Lemond1985

Been seeing this a couple times per ride lately. Car coming the other way is a foot or so over the double yellow line ($250 fine) and the driver seems to think, "Oh, they're just a bike, they're not entitled to the whole lane. They don't need it anyway."

I find myself waving my arms around, what else can you do? One guy pointed out a bumpy section of road he was avoiding by crossing into my lane (he could have slowed down). Irritating, but no harm no foul I guess.

Digger Goreman

And, yet, reversed, they would kill us and claim we were "weaving"....

AirZound ftw!

Leisesturm

Nine times out of ten when this happens the offending motorist is giving 3' to a cyclist on their side of the double yellow. It should be a non-issue to a cyclist riding FRAP on their side of the double yellow. And wouldn't you appreciate the gesture if you were the other cyclist? Of all the annoying and/or dangerous things cagers might do this one shouldn't even be in the top five.

KenCT

I see this often when in my car and the oncoming vehicle crosses the line to get around a parked vehicle. Many streets around here are narrow and in residential neighborhoods built over 100 years ago. Seems to be a thing now that you need to stop to give the other car the right of way when the driver suddenly cross the yellow line.

Lemond1985

OK, so if you are JRA minding your own business, and some car weaves over a double yellow line, and starts heading straight toward you a high speed for no apparent reason, you don't start getting concerned unless they miss hitting you head-on by less than 3 feet?

I envy your Yota-like patience, but not enough to try to emulate it.

rydabent

Front or rear, I am always prepared to take to the ditch. I kind of subconsciously am always scanning the ditch next to the road.

livedarklions

Crossing a double yellow when there's ANY traffic in the opposite lane is always frightening as you generally have so little time to evaluate what the completely scofflaw driver is doing.

I've had some pretty scary moments where a car in the opposite lane crosses the double yellow cutting it close to a head on with a car in the lane I'm frap of. Sure the oncoming car is missing me by over 3 feet, but I don't know whether the car behind me to my left isn't going to swerve right into me to avoid the head-on with the interloper. The ony good thing about this situation is it's usually over before I realize how much danger I'm in. Chances are that if I did get hit, I'd never would've known what had happened.
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Lemond1985

True, but why is it almost always a white pickup truck?

billridesbikes

Classic Oversteer, if it was a Ford it would be completely in your lane ...

mtbikerinpa

Around here it is to avoid horse crap. Drivers give it 4 ft or a full lane but buzz bikers all the time. In spite of a 4 ft law....

Paul Barnard

We have middle fingers for a reason.

indyfabz

Happened to me a couple years ago. The kid driving appeared to be drunk or on drugs. He started to slump forward like he was about to pass out. I literally had to pull into someone's front yard because he was still drifting towards me. Fortunately, he was going relatively slowly. I yelled really loud and he sat up straight and pulled back over to his lane. There was a car behind me that pulled over as far right as possible and stopped when they saw him coming. The occupants couldn't believe what they had just witnessed either.

Litespud

I presume it's the same here in the US, but in the UK, the driver in his "own" lane has automatic right of way - if you have to pull out to get around a parked car, for example, you wait until the oncoming lane is clear. Of course, this only works if everyone is on the same page, which is a pretty forlorn hope here. Our narrowish neighborhood roads, lined with parked cars on both sides, are somewhat of a slalom - the problem is that you have no idea if the oncoming car is going to wait or just pull out, because everyone makes up their own rules, and god forbid that stuff like this would be covered in driver's ed

Litespud

Was on a charity ride a while back, wet narrow country roads, ~100 yds from an intersection and a large (F250-ish) pickup comes careering out of one of the side roads at speed and heading straight for me, fishtailing down the middle of the road. If you've ever watched those YouTubes of yahoos (usually in Mustangs, but Cameros and Challengers are up there) peeling out from Cars&Coffee events, you'll know how a fishtailing RWD car can quickly become an out-of-control RWD car heading for the ditch. Needless to say, as soon as I saw this yahoo, I exited the road ASAP, going cross-country to put as much distance as I could between me and the asphalt. He recovered control and roared past me, presumably getting back onto the right side of the road at some point.

wingless

One section on my normal route includes markings where a bicycle is entitled to the entire / only vehicle lane going in each direction. With the very narrow width of the roadway anything else is asking for a problem.

At that point I am assuming the middle of the lane so there is zero question as to not being possible for me to be passed.

Another section requires bicycles to assume the right lane of two lanes going in each direction. There are huge bicycle symbols painted on the road surface, along with appropriate signage.

That is always less secure of me not getting flattened, but I still have air in my lungs...

Daniel4

I have never ridden on roads like those ones in the picture. I don't do highway riding. First you can't see far enough around the bend where cars will be coming at you at 90 to 100 km/h. And then there's the added pressure of cars behind you having to go only 20 km/h because of you.

But if I were in a situation like that in an urban street, I would take the unpopular position (unpopular to motorists) of taking my lane. True, a motorist playing chicken just might run me over but those are drivers who intentionally want to run people over anyways. And there's nothing anybody (driver, police, cyclist or pedestrian) can do about those type of drivers.

Riding to the side invites the oncoming car to sideswipe you. If there's a car following you, chances are he'll be passing you from behind just as the oncoming car is driving by. Not only that but more often than not, there's a parked car creating a four-in-a-row situation, which is not fun.

Have your loud horn ready to alert unseen vehicles that may be around the bend.

grizzly59

I frequently have cars or dually pickups pulling a backhoe on a trailer in the opposite lane that cross the yellow. You don't know till it's over just how far over the yellow they're going to go. Usually the driver is looking down at their lap (watching cat videos I'm sure) as we pass each other on a curve. On my right are big trees and a drop-off shoulder.

Notso_fastLane

Not oncoming, but this is the sort of idiocy that is out there. I saw another one almost identical to this (also on Cycliq's site). It apparently is a thing....

Chistophe516

FRAP is subjective.