ECDkeys

I have a good stretch of road that I will need to bike pulling a Burley and gear, but it's a heavily travelled road with no bike lane. I've ridden it many times with bike alone without issue, but I'm a little concerned about slower velocity and extra berth with the trailer. I'm considering taking the sidewalk, but then I'll be putting pedestrians out.

How many of you would just say, screw it, I'm taking the road like any other vehicle.

sauerwald

If there are no parallel routes that are better suited to a bicycle, I would just take the road and ride. Motor vehicles generally have more travel options than cyclists, so while I try not to put out motorists more than I have to, I do not feel bad about slowing them down when I am on what is my only option. The sidewalk is not safe, I would not ride on the sidewalk.

My priorities when riding are #1 My safety, #2 my travel time/experience, #3 motorist convenience

gosmsgo

You have nothing to worry about.

You have every right in the world to pull your trailer and if it slows somebody down for 5 seconds then so be it.

I pull a loaded bikesatwork model 96 up some hills at 4 mph all the time. If the fatty's in their cages dont like it then I say "$@#! them."

acroy

+1
I'd try to find an alt. route first....
inconvienienced motorists, are, imho, the ones who get upset & might buzz ya. Esp towing a trailer, the unintentional results could be bad

HardyWeinberg

Is your heavily travelled road one lane each way or more? If more, I would totally do it w/ a clean conscience and the presumption that I should be feeling safe (anyone tailgating and honking at me in that situation is clearly a psycho and you can't make them happy anywhere).

Safety-wise it's still better to find an alternate route of course, 'cause having had the right of way is slim consolation if you get flattened by an 18 wheeler. Though your estate could clean up on a lawsuit... If there is no alternate route, *and* it just doesn't feel safe (beyond your tolerance for road-raging psychos), for whatever reason, then do the sidewalk.


edit: I've cycled, so to speak, through this thought process myself in bringing my kids in a trailer up a main traffic arterial from their daycare to our house (not steep but lengthy uphill). When I felt good, I felt fine blazing up one of the 2 lanes going my way (one hairy half-block where I have to be in the left lane to go straight before a turn lane popular w/ cars opened up further yet to the left). When I was too beat (or loaded down), I had a clean conscience on the sidewalk (by then I wasn't going faster than any of the joggers, just taking up more space). Ultimately, finding an alternate route cleared my head of that evaluation process, and I tend to need that mental space by the end of the day...

ECDkeys

Thanks for the input. Yes, I think avoiding that stretch altogether will be the way to go. The more that I think of it, that stretch is problematic for motorists even without cyclists, because it's strip mall heaven, with cars entering and exiting parking lots and no traffic lights controlling any of it. All day long you hear the screech of tires. Come to think of it, why do I even bike that stretch even without the Burley? It's dreadful.

aley

When I've got my kids in the trailer I'm a lot more picky about the roads I'll ride on. OTOH, if it's just cargo in the trailer I'll ride just about anywhere; cars tend to give bikes with trailers (or at least bikes with child-carrier trailers, which is the only kind I have) a wider berth than normal.

JR97

When I've got the trailer, cars usually give me more room than normal. Probably because they think a kid is in there. I know it makes my hockey gear feel more safe. Even when I have my kids in there, I haven't felt unsafe. But like above posters, I do take in consideration which roads would be better. Doesn't mean I take them. But I evaluate the situation.

When there's a narrow shoulder or none at all, I take a little more of the lane than usual. I have yet to have anyone get upset about it.

CommuterRun

That's what I do when towing a trailer and the road design doesn't give any other options. I just ride in the manner I would if not towing a trailer.

With these priorities:
Given this description of the road and area, I would most definitely not be on the sidewalk.

I have found this to be true when towing any trailer. The bigger and bulkier it appears, the better it seems to mitigate close passes. However, close passes aren't a common problem around here.

banerjek

Slower velocity shouldn't be a concern. Even if you clip along at 25mph, the cars are still much faster than you. Besides, most drivers assume bikes are slow.

Extra berth can be an issue because it affects how far right you can go when necessary to dodge something. However, when I'm on my trike (which probably is even wider than your trailer), I ride the same as I would on a regular bike.

patc

I have a large Wike trailer, and I've found that drivers consistently give me MORE room and pass more carefully when I use the trailer. At this point, if I wasn't too lazy to always tow the trailer, I would consider keeping it on the bike every day to increase safety.

Allen

I do make sure I have some daylight bright blinkies on my trailer when I'm on traffic heavy roads.

1ply

Or Amish. Take your pick

CBBaron

Busy strip mall areas are one of the most dangerous places to ride in my opinion. There are too many entrance and exit points from the road to keep track of and the number of vehicles using those entrance points is also numerous. In addition you have the motorists looking for "that" store or watching for the small opening in traffic.
I don't think pulling a trailer is any more of a danger than just riding through that type of area. Sounds like something I would avoid if the alternatives are reasonable.
Craig

m5nardi

I noticed that the more visible I made my trailer(s), the fewer problems I had altogether. Cars gave me a wider berth and fewer honked or otherwise acted upset.

It started with adding blinkies and a second flag to my child trailer, so that I had one on each rear corner. One pole was slightly shorter than the OE flag. Then I swapped out the yellow flag with a company logo on it for day glow safety orange flags with reflective borders and added an orange triangle to the back. When I transferred all that to my cargo trailer, I added reflective tape to the frame. The further away they can see me, the less annoyed drivers seem to act.

My husband calls my cargo trailer the Safety Wagon.

Flimflam

+1 The safety of my cargo is usually my decision maker. If cargo = my daughter, I'll take MUP/res./light roads wherever I can.

CommuterRun

You could put red LED lights on it and be Ohmish.