Reminder to always...

[IFjane]

Pooks - I don't know if it was recommended that riders be on the opposite side of the road or not. If it was, it happened during the time between childhood & 40-something that I was not cycling.

I do always remember being told to WALK on the opposite side, facing traffic....

[LadyinWhite]

Things get a little tricky when you are riding w/ the traffic and come up on a pedestrian walking against the traffic. Where I ride there are a lot of joggers/walkers and when you put traffic, cyclists and peds all in the same tiny area of road suddenly knowing the proper yielding rules becomes critical.

Great thread, thanks for the reminder.

[GLC1968]

Pedestrians are supposed to walk/run against traffic so that they can see the oncoming cars and make an 'escape' as necessary. It does pose a problem when we are all sharing the same narrow space and there is traffic!

I vaguely remember being told as a child to ride against traffic, but I could totally be wrong.

Last summer, my husband and I were returning from a long training ride (in the car). We were at the crest of a hill and could see far ahead of us. What we saw, scared the crap out of me. A cyclist was riding against traffic. These were not busy roads, but the cars do tend to drive quite fast and for some reason, they all seem to 'appear' at once. Anyway, the cyclist was coming towards us and a car (in front of us) was headed toward him. There were also cars in the opposite lane coming towards us both. The car in front of us tried to do the right thing and slowed down to avoid having to pass the cyclist while the on-coming cars were there...but he couldn't. The problem was, no matter how he went, the cyclist was still coming at him and they were going to intersect when the oncoming cars were right there. Luckily, the lean oncoming car saw what was happening and also slowed down. Crisis averted. As we passed the cyclist, we yelled at him to ride WITH traffic. Hopefully, he learned his lesson, but I'm skeptical.

Honestly, until I saw that, it didn't really occur to me WHY we should ride with traffic. I always did, since that was the rule, but after that incident, I can see why (besides the traffic light issues). When you are going the same direction as a car, a car can at least slow to a crawl behind you if needed...they can't do that if you are coming at them. You are then relying on good timing...and that's damn scary.