[SDCBC] Cycling Etiquette

[John Forester]

You occupied the correct position. Based on your statement that at 
the time you made your lateral move, no other traffic was within 200 
yards of you, you moved at an appropriate time. You are required to 
yield to traffic approaching so close as to constitute a danger, and 
in city traffic 200 yards is not that close.

The motorist's reaction is only too typical of the American 
superstition about cycling. She was brought up to believe that the 
only safe and correct place for a cyclist is close to the right-hand 
edge of the roadway, or off it entirely if possible. She had to take 
evasive action? Not unless you are incorrect about the 200 yards. 
What she meant was that she had to either slow down or move laterally 
to overtake you. Well, that's what sometimes happens in traffic. I 
think that the appropriate comment to such a motorist, if he or she 
offers that argument, is that the law requires drivers to pay 
attention to traffic in front of them and if she thinks that she was 
in danger of colliding with you, that's clear evidence that she was 
driving unlawfully and dangerously.

I keep repeating, ad infinitum, that the typical American's view of 
cycling is all occluded by the cyclist-inferiority superstition, 
which is the main source of our troubles and needs to be corrected. 
But so many bicycle activists relish their position of inferiority 
that it is difficult to get such a correction moving.





At 09:02 PM 8/13/2007, James Hotchkiss wrote:
>I got into a yelling match with a motorist on my way home (on my bike) this
>afternoon.
>I feel bad because I know that the motorist went home with a sour experience
>with a cyclist.  I also question as to whether I was in the right.
>Going west on Fletcher Parkway, coming out of El Cajon, the (3 lane) road
>forks.  2 lanes go to the left and remain Fletcher Parkway, 2 lanes go to
>the right and become Navajo Road.  The center lane splits.  I need to follow
>the road to the left (Fletcher Parkway).  As a cyclist I position myself in
>the middle of the center lane, forcing cars that are going to go to the
>right of the fork to take the lane to my right, and forcing the cars that
>are going to go to the left of the fork to take the lane to my left.  Once
>past the fork, I move over to the right side of the road.
>This motorist came up behind me and leaned on her horn.  I caught her at a
>traffic light and she was furious with me.  She told me that she almost hit
>me and had to take evasive action to get around me.  (When I had moved in to
>occupy the center lane, there was no one within 200 yards of me).
>I told her that I needed to establish myself in the center lane to let
>motorists know my intentions.  She felt that I was cycling recklessly.  I
>think she thought I should have stayed to the extreme right and moved over
>only at the last minute.
>Was I following proper bicycle/automobile etiquette?
>Is there a quick response that I could have given this motorist to get her
>to see my predicament and maybe come out of the exchange with compassion for
>what it is like to commute on a bicycle?
>
>Thanks,
>
>JimH
>
>
>
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John Forester, MS, PE
Bicycle Transportation Engineer
7585 Church St.
Lemon Grove, CA 91945-2306
619-644-5481 www.johnforester.com