Originally Posted by
Bald Paul
Sounds a lot like many of the roads I have to ride on. Some of them will give you almost a foot to the right of the white line at times, but those will usually have rumble strips built in.
I could not agree more. I just upgraded to the Varia RCT715 unit from the base Varia. I won't ride without it. Got the first Varia after a driver who claimed he "didn't see me" on a road similar to the one pictured attempted to pass so closely, the windshield pillar caught my arm. I remember a loud THUD and then waking up in the middle of the road, bleeding heavily from a cut that required 12 stitches to close, along with some pretty bad road rash. Now, when I hear the beep warnings from the head unit, I keep a close eye on my helmet mirror. If I don't see the car moving over to pass safely, I'd rather be able to exit the roadway more graciously.
p.s.: the new RCT715, along with the forward facing GoPro, can provide good evidence of an unsafe pass or harassment to the local authorities. Ask me how I know.
That's a pretty nice road you have there. Hell, if you went off, it might even be a soft landing. Out here, not so much.
I worry about what would happen if someone caught me with a mirror or something. And that's the main reason why I put mirrors on all my bikes. It's not for other bicyclists because there are precious few of us out here. It's because there is generally so little shoulder. I do try to ride as far to the right as I can and most people give me some room for comfort, even if only grudgingly, but I would say maybe 5-10% of the drivers out here almost seem hostile.
Originally Posted by
KerryIrons
The driver buzzed you. On purpose. Either that or is completely incompetent. I yelled at a driver today too. I was on a bike path and while looking the opposite direction, she pulled right across the path while exiting a parking lot. She was surprised to see me since she had not looked in my direction. On this one, I went with completely incompetent.
The thing that pissed me off is less the fact that the driver buzzed me, which he did. But how completely unnecessary it was. As stated, it was a dotted line, so he couldn't use the excuse of crossing a solid yellow line, and there was no oncoming traffic. This was pretty much a flagrant challenge, but especially at the speed, the driver was putting my life at risk.