Comment 32303

By Brandon (registered) | Posted July 06, 2009 at 14:22:51

Bike lanes tend to be wide enough that if you're riding in the center of it or to the right of it, you shouldn't be in any danger of being clipped by a car. Those motorists who would swerve into you are less likely to do so if the bike lane is there than if it isn't, but they're the kind of drivers that you can't do anything about anyway. It's those drivers that cause me to take the full lane when things get tight when there are no bike lanes.

Edgy drivers tend to slow down, meaning there is less speed discrepancy between cyclists and cars, therefore less reason for them to get upset about being slowed down. A far larger problem is cyclists who veer all over the road regardless of how wide the road is.

I can recall driving behind a certain recumbent cyclist one memorable day. It was on Charlton, between Locke and Dundurn, so a very wide road by any stretch of the imagination, and our cyclist was making it difficult for the car in front of me to pass him. He finally moved over to allow the pass and as the car passed him and I accelerated to pass as well, he veered back in front of me, forcing me to slam on the brakes to avoid a collision. There were no road obstructions, simply an inability (deliberate or not is unknown) to maintain a straight line.

Be predictable and drivers will have far less reason to get annoyed. This also gets back to Ryan's comments about increasing the number of cyclists to decrease the number of accidents involving cyclists. Exposure to more cyclists teaches drivers to look out for them.

I am disappointment in you're grammar.

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