Originally Posted by
AlmostTrick
Hugging the right edge is what I mostly see. I never equated that with FRAP. That was done in response to my first post here.
Riding as far right as practicable as the law requires leaves it open to interpretation as to how far right this would be. Something riders, drivers, and police officers could disagree about, and ultimately only a court could rule on. Add in all the exceptions in the law requiring riding FRAP and you have a situation where being in the center of the lane clearly is compatible with the FRAP laws. It seems that you agree with this.
The problem, as you just alluded to and the OP correctly pointed out is: Calling a safe and legal form of riding VC!
But I understand why. John Forrester himself was quite contentious, and some VC promoters can be overbearing in their zeal for the practice. This causes some to get their panties in a tizzy at the mere mention of anything VC.
Good discussion!
Here's where I think the VC label is one to be avoided because it's associated with a radical view that segregation of bike traffic from car traffic in any form is wrong. I agree that the key word in FRAP is "practicable" and I read it to give me fairly wide discretion as a cyclist but it is clearly not so subjective as to swallow the rule. But the doctrinaire VC insists that the FRA part is a form of segregation and therefore wrong, and bolster that view with wildly exaggerated statements about being invisible in that position, statements I know from experience as both a rider and a driver not to bear much relationship to reality.
I disagree vehemently with the probability arguments you made above, I strongly believe that if you had more bicyclists riding "in the lane" you would see at least a proportional increase in bicycle-involved crashes there. Drivers don't intend to hit trucks and cars either, yet plenty of collisions occur there between them. And using the word "intersection" as broadly as you do, keep in mind that bikes going in and out of the lane creates its own set of "intersections" with the paths of cars and trucks.