Riding the Centerline.....
 

Poll..

How would you all handle the following situation...

2 lane road, tight, with packed traffic in both directions, usually not moving more than 10 miles per hour. In addition to the two lanes of travel, on each side of the road, there is about 1.25 cars worth of space for parking, which is 99% filled with parked vehicles. Some commercial, but mostly residential, and close to a University (read, meaning, lots of foot traffic).

Given this situation, I'd ride the centerline.

Would you all concur?

randy

I'd ride another street. I like riding in traffiic as much as turkeys like Christmas. Thats all.

I would ride the centerline....i hate car doors.

I actually like riding in heavy traffic, when traffic is light cars tend to speed ...whereas when traffic is heavy, I tend to speed.

either way, I still ride with a whistle in my mouth to keep non looking pedestrians out of my path.

You mean that double yellow thing isn't the bike lane?

I would ride where ever I could without getting myself hurt. Down the middle sometimes is the only way to go. As for bike lanes, here in the Boston area they seem to be thought of as an extra place to park or a brand new lane for cars to use.

Keep a whistle in your mouth, what a great idea! I'd probably keep the speed down and ride the kurb, I'm not too good in traffic.

If there weren't a convenient other street, then I'd take on the center line, too.

umm..yeah, this is Chicago...if there were another convenient street, the motorists would be there too!!!

Its not like one street there's rush hour, the next there isn't...

randy

How's about we get daley to designate every other streets "bikes only". Can you get your people working on that right away?

Yeah, probably ride the centerline as well. What street are you talking about, or is this just a general question? They have started construction on North by my house and I have found myself riding the centerline constantly there.

Chris

I'll ride wherever I feel is safe and reasonable for the situation. This'll include sidewalks, lawns, meridians, center lines etc. At the same time, I try to avoid being a jerk about it. I'm genreally not in so much of a hurry that I can't go with the general flow of traffic.

meridian, noun, a circle of constant longitude, passing throught the terrestrial poles. Damn, I want your bike! :D

Funny, I just rode the centerline yesterday. I was going down Clark right by Fullerton, they have construction going on there now and there was no way to take the side, they moved the other lane into the normal lane and got rid of all the parking. I just rode the center, nowhere else to go and it was backed up - it was mildly hairy but a hell of a lot of fun.

the street I have/had in mind was Foster, just east of Kimball, and NEIU campus, where I go to school...but I constantly find this situation on Clark, Wells, Rush Street, Michigan Ave, yada yada yada...

Oh, and Clark/Halsted/Broadway in Wrigleyville/Boystown/Lakeview, especially after dark on teh weekends...cab hell!!

randy