Originally Posted by
livedarklions
Last point first, VC advocates didn't want bike lanes at all, and that was probably the final nail in the coffin of VC.
As to the rest of your post, given the skills of the average rider in the US, that would put an effective speed limit of about 15 mph on most roads in the US. I do a lot of my riding in a state where bicyclists have the right to take the lane at any time, and you almost never see anyone do it outside of the turn lane situations. Basically, no one seems to want to ride with a bunch of angry drivers piling up behind them.
thanks for explaining it to me. it's a complex issue, but from my own experience, it definitely is safer when i take the whole lane and consciously expose myself forcing the drivers to slow down than to delude myself thinking i'm safer on the right while letting dangerously wide trucks threaten my life. there is no lower speed limit so better learn to enjoy them getting angry and wave them back with a smile, after all we are doing the effort to move whereas they are relaxing and polluting the air that belongs to all of us.
so VC makes sense: unless we have a proper bike infrastructure, bike lanes will keep the mentality that we don't belong to the streets while forcing us to use them in dangerous situations, and the focus should rather be on educating cyclists to take back the streets and car drivers to be humbler and drive slower. 15mph speed limit (30km/h ?) is not such a bad idea in urba areas and maybe should be made compulsory on the right lane..