[SDCBC] SD Police: "You need to be in the bike lane"

[Serge Issakov]

I worked from home this morning and then rode in to work right before noon.
At about 11:45 I was eastbound on La Jolla Village Drive going over the I-5
interchange.  Traffic was pretty light.  Before I reached the interchange I
started out in the far right lane.  As I approached the entrance to the S/B
I-5 onramp, I noticed in my mirror that someone behind me had slowed, so I
signaled and changed lanes to the left, leaving the rightmost lane free for
traffic that is headed across the interchange and onto the N/B I-5 onramp.
I've been doing this route for almost eight years now, and this is basically
what I do every day.  Getting stuck to the right of traffic in that
rightmost lane sucks.

Anyway, at the other end of the interchange is a traffic light at the
intersection with traffic coming off of N/B I-5 for which I had to slow and
stop because it was red.  I noticed the SD police car behind me in my
mirror, and that the officer changed lanes and pulled alongside me at the
light.  The passenger side window rolled down and the officer on the
passenger side said:

Officer: "You need to be in the bike lane".
Serge: "That's not a bike lane, sir."
Officer: (glances at the paint demarcated rubble-filled shoulder and then
back at me) "You need to be further over"
Serge: (gesturing at the onramp split behind us) "There is a right turn back
there - I want to avoid being right hooked"
Officer: "Then how is everyone going to get around you?"

I didn't get to answer because the light turned green and we had to go, but
I think my shrug and facial expression might have effectively conveyed, "not
my problem".  In retrospect, I should have said: "Same way you just got
around me".  Why is so unacceptable for motorists to have to change lanes to
pass a cyclist?

What was interesting is that the emphasis was on staying out of the way of
motorists and not on safety.  Never mind that he was effectively suggesting,
I think, that I ride the white line between streams of 45+ mph traffic in
relatively narrow lanes such that they don't even need to slow down because
of me, much less (God forbid) change lanes, and that after the split I
continue riding far right despite the curbside parking that starts after
crossing that intersection.  If you ride far right you get stuck having to
negotiate for right of way to move left of the parked cars (and door zone),
and are more prone that far over to be overlooked by a right-on-red driver
turning right from the N/B I-5 onramp onto eastbound LJVD (been there, done
that, years ago).   It's much better to establish right of way near the
center of the rightmost lane before the intersection, and maintain it as you
cross it, than any other alternative.

I think they just assumed, perhaps unconsciously, they could easily
intimidate me into riding "out of the way", and were befuddled when it
didn't work.

Serge
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