Originally Posted by
EviLDORK
Even if there are a lot of cyclists eager to risk their lives to act in bad faith for the purpose of slowing down motorized traffic
Bad faith? I didn't say anything about bad faith. See, that's the myth, that any of it, re: cyclist behavior or driver behavior in the aggregate, is motivated by negative emotions. No, I actually believe that a majority of cyclists really think they NEED 3' passing distances to be safe. Their ability to hold a line is at such an elementary level that they would veer into a car passing any closer than that. Given full license to claim the full lane, they would, of course, do just that. No malice aforethought. That is the definition of a sharrow. There is a reason why only some roads are made into sharrows.
Originally Posted by
EviLDORK
the actual impact on travel times would be disproportionately small compared to the amount of whining they would hear about it. There would be a little more room in the passing lane and stoplights often don't let motorists go all that much faster than bicyclists as it is.
Actually, motor traffic is MUCH faster than cyclist traffic, with, or without traffic lights. The average driver can accelerate past the average cyclist in less than one full crank revolution. From then it only gets worse. Even if the lights are unsynchronized there would be maybe one light coming up where the cyclist might actually catch up with the same car. It would not happen again. It is no contest. Bicycles and motor traffic must not be forced to share the same lanes. It isn't fair to bikes, it isn't fair to cars.
In the parts of the US where the law does support full lane use and minimum passing distances, it's rarely enforced and even more rarely abused.
I get passed on sharrows all the time. Partly it is my own fault. I generally ride lane right. Seeing a clear path past me is a temptation that few mouth breathing cagers are going to be able to resist for long. But if I need the full lane, mainly because I intend to turn left up ahead, I will 'take the lane' and in a sharrow there isn't much a driver can do about it. This leads to a problem on other roads that are not sharrows. On those roads, a bicycle that is lane center becomes very triggering to a susceptible population of cager. They will harrass you out of your position in the lane. Especially if there is a striped off bicycle lane to the right. This makes left turns difficult and often impossible to accomplish 'normally'. In my city the clear expectation is that a bicycle will turn left by first proceeding on the right to the head of the cross street they intend to turn left into and then proceed left on the next light cycle. Sometimes that is what I have to do. Fine, but don't expect me to feel like a full and valued road using citizen. IOW don't expect any 'road use' tax revenue out of me because I don't have full use of the roads.