Originally Posted by
Unca_Sam
I've seen this multiple times in the thread and it's inappropriate. This accident was avoidable. The overtaking driver's responsibility was to not hit anything in front of them. End of Story. The rider chose his line for his own reasons, flats, upcoming turns, whatever. The rider has a right to use the road and not get killed or maimed as a result.
Sure, just like you have a 'right' to ride in the door lane and expect everyone to check before opening their doors.
I consider riding to the left of the rumble strips and riding in the door line to be highly risky behaviour and try to minimize it. I commute every day on a 4 lane highway with a wide shoulder but no rumble strips. Despite the wide shoulder I generally ride within 3' of the fog line (usually 1-2' to the right) to avoid debris in the shoulder. I occasionally have to ride on, or to the left, of the fog line to avoid an obstacle but when I do I'm checking over my shoulder to ensure no cars are coming. I take a fair number of risks on the bike bombing down high speed mountain descents but I wouldn't be riding to the left of those rumble strips and consider that to be an unnecessary risk. Perfectly legal and within the rider's rights but playing with fire.
If my kid showed me a video of him riding like that I'd slap him upside the head (figuratively speaking).