Hey, sounds familiar!!  Now you know why I want you off the road.

One lane each way.   That's what a 2 lane road is.  You ride in the
lane, right on the white line, and I have to cross a double yellow so I
don't cream your a.s onto the road.  The guy coming the other way has
to be aware of you as well, since I'm now intruding into his lane.

You know you lose when you start with the name calling.

I'm not talking about sidewalks in residential 25MPH areas.  Ride all
you want there.  Traffic is low, speeds are low.

We have hundreds of miles of 2 lane roads, with dirt shoulders, with
speeds 45+ MPH around here.   They're are vastly under designed roads
because of surburban sprawl.  15 years ago much of this was farmland,
and now it's an upscale community with thousands of people and not
enough lanes.

There are bike paths along every one of these roads.  They are not
sidewalks, they are designed for bicyclists.  A lot of bike riders use
them.  They stay safe, they're not ploying over puppies and old
grandmas out for a walk.  But you get in one lane bumper to bumper, and
suddenly traffic slows to 20 MPH (in a 45 or 50 zone).  You wonder what
the hell is going on, and invariably it's a bike rider taking up enough
space to cause hell in both directions of the road.

Let me guess, your practical experience bicycle riding is ZERO.

Horns don't make the glorified sidewalk safer. They don't allow it to
handle any higher speed. They don't help the turning cars, the blind
intersections, etc.

Experienced bicyclists don't use street parallel bike paths for the same
reasons you wouldn't drive on them if it were legal to do so.

If you can manage to drive in the bike lane, go for it. Considering the
bulk of  bike lanes I encounter are never wider than 3 feet and the
right edge of them is under the driver's side mirrors of parked cars, go
for it.

The reason bicycle lanes are not used is because they are generally of
very poor and dangerous design.

If you drove them, you wouldn't exceed 5mph if you cared about your
vehicle. And not driving more than 5mph, you wouldn't be passing any
competent road going bicyclists.

There is usually a good reason for that practice.  It is usually one of three
things.  The bike path is full for garbage thrown from cars.  The bike path is
crowded with pedestrian too stupid to figure out they should not be on the bike
path.  The cyclist is going to make a left turn and needs to move left.
----------------
Alex

Because you pass them in the red light queue.

Though I've had bicyclists keep up in the same traffic light cycle as
I was in in Philly, and they not only pulled up in the queue, they ran
the lights whenever possible.  Which provided quite an advantage.

Sorry, I just don't have the problems with bicyclists you do. Sure I
encounter wrong ways or the like and I'll often let them know they are
doing something wrong. But with legally riding bicyclists there is no
problem at all.

I can only conclude it's a driving skill issue.

Frankly, that last one is the only logical conclusion.  Arging about
how the double-yellow is a physical barrier that prevents a pass,
except that since just about everyone breaks the speed laws, we
certainly know that the double yellow is not so special any more.  It's
just a device to try and score usenet argument points.  After all, if a
Lloyd LLounger was in the middle of the lane, NOBODY would just stop
and stay there until it was moved.  They'd (at their mortal peril, to
be sure) cross the double yellow and just keep on driving.

I counted the bicycles, autosloths, and pedestrians that I encountered
yesterday in my ten-mile commute between two college towns.  There were
26 bicycles, all ridden by folks obviously over the age of 16, and
about 75% were being ridden approximately in a road-legal fashion -
about the same as cars.  25% were on sidewalks.  Of the 75%, most of
them were being ridden within one foot of the fog line.  None of them
held up traffic at all, and I did not see a single close pass.  Effect
on my commute time due to bicycles - none.

Of the pedestrians I saw, 5 actually had a potential to impact my
commute.  The first two jaywalked at a light, preventing a left turn.
The first one delayed traffic enough to make me miss the light.  Two
minutes lost.  The second one made me stop in the intersection and
caused a malfunction in my horn, and, after I got past the jackoff,
made me yell "obey the signals, a.shole!"  Another 10 seconds.  500
yeards up the road, a ped crossed, in a crosswalk, and held up evening
traffic both ways while taking a leisurely stroll across the road.
Another 20 seconds.

The remainder were autosloths.  Trapped through a cycle of lights when
dumbasses in cars can't seem to get on that "go" pedal enough to allow
anyone behind them to get through the light.  Another two minutes.  On
a short section of two-lane, a cement truck drove at 35mph the whole 4
miles.  In a 55 that usually runs at 60.  Do the math.  Then right near
my house, and old lady who can't figure out that after you stop at the
sign, you are allowed to go.  My horn had another malfunction after 30
seconds of waiting, with no cars passing in front.  Of course, after
*she* goes, I have to wait for a string of cars.  LOL.

This was not different from every other day - the cement or gravel
trucks along that road are also regular, if not everyday, occurances.
The jaywalkers really gripe me, because the light cycles are long
around here.  But it's the cars that are the problem.  Bikes NEVER
factor in, and there are many more than in non-college towns.

If you can navigate through the sloths and the jaywalkers, but can't
figure out how to pass bikes, your driving skills are indeed in
question.

E.P.

<G>

Well, no, I was simply looking at it from the perspective of a pedestrian.  To
be a successful pedestrian requires a plan to survive.  Expecting someone else
to assume responsibility to fulfill that plan, with the alternative of bleeding
all over the highway if they don't, is just a really bad idea.

Dave Head

Be prudent, I'd say.

Be assertive when its appropriate.  My Dad always used to say, when it looked
like someone was about to take the right of way when it didn't belong to them,
"You haul it out there, I'll knock it off" but he was driving a 2 ton Cadillac.

Arguing with a 2+ ton SUV while in possession of only a 200 lb body is... not
prudent.

Dave Head