UniChris

Came out of a series of winding roads the other day onto a bit of state highway I'd ridden last year, and expected to be fine as I remembered it had a great shoulder and shows up on some route recommendations (I'm talking about the kind of road that is 50 mph or so, but has stoplights a few miles in between, not limited access like an interstate)

Only as I get going on it, I start thinking "this shoulder is so big, it really feels like a lane" And then I notice the solid white line is faded nearly to the point of invisibility. I start to pay more attention to my mirror, and wouldn't you know it, soon enough I spot a minivan in the shoulder.

Granted they were well behind me, and they seemed to be trying to merge left.

(I don't even know for absolute certain that they were actually moving vs someone who had pulled over)

But now I'm worried, because with the width and faded paint if at cycling speed I could think "this feels like a lane" even relatively attentive drivers could too.

Not regretting my garish color choices one bit - though all in all that route didn't have much to recommend it over my usual one in that direction.

(And yes, I'm aware of a unique limited-access highway or two where driving on the shoulder is officially authorized at some hours; this was not a case of that; similarly there's a hill I rode down that has great shoulders, except that in the uphill direction the shoulder official becomes the truck climbing lane for a while, which quickly put it on my "no go" list not that the climb would not have done that by itself)