I had the most wonderful ride today... thanks police!
 

I was riding down a busy road today, (not ideal because I was transporting my cat to the vet in a trailer, but a concrete island prevented me from crossing another major road unless I was on this main road). The road was wide and smooth, but the sides were covered in gravel and the remains of winter's snow. I wasn't looking forward to it, especially for the sake of my cat.

Here's where it gets awesome... the police were out enforcing the school-zone speed limit of 30 km/h (the road is usually 50km/h, so people go about 60-65), so, rather than diverting to the parallel side street with its stop signs and potholes, I decided to take the main road all the way to the clinic. I was able to ride down the middle of this wide, smooth road at the speed of traffic, non-stop. Nobody honked, tailgated, or expected me to move over into the slush and gravel so that they could pass me. For about 3 minutes, I was in a parallel universe where cyclists were people, too.

On the trip home, the police were gone, and the world was back to normal. It was great while it lasted.

good one. that parallel universe sounds nice.

On one route I take while commuting, there's a freeway that turns into a highway with three lanes in each direction plus a median. On the freeway the speed limit is 60 mph; when it dumps into a surface street, the speed drops to 45 mph. This is about where I join in, riding on the wide shoulder. The limit drops further to 35 but most people ignore that... except on school days where the limit is 20 mph at the point where I have to make a left turn (there is a school one block from the highway, so there's a school zone on the highway). I love being able to navigate to the left turn lane as an equal; it rocks.

I rode my Surly Big Dummy for the first time to my house and was honked at 5 times. I wish I could have had self control and just waved with a smile, but I yelled not so nice phrases instead.

Wouldn't it be awesome if more of the major streets had speed limits that low?

This is partly why downtown Denver is so nice to ride through. The highest speed limit you really see is 30mph. Sure, there's lots of cars, but they're not going really all that fast.

They were probably honking 'cause your bike is so awesome!

great!

got a helmet for that pet?
http://www.cerebralsoup.net/index.ph...dogs_and_cats/

Yup, bottom line is if everyone really obeyed the laws and rules of the road, it would quite fine to ride a bike nearly anywhere.

+1 I still hurt all over from a recent driver infraction.

Sometimes I dream about discontinuous speed bumps with gaps in the middle big enough to let bikes through but that cars must slow down for. They'd be great for enforcing school zone speed limits etc.

Research has shown the speed bumps are ineffective at controlling speed, and result in increased fuel burn. Why? Because people slow down for the bump and then accelerate hard, often acellerating enough between bumps to completely negate the slow-down effect.

Why did I think the cops cuffed you and "rode" you down to the station?

Cops helped me out a few days ago too. Basically around a mile and a half from home, police cruiser was stopped at the light directly in front of me. Usually traffic pics up at this spot and I feel pressure to hammer the pedals, but the cop in front of me must have been on a leisure cruise because I was able to pedal all the way home behind him without a lot of effort. It was a great end to my commute that day.

Well, of course. That's why you space them 10 feet apart. :thumb:

There's a nice steep down ramp into a shopping area I frequent, that has some pretty definite speed humps. Cars get kicked hard if they go more than 25kph over them, bikes, don't seem to notice them. I love it when some dink comes in off the main road behind me, then decides he doesn't want "to be behind that slow bike " all the way to the bottom. If the timing is right, I can pick up a nice bit of speed, just enough that the car tries to pass, then gets hammered by the hump as I swoop over it.

Oh, I'm a bad person sometimes. :D

Pretty much. You should see the response I get when I drive reasonable speeds on humped streets and refuse to do the surge and brake thing. I get more tailgators that way.

Ugh, my room-mate, who is in all other ways one of the most sensible drivers on earth, does this. I need to tune up his bike and get him to ride more :)

Also, I'm jealous! Bhop, how can I get my own personal police escort? ;)

the city was kind enough to put some driver enraging -- uh, i mean "traffic calming" -- speed cushions in front of my house two years ago and my observations fully support this sentiment.

if anything, i think speed bumps make the road more dangerous for pedestrians, since trying to work out the timing of cars when jaywalking is easier when said cars are traveling at a constant speed.