What does it mean to "Share the Road" - long

[OakLeaf]

DH asked me yesterday whether he did the right thing in a traffic situation yesterday, on his motorcycle.

The road he was on was six lanes (three in each direction) plus a continguous bike lane. Midway between intersections, the rightmost motor vehicle lane becomes a turning lane. There's a right turn arrow in the MV lane, an adjacent STRAIGHT arrow in the bike lane, then there's a short break in the bike lane before it resumes adjacent to the middle MV lane, the rightmost one that will go straight through the intersection.




(I love Google Maps...)

So DH is approaching the intersection intending to turn right. (Not the parking lot entrance in the foreground ... he would be turning at the intersection with the traffic light that's just visible ahead.) Two cyclists are ahead of him, intending to go straight. They merge over to their proper position a bit *before* the bike lane resumes in that position - riding near the white line in what will be their bike lane as soon as it resumes. IOW, he reached them opposite the parking lot entrance.

DH asked me whether it was okay to have passed them on the right, in that situation. I told him definitely yes - same as he would pass a slower motor vehicle. It's what he had done, and he was glad that I affirmed it. But the fact that he wasn't sure was sort of an eye-opener. He's been a motorcyclist for decades, and he thinks and talks and reads about traffic safety, and traffic flow, just about every day. If he isn't 100% sure how to ride/drive around bicyclists, then nobody is, and it just points up the crying need for better drivers' ed.


ETA:

Now that I think about it, it's also a great illustration why the rules need to be the same for everyone. We're all in the road together, and if the rules are different for, say, blue vehicles, but I've only ever driven a white vehicle, I might not know the rules for blue vehicles. "Predictable" means OTHER road users know what I'm going to do, and if they have no reason to know the rules that I'm operating by, they have no way to predict my behavior. Equipment regulation is one thing (there are also different equipment regulations for different classes of motor vehicles) and lane restriction is one thing (there are also lane restrictions for different classes of motor vehicles), but as far as right of way and traffic control devices, it totally needs to be the same.

Eden, I find it VERY surprising that OVI isn't a crime on a bici in your state. I'm not 100%, but I'm pretty sure you're in the minority there. I know it's a crime in Florida and Ohio.


Edit again:

"Same rules for everyone" is also TOTALLY relevant to the four-way-stop situation (or even the situation where automobile drivers with NO traffic control device, or with a green light, will stop out of the blue and attempt to yield to a bicyclist who has a stop sign or red light). I do the California stops when I believe it's safe, I freely admit it, but I'd MUCH rather continue to take my chances with getting a ticket, than take my chances with automobile drivers who would be even MORE confused than they are now, about who has the right-of-way. Honestly, I think the California stop issue is a non-issue. If I didn't see the cop who wound up giving me a ticket for blowing the traffic control device, then I have absolutely no right to claim that I WOULD have seen a vehicle with the right-of-way that might have flattened me.