San Rensho 

I live in Miami Beach, where there are many cyclists and the city really does support cyclists, but but Miami Beach also has the largest population of the biggest a-hole self absorbed, self proclaimed entitled car drivers I have ever seen. Even though the city goes out of its way to designate sharrow lanes, does PR about the very good bike share system, there's always the dick, or dickette, that , as an example, has to fly past you within inches and honking just to get in front of you at the red light.

So this is how I ride. First, I try to avoid like the plague any big thorough fairs where there is lots of traffic is moving over 40mph. Luckily, there is always a street parallel to a main street that has very little traffic. On narrow streets, I of course take the entire lane. But this is what I have been doing lately. There are several N/S streets that are wide that have very little traffic which I seek out. I don't really qualify to take the lane because a car and a bicycle can safely ride side to side with 3 feet of clearance. But I still don't like to ride on the right because remember the MB a-hole drivers? They will throw the door open without looking or fly out of a parking space without looking. So what I do on these wide roads, is I ride right next to the yellow dividing line. And cars instinctively fall in line. They see that they can safely pass me on the right, and its safer for me, because when a car passes a cyclist on the right, as the driver approaches, he can more accurately judge the distance to me and actually give me more room than when they pass me on the left. No driver has honked at me or tried to run me over, or said "get the F of the road you f***ot"

The other situation arises on 2 lane streets, that are really 3 lane streets that have turning lanes at the intersections and in the middle of the block, is a lane that can be used by both lanes of traffic to turn into driveways, businesses etc. On these streets, I ride right down the middle lane. Cars that are going straight go past me on the right, Cars turning left get in front of me at the turn lane, and everyone is happy. I did this in front of 2 Miami Beach motorcycle cops ( MB cops are absolutely the worst in the world) and much less than pulling me over, they nodded at me.

Let the flaming begin.

Paul Barnard

No flaming here. I just came back from Miami (downtown.) I sat and watched in awe at the interplay between cyclists, uber scooters, gas scooters, autos and pedestrians. It was a constant game of give and take with most users playing very nicely. The electric uber scooters and cyclists were generally accepted as part of the landscape. It seemed chaotic but worked well overall.

I think your strategy might be the best one for your situation.

bpcyclist

Anything to make it more pleasant for cyclists there, I am all in favor of. I have always found Miami-area drivers to be among the rudest in America. I love Miami, don't get me wrong. But the drivers? Yikes.

Daniel4

If it's working well, good.

Leisesturm

Maybe. Things often work very well, until they don't. Even a bad idea isn't always apparent immediately. I've never spent a single minute in Miami but I am getting from this thread that there is a cycling community there and a degree of bike awareness among drivers. Drivers in Portland, OR are some of the most bike aware in the country. How can they not be in one of the premier cycling communities in the country. Still, I wouldn't characterize them as courteous exactly. Far from it. Rudeness is not in and of itself a reason to adopt idiosyncratic cycling behavior. Rude rarely kills. Being outlier can lead to something unwanted happening and if that ever happens there will be little sympathy or recompense. So I always look at how the local road culture has evolved. I riff off that and then I don't have to adopt a defensive tone when explaining it to others.

CliffordK

I think that is the point. One needs to be predictable, but there is no need to have a single line of travel, and one size fits all.

If I'm riding on a low traffic road, I'll ride wherever it is comfortable. But, as a car comes up behind, I'll simply pull right and let the car past. If conditions permit, tuck into the parking lane, and adjust my speed as needed. Then once traffic clears, signal and move back to the driving lane.

Same on low traffic country roads. Ride in the middle of the lane, then pull right as a car comes up behind.

As traffic patterns change, I'll alter my riding, but in general, not forcing cars to do extreme changes to their driving, or getting a bunch piled up behind me.

Paul Barnard

I will drop off into the parking lane to let traffic vent, albeit more cautiously than I used to. One day I was zipping along about 20 MPH. I had a longish gap between two parked cars. I could see through the windows of the nearest parked car that the lane was open. Just as i cleared the front quarter panel I made a purposeful veer into the parking lane to be greeted by a small pile of sand of all things. I came close to eating it.

Jim from Boston

On city streets, I ride right down the middle of the road.

Quote:

Originally Posted by San Rensho

I live in Miami Beach, where there are many cyclists and the city really does support cyclists, but but Miami Beach also has the largest population of the biggest a-hole self absorbed, self proclaimed entitled car drivers I have ever seen....

So this is how I ride. First, I try to avoid like the plague any big thorough fairs where there is lots of traffic is moving over 40mph. Luckily, there is always a street parallel to a main street that has very little traffic. On narrow streets,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Barnard

No flaming here. I just came back from Miami (downtown.) I sat and watched in awe at the interplay between cyclists, uber scooters, gas scooters, autos and pedestrians. It was a constant game of give and take with most users playing very nicely

The electric uber scooters and cyclists were generally accepted as part of the landscape. It seemed chaotic but worked well overall.

I think your strategy might be the best one for your situation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CliffordK

I think that is the point. One needs to be predictable, but there is no need to have a single line of travel, and one size fits all.

If I'm riding on a low traffic road, I'll ride wherever it is comfortable. But, as a car comes up behind, I'll simply pull right and let the car past. If conditions permit, tuck into the parking lane, and adjust my speed as needed. Then once traffic clears, signal and move back to the driving lane.

Same on low traffic country roads. Ride in the middle of the lane, then pull right as a car comes up behind.

As traffic patterns change, I'll alter my riding, but in general, not forcing cars to do extreme changes to their driving, or getting a bunch piled up behind me

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Barnard

I will drop off into the parking lane to let traffic vent, albeit more cautiously than I used to. ...

Just as i cleared the front quarter panel I made a purposeful veer into the parking lane to be greeted by a small pile of sand of all things. I came close to eating it.

I have described a form of lane positioning I use, mainly when I visit Metro Detroit to see family, for wide eight lane commercial strips with no parking lanes or shoulders at curbside (much to the amusement of my fellow Metro Boston cyclists unaccustomed to such sprawling thoroughfares).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grim

...
Riding the street and acting like a car at ALL intersections (taking the lane) has greatly reduced the near misses I have had.

A mistake of riding in the street is riding the white line. The law only indicates ride as far to the right as is safe. Riding the line invites cars to wedge in without giving you a good amount of room. That is not safe.

Ride the right tire track becasue that visualy makes you look like you are taking half the lane. That forces people too change lanes instead of trying to squeeze past you.

Basically you have to exert control on the drivers by positioning yourself in such a way to force them to make the safe choice of passing when they have a good line of sight and actually leave the lane you are in when passing you.

The street is often a much smoother and faster ride that wears on you less. I do conceed that sometimes the sidewalk is a good choice as my above post and link indicated but you might give street riding more concideration.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

I totally agree, when there is at least a 6 to 12 inch paved shoulder to the right of the white line for some room to maneuver. If not, and the road is busy, I will ride a sidewalk if available.

I also practice a technique I call "bolus riding," most often on busy commercial streets with stoplights. Using my rearview mirror, if the road behind me is clear, I ride in the street. When a group of cars ( a "bolus" [like a swallow of food down the esophagus]) is released from the stoplight and starts to approach I go onto the side walk and return to street after they have passed.

It works well on commercial streets because driveways are pretty frequent to access the sidewalk [and on these busy commercial streets, pedestrians are infrequent.] (For Detroiters, I thought of this technique while riding Gratiot Ave in Roseville inbound with AM rush hour traffic.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by sherbornpeddler

Are you kidding me???

Where else can we learn about Centre Street and the esophagus? You kids are my heros and inspiration for winter miles and musings! Taking the lane, FRAP and bolus! Ride on!

Moishe

The nested quote thing just doesn’t work for me, Jim. Even though I am old and retired and my time is worthless, the nested quotes routine just takes too much time and exhausts me. Can’t you just get to the point?

San Rensho 

Agreed. Jim, what are you talking about?

downhillmaster

This.
The name fits perfectly though because the nested quotes always make me think of William Shatner hamming it up like crazy in Star Trek trying to steal every scene he is in. Good old James T Kirk lol.

FiftySix

I gotta admit that I just scroll past your posts, Jim from B.

Your posts are too hard on my eyes and takes extra time to pick things out of those nested boxes. Which turn out to be something I've already read the first time it was written.

It's basically a duplicate thread being created within the original thread and becomes a wall of text.

I can only imagine how long it takes to create such a post.

FiftySix

Back to the topic at hand, riding near the center stripe of a two way road now leaves you vulnerable to oncoming traffic that may wander over that centerline in a moment of distraction.

If I remember correctly, that kind of danger is why divided highways were implemented.

JanMM

Can't wrap my head around riding down a turning lane in the middle of the road.

DroppedChain

I don't like the idea of being that close to oncoming traffic with drivers passing me on the right. If or when the driver comes that is texting and rear ends me, I would rather be thrown away from traffic than into the oncoming traffic.

alexsandro22

It's quite dangerous in my opinion but if you think it's okey - no problem then

detroitjim

The "Middle of the road" statement triggers .....Slowly I turned ....Then this tune comes to mind.