Take the Lane!!!

[KnottedYet]

I'm a Cautious Commuter, and had the bejeebers scared out of me on a group ride when the group leader roared thru stop signs and stop lights and right-passed cars waiting their turns or for lights to change, and expected us to follow suit. (I finally had enough, and stopped at a 4-way, let the cars take their turns, then took my turn; rather than run the stop sign. That made me a little bit further behind everyone than I already was, and the ride leader dropped back and asked me if I was frightened of riding on the road with cars.... )

I haven't taken Cascade's commuter class, but I'd like to. http://www.cbcef.org/commuting_resources.html

John Forester's book "Effective Cycling" is good, and I think several biking safety class curricula are based on it.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I have read "The Art of Urban Cycling", which I found very enlightening. It teaches defensive cycling under diverse conditions. You ASSUME that cars are going to do the wrong thing and/or not see you, it tells you how to develop the habit of looking/planning/anticipating ahead to avoid certain bad situations before they can even develop. Feel free to skip the sometimes boring history of how the US highway system came to be if you want, though!

[anorange]

[QUOTE=KnottedYet;179223]I'm a Cautious Commuter, and had the bejeebers scared out of me on a group ride when the group leader roared thru stop signs and stop lights and right-passed cars waiting their turns or for lights to change, and expected us to follow suit.


I too am a very cautious commuter. I am also new to group riding and am scared that other riders might behave this way. Can't believe a ride leader would behave this way. I hope it's not the norm.

[anorange]

Well obviously I am new to posting messages and I don't know how to do the quote thing. If anyone wants to point me in the right direction that would be appreciated.

[Eden]

Well obviously I am new to posting messages and I don't know how to do the quote thing. If anyone wants to point me in the right direction that would be appreciated.

If you want to delete part of the quoted text just make sure you leave the [*QUOTE] [*/QUOTE] tags intact. (there are no asterics, but if I made them just the way they look, they would be invisible....)

[SouthernBelle]

I do make a point to nod or wave thanks to motorists, even when all they are doing is obeying the law. I think of it as my own PR for cycling.

On the other hand, when they do something egregiously wrong, I have been known to bellow like a bull. & they can usually hear me with the windows rolled up and the music on.

[lizbids]

I'm so glad you brought this up...as a commuter in a busy city, it scares me just how close to danger I am every day. I try very hard to be conscientious, and I do try to take the lane, because IMHO, I feel if cyclists are expected to ride on top of parked cars, that gives drivers the right and expectation to run you off the road...not to mention getting whacked by a car door ain't all that fun!

The one thing I do, which maybe is bad, is that I do go in front of a car when the light's red. I do this but immediately pedal and pull over to the right a bit for them to pass me. And if I am next to a car, I wait for him to get in front of me to prevent being clipped on a turn, and I always turn my head to glance at the driver, hoping to make eye contact. Personally, I think it should be mandatory for drivers AND cyclists to take saftey courses every two years or so...can't we all use a refresher course?

[HappyAnika]

I just wanted to add . . . the new trend with drivers here seems to be that they think they can just jump into traffic at any time when making a turn, regardless of the fact that they have a red light and the cross traffic has a green. This is a huge problem when I'm in my car, an even bigger problem when I'm on my bike. So if I'm coming through an intersection I always keep my eye on the person who pulled up a the cross street and is trying to make a right turn into my lane. 60% of the time they don't see you, 20% of the time they don't realize how fast you are going, and 20% of the time they just don't care. I keep my hands on my brakes and anticipate that they will turn out in front of me so I can stop if I need to. Be vigilant and be safe!

[KnottedYet]

I always take the lane in intersections and wait my turn in the line of cars just as if I were a car (unless I'm turning right). I've found that the drivers around here treat me better if I do that. Maybe they figure if I'm behaving like a car, they should treat me like a car and give me the same room and courtesy they'd give a car?

Also, many of the bike lanes in my end of Seattle "disappear" before intersections to force bikes to take their appropriate lane before the intersection. I think this trains the drivers to watch for bikes coming into the lane at intersections to some extent.

[Kitsune06]

This is very difficult to do near/around rush hour when people are angry, frustrated, and impatient, bumper to bumper up to intersections. On my morning ride I take my appropriate lane. In the evening, with lousy traffic, I just cross at crosswalks.