briney11

My wife swears that you should ride into traffic but I think that you should ride with the traffic. What do you all say?

daihard 

Riding into traffic, as in riding against traffic? That's called "salmoning" and is illegal where I live. I never do that.

GriddleCakes

Seriously? You ride with traffic, unless you're like 5 years old. Check out your local traffic laws.

Giant Doofus

Always bike with the flow of traffic. Salmoning is illegal and dangerous. This shouldn't be confusing, but I understand why it is. We are supposed to walk against traffic. People have a hard time thinking of a bike as part of traffic. They think of cyclists as though they are pedestrians, but we're not. On a bike, you are part of the traffic. Ride with it.

alan s 

Your wife shouldn't swear, particularly when she is wrong.

MattFoley

Did you by any chance take out a large life insurance policy recently? That could explain her advice....

andyprough

That's an old jogger's rule that has nothing to do with biking. When you are doing long distance running along the side of a busy street or highway, you are supposed to always run in the direction of oncoming traffic (off to the side of the road, of course). That way you will see the traffic and be able to avoid a drunk or erratic driver by diving into a ditch. If you are running on the same side of the road as traffic is moving, all the traffic is coming from your rear, and too many joggers have been killed or crippled by being hit from behind. When I was a young cross country runner, my high school team always took the oncoming side of the highway in our practice runs.

Bicycling is totally different. You are moving forward much faster than a jogger, and any time you would gain by seeing an erratic driver would be lost by your own forward momentum, and the wreck would be far worse if not fatal. If you are riding on busy streets, ride with traffic and use a mirror. I just rode 15 miles on a country highway today with my mirror - very safe.

wolfchild

Never, never ,never ride against the traffic. It's dumb and stupid to do so. You're not only putting yourself in danger but you're also putting other people in danger...Don't listen to your wife because she is wrong.

metz1295

this is the same sensible logic i use to try and convince naysayers. though i also add to this, if you are riding with traffic and, god forbid, get hit, you're more likely to be knocked away from tragedy. yes, you could still be injured or worse, but your chances are improved. if you ride against traffic and get hit, you're most likely headed for the windshield.

RubeRad

LOL you beat me to that joke!

Seriously, dude, bicycles are (legally speaking) cars; if they are on the road they must be on the right side. Unless you are in England of course.

If I ever ride against traffic, I do it (a) on the sidewalk, and (b) slow, like 10mph or slower, (c) yielding to pedestrians because I'm tresspassing on their sidewalk and (d) being super-vigilant about driveways, because cars have no reason to expect a bike coming up the sidewalk on their right. I would NEVER ride on the wrong side of the road, even in the bike lane.

In fact, I remember another biker almost crashed into me coming head on going the wrong way in my bike lane, I was super pissed!

rpcleary

Always bike with the flow of traffic. It is considered illegal to do otherwise on the street, and at least in Ohio, in driving school we are taught to expect cyclists to be moving with us, not towards us.

Bike Gremlin

The right side. Except in England where the right side is the wrong side and the left side is the right side.

daihard 

Just to be sure, there are more countries than just the UK (assuming that's what you mean by "England") where they drive on the left side of the road. Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Japan come to mind.

WestPablo

Amazing!

Do you mean that all of those countries drive on the wrong side of the road?

acidfast7

left!

Saving Hawaii

One of the most important reasons to ride with traffic is that drivers rarely check for wrong way traffic before making turns. You will get nailed by somebody turning into you if you ride the wrong way. Left hooks and right hooks happen even if you ride with traffic but they'll get you for sure if you ride on the wrong side of the road. And it hurts.

no1mad 

Ride with the flow of traffic.

Setting aside all of the other variables, let's assume that a cyclist is riding with the flow of traffic at a speed of 10 mph when they are hit from behind by a car travelling at a speed of 35 mph, that means the cyclist is really hit at 25 mph at the time of impact (35 - 10). Now, if that cyclist were to ride against traffic, and using the same speeds for both cyclist and car, then the cumulative speed at impact is 45 mph... which one do you think has the greater odds of surviving?

no motor?

Ask Alec Baldwin.

mgw4jc

Why hasn't anyone presented the middle of the road as an option? Those few inches are usually the most debris and pot-hole free. Let's consider all possibilities before just jumping to conclusions here... And you can get the thrill of riding with traffic and against traffic all at the same time!

Saving Hawaii

I got bored with splitting the lane between semis so I decided to get a recumbent so I could split the lane under semis.

bulevardi

With the flow of traffic, you get pushed forward a little by the wind of cars and other vehicles.
Into traffic, you get this wind blown against you, slowing you down.

mgw4jc

Love it. I used to do that as a kid on my BMX bike, although is the semi-trailers were parked behind the WalMart and not going down the highway.

locolobo13 

Right side. The reasons given above are why.

In my youth I went thru a period where I rode a 1 mile section salmoning. This lasted about 6 months. During this period I noticed the incidence of near misses were several times higher than while riding the right side. I don't think there was even one of these rides without at least 2 near misses.

It was easy to see that car drivers turning right onto the street would glance once to the right. Not see me or discount me as a pedestrian too far away. Then watch intently to the left. Once it was clear to their left they would take off without looking again to the right. People turning left off the major street aren't even looking for you at all.

Finally I was clipped. After that I quit salmoning. Well 99% of the time. I will still do it for a very short distance but am very aware of the dangers when doing so. Say for instance I want to go to a store on my left on the left side of the road 2 doors down. That is still a cause of near misses. Even going slow.

fietsbob

Situational , if its a one way street , then I have a choice. , because I am following with the Traffic Flow in either lane .

Or as said above , when National Traffic Standard is Drive Left Vs Drive Right.

fietsbob

Why, on horseback, do you wield your sword with your Left Hand?