Riding etiquette for dummies.
 

So, I'm a dummie. Just learned what filtering was. Although I figured is was an a88hole thing to do, I did not know it was illegal.

I've seen the numerous threads on Filtering and the "advice for new commuters" thread, but I'd like to know if there are other rules or ettiquette of the road for cyclists. I want to be a nice guy and not seem like a rookie (although I am).

Don't ride on the sidewalk, don't run red lights, don't blow through stop signs.
Do draft off of buses, do take the lane, do assert your rights as a vehicle.

I'm sure there's more...

Ride as if you were a regular vehicle on the road.

Don’t swear, throw things at, make obscene gestures or generally antagonize motorists. This accomplishes nothing, and increases the odds that one will hit me down the road.

How about riding on the right side of the lane? If there are right turning cars, can I move to the left side of the lane to pass them, or to the right side of the left (inside) lane?

Should this be a general rule of thumb and use the road as I would in a car? Can I use the inside lane on a 4 lane road?

Well, there are times, places and circumstances for these two. But in general you are right.

Don't be rude to pedestrians - if they're crossing the street or whatever, give them lots of room and time to cross. What seems like plenty of room to a cyclist can seem like an imminent collision to a ped, and that makes them freak out and hate us.

Filtering is not illegal across the board. It depends on the jurisdiction. Do what is safe for you.

And a hearty aye to this. Treat them like the family of the bride.

That's funny. :D

My general rule of thumb is this: at intersections, almost always take the lane and act like a car. I would recommend *never* riding to the right of a line of cars in a turn lane. I can't think of a good exception to that. It's just begging to get hit. I would get in the lane and act like a car, and pass him on the left if necessary/safe.

Laws vary from state to state, but they generally read something like 'stay as far right as is safe'. You will notice much, much debate about that on here, as it centers on what is safe. One issue is whether to take the lane or ride in the gutter. Most people on here don't consider it reasonable to expect cyclists to ride on pavement that slopes down to storm sewers, in glass, etc. Additionally, most don't like riding right next to a hard curb, as it gives you no margin for error if someone does something stupid and you need to take evasive action. Also, most cyclists think it's dangerous to be passed with less than a 3-foot cushion.

Getting back to your 'should I use the road as a car?' question, which I interpret as 'should I ride in the middle of the lane or to the right?' - the only way you ride to the right is if you and a car can share a lane safely. The question is, how much space do you need?

So, let's do some math: I wouldn't want my tire less than 2 feet from a curb or road hazard, and my shoulder 3 feet from passing traffic. Assume a width of about a foot for my shoulder, and we're giving me about 6 feet of space that I need. Now, if your average car is about 5 feet wide, that means I need 11 feet from the beginning of my 'comfort zone' to the outer edge of a passing car. So that means that the right lane+rideable shoulder needs to be about 11 feet wide to make it safe for you to share a lane. If you don't have that, I'd feel within my rights to take the lane. If you don't, either the car buzzes you, or he veers into the next lane. If he has to go into the next lane, that's sort of the old 'in for a penny, in for a pound' kinds of situations. Honestly, in thick traffic, I take the lane as a courtesy to drivers in the left lane, who probably don't want the people passing *me* to slam into *them*.

As for riding in the left lane - that varies by state, but I think most allow it if you're turning, or if you're moving at traffic speed. Note that while turning left may be legal, it's not always the safest maneuver, so many people do other alternatives, such as going straight through the light, pulling over, and crossing straight with the cross street on the next cycle.

Never pass right-turners on the right. Either wait behind them or pass on the left.

In general, stick to curb lane unless there is a good reason to move to the inside lane. Good reasons include: left turns, passing slower traffic/right-turners, dangerous conditions in the curb lane: e.g. some horrible debris, construction, cars parked forcing you to ride less than 4 feet away from them (a.k.a. the door zone).

In most cases, the law says that you are to act like a vehicle in all cases, with the following exception:
You're to ride as far to the right as is practicable.
"Practicable" is generally interpreted (sometimes specifically stated in the law) as meaning that you can move left to pass a slower vehicle, to avoid debris or other dangerous articles or road conditions, turning left, etc. Also generally covered is if it's not safe for a car to share the road with you; in this case it's acceptable to move left to let the car know you're not to be shoved off to the side. You're not required to do stupid stuff like riding through bad road or gravel or water puddles, or to hide in right turn lanes when you're not turning right, etc.

At intersections, I do not allow vehicles to share a lane with me. It's just asking to get right hooked. If someone behind me is turning right, then yeah, I move far left to let him through. Of course this doesn't always work, because apparently in Michigan about 90+% of the cars have broken turn signals; if I don't know what they're doing, I can't provide any accommodation.

Keep in mind that hardly any drivers know that you have any rights at all. A lot of police officers don't, either. Your best bet is to get the law regarding bicycles in your state, and study it carefully. Many people keep a copy of it with them on the bike in case there are questions.

One suggestion that I haven't seen mentioned here: Don't pass up another rider who is having problems. At least stop to ask if they need help. They might not have the tire repair kit, the cell phone, or whatever is needed to get themselves back on the road.

+1, and perhaps even cars/peds too.

A lot of it is all about situational awareness a lot of the time. Coming down King St. W eastbound towards say, Atlantic, nice hill to gain speed on going under that bridge, but there are lights - if it's green, but there are 4 cars turning right - plan ahead and make sure it is, or will be clear for you to pass them on the left. This way you don't hold yourself up, you're not a danger to the right turners, and the left lane is still open for the streetcar and/or other traffic.

I've ridden down Adelaide in every lane at some point, but never sticking in the centre two lanes unless I have to be - if I turn left at John, I'll use the far left lane unless there are parked cars (because the two centres have those incomplete/old streetcar tracks, I don't like them :)). It's all about a little forethough, having the awareness and being courteous to other road users. Don't treat others how you don't want to be treated. Sure, I curse and yell at people, but that's usually when they do stupid stuff - I was riding across Gerrard downtown last night and some cubevan thought it was OK to cut me off to pass a left turning car, even though I was in *my* bike lane, I definitely yelled, but that's as far as I went - I just want them to be aware as well as me.

On this same ride, I made a booboo myself, I didn't read the road properly and almost got caught up in the Bloor/Mt. Pleasant split on Jarvis - I'd never been there before, and had no idea until the split just came with the signs above the actual road split (not much notice, city planners!) but all was well and I merged over (I just stopped at the right curb until it was safe to pull left).

Good luck, we've a bunch of Toronto riders here - feel free to ask anything specific to local laws, but I think everything has mostly been covered. Police don't care about filtering from my experience, traffic sometimes does and you might get people squeezing you out (inching over and over). If the lights are red, I filter on whichever side is safer/more spacious - if I see someone trying to block me, I'll go to their left or if there's not enough room. If it's not safe at all, or I just don't want to (say there's only 2 cars in front) I'll stick behind them. I've done it many times, I've crept forward on a red anticipating a green right next to a police car, they don't seem to mind. I make sure I'm never holding traffic up unless I absolutely have to, which I think is the main gripe.

Don't let anyone tell you you're not supposed to be on the road. It's illegal for any bike with wheels bigger than 24" to be on the sidewalk. Ask them to call the police if they're that bothered. Police can do the blitzes, lights at night, bell and brakes are all legally required and you can be ticketed for them (as well as regular road offenses, running reds/stops/ambers, etc.)

Edit: one thing I do try and do, is when I'm in the right lane going straight at lights, I check behind me (look at turn signal/ask driver) if the person is turning right, and I'll move out of their way to get them through (either go to the lane divider or hug the curb - I prefer the divider) so as to not delay them, I'll often have to wave people through, because car drivers sometimes think they need 15ft. of clearance to get around you.

Oh, one more thing: watch out for the people who creep along the curb then all of a sudden pull out with no signal. Watch for no turn signals in general, and don't be afraid to take the lane before a tracked intersection to give yourself some safety room - those tracks are a pain.

Good luck out there :)

Hmm, depends. I have a one lane intersection where most of the cars make LEFT turns (with no left turn light), and only about 2-3 cars make the turn per cycle.

On a congested afternoon I DO carefully filter on the right up to the light, in order to go straight and not wait 10 minutes to just go straight.

I never filter on busy roads/lights while just waiting behind a few cars, (when they would just pass me again anyway,) but if I'm going to be stuck behind multiple light cycles I'll filter like there's no tomorrow. Part of riding a bike is for that ease of getting around.

Heck, that goes without saying! And I interpret that pretty loosely too - I assume that anyone near a bicycle and not on it might need help, so I ask. Doesn't hurt. Saved a guy from a 2-mile walk a couple of weeks ago.

I wish that same moral applied to the drivers who must have seen me eat some sidewalk last week - none of whom stopped.

Yes. You probably don't need to leave the lane. I find that whenever I do this, the car is already turning by the time I get to where they are, leaving plenty of room on their left. Then I return to the standard position.

If you are preparing to turn left, yes, most places. Negotiate (combination shoulder or mirror checks, signal, verify a gap or a motorist letting you in) step by step: right side of outside lane to left side of outside lane, to right side of inside lane, to left side of inside lane (if there is also through traffic in that lane). Figuring out the timing of all this is an art that you will get better at with experience, and will differ somewhat every time relative to the traffic situation.

The basic reason for riding to the right is to conform to the generic traffic practice of faster vehicles passing slower vehicles on the left. Usually, a bicycle is going slower than the cars. In many places, bicycle code includes an exception to the ride right rule for when bikes are going at least as fast as the cars.

Another basic traffic practice is turning from the nearest spot on the roadway to the direction you are going, so that you are not crossing another's right of way during the turn. That is why it is considered best to turn left from the inside lane, and why cars actually are supposed to merge through a bike lane to make a right turn, although of course they should always check first.

Assuming you are in North America, I recommend reading Bicycling Street Smarts, esp. chapters 2 & 3. It addresses a lot of these kinds of questions.

Check your local laws. Doing that here will get you fined. Cyclists here have to stay within a meter of the curb.

pass to the left, spit to the right.

Odd that I'm answering my own question on this thread, but I thought I'd share this link. I haven't read it yet, but is looks very informative for those in Ontario.

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/pub...lingskills.htm

To be honest with you, I'll risk getting fined over getting flattened, if that's what it comes to. Hugging the curb at an intersection is needlessly dangerous in many situations.

That looks pretty good. There are still streetcars in Ontario? It's also funny that it's from Ontario but the path contains the phrase "english/pubs", which conjures up a whole other cycling environment to me... ;) (Yes, I understand what it really means...)

Yes, there are streetcars in Ontario (Toronto only, I think).

Well if it means something other than where I go to get a beer and something fried, let me in on it...

Mind your manners.
Use common sense.
Refuse to be intimidated.
Don't stray from your purpose(s).
Pay attention.