MyRedTrek

Do you ride in circumstances like this - highway with no real bike lane? There's a narrow shoulder but they're counting on motorists to avoid them. The odds of something bad happening seem really high.

Eric F 

It’s not uncommon for me to ride in this exact kind of situation. Actually, this seems pretty calm compared with the urban/suburban road riding I do most often.

VegasJen

I try to avoid it as much as possible. Unfortunately, where I live, I have to drive somewhere to get a route with a dedicated bike lane/shoulder.

Bonus points for pic of the Z-car. Yours?

MyRedTrek

I wish. I was looking at videos of Z's with transplanted 327s and happened to see the cyclist.

PeteHski

I ride on roads with no shoulder whatsoever, 100% of the time. Like this:-



Motorists here are generally very aware, but you do get the odd close pass. I think the much wider, straighter roads over the pond lead to more complacency and distraction. Our rural roads are so narrow, even straying a foot off line can put you in a ditch. So there's not so much driving and texting etc. on these roads. Fatalities do happen with cyclists hit from behind, but they are thankfully quite rare.

str8jakett

99% of my roads are like this or small towns with no bike lane (actual ride photos).

delbiker1 

If I did not ride on such roads, I would have to use my car to transport the bike to where I am going to ride. Not happening for riding locally.

Chuck M 

I ride roads as the ones pictured above in the OP as well as the comments thus far. With good lights and the grace of God, there have been no issues. The only times I've come close to being hit are in my own neighborhood with people pulling out of driveways or the occasional right hook attempt.

Sy Reene

Basically isn't most of suburbia populated with shoulder-less roads. Anyone leaving a house in such an area is faced with this. Likewise many city streets don't have shoulders either if you ride in or out of cities.

flangehead

Yes. I use a mirror to increase my situational awareness.

Maelochs

Str8jackett doesn't even get a fog line, out where he lives ... harsh.

The best roads I ride don't have bike lanes or shoulders ... those are the roads Not in high-traffic areas where city planners think bike lanes would be useful. The further from town centers, the narrower, twistier the roads. Unfortunately as the human disease spreads, drivers seek out the "short-cuts" and "alternate, low-traffic routes" to get away from each other (can you blame them?) and the smaller roads get traffic too.

On these roads i find drivers actually go out of their ways to either be courteous , or endanger other drivers instead of me on my bike (granted, I am so big hitting me would probably cause more damage to their cars than hitting another car.) I have seen drivers run each other off the road, pulling into the oncoming traffic lane because I took the lane on my side. I also see a lot of driver deferring to me, even following me for a good while (well, half a minute or a minute) or however long it takes to reach a place where I can squeeze over safely, or they can just pass.

If I only rode where there were bike lanes I'd have a third less roads to ride.

MyRedTrek

At least in my neighborhood traffic is pretty sparse other than go to work time in the morning. I generally ride at night. I see people riding on roads with busy vehicular traffic but it seems they're taking a big risk.

I've seen videos of these kamikaze bicycle couriers in major cities - those guys/gals seem to have a death wish.

GhostRider62

Nope.

I would not ride that road on training rides.

DaveSSS 

The majority of the Colorado roads that I ride are rural chip sealed asphalt with no shoulders. In the summer, I ride to Estes Park on highway 34, that does have shoulders.

The worst cycling roads I've seen were in rural Missouri around the lake of the Ozarks no shoulders and rumble strips along the edge. I've looked at several lakes in northeast Oklahoma and Rogers Arkansas. Wouldn't ride those.

blacknbluebikes 

Actually, the bike lane was invented long before the bicycle, no one could ride outdoors before that. My grandfather did Zwift on a penny farthing with rollers.

waters60

Bright lights and a mirror. Unfortunately, bike lanes, where they exist, tend to be where the debris from cars ends up, broken bottles etc., so I generally do not ride in them unless they are clean. 99.9% of the roads I ride on do not have bike lanes. Most of us ride on roads well known to us the vast majority of the time so we are well aware of hazards.

Jughed

I limit my road riding period. When I do, it's early AM on the weekends and I look for empty farm roads or roads with wide shoulders.

I have 50 mile loop from my house where I can ride 50/50 shoulders - no shoulders on empty country roads. And at the time I ride - I typically only get passed once or twice on the shoulder less roads.

I wear bright colors, have blinky lights, ride in a courteous manner - and still get some asshattery behavior from drivers - even at 7am Sunday morning.

RJC1811

I have a diverse mix in my area. Very few dedicated bike lanes, and those are in areas I would rather not ride so no help to me. I live near Canandaigua Lake in NY and one is the worst spots is getting across the north end of the lake. It’s either Lakeshore Drive along the lake, about a 2 mile stretch that narrows to a stretch with no shoulder and tall curbs. The lane is only wide enough for a car and no room to pass a cyclist. I see my options as take the lane and back up traffic behind me or jump behind a car and sprint. The speed limit is only 25mph and many cars go slower so sometimes the sprint option works very well, other times it blows me up and I drag for the rest of the ride. the alternate is a major highway Rt 5&20 that goes across the state and beyond that has huge but very dirty shoulders, lots of road debris and glass chips. The rest of my riding area are more country roads with varying shoulders. I felt very comfortable on those and have never had a close call but a friend’s brother was killed by a pickup truck driver. He was coming over a hill in the road and didn’t react quickly enough to avoid the cyclist.

MoAlpha

I've done it for thousands of miles a year on heavily traveled roads, over five decades. It's admittedly an act of faith and I've been hit from behind twice.

mstateglfr 

If its a 2 lane 2 way road where the MPH is 30-40 that you see cyclists using, I actually prefer those because I can take the right lane and cars can easily see me and pass in the left lane without being inconvenienced. Its worked quite well where I live for countless miles over many years.
I ride roads without a bike lane, yes. The roads that I do use which have a bike lane(few) I really dont love the bike lanes because there is often a bunch of debris that gets shoved aside off the main road, and parked cars are often next to the lane so I have to constantly look to see if someone is going to open the door.

mstateglfr 

Those morons are going to drive into oncoming traffic!***

GhostRider62

That's those crazy people in England for you.

They have double round abouts and everyone is going every witch way, diabolical

genejockey 

Yes, I ride that kind of road all the time. Some of my favorite riding is on roads like that. I also have a fairly bright flashing taillight, and a Garmin Varia radar device, and I ride roads that are heavily used by cyclists.

prj71

I ride on roads like that all of the time. Most of rural America doesn't have bike lines. Dedicated bike lanes don't really exist where I live. There are a few short segments here in there but they are in the middle of town where I don't ride. This is the road in front my house that I ride often.

jon c. 

Most of my riding is on roads with no shoulder. But most aren't very busy. There are two main roads with a lot of traffic that I hit on parts of my ride, but they have good shoulders. I avoid roads with constant traffic and no shoulder as am I fortunate to have enough other options.