RPK79

ItsJustMe

I'm doing the filtering on a road with no shoulder/bike lane. I thought that's what you meant.

acidfast7

WTF, I live in a perpetual state of vent ...

I'm closing on a house in England within a month and finally have a "tenured professorship" by US standards (not a full chair by UK standards.)

Now have offer to work in rural Switz for 150KCHF/yr but can live in Germany and cycle to work (15km each way). One of four such sites in the world currently, and I think every uni will be building these in 20 years. Will be division head/section chief (less than 10 employees) and have tons of patentable IP to wield in the future.

But, ****, do I wanna move again :/

edit: maybe i'll just put the bars on the bike, go for a ride and forget about this ****.

Darth Lefty 

On my lunch ride I just went across a very large T intersection - 2 busy traffic lanes in each direction. There's a crosswalk that gums up the entire works and I felt like an ass for hitting the button to go across. I probably brought fifty cars to a stop so I could cross the street. I'm 100% sure an economist would say they all together burned enough extra gasoline and man-hours to totally negate any contributions I've made to the world today. If I took traffic lanes I wouldn't have gone that way through the intersection, but I didn't. I'm selfish and prefer to save my skin.

Maybe I shouldn't feel too bad, the light rail does something similar, many times every day.

PatrickGSR94

Completely different situation than the OP. In that situation I'd probably be doing the same as you. The OP's post sounded like he was undertaking a few cars that had just passed him and are also going straight, and then they have to pass him again after the light.

noglider 

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?

OBoile

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.

fietsbob

call up your local authorities.

Korina

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.

rumrunn6

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

Steve B.

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 !

PatrickGSR94

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.

rumrunn6

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

rumrunn6

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.

CB HI

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.

rumrunn6

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

FrankJ

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.

corrado33

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.)

rmfnla

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

Korina

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*

rumrunn6

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

kobaneul

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.

InAnnapolis

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.

CB HI

Maybe suggest better signage to help out the tourist.

kobaneul

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

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