This might seem like a dumb question...
 

...but can I ride in the far right of the lane/street even if there is NO bike lane?

Yes, but stay center enough to be safe...you don't need to be riding through debris, roadkill, sewer grates etc.

Rule of thumb: If the lane is wide enough to share, share it, if not, own it...which means you ride in whatever lane position it takes to give overtaking traffic no doubt that they must cross into the next/oncoming lane to pass.

You can take the whole lane if necessary. Don't ride too far to the right* or cars will attempt to squeeze by- better to be in the right tire track of traffic.

*On narrow streets- if there is enough room to safely share the road, do so.

Also if there are parked cars or something don't ride into the gap, stay on a straight path, this way cars won't try to zoom around you when you duck into the gap and nail you as you pop out of the gap.

http://drivelesschallenge.com/wp-con...s-1024x384.jpg

There is one stretch of my regular route where people pass VERY close and I get worried I will get hit because on my right there are overgrown bushes and on my left there are insane drivers.

And I try to not goo too far right because my pedals will start to hit the curb and I run over lots of glass. On Tuesday I rode over half a broken beer bottle, luckily with no flat.

Bicycles are considered vehicles and have as much right to the streets as cars, trucks and motorcycles. The only exception are limited access highways such interstates, which often prohibit bicycles. If you ride too far to the right, you will get a lot of flats from running over glass and other debris, you could crash from hitting sewer grates, and many cars will try to squeeze by without giving you any space. It is better to "own" some of the road, but don't get carried away with it. There is no point tying up traffic for miles riding down the center of a road when there is plenty of space for a bike and a car. Paved shoulders are fine as long as they are not clogged with debris.

You can increase your comfort level by using a mirror, wearing high-viz jerseys or jackets, and installing a bright tail-light on your bike, helmet or seatbag. In my experience, drivers pulling or backing out from side streets and parking lots are a bigger hazard than getting hit from behind. Another more likely hazard is hitting potholes, large sticks, rocks, glass and other debris -- or drivers flinging open their car doors when parked along the street -- so keep your eyes on the road ahead of you.

Over the past several years, I've proved to myself the dictum: Passing cars will give you as much room as you take. Try to squeeze six inches from the curb or bushes, and they'll pass you six inches from your elbow. Take three feet, and they'll give you that much space between them and you. It sounds counterintuitive, but it works!

http://www.cazbike.org/docs/AZ_Bike_Law.pdf

You need to ride farther left...out of the debris and away from the bushes. The insane drivers have these things called steering wheels and brakes...which the debris and the bushes, don't.

Thanks everyone for the comments! I just wanted to make sure really.

UberGeek: Thanks for that link, that is very helpful for the road! But you bring up another question I have pondered: How does one execute a left turn?

I did one Tuesday on my ride home but I wasn't sure I did it correctly.

This is the path that I took, starting in the far right lane:

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=321662

Was this correct?

What I do in that situation is to find the safest opportunity to cross the traffic lanes then queue into the left-turn lane as any other vehicle, which means I take the lane and wait my turn like everyone else. I strongly dislike filtering past waiting traffic when I'm in a proper traffic lane, and I never do it since it's an unexpected and unsafe approach to cycling in traffic in my area. However, regional laws and customs differ with lane-splitting and filtering. After making the turn, I find the safest opportunity to move to the proper area of the roadway whether that be back to the right-most lane, or left lane if I'm making another left, or elsewhere depending on circumstances.

"Safest opportunity" depends on road-surface conditions, traffic, etc. and varies, sometimes it could mean a block away, sometimes right up near the intersection. Common sense will generally suffice to dictate the approach.

The path you took looks fine in that image (to me at least), but of course it depends on the real-world traffic situation at the time you were riding.

The traffic was clear (only one car a few hundred feet behind me) and I signaled a left turn, went into the left lane and made the turn. This was at around 9:30 at night.

That is one way to do it legally. If you're doing it at night you are probably legally required to have lights.

If traffic is heavy, or you don't feel confident out in the middle of it, you could take a longer route. Let's assume the picture is oriented like a map, and "up" is North. You could go straight through the intersection to the northwest corner (near the word 2001 on your picture), get close to the sidewalk, stop, and rotate your bike 90 degrees, wait for the light to change and then continue west through the intersection.

If there is no right-turn-only lane where I wait for the light to change in the westbound street, I like to be polite and get really close to the curb while I'm waiting for the light to change, in case cars want to turn right on red at that northwest corner, and they can go around me. However, just before the light changes, I move forward a little bit to block them, so they won't turn into me as I start into the intersection.

However if the westbound street has a right-turn-only lane, then I position myself out in the middle of that lane and well forward into the crosswalk, while waiting for the light to change, so the right turning cars can sneak behind me.

Orange line if westbound street has no right-turn-only lane. Yellow line if westbound street has a right-turn-only lane.

Yes. You signaled clearly and moved (I assume) when it was safe. Looks like a tricky turn, maybe less so at 9:30 p.m. Good job. If traffic on your left doesn't let you move across, just suck it up and use the ped crossings at the junction. Be assertive but don't try to bite metal!