Originally Posted by
philbob57
Of course, a road cyclist can cut the risk of death or injury by stopping at red lights and stop signs, yielding the right of way to bigger vehicles, riding roads with less traffic.... I've always done the 3rd, and I've been doing the first for a whole 2 years.
Yes, sometimes taking the whole lane is the safer way to ride, but in general, it's best not to compete with vehicles that are both bigger and faster than one's own vehicle. I always knew that, but it took a long time to get my body aligned with my brain on that point.
Yeah, it's annoying to stop at a stop sign because a car has the ROW only to have the car stop and give me the ROW, but I'm safer than when I rode aggressively. (And yeah, I know some POS can appear to yield and then run me down when I'm in the intersection....)
Have you don't that? I have, on more than one occasion, just as an experiment. Roughly 80% of the time its just not necessary. Unlike sitting back in a vehicle isolated from the world, on a bike you're" out in the open" with virtually unlimited vision and sound.
With the exception of blind intersection (20%) you can clearly see -- and hear -- anything coming way before you reach the intersection. You're stopping for the law, I get that. But there's nobody around to know or see it. Just try it for a ride -- but be methodical -- and let us know how it works out.