Originally Posted by
livedarklions
Wow, no thanks on the change lane. There's lots of busy roads where I have plenty of room to the right of the right-most traffic lane, and now my mere presence is going to have the effect of closing one of the lanes of a already congested street? Seriously, think through the political implications of that. Where I live, the main street in town is often a state highway with two lanes either way, with breakdown lanes. Put a law like that into effect, and a bike at rush hour = instant traffic jam. Without that law, I won't even cross the cars' path.
Cause cars never create traffic jams during rush hour ... except
every single day.
When driving my car, I will always change lanes to give a full lane to a rider in the traffic lane. It's never created a traffic jam. This obviously doesn't apply when there's a bike lane or a shoulder for the person on a bike. I understand and acknowledge roads are different throughout the US (& rest of world); in Minnesota, many roads have 3 to 6 foot shoulders and therefore don't require vehicles to change lanes. However, local roads that don't have a shoulder are typically 4-lane roads, making very easy for traffic to change lanes without waiting for a break in on-coming traffic.