Originally Posted by
Glenn1234
The list in post #1 pretty much covers it for me. Except for the rumble strips they want to put into the road on those wide sections. It may be a safety thing for the vehicles, but it looks like (I road next to one for about 15 miles my last "major" ride) it could take down a rider rather quickly (and tear up the wheel).
As for narrower roads, I find those typically to be the most dangerous, especially given the condition that they typically get into. The latest incident involved me hitting a crack in the road and being skipped out right in front of a truck that was behind me. I got the horn honk, of course, but the idea of suddenly finding myself 2 ft in front of a truck wasn't pleasant.
That's the thing ... when they narrow the roads, it forces cyclists to be right in there with the motorized vehicles sharing, or attempting to share, the same space. From my experience that just doesn't work. The motorists become either overly cautious because the cyclists terrify them, or the motorists become angry. And as a cyclist, I'm edgy if I've got to share the same little bit of road with a motorized vehicle. I can't relax and enjoy my ride.
But if the road I'm riding on is wide enough for the semi (or anything smaller) and me to both do our thing at the same time without getting in each other's way, I can relax and enjoy my ride, and the motorist can relax and carry on with what he/she is doing.
About those rumble strips. I don't mind the ones that go right along the white lines - they are only about 6 inches wide and don't get in the way of either the driver or the cyclist. The ones I hate are the ones that go right down the middle of the shoulder making the shoulder almost impossible to ride on.
But I've seen a few places where those rumble strips have been filled in. Not only are they annoying to cyclists, but they cause damage to roads in places where there is a lot of freezing and thawing.