A bit of a rant

[Mr. Bloom]

True Jolt:

In LCI training, they teach us to be:

Courteous
Assertive
Visible
Predictable

The BikeLeague also suggests that group riders spread out in curvy, low visibility areas so motorists can pass one or two at a time without getting frustrated to a point of doing stupid stuff...

[Crankin]

Jolt, that is exactly what I experience when driving in Lowell for my internship. Very scary. I know these people are riding because they have no other form of transportation, but when people are coming into the city for work, they look at the "utility" cyclists and lump us all together.

[PamNY]

The BikeLeague also suggests that group riders spread out in curvy, low visibility areas so motorists can pass one or two at a time without getting frustrated to a point of doing stupid stuff...

Spreading out is a good idea on the bike path, too. I often deal with family groups or groups of tourists who are in a slow-moving clump.

I am sympathetic to and very considerate of families, because kids in NYC don't have many safe places to bike. But most if the time it simply isn't necessary for a family to take up such a huge chunk of real estate.

[Eden]

The BikeLeague also suggests that group riders spread out in curvy, low visibility areas so motorists can pass one or two at a time without getting frustrated to a point of doing stupid stuff...

I question the wisdom of this.... when I was a young teenager I was nearly run over by an 18 wheeler. I was riding with my parents. We were on a country road with a small shoulder. I was somewhat ahead of my parents. Said 18 wheeler pulls out and goes around my parents - does not look ahead to see me, pulls back in, also overcorrecting some to the right, putting him on a course to cream me. Something - don't know what, intuition? eyes in the back of my head? the sound of an 18 wheeler coming to destroy me? made me go off the road and into the grass. Saved my life.

I've noticed too many times where a driver does this - pulls around one cyclist, but then isn't looking for the one up the road a little. Unless you are very spread out - so there is a lot of room for the driver to pull in and drive some distance before he/she needs to pass again I think it may be better to stay together. Then at least the motorist has fewer choices about passing, even if it may be a little frustrating for him/her.

[OakLeaf]

I agree with 7rider. Spreading out also means the driver has to be held up multiple times and make multiple passes, and gets progressively more frustrated with each one.

It's even more annoying for a cyclist to pull off than it is for a driver to do it... but just as a polite cager will pull off to allow a moto to pass on a road with short sight lines, polite cyclists should pull off when a cage is stuck behind us for a long time. Heck, it's the law in some states that you have to pull off if you're traveling below the speed limit in any vehicle and there are more than five cars behind you.

And as much as it annoys me (and as little as I'm likely to do it in real life except as a passive-aggressive type of road rage complete with exaggerated mime of frustration), I think that includes times when the cager HAS plenty of safe passing opportunities but refuses to take them. I live in terror of being rear-ended (no matter what type of vehicle I'm in or on), because it's the one type of wreck that I have the least control over - and when someone's tailgating me for long stretches and refusing to pass, if I'm by myself, I will do that just to get them out from behind me.

[Eden]

I also agree with Oak - I wouldn't want to be the umpteenth rider that driver has to pass..... if they are the frustrated kind of driver by that time they are really smoking.... better to get it over with all in one lump.

[moderncyclista]

I ride Critical Mass in my city and even when we have a large group we ride in groups of two, side by side - in one lane. We use hand signals. Shout our intent too, if the group is large enough. I'm in my 30's - and so are alot of my regular Crit. Mass buddies. Most cars are annoyed no matter how well we follow traffic rules - and honk - flip the bird - or shout other offensive things. It's frustrating, but we never respond. Act normal, and try to maintain formation. We do our best.

[Crankin]

Wow, this has taken a life of its own. The group that I originally wrote about wasn't even in a line. They were clumped up and riding aimlessly back and forth around the stop sign at a somewhat dangerous (poor sight lines) and busy intersection. Picture a narrow country road that has houses, lots of curves, and a hill. The intersection is at the top of the hill, a bit after the crest. It would have been easier to try and pass a whole long line of riders than to figure out what these guys were doing.
Strangley, I got an email from my group this morning, stating they have been working on a policy that covers a lot of the issues discussed here. I gave my comments in an email and now I wonder if they will use my name .

[marni]

but part of the gettiing them to pass you if you are riding in a group is the responsibility of the last person in the group to look well ahead up the road and if possible, signal if when it is safe for the car to pull out and pass.It's equally rude to leave the auto hanging out behind you with no indication of whether the group is slowing, or if it is possibly safe to pull out. If the car is signaled that it is safe, and they start to pull out and then drop back, there should be no exasperation or anger since the bikers know nothing of the skills or abilities of the driver or the pick up of the car. It is also important to remember that although the car may be faster, it is not as maneuverable as a bike and as a biker you need to make sure that there is a whole lot of room.

marni

[Tuckervill]

You know what annoys me? The word cager.

Karen

[SLash]

Cyclists like those you describe irritate me too. Last year DH and I were out riding, and had a couple of cyclists blow through a 4 way stop about 1/2 mile ahead of us cutting off a car that was turning. They then proceeded to ride down the center of the road (2 lane).

I was so pissed, I took off after the cyclists. I planned to tell them how bad their behavior makes it on the rest of us. When I finally caught them at a light I was so winded I couldn't say anything!

DH and I still laugh about that.

They took off and that was that. I try to do what Knotted Yet does, be a goodwill ambassador on a bike. A couple of years ago I read an article in Bicycling by Bill Strickland that convinced me that's the best way to ride. Not always easy but smart.

[Mr. Bloom]

You know what annoys me? The word cager.

Karen

I'm not familiar with the term...what does it mean?

[Jolt]

You know what annoys me? The word cager.

Karen

I'm not a fan either. As much as it's true that being in the car sometimes does feel like being in a cage, the term seems to encourage an "us vs. them" mentality rather than respectfully SHARING the road with one another.

[Becky]

but part of the gettiing them to pass you if you are riding in a group is the responsibility of the last person in the group to look well ahead up the road and if possible, signal if when it is safe for the car to pull out and pass.It's equally rude to leave the auto hanging out behind you with no indication of whether the group is slowing, or if it is possibly safe to pull out.

I'm not going to assume the liability of waving a driver around. One of things I was taught in defensive driving is that you can be held liable if you wave another motorist through and an accident ensues (at least in my state). Any legal eagle types know if this is accurate elsewhere?

I do signals to cars behind me when there is oncoming traffic and they should hold back. Most of them seem very appreciative.

[PscyclePath]

I agree with 7rider. Spreading out also means the driver has to be held up multiple times and make multiple passes, and gets progressively more frustrated with each one.

It's even more annoying for a cyclist to pull off than it is for a driver to do it... but just as a polite cager will pull off to allow a moto to pass on a road with short sight lines, polite cyclists should pull off when a cage is stuck behind us for a long time. Heck, it's the law in some states that you have to pull off if you're traveling below the speed limit in any vehicle and there are more than five cars behind you.

And as much as it annoys me (and as little as I'm likely to do it in real life except as a passive-aggressive type of road rage complete with exaggerated mime of frustration), I think that includes times when the cager HAS plenty of safe passing opportunities but refuses to take them. I live in terror of being rear-ended (no matter what type of vehicle I'm in or on), because it's the one type of wreck that I have the least control over - and when someone's tailgating me for long stretches and refusing to pass, if I'm by myself, I will do that just to get them out from behind me.

The rule we teach in this case is to "leave room for cars." The idea is to have a number of clusters of 12 to 20 riders, separated by a couple hundred yards of road space. Yes, drivers have to make multiple passes, but it's a lot easier for them, and safer, than trying to pass something like the peleton of the Tour de France... very much like trying to pass a freight train on a narrow 2-land road.

It's also better to keep the groups together, in a pack, rather than having single riders or little groups of two and three scattered up and down the roadway 10 or 20 yards apart, leaving no real safe space to try and pass. That's what gets drivers jacked up more than anything other than filling the whole roadway like a swarm of bees. The advantage that we riders get from that is that the larger groups are more visible to others than the single riders putting along.

Riding no more than double file is the law in most states. Arkansas is one of those that doesn't address riding abreast, thus single file is technically the law here. You can generally get by with riding 2 abreast, though.

I've taught the LAB Group Riding Skills clinic for about three years now, and it's amazing how 30 to 50-year-old cyclists have trouble with simple arithmetic and counting... as witnessed by how many times I've had to pull the class over to the side of the road for a quick Teachable Moment that starts with the question, "Okay guys... Some one please tell me, how many is Two?"

;->

Tom
LCI-1853M