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Don't you just love when noobs/pedestrians say to ride on the other side of the road.

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Don't you just love when noobs/pedestrians say to ride on the other side of the road.

Old 10-27-21, 07:23 PM
  #1  
psystemupdate
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Don't you just love when noobs/pedestrians say to ride on the other side of the road.

ever encountered people who yell at you to get on the correct side of the road when you choose to ride against traffic? There's countless reasons for the more experienced riders to sometimes be on the 'wrong' side of the road.
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Old 10-27-21, 07:30 PM
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Is this trolling? When and why would you do that (for extended distance). And traffic laws dictate that bikes abide by going the right direction, with the flow of traffic.

Dan
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Old 10-27-21, 07:34 PM
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Originally Posted by _ForceD_
Is this trolling? When and why would you do that (for extended distance). And traffic laws dictate that bikes abide by going the right direction, with the flow of traffic.

Dan
just because its law don't mean it isn't stupid...do you really want to put full control of your life at the hands of strangers, especially with todays statistics about drivers distracted by phones? safety is shared when you can see them and they can see you.
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Old 10-27-21, 07:44 PM
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it was asked "when would you do that?"

have you ever come up on a right turning road and just after the turn is a complete blind spot for any cars that could usually come flying up from behind you? This is one instance where i go to the opposite side and stay there if i can see ahead and its all clear...why should i get a ticket for being smart? Laws are made by people who haven't caught up.
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Old 10-27-21, 08:49 PM
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Never get yelled at to get on any side of the road, since I always ride on the right (U.S). So no love is lost or wasted.

The OP apparently doesn’t realize that the yellers believe that, based on your choice of sides, that you most likely ALWAYS ride incorrectly and are trying to keep you from being killed. They are being caring, not jerks.

Since the OP believes he knows better than the people trying to help him, I will wait for his inevitable pushback. (When walking my dog on a curvy street with bad sight lines, I do go from one side of the street to the other to maximize the visibility of drivers to our presence. - so I do understand what you are doing, but don’t understand your attitude towards others.)
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Old 10-27-21, 08:59 PM
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Originally Posted by psystemupdate
just because its law don't mean it isn't stupid...do you really want to put full control of your life at the hands of strangers, especially with todays statistics about drivers distracted by phones? safety is shared when you can see them and they can see you.

Sorry, you really have no clue about statistics. You're wayyyyyyy more likely to get hit at an intersection or a driveway when you're coming from the direction the driver isn't looking at, y'know, the wrong way.
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Old 10-27-21, 09:02 PM
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No, but I often encounter people yelling at me to get on the correct side of the road when I choose to drive against traffic. There's countless reasons for me to sometimes be on the 'wrong' side of the road.
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Old 10-27-21, 09:06 PM
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The clueless noobs/pedestrians apparently know better than you.
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Old 10-27-21, 09:16 PM
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Channeling your inner Salmon I assume.
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Old 10-27-21, 09:35 PM
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Originally Posted by psystemupdate
There's countless reasons for the more experienced riders to sometimes be on the 'wrong' side of the road.
“Countless” reasons? I can think of maybe two and they aren’t especially good ones. If people yell at you often enough to start a thread about it, I gotta wonder how good yours are.

Last edited by Rolla; 10-27-21 at 10:11 PM.
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Old 10-27-21, 09:49 PM
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Originally Posted by psystemupdate
it was asked "when would you do that?"

have you ever come up on a right turning road and just after the turn is a complete blind spot for any cars that could usually come flying up from behind you? This is one instance where i go to the opposite side and stay there if i can see ahead and its all clear...why should i get a ticket for being smart? Laws are made by people who haven't caught up.
Actually this is the worst time to ride into traffic if the intersection is so dangerous that you have to stop and wait for a break in the traffic to negotiate the turn.

When riding with traffic, it is pretty easy to stop before you get to the turn and wait for a break in the traffic because you can look behind you and see the cars. When there is a break you can go through the turn without and worry of an idiot on a bike hitting you head on.

When riding the opposite direction it is truly a blind corner because you’ll never see the cars that are heading toward the right turn. You either have to move closer to the apex of the turn to get a better view, or just guess no one is there.

The other issue is when you wake up in the hospital, it will be your fault for riding into a blind turn on the wrong side of the road. The driver could be eating lunch and watching a video on his/her phone and it will still be your fault.

John

Edit added: To be honest, if that is how you ride on the road, maybe you should find out if there is any gravel you can ride on.

Last edited by 70sSanO; 10-27-21 at 10:09 PM.
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Old 10-27-21, 10:05 PM
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Originally Posted by psystemupdate
it was asked "when would you do that?"

have you ever come up on a right turning road and just after the turn is a complete blind spot for any cars that could usually come flying up from behind you? This is one instance where i go to the opposite side and stay there if i can see ahead and its all clear...why should i get a ticket for being smart? Laws are made by people who haven't caught up.
Wow, I might yell at you as well if I saw that. That's just about the worst way to handle that imaginable. If you cross before the turn, you're putting yourself in the paths of cars coming the other way you can't see, and if you cross after the turn, you're crossing the paths of the right turning cars behind you.

Last edited by livedarklions; 10-27-21 at 10:09 PM.
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Old 10-28-21, 12:49 AM
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Originally Posted by psystemupdate
just because its law don't mean it isn't stupid...do you really want to put full control of your life at the hands of strangers, especially with todays statistics about drivers distracted by phones? safety is shared when you can see them and they can see you.
I get that you want to see the cars that are coming towards you, but here’s why that’s a bad idea: Closing Speed

I would presume that you’re holding your line and not diving into the shoulder every time a car passes, so it’s on the cars to take the action to go around you. Riding against traffic increases the closing speed between you and a passing car. If you’re riding at 15 mph, and the car is doing 45, your combined speed is 60 mph, and the driver has a substantially reduced amount of time and space to make the necessary changes to avoid you.

Riding with traffic (on the correct side of the road) means that the closing speed is reduced by your speed (the above example would give a closing speed of 30 mph) the passing drivers now have more time to maneuver, even more than if you were stationary.
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Old 10-28-21, 12:56 AM
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This is a thing I’ve said before; the “Rules of the Road” (laws or customs) are there so that everyone behaves in a similar way, so that your actions/potential actions will be predictable to other road users around you.
Behaving in a contrarian manner, to call attention to yourself and therefore “make you safer” is a false concept, because now everyone has to stop paying attention to everything else around them and focus on you, so they can figure out what you’re doing or what you’re going to do.
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Old 10-28-21, 05:03 AM
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Originally Posted by Ironfish653
This is a thing I’ve said before; the “Rules of the Road” (laws or customs) are there so that everyone behaves in a similar way, so that your actions/potential actions will be predictable to other road users around you.
Behaving in a contrarian manner, to call attention to yourself and therefore “make you safer” is a false concept, because now everyone has to stop paying attention to everything else around them and focus on you, so they can figure out what you’re doing or what you’re going to do.

It's a bit worse than that, actually. The main problem is that people aren't routinely scanning to check for people violating the rules, so when the cyclist comes from an unexpected direction in a lane, it increases the chances that a driver crossing that lane won't even know there's anyone there. Intersection/driveways are the most dangerous parts of the road.

If this was the late 19th/early 20th and we were designing the road system from scratch, opposing the directions might have made sense, but once there's a system of same direction, that question is moot. Everyone's habits are biased to see people following the rules and miss seeing people who aren't. Even without cell phones and other distractions, human perception and attention is a finite resource, you simply can't see everything all the time.

Last edited by livedarklions; 10-28-21 at 05:10 AM.
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Old 10-28-21, 05:10 AM
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Originally Posted by psystemupdate
ever encountered people who yell at you to get on the correct side of the road when you choose to ride against traffic? There's countless reasons for the more experienced riders to sometimes be on the 'wrong' side of the road.
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Old 10-28-21, 05:11 AM
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New Thread title needed.
Don't you just love it when noobs start a bunch of stupid threads in their first month of activity?
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Old 10-28-21, 05:30 AM
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I honestly can't think of any time cycling on the wrong side of the road is safer. For tight/blind bends you may want to move to the centre line, but other than that you want to be in the lane and facing in the direction that traffic expects.

Walking with a bike on the wrong side, maybe, but then you're a pedestrian.
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Old 10-28-21, 05:33 AM
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..and yet another adolescent buffoon gets added to the ignore list..a list that is getting rather large.
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Old 10-28-21, 06:28 AM
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Originally Posted by psystemupdate
ever encountered people who yell at you to get on the correct side of the road when you choose to ride against traffic? There's countless reasons for the more experienced riders to sometimes be on the 'wrong' side of the road.
This is an .... interesting ..... thread.

If the OP had posted, "There's countless reasons for the more experienced riders to sometimes be on the 'wrong' side of the road..... "

But essentially, since we are all road users ... he did.


This is the same guy, who, in another thread .... complains about drivers making bad decisions.
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Old 10-28-21, 07:16 AM
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I can't see how it is ever safer to ride on the wrong side of the road. Safety is about being predictable and visible. If you are on the wrong side of the road, that is not predictable.
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Old 10-28-21, 07:20 AM
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I'd not want to be the next cyclist a driver comes across after encountering the OP riding erratically.
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Old 10-28-21, 07:23 AM
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OP's thought process.

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Old 10-28-21, 07:23 AM
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I think the OP should maybe just stay on the sidewalk - safer for everyone that way.
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Old 10-28-21, 07:41 AM
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Originally Posted by psystemupdate
it was asked "when would you do that?"

have you ever come up on a right turning road and just after the turn is a complete blind spot for any cars that could usually come flying up from behind you? This is one instance where i go to the opposite side and stay there if i can see ahead and its all clear...why should i get a ticket for being smart? Laws are made by people who haven't caught up.
Yeah .... I love to ride winding, hilly roads which are replete with blind spots. When I know cars coming up cannot see me I stay well to the right because no matter what you imagine, the car does not Instantly appear right on your tail. There is enough time for the car (particularly if the driver is not startled by a rider coming head-on at him, but instead riding normally) to slide over a few feet. (See above comments on "closing speed.")

I Never take the lane over a hill or after a sharp curve .... because I am not stupid.

I have been riding in traffic for more than five decades. I am pretty sure since I am still alive, that I am doing it right.

On the other hand, if you examine cycling fatalities, a good number involve riders on the wrong side of the road. I have to think they were doing it somewhat less right.

I don't want to suggest that your preferred residence might be under a bridge or anything .... but let us note that your other thread is a complaint about Drivers doing stupid things ........
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