better signage to help out the tourist.

Signs?? This is Boston. That's a whole other "vent." :lol:

I would have been a lot more sympathetic if he hadn't felt the need to comment on MY lane choice.

yeah, get him in a rotary

I am of two minds on shoaling the cars. It does feel like jumping in line and most of the time, when there is a reasonably small line I just stay in line. BUT - my vent - I'm always getting behind some yahoo that lets 4 or 5 car lengths open up in front and then floors it, making it look like I am the one holding up traffic. Half a dozen cars, it's guaranteed that one of them will do it. We'd have all been better off if I'd just filtered to the front.

I used to think the same thing. But you get used to it. Apparently it's easier to move the chain to a larger sprocket when tightening the cable tension, thus stretching the spring in the derailleur (both front and rear). Conversely, releasing the cable/spring tension is easier to shift to a smaller sprocket. And it just so happens that the larger sprocket up front is the harder gear, and the larger sprockets in the rear are the easier gears.

Yep, "me first" is why traffic jams form at merge points on highways. Nobody wants to leave a gap and let people merge in front of them in a "zipper" pattern. They think that keeping the space as small as possible to the next car in front will somehow get them there faster.

OP in DC which is has helped create the Problems.

Like Patrick said they both pull to larger cogs and release to smaller ones. This was important once, but it's just convention now with indexing.

Shimano tried last decade to introduce rear derailleurs that were sprung the other way, but they didn't catch on.

Some SRAM grip shifters are the same unit left and right, just with different clicks, instead of a mirror of each other; and therefore they are "reverse-reversed" on the left side.

Yup.

If you are going to split lanes, make sure you don't get in the way of those you just passed. Of course, if you stop behind the last car in a line, the next car coming up behind you is going to honk and yell at you anyway.
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If you've cycled through this road many times with other motorists patiently sharing the road with you, you're question to her is what's wrong with her that hundreds of others can do but she can't?

Has never happened in 10,000+ miles of road riding.

It's happened to me when driving but not on a bike. Except in a right turn lane when someone wants more room to squeeze by and honks, but not in the through lane that I can recall. I wouldn't say that it detracts from Joeybike's credibility though. It could be an artifact of different driving cultures.

I sometimes feel like a fixed target though, stopped in line between cars so I can sympathize with that part. Beside the line, even next to the gap between cars, feels much more protected from rear end collisions.

Hot afternoon, I'm pretty much dying as I pedal along at the fastest pace possible on a rural stretch of MUP. Ahead of me, I see a cyclist do a U-Turn, going from coming towards me to now riding my way. A few minutes later I pass this clown. Like I said, I'm shot, so I don't bother warning him or anything as I just slowly go by.

Asshat decides to yell at me. "Hey, you could say something!" I'm thinking to myself, you dumbass, you just did a U-ie. How could you not know I'm coming?