Colnago Mixte

It's a lovely piece of road, except for every 15-20 minutes when a car passes. What can I say, I appreciate desolate places. Hell, at least it's not the Outback, but it's close.

genec

Welcome to the west.

I don't know about this spot, but there are spots in the west where something like this is the ONLY road.

And that gnarly broken up stuff... quite common in San Diego... the city, where there is lots of traffic... and again, the road you are on may be the only road connecting two mesas.

subgrade

Not every ride but often enough. Most of the time those are city buses, but occasionally also a car, like that b*tch this morning who almost pushed me into the curb.

I quite often have a situation where the oncoming car is passing another on a narrow road (also on city streets), so you also have 2 cars and a bike alongside each other, only the cars and the bike are going the opposite directions.. Granted, the upside is that you and the passing car see each other, but at the same time he's making the move seeing perfectly well that there is oncoming traffic, i.e. you, and chooses just to ignore that.

Colnago Mixte

Very aggravating when someone takes your lane of travel away from you like that, as though you had no right to even be there. It's worst when it happens on 55 mph roads with no shoulder. People can be incredibly selfish while in their cars, they do things from behind tons of metal and tinted glass, they would never do to they if they had to look the other person in the eye directly.

Jim from Boston

I have posted previously on this and other A&S threads, in my darkest thoughts:

Colnago Mixte

If a motorist really does something nice, I do the three part "Catholic priest-type" blessing they do at the end of Mass. Makes me feel more Italian, and a good deal holier than I actually am in real life.

Jim from Boston

I’m impressed; got any good curses ?

I have previously posted about my epiphany that introduced me to adult cycling, and empowered me to bestow curses and blessings:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

I can precisely identify the day my adult cycling lifestyle was sparked back in May of 1970 when I rode my roomate’s Chestnut Brown Varsity, the first derailleured bike I ever rode. I needed to run a few errands encompassing a distance of a few miles. Being in a college town, I did not have (or really need) a car, and the bus system was too cumbersome to make all the stops I had planned.

I was amazed at how quickly and conveniently I could get around on that beautiful Spring day and in particular because I grew up in Detroit. I alluded about it in my Introdution to Bike Forums.

My roommate and I did some riding together in Ann Arbor, and I refer to him as my cycling guru. I have occasionally quoted on Bike Forums his remark one day as the skies unexpectedly cleared as we were about to go out on a ride, “God smiles on His bicyclists.”

Hypno Toad

We have a lot of good bike infrastructure in my area (Minneapolis), you can plan a good/fun route that avoids any shared space with auto-traffic. However, frequently I'm riding somewhere specific and there's no way there that avoids all shared infra and when I'm 'sharing the road', punish passes happen every ride.

Colnago Mixte

Curses? Just the usual ones everyone else uses. If I'm in a good mood, I'll dust off an old Johnny Carson line like "May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the crotch of the person who just passed too close to me, and may his arms be too short to scratch" or "May your proctologist be a frustrated concert trombonist".

And speaking of "punishment passes" this is a bad one. I've had only one or two in my life this close, but never from a truck that big:

Hoopdriver

Exactly this ^^^^. Take the lane when too narrow to allow passing. Over the past 6 years since I started commuting by bike I can count close passes on one hand.

Hypno Toad

That's not my experience, my commute includes a couple 4-lane 40 mph roads. I controlling the right lane and have drivers split lanes so that they can punish-pass, there is no other reason for driver to fail to move completely to the left lane except to threaten/intimidate the rider. This happens at least once a week.

AlmostTrick

This happens to me on occasion also. But since I always position myself to have some space to my right, and monitor overtaking traffic in my mirror, I can mitigate even these "punish passes" you speak of. Usually to a point where I wouldn't even consider it a close pass.

Hypno Toad

True, I do move right when a driver tries to punish-pass... and I give them a big smile and wave, nothing messes with an angry person like a friendly response. But the intent of the person in the car is still clearly there, and to me that still counts as a close pass. I understand that's debatable.

AlmostTrick

Agreed, if there was "intent" to close pass. I don't believe I can always tell though. Sometimes, sure, it's plain as day. They just wanted to teach the cyclist a lesson. Other times it's just a driver being lazy and not wanting to move over any farther than they feel they need to.

noisebeam

It has not been a concern of mine for well over a decade. I can't think of one close pass I did not encourage or set myself up for.
If I am in a bike lane left biased I may occasionally get a close pass by a motorist who watches the line instead of other vehicles, but nothing unexpected so I don't do anything to avoid it.

mcours2006

I get one or two per week of about 200km of riding. But then again I choose my route very carefully. Nd even that one or two are not actually that close when I look at the video, and probably outside one meter. But they feel closet at the time.

Colnago Mixte

I had a milestone today. Guy in a gigantic maroon Ford pickup truck close passes me, with his mirror buzzing a foot away, right past my ear. Cop has a bird's eye view of the whole thing, but does absolutely nothing. Folks, sorry to say it, but the 3 foot rule is dead in this state.

wphamilton

Serious question: how are you (everyone) measuring your "close" passes? Is it the subjective feeling of being at risk from the pass?

Very occasionally I get a pass that I think was intended to be "punish passes" because the driver is accelerating sharply at the same time, loud engine roar. I don't really care about that if it didn't seem to put me at risk, so is that a "close pass"? If a driver really wants to "punish" me he should stop and attempt it in person, but that has never happened so I think they're just fooling themselves.

On the other hand I get some passes that are physically close but at such low speed that I feel no particular danger from it. I don't count those as "close" either. But I'm interested in the question. What I'd really like is to set up some equipment and actually measure the distance and passing speed. I'm thinking optical, with a reference spot shining on the road surface which I could do with an android phone and laser pointer. Since sonar is trickier than you'd think to implement, and other methods are quite expensive.

DrIsotope

I've felt a side-view mirror brush against the sleeve of my jersey-- does that count as close?

Yesterday an 18-wheeler passed me and the wife at probably right at the 3' mark-- but he was doing about 50 in a 35, and ran the red light at the intersection we were approaching. It felt really close. Enough to make the HR bump up a little.

indyfabz

It's 4' in PA, where I live.

bikecrate

I, unfortunately, had to think about this thread on Sunday. Usually I ride around in the city and close passes are not the norm, but they do happen. Most of the time I don't worry about it too much. However, I was riding in the rural part of the county on Sunday. I was in a wide outside lane on a quiet road. I hear a car coming up behind me and move a bit over to the right of the outside lane. The car passes a few inches from my handle bars as a dirtball kid yells something unintelligible out the passenger window.