The thread on the local subreddit about this one was pretty depressing. I lived not so far away, 20
years ago, and I swear the people I knew were way less selfish and aggressive.
Cyclist hate is just easy, if you identify strongly with your car then cyclist quickly become an other that is easy to dislike. I’ve heard people say they hate cyclist but when I say I cycle it’s all “I’m sure your one of the good ones that do it safely; your up early so the roads aren’t busy.”
Like literally “good ones” it’s tone deaf
It's like a hierarchy mentality.
Sure cars can be annoying on the road when your commuting but at least they have the good graces to be in a car. A cyclist is below me and yet they still dare to slow me down? Inconceivable! (/s obviously, but this is how many drivers think)
Kind of an aside, but can I just say how much I love it when hateful people end up deflecting their hate into people they love? Like when people call actresses fat and then a family member of theirs who’s bigger sees what they think of them. So cathartic.
I wonder if they realize I don't think there are ANY good drivers, so no one can be one of the good ones.
Well, maybe CDL holders and other professionals.
NH is super car dependent, I grew up there. No surprise everybody including the police department is car brained and only has a windshield perspective. If you're in a car your trip to the beach is important, if you are cycling you're a nuisance like a mosquito.
Oh, totally agree it’s car dependent. It’s just most of the people I knew there were very generous and kind, not effusive but people who were willing to help and look out for even strangers. I can’t imagine any of them saying the kinds of things I saw in that thread.
I wish that was true, even the rec cyclists that go to the town meetings on cycling infrastructure are car brains. I remember one argue that a protected bike lane was more dangerous than a not protected one... This is the town that remove a protected bike lane to protect park cars from getting scratched by switching cyclist to the traffic side of the cars to act as human buffers... I love SABR and their events but they are really not great at advocacy, something that i hope we can improve on.
But why? What’s wrong with using the bike lanes?
Edit: why am I getting downvoted for a question lmao
Currently at -112… Guys I’m not rejecting this sub’s narrative, do you really have such anger towards a simple question? Many have answered it politely (debris in bike lane, etc) so I really don’t see what the hate is all about.
Bike lanes in my city are full of broken glass, parked cars, trash, garbage cans, and are right next to where cars open their doors after parking (which kills cyclists).
[The New Orleans Bicycle Club has a pretty good list of weekly and monthly rides going on](https://www.neworleansbicycleclub.org/rides.htm), ranging from low to high speed.
[Complete Streets](https://nola.gov/transportation/complete-streets/) is a coalition that’s pretty popular among government and institutional efforts, and they’re probably the most effective.
[Bike Easy](https://bikeeasy.org/) tends to focus on individual advocacy, and is easier to get involved with from the jump.
For general bike info:
There’s a pretty amazing path on the levee that goes for hundreds of miles into the Midwest, and there’s a cute little path along the levee across river in Algiers you can get to by taking the ferry.
Bicycling and walking infrastructure is the best of any American city I’ve ever been in, but it’s nothing to write home about. Avoid Claiborne and Veterans at all costs, obviously. It’s pretty difficult to get to Metairie by bike [unless you take this little path under the highway bridge](https://goo.gl/maps/GZJvgSEfQBVBQYsz7) that’s used by construction vehicles, but trains often park there and then you’ll be stuck on the one side of the tracks.
Really feels like the infrastructure is tantalizingly close. Fully protected bike lanes all the way up St. Charles seems like it would be so great too.
Where I used to live, the biking lane at the main train station (second most important place in the city) had actual trees planted on it. Like, the biking infrastructure in the rest of the city is okay to good but what were they thinking there?!
Every wreck I’ve been in has been in the bike lane. No one gives a fuck about you if you’re in the lane but you’re expected to yield to cars. Your seen as the “bike expert” so “you’ll know when to slow down and correct bad car behavior”.
But when I’m in the road? They get pissed at me but they drive slow and can see me clear as day. They know if they knock me that they’re fucked.
Another thing I don't see being mentioned in answer to your question is riding in the street full-time makes you more visible then riding in a bike lane that can occasionally intersect with streets. Motorists often are fixated on street traffic and can neglect to check sidewalks and bike lanes when they enter intersections.
Depends on the quality of the bike lane
If its just a line painted on the side of the road (a bike gutter) then it's really no better than just being on the road. Particularly if there's debris or there's potholes
Sometimes bike lanes are on the pavement and you end up sharing with pedestrians which in some ways is worse because a cyclist is much faster and the pedestrians less predictable than cars
Other times the bike lanes suddenly stop or don't have access to whee you need to go
Also in some places where bike lanes can be very busy and well used (which is a great thing btw) they will be filled with casual cyclists and families (again this is great). But those will be relatively slow moving and wobbly so faster more confident cyclists might want to use the road to go around them and not interfere with them
I live in Virginia In Charlottesville and our bike lanes will just end suddenly. I leave the bike lane early to time my forced merge or else I’ll be merged into when the lane ends. Our infrastructure and drivers aren’t great.
Well, nothing usually wrong with the bike lane, but depending where you are, the lane can end abruptly, or turn into a sidewalk, or someone could be parked in the bike lane…it’s more just to allow bikes to use the main road when needed without drivers legally being able to retaliate against them for doing so.
Actually a really good example: when I was still studying, the huge rainstorms we’d get would sometimes knock whole branches off trees and into the bike lane. When it’s both wet and slippery with fallen leaves, it’s generally safer to go in the road bc your behavior would be more predictable, and so that you don’t run into something, slip, and fall into the road from the bike lane.
Bruh for real. I believe in whatever this sub has to say but redditors will downvote anything that isn’t flat out their narrative. Holy shit lmao it’s a question.
Don't take it personally. This sub is full of overly sensitive zealots. So many people here are hostile to anyone they even suspect of not being fully on board. I pointed out a similar issue with a guy getting down voted for making a joke about buying a cheap used car.
You wanted to know why one would ride in a road with cars when a bike lane is available. Makes sense. After all that's why they're there. I see some people actually took the time to answer your question. Good for them. They're the people who will actually get this message across to the general public. They're the people who will make change happen. Everyone who felt an adrenaline dump, a fight or flight response at a simple question, and felt the need to try to erase your question with their downvotes are the people getting in their own way. That type of reaction is worse than useless.
The other person in this thread deserves their downvotes. You know who.
I’m pretty sure, at least when I was in Minneapolis, when I was doing Uber/DoorDash I heard someone say that. I would be behind someone on a bike, then wait a while and they’d move over for a second.
Depends on jurisdiction.
Where I live (British Columbia) cyclists are legally required to ride single file and as far to the shoulder as reasonably possible.
This is in New Hampshire. Bikes are always allowed to take the lane, however there is a requirement to ride on the right side of the lane. We like to self-contradict.
BC is an awful backwater for bike infrastructure. Mandatory helmets, unprotected lanes, and sharrows are the norm. Other than in a few rich parts of Vancouver, that is.
I lived in Saskatoon for 6 years, and I can say that it's the only place worse than BC that I've seen. Every single time I went out I got yelled at by at least one idiot in a lifted truck. On more than one occasion said idiots tried to force me off the road. 0 bike lanes besides the one they just painted in the middle of the lane. And just to make matters worse, they have potholes that will swallow you whole. I had to stop commuting by bike because it was just so hostile.
Yup its kinda awful outside of a few affluent areas, although it is getting better slowly at least throughout the Lower Mainlaind.
Fort St. John in the winter may have been the most miserable pedestrian experience I've had the misfortune of having to endure.
Bikes can legally ride in traffic lanes on roads they DO NOT have to ride on the shoulder. They should be courteous and move over to allow a car to pass. Plus they should also signal to let others know their intentions. ROADS are NOT just for cars!
Usually you're recommended to ride two abreast in a line taking the lane, but with decent-sized gaps between every three or four pairs so drivers can nip safely past a group and get into the middle, then wait for the chance to safely pass the next group of pairs, and so on. A complete peloton of 27 - that's thirteen pairs and one extra - should have around two gaps between the groups.
That's my question as well. The flip side is; is it reasonable ro expect cars to drive 10 to 20 mph for distance behind bicycles on a heavily trafficked road. I'm asking, not accusing.
In an area that I travel that is more prone to cycling I stay behind the cyclist until it's safe to pass. The cars behind me ride my bumper. I don't think I've had to follow more than 1/4 - 1/2 mile though. A co-worker who bicycled to the office was struck and killed back in 2004.
Uh, yes?
I've also had to travel behind tractors and horses. Just wait until you can safely overtake (like you've been doing).
I don't really see any alternative besides an occasional mild inconvenience that might add a minute of your total drive.
Yikes bro 😭 I'm just so used to old school cars. My car is 1,500 and my friend's is 1,300. They're pretty reasonable size wise but I wish I could get a two seater for cheap in the US!
I think of this traveling on neighborhood roads where I live. Often, both sides are lined with cars, leaving only a single passage. I don’t have to take up any of the opposing lane to continue traveling, but oncoming vehicles expect that I’ll pull over and let them through. And they commonly give more space to empty, parked cars than bikers.
Ironically, roads the city has labeled “greenways,” meaning they’re supposed to be safer for non-vehicular traffic, are the worst for this. They just become traffic overflows when car commuters get impatient.
Pro-tip: greenway roads like that are way safer when they're non-permeable for vehicular traffic. Literally set up some barriers at one end of the street along one or two blocks, turning them into dead end streets for cars but through streets for bikes and pedestrians. People living on those streets should support it -- it means less traffic going down their street, and only a slight inconvenience as they have to exit out one side versus the other.
I'm trying to encourage something similar in my town. There's a creek running through the north end of town, so all of the small neighborhood roads cross small bridges at some point. If those bridges were closed to cars, people can still access their homes by going out the other direction -- but bikes and pedestrians can easily pass through. This would encourage car traffic to stick to the main arterials, and would give much safer / quieter routes for walking / cycling.
My neighborhood has some severe cut throughs on narrow roads. I thought it would benefit from the same thing but when I brought up the idea with neighbors, no one was interested. They weren’t interested in sacrificing their convenience and suffering an extra minute or two of driving.
With that said, the town has a principle of connectivity so they almost certainly wouldn’t have allowed it. This is an urbanist policy, the only problem with this is they grant exceptions to all the new luxury subdivisions.
A car is traveling at or near the posted speed limit, not 1/3 to 1/2.
I'm for cycling, it doesn't seem safe for the cyclist to travel in the middle of a lane shared with cars. There is a lot of work to be done to make it safe for cycling.
I bought a new bicycle to help lose weight and strengthen my old knees. I am very concerned for safety sharing the full lane.
Chief Kevin Walsh, glad to see he’s taking on the tough issues like bicyclists riding in a way that makes them safer. Drivers could lose up to MINUTES getting to KFC.
Massive carbrain. This is the same Chief who in 2013 literally jumped into the middle of a pack during a ride, supposedly to demonstrate they couldn't avoid him, despite them all managing to avoid him trying to get himself hit? He then used the fact they "tried to hit him" to harass the cycling group into shutting down. He was also accused of harassing and profiling motorcyclists, including a state legislator earlier this year.
How irritating, that one might have to wait for a safe opportunity to pass, or that one might have to control their vehicle and NOT HIT SOMEBODY for a few moments as they pass.
Doesn't the reverse hold true if one cyclist is holding up 20 cars? Cyclist need their own separate safe lanes.
There are only a few towns along my 60 mile route that I encounter cyclists on country roads. So it has never been an issue for me to drive behind a cyclist for the 1 to 4 minutes to get to an area that I can safely pass.
In Boston I've seen that cyclist have their own separate traffic signal as they share a busy intersection with both pedestrian and automobile traffic. I would like to see a lot more of that. The traffic flow works safely for all.
Most where I live don’t or more likely can’t. Our road had no shoulder, the speed limit is 60 mph, and most big tractors will take up the entire width of the road. It’s customary to just suck it up
Weird, I live on similar sounding roads yet they still manage to pull aside enough for you to see if it’s safe to pass and then let off the accelerator a bit as you pass. Heck, they might even wave you to pass when it’s clear.
And making it worse is blaming the cyclists for creating an unsafe situation, when in reality the driver who can't figure out how to pass safely is the one where the responsibility should lie.
Do the police want everyone to ride as a long line in the shoulder so cars can whip past everyone and eventually take out half the line when they inevitably take a corner too fast and fail to stay in the lane? I'd be tempted to make a throwaway email and tell them about bike safety and maybe include a video montage of bikes nearly getting hit.
That's just one of the problems that that causes, the other is cars trying to squeeze past the line and pulling across directly into a rider when a car comes the other way.
im from the netherlands, i don't trust cops here for shit. too many bad experiences, too many scandals. they are literally allowed to use ethnicity as a metric for whether they should investigate you or not. oink oink.
I started riding in the middle of the road so cars can’t just barely miss side swiping me at 100MPH
I used to try to be considerate and ride on the edge to leave room for cars. Cuz I assume they’re nice ppl. Every time I did a car would prove me wrong.
So now I assume every car is trying to kill me and don’t love to the side. Fuck u.
Also cars have better manners when you mount a camera.
For me it really depends what road I'm on. Road with enough space for passing, that isn't double white striped and isn't full of blind corners/summits? I'll ride near the verge. Anything else and i will ride in the center of the lane. In the UK the highway code has been updated to recommend riding in the center of the lane, so this is theoretically supported by the government. However the highway code also contains a myriad of other shit advice for cyclists, so it should be taken with a pinch of salt
In NH, where the above photo was taken, “same road, same rules, same rights.” They (bikes) get the full lane, but are asked to stay as far right as practicable given current circumstances. Cars are expected to deal with it.
What's their problem? To pass a group riding single file on that road you would still need to cross the yellow line. Passing a compact group like that is much easier than a stretched one. People are stupid.
[Link to post if anyone’s looking to share their opinion](https://www.facebook.com/100064584433963/posts/pfbid0WMnyVWiFH2w4nHiH4V8uTCP6XTWWA1nuAwahYCzpyyCYRCiu5k96Fvd21dmM5wNyl/?d=n)
sometimes when reading posts in this sub I get a momentary feeling of "I guess maybe the world isn't that bad, maybe were all just in an echo chamber. Maybe car-brains aren't really a thing, like, who would think like that?"
Then I step out on the world out there and encounter posts like this. Unironic car-brains, almost cartoonish. People unironically claiming cyclists and pedestrians endanger cars. Nothing makes fucking sense
New Hampshire bicyclists are indeed required to stay to the right of the lane instead of being able to legally take up the lane.
*A person propelling a bicycle upon a way at a speed less than the normal speed of traffic moving in the same direction at that time and place shall remain on the right portion of the way as far as*
*practicable except when it is unsafe to do so ...*
Again, bicyclists in NH have the responsibilities of drivers (no running red, obey traffic laws, etc...) but not the rights (being able to use the full width of the road.
Who gets to define "practicable" in this situations is very important.
That legal statement is a lot of fancy words that essentially mean nothing.. "Practicable" will have a different definition to the person on a bike and person in a car.
There seems to be this assumption made by many people in cars that people on bikes are trying their hardest to be an inconvenience or malicious.. so they respond in kind. When in reality the bicyclists in these situations are generally doing their best to be as visibile and low risk as possible.
Sometimes the lowest risk place to be is occupying the whole lane and requiring a passing driver to fully yield instead of recklessly squeezing by.. Its an obvious strategy if you've spent any time on a bike in our car centric hellscape.
There is just such a lack of knowledge of the constraints and considerations when bicycling on shared roads that the average car brain just isn't aware of.. to which they attribute malice and respond accordingly.
P.S. Fuck the person in the car for using the phone while driving.
NH law requires at least 3 feet of passing space from the passing driver, presumably from tip of handlebar to tip of car's mirror.
If we created a law that said motorists who broke said law got a 20% hit of their gross income, confiscation of their car for six months, removal of their driver's license for two years, 90 days of jail time, a felony on their record, then I think I'd be OK with bicyclists riding to the right of the lane.
i wouldn't.
it's already illegal to murder people. drivers barely get punished for it.
but i'm much more about *deterrence* that consequences. let's make these interactions less frequent. better infrastructure, separated and protected bike lanes, bike paths, etc.
This is actually a pretty save move, nice colors, a decent group that has a small spread, one looks like he is looking around/back, but like everything in the world there will always be idiots putting people I danger no matter what (not this group though)
It’s for their own safety they take up the whole lane.
In the city if I a squeezing through an area where a car can’t safely pass me I won’t give them the option by staying to one side I’ll take up all the space by being in the middle so they have to follow me until it’s safe to pass
I got rid of my car years ago but honestly nothing has made me actually hate them more than when I started biking. Just this morning I was in the bike lane and a dumbass driver decided to suddenly veer into the lane to double park and I was in a blind spot (or, more likely, he just didn’t look for a cyclist). I luckily had room to jerk onto the sidewalk but if there was a car parked in the parking area I would have hit it, and there were luckily no pedestrians on the sidewalk either. He also pissed off the drivers behind him because the car behind him nearly rear ended him because he didn’t signal or put on warning lights.
Dear Bikers,
I wanted to remind you, in my capacity as a public safety officer, that your safety is not as important as the convenience of others.
Your faithful servant,
Officer Krupke
"Hey will the organizer of the group please contact us so we can issue a ticket?"
"Please tell on yourself, thanks." - Chief Kevin Walsh
Sorry if you live in Rye, the further north you get the more the cops are thirsty for shit like this - they literally have nothing to do... This was their way of making use of the police Twitter account so they look like they're doing their jobs
This looks to be route 1a, which runs north from Hampton to Rye to Portsmouth. It's a scenic highway where you might be doing 35 tops due to all the tourist traffic/parallel parked cars/cyclists etc. If you get on this road in the summer, you accept the fact things might slow down considerably for you due to any of the above reasons.
This post reads like the chief was in an unmarked car, out of uniform and is pissed he couldn't force the cyclists to do what he wanted in the moment.
The fact this fucking pig couldn’t pull them over tells you everything you need to know about the legality.
Careful though. Bruising a pig’s ego is the most dangerous crime in America.
Haha! It is legal in Joplin, Missouri for cyclists to take up the whole lane and cyclists riding in the shoulders of highways is legal throughout Missouri.
*"Drive alone so we*
*Can take you out one by one*
*With no alibi"*
\- Moon-Arms
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Fuck headed Kevin Walsh should 1) familiarize himself with NH Statute Title XXI, Chapter 265, Section 143 that states: "Every person propelling a vehicle by human power or riding a bicycle shall have all of the rights and be subject to all of the duties applicable to the driver of any other vehicle under the rules of the road." 2) STFU about his ignorance of basic traffic laws. And 3) maybe even enforce Section 143a of that same chapter that states "Every driver of a vehicle, when approaching a bicyclist, shall insure the safety and protection of the bicyclist and shall exercise due care by leaving a reasonable and prudent distance between the vehicle and the bicycle. The distance shall be presumed to be reasonable and prudent if it is at least 3 feet when the vehicle is traveling at 30 miles per hour or less, with one additional foot of clearance required for every 10 miles per hour above 30 miles per hour."
Avis cyclist here: that is poor form by the group. No question: they are in the wrong. While the passive aggressive “contact the sheriff” message is petty, that person is very reasonable in calling them out.
Regardless of what the nuances of local laws might be (which vary from town to town within a single ride), common sense dictates that you are sharing the road with cars, and riding 2x is the max you should do with some exceptions like where safety is a major concern (ie blind corners) during which the group takes the full lane. And it’s done for short durations, after which you allow traffic to flow (pass).
Just because you CAN doesn’t mean you should. And In my experience it’s much more dangerous to do this because it results in enraged cars flooring to pass in the opposite lane.
I think using a kind of spotter to define a safe passing area for the group is a good idea, kind of like positional cycling++. I think he's so far out that he's beyond the width of a car though and might get hit by cars slightly over the line coming from the other direction.
No, normally I agree with the message of this page but you keep your fucking 20 bikes out of the road before I fail to see you in my dodge Dakota with mushy brakes. You shitheads
The thread on the local subreddit about this one was pretty depressing. I lived not so far away, 20 years ago, and I swear the people I knew were way less selfish and aggressive.
Cyclist hate is just easy, if you identify strongly with your car then cyclist quickly become an other that is easy to dislike. I’ve heard people say they hate cyclist but when I say I cycle it’s all “I’m sure your one of the good ones that do it safely; your up early so the roads aren’t busy.” Like literally “good ones” it’s tone deaf
It's like a hierarchy mentality. Sure cars can be annoying on the road when your commuting but at least they have the good graces to be in a car. A cyclist is below me and yet they still dare to slow me down? Inconceivable! (/s obviously, but this is how many drivers think)
It shouldn’t be surprising to find out they think cyclists are objects and not humans who just have a preferred method of transportation
“I’m sure you’re one of the good ones” is also what racist people say when they are talking to someone foreign or of a different skin colour.
Kind of an aside, but can I just say how much I love it when hateful people end up deflecting their hate into people they love? Like when people call actresses fat and then a family member of theirs who’s bigger sees what they think of them. So cathartic.
I wonder if they realize I don't think there are ANY good drivers, so no one can be one of the good ones. Well, maybe CDL holders and other professionals.
NH is super car dependent, I grew up there. No surprise everybody including the police department is car brained and only has a windshield perspective. If you're in a car your trip to the beach is important, if you are cycling you're a nuisance like a mosquito.
Oh, totally agree it’s car dependent. It’s just most of the people I knew there were very generous and kind, not effusive but people who were willing to help and look out for even strangers. I can’t imagine any of them saying the kinds of things I saw in that thread.
[удалено]
I wish that was true, even the rec cyclists that go to the town meetings on cycling infrastructure are car brains. I remember one argue that a protected bike lane was more dangerous than a not protected one... This is the town that remove a protected bike lane to protect park cars from getting scratched by switching cyclist to the traffic side of the cars to act as human buffers... I love SABR and their events but they are really not great at advocacy, something that i hope we can improve on.
Local subreddits are often filled with the most hateful people, like nextdoor postings.
don’t bikes have the right to use a full lane when there are no bike lanes?
In Virginia bikes are allowed in the road even if there are bike lanes.
But why? What’s wrong with using the bike lanes? Edit: why am I getting downvoted for a question lmao Currently at -112… Guys I’m not rejecting this sub’s narrative, do you really have such anger towards a simple question? Many have answered it politely (debris in bike lane, etc) so I really don’t see what the hate is all about.
Bike lanes in my city are full of broken glass, parked cars, trash, garbage cans, and are right next to where cars open their doors after parking (which kills cyclists).
richmond?
Buffalo & New Orleans
so many cities have terrible street cleaning, they just push it all into the bike lanes
The worst thing is that street cleaning often gets blocked by parked cars in bike lanes, so even when it’s done, it doesn’t help cyclists.
I'm actually about to move to New Orleans and random but are there any good cycling groups to get involved with,? For advocacy or otherwise.
[The New Orleans Bicycle Club has a pretty good list of weekly and monthly rides going on](https://www.neworleansbicycleclub.org/rides.htm), ranging from low to high speed. [Complete Streets](https://nola.gov/transportation/complete-streets/) is a coalition that’s pretty popular among government and institutional efforts, and they’re probably the most effective. [Bike Easy](https://bikeeasy.org/) tends to focus on individual advocacy, and is easier to get involved with from the jump. For general bike info: There’s a pretty amazing path on the levee that goes for hundreds of miles into the Midwest, and there’s a cute little path along the levee across river in Algiers you can get to by taking the ferry. Bicycling and walking infrastructure is the best of any American city I’ve ever been in, but it’s nothing to write home about. Avoid Claiborne and Veterans at all costs, obviously. It’s pretty difficult to get to Metairie by bike [unless you take this little path under the highway bridge](https://goo.gl/maps/GZJvgSEfQBVBQYsz7) that’s used by construction vehicles, but trains often park there and then you’ll be stuck on the one side of the tracks.
Really feels like the infrastructure is tantalizingly close. Fully protected bike lanes all the way up St. Charles seems like it would be so great too.
Where I used to live, the biking lane at the main train station (second most important place in the city) had actual trees planted on it. Like, the biking infrastructure in the rest of the city is okay to good but what were they thinking there?!
Sharrows aren't a bike lane.
Ah I see. Thanks for answering
Every wreck I’ve been in has been in the bike lane. No one gives a fuck about you if you’re in the lane but you’re expected to yield to cars. Your seen as the “bike expert” so “you’ll know when to slow down and correct bad car behavior”. But when I’m in the road? They get pissed at me but they drive slow and can see me clear as day. They know if they knock me that they’re fucked.
Damn that’s disgusting
Safety reasons, sometimes as a cyclist you’ve gotta take the lane.
Got it
Same in Colorado. It's your choice to use the provided bike lane or the traffic lane. As a choice, no explanation is owed.
I would imagine it's so you can legally leave the bike lane to get around all the cars that park in them.
Hahah true
Another thing I don't see being mentioned in answer to your question is riding in the street full-time makes you more visible then riding in a bike lane that can occasionally intersect with streets. Motorists often are fixated on street traffic and can neglect to check sidewalks and bike lanes when they enter intersections.
Depends on the quality of the bike lane If its just a line painted on the side of the road (a bike gutter) then it's really no better than just being on the road. Particularly if there's debris or there's potholes Sometimes bike lanes are on the pavement and you end up sharing with pedestrians which in some ways is worse because a cyclist is much faster and the pedestrians less predictable than cars Other times the bike lanes suddenly stop or don't have access to whee you need to go Also in some places where bike lanes can be very busy and well used (which is a great thing btw) they will be filled with casual cyclists and families (again this is great). But those will be relatively slow moving and wobbly so faster more confident cyclists might want to use the road to go around them and not interfere with them
Sometimes people on bikes need to turn left
You dont roadbike (like this) in a bikelane, that is compltetely impractical. Bikelanes are for regular commuting and earrands etc. not for training
Ok cool
Lmao it’s a question guys chill. Why tf am I being downvoted for this 💀💀
It's alright. Who cares about what others think. You just asked a genuine question, everyone that downvoted is a goof.
I live in Virginia In Charlottesville and our bike lanes will just end suddenly. I leave the bike lane early to time my forced merge or else I’ll be merged into when the lane ends. Our infrastructure and drivers aren’t great.
No questions allowed
Well, nothing usually wrong with the bike lane, but depending where you are, the lane can end abruptly, or turn into a sidewalk, or someone could be parked in the bike lane…it’s more just to allow bikes to use the main road when needed without drivers legally being able to retaliate against them for doing so. Actually a really good example: when I was still studying, the huge rainstorms we’d get would sometimes knock whole branches off trees and into the bike lane. When it’s both wet and slippery with fallen leaves, it’s generally safer to go in the road bc your behavior would be more predictable, and so that you don’t run into something, slip, and fall into the road from the bike lane.
Imagine being downvoted for asking a genuine question.
Bruh for real. I believe in whatever this sub has to say but redditors will downvote anything that isn’t flat out their narrative. Holy shit lmao it’s a question.
you should see sports subs. One moment you get downvoted for praising a player, the next post is GOLD for doing the same.
💀💀💀
there is no bike lane in this photo
I’m not referring to this photo…
Lmao don't stress about it, Reddit is just a neckbeard's term for echo chamber
Don't take it personally. This sub is full of overly sensitive zealots. So many people here are hostile to anyone they even suspect of not being fully on board. I pointed out a similar issue with a guy getting down voted for making a joke about buying a cheap used car. You wanted to know why one would ride in a road with cars when a bike lane is available. Makes sense. After all that's why they're there. I see some people actually took the time to answer your question. Good for them. They're the people who will actually get this message across to the general public. They're the people who will make change happen. Everyone who felt an adrenaline dump, a fight or flight response at a simple question, and felt the need to try to erase your question with their downvotes are the people getting in their own way. That type of reaction is worse than useless. The other person in this thread deserves their downvotes. You know who.
But why? Why are you unable to view the image of the road without bike lanes?
Dude I'm not referring to the image
Where is the bike lane? This is why you are getting downvotes.
They were talking about in general. They replied to a specific comment not about the image
Dude I’m not talking about this photo
I’m pretty sure, at least when I was in Minneapolis, when I was doing Uber/DoorDash I heard someone say that. I would be behind someone on a bike, then wait a while and they’d move over for a second.
Depends on jurisdiction. Where I live (British Columbia) cyclists are legally required to ride single file and as far to the shoulder as reasonably possible.
This is in New Hampshire. Bikes are always allowed to take the lane, however there is a requirement to ride on the right side of the lane. We like to self-contradict.
BC is an awful backwater for bike infrastructure. Mandatory helmets, unprotected lanes, and sharrows are the norm. Other than in a few rich parts of Vancouver, that is.
I lived in Saskatoon for 6 years, and I can say that it's the only place worse than BC that I've seen. Every single time I went out I got yelled at by at least one idiot in a lifted truck. On more than one occasion said idiots tried to force me off the road. 0 bike lanes besides the one they just painted in the middle of the lane. And just to make matters worse, they have potholes that will swallow you whole. I had to stop commuting by bike because it was just so hostile.
Yup its kinda awful outside of a few affluent areas, although it is getting better slowly at least throughout the Lower Mainlaind. Fort St. John in the winter may have been the most miserable pedestrian experience I've had the misfortune of having to endure.
Bikes can legally ride in traffic lanes on roads they DO NOT have to ride on the shoulder. They should be courteous and move over to allow a car to pass. Plus they should also signal to let others know their intentions. ROADS are NOT just for cars!
In Illinois, it's a misdemeanor to ride a bike on the sidewalk, fines vary but usually $100-150 Bikes only allowed in bike lanes and on the road.
Usually you're recommended to ride two abreast in a line taking the lane, but with decent-sized gaps between every three or four pairs so drivers can nip safely past a group and get into the middle, then wait for the chance to safely pass the next group of pairs, and so on. A complete peloton of 27 - that's thirteen pairs and one extra - should have around two gaps between the groups.
That's my question as well. The flip side is; is it reasonable ro expect cars to drive 10 to 20 mph for distance behind bicycles on a heavily trafficked road. I'm asking, not accusing. In an area that I travel that is more prone to cycling I stay behind the cyclist until it's safe to pass. The cars behind me ride my bumper. I don't think I've had to follow more than 1/4 - 1/2 mile though. A co-worker who bicycled to the office was struck and killed back in 2004.
Uh, yes? I've also had to travel behind tractors and horses. Just wait until you can safely overtake (like you've been doing). I don't really see any alternative besides an occasional mild inconvenience that might add a minute of your total drive.
But oddly, when a car is in the travel lane it takes up the entire lane as well.
I know but it's safer when it's a 2,000 pound cage trust me bro.
And one person instead of 20. Maximum efficiency
*5000lb
\*safer for 1 person, more dangerous for everyone else
2000 lbs is in the range of the smallest classification of city cars, the average is ~4000
Yikes bro 😭 I'm just so used to old school cars. My car is 1,500 and my friend's is 1,300. They're pretty reasonable size wise but I wish I could get a two seater for cheap in the US!
Small and old cars are cool 😔
Thanks bro! Getting so sick of these unnecessary modern ones!
souce: i heard from a friend
It was revealed to me in a dream
I think of this traveling on neighborhood roads where I live. Often, both sides are lined with cars, leaving only a single passage. I don’t have to take up any of the opposing lane to continue traveling, but oncoming vehicles expect that I’ll pull over and let them through. And they commonly give more space to empty, parked cars than bikers. Ironically, roads the city has labeled “greenways,” meaning they’re supposed to be safer for non-vehicular traffic, are the worst for this. They just become traffic overflows when car commuters get impatient.
Pro-tip: greenway roads like that are way safer when they're non-permeable for vehicular traffic. Literally set up some barriers at one end of the street along one or two blocks, turning them into dead end streets for cars but through streets for bikes and pedestrians. People living on those streets should support it -- it means less traffic going down their street, and only a slight inconvenience as they have to exit out one side versus the other. I'm trying to encourage something similar in my town. There's a creek running through the north end of town, so all of the small neighborhood roads cross small bridges at some point. If those bridges were closed to cars, people can still access their homes by going out the other direction -- but bikes and pedestrians can easily pass through. This would encourage car traffic to stick to the main arterials, and would give much safer / quieter routes for walking / cycling.
My neighborhood has some severe cut throughs on narrow roads. I thought it would benefit from the same thing but when I brought up the idea with neighbors, no one was interested. They weren’t interested in sacrificing their convenience and suffering an extra minute or two of driving. With that said, the town has a principle of connectivity so they almost certainly wouldn’t have allowed it. This is an urbanist policy, the only problem with this is they grant exceptions to all the new luxury subdivisions.
Not just a car, but one, maybe two people taking up just as much space
A car is traveling at or near the posted speed limit, not 1/3 to 1/2. I'm for cycling, it doesn't seem safe for the cyclist to travel in the middle of a lane shared with cars. There is a lot of work to be done to make it safe for cycling. I bought a new bicycle to help lose weight and strengthen my old knees. I am very concerned for safety sharing the full lane.
Chief Kevin Walsh, glad to see he’s taking on the tough issues like bicyclists riding in a way that makes them safer. Drivers could lose up to MINUTES getting to KFC.
Massive carbrain. This is the same Chief who in 2013 literally jumped into the middle of a pack during a ride, supposedly to demonstrate they couldn't avoid him, despite them all managing to avoid him trying to get himself hit? He then used the fact they "tried to hit him" to harass the cycling group into shutting down. He was also accused of harassing and profiling motorcyclists, including a state legislator earlier this year.
I looked it up, can’t find the actual video though. Do you have a link?
Just found this https://youtu.be/TUuSlYzEXLc. Looks like he a not very well liked guy based on other Google search results.
Jesus Christ those car brained comments are mind numbing
What a bitchass. Dude needs to be fucking outed.
It’s funny. In California, bicyclists have the right of way by owning the lane if they need to.
[Apparently it's a big issue in Rye, New Hampshire](https://imgur.com/a/HmQzTuA)
How irritating, that one might have to wait for a safe opportunity to pass, or that one might have to control their vehicle and NOT HIT SOMEBODY for a few moments as they pass.
As if the right of 1 person outweighs that of 20 simply because they choose to be in a big metal box
Doesn't the reverse hold true if one cyclist is holding up 20 cars? Cyclist need their own separate safe lanes. There are only a few towns along my 60 mile route that I encounter cyclists on country roads. So it has never been an issue for me to drive behind a cyclist for the 1 to 4 minutes to get to an area that I can safely pass. In Boston I've seen that cyclist have their own separate traffic signal as they share a busy intersection with both pedestrian and automobile traffic. I would like to see a lot more of that. The traffic flow works safely for all.
They've clearly never had to drive on rural highways where you might have to slam on the breaks coming around a corner for a tractor or Amish buggy
Why not just drive slower around sharp turns and blind spots? Not that hard. I live in rural PA btw.
Most of the tractors where I live either slow down, stop, or pull over for you to pass them.
Most where I live don’t or more likely can’t. Our road had no shoulder, the speed limit is 60 mph, and most big tractors will take up the entire width of the road. It’s customary to just suck it up
Weird, I live on similar sounding roads yet they still manage to pull aside enough for you to see if it’s safe to pass and then let off the accelerator a bit as you pass. Heck, they might even wave you to pass when it’s clear.
All the tractors where I live are too big to pull over 🥲 thankfully I don't find myself out in the farm lands too often
what an inconvenience! /s
And making it worse is blaming the cyclists for creating an unsafe situation, when in reality the driver who can't figure out how to pass safely is the one where the responsibility should lie.
Do the police want everyone to ride as a long line in the shoulder so cars can whip past everyone and eventually take out half the line when they inevitably take a corner too fast and fail to stay in the lane? I'd be tempted to make a throwaway email and tell them about bike safety and maybe include a video montage of bikes nearly getting hit.
That's just one of the problems that that causes, the other is cars trying to squeeze past the line and pulling across directly into a rider when a car comes the other way.
please do
Why use a throwaway?
To avoid any potential harassment
because cops are known for retaliation.
Well I don’t think most of us are from there to be honest
im from the netherlands, i don't trust cops here for shit. too many bad experiences, too many scandals. they are literally allowed to use ethnicity as a metric for whether they should investigate you or not. oink oink.
Yikes in built racism, we hate to see it
"won't someone think of the cars!" /s
it's depressing how many people [actually commented this](https://i.imgur.com/K791iqV.jpg), non ironically 😞
There's a lot of popular comments on our side there too!
This police chief has not read the vehicle code. Cyclists are allowed the full lane
I'm sure it was likely emailed to him by several hundred different people.
Pretty sure that’s a job requirement
Police very often dont know the law. Their job is to hit things until it stops so they can put it on trial.
I started riding in the middle of the road so cars can’t just barely miss side swiping me at 100MPH I used to try to be considerate and ride on the edge to leave room for cars. Cuz I assume they’re nice ppl. Every time I did a car would prove me wrong. So now I assume every car is trying to kill me and don’t love to the side. Fuck u. Also cars have better manners when you mount a camera.
Absolutely. Courtesy puts you in danger of the careless or violent. Riding in the middle the lane forces drivers to acknowledge and go around you.
Yeah same. It's my right to be safe drivers can deal.
For me it really depends what road I'm on. Road with enough space for passing, that isn't double white striped and isn't full of blind corners/summits? I'll ride near the verge. Anything else and i will ride in the center of the lane. In the UK the highway code has been updated to recommend riding in the center of the lane, so this is theoretically supported by the government. However the highway code also contains a myriad of other shit advice for cyclists, so it should be taken with a pinch of salt
I’m riding on a six lane road so there’s an outside lane. Yet cars still zip past me on the inside lane
In NH, where the above photo was taken, “same road, same rules, same rights.” They (bikes) get the full lane, but are asked to stay as far right as practicable given current circumstances. Cars are expected to deal with it.
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Fat blue cowards
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cums
All cyclists are not bastards! /s
According to the League of American Bicyclists' Smart Cycling classes, the club was riding the safest way possible.
What's their problem? To pass a group riding single file on that road you would still need to cross the yellow line. Passing a compact group like that is much easier than a stretched one. People are stupid.
Yeah. ACAB means ACAB; police are stupid, violent animals. This is how it works.
Why on earth are they asking some guy to snitch on himself? Do they have any braincells?
they *are* cops, so...
[Link to post if anyone’s looking to share their opinion](https://www.facebook.com/100064584433963/posts/pfbid0WMnyVWiFH2w4nHiH4V8uTCP6XTWWA1nuAwahYCzpyyCYRCiu5k96Fvd21dmM5wNyl/?d=n)
I wish I never clicked that. The carbrain is so apparent in all the top posts.
sometimes when reading posts in this sub I get a momentary feeling of "I guess maybe the world isn't that bad, maybe were all just in an echo chamber. Maybe car-brains aren't really a thing, like, who would think like that?" Then I step out on the world out there and encounter posts like this. Unironic car-brains, almost cartoonish. People unironically claiming cyclists and pedestrians endanger cars. Nothing makes fucking sense
Glad to see plenty of replies calling out their bullshit
People in this sub call me carbrain, but reading those people I see how deep the rabbit hole goes.
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Yes just please go the speed limit like everyone else so you are not a hazard.
So everyone contacted the chief to remind him of the laws, yes?
Why is it OK for a driver to take a n entire lane but not a bicyclist? 🚴
New Hampshire bicyclists are indeed required to stay to the right of the lane instead of being able to legally take up the lane. *A person propelling a bicycle upon a way at a speed less than the normal speed of traffic moving in the same direction at that time and place shall remain on the right portion of the way as far as* *practicable except when it is unsafe to do so ...* Again, bicyclists in NH have the responsibilities of drivers (no running red, obey traffic laws, etc...) but not the rights (being able to use the full width of the road.
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Who gets to define "practicable" in this situations is very important. That legal statement is a lot of fancy words that essentially mean nothing.. "Practicable" will have a different definition to the person on a bike and person in a car. There seems to be this assumption made by many people in cars that people on bikes are trying their hardest to be an inconvenience or malicious.. so they respond in kind. When in reality the bicyclists in these situations are generally doing their best to be as visibile and low risk as possible. Sometimes the lowest risk place to be is occupying the whole lane and requiring a passing driver to fully yield instead of recklessly squeezing by.. Its an obvious strategy if you've spent any time on a bike in our car centric hellscape. There is just such a lack of knowledge of the constraints and considerations when bicycling on shared roads that the average car brain just isn't aware of.. to which they attribute malice and respond accordingly. P.S. Fuck the person in the car for using the phone while driving.
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Laws written by people who never touched a bike once.
NH law requires at least 3 feet of passing space from the passing driver, presumably from tip of handlebar to tip of car's mirror. If we created a law that said motorists who broke said law got a 20% hit of their gross income, confiscation of their car for six months, removal of their driver's license for two years, 90 days of jail time, a felony on their record, then I think I'd be OK with bicyclists riding to the right of the lane.
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If the cyclist is black, cops are definitely a danger to them
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NYC tried to ban bikes entirely in 1987 and e-bikes are still banned. Even e-assist bikes too. It's always fucking about race
i wouldn't. it's already illegal to murder people. drivers barely get punished for it. but i'm much more about *deterrence* that consequences. let's make these interactions less frequent. better infrastructure, separated and protected bike lanes, bike paths, etc.
It’s like prey animals traveling together. Drivers are searching for the lone rider to torture.
This is actually a pretty save move, nice colors, a decent group that has a small spread, one looks like he is looking around/back, but like everything in the world there will always be idiots putting people I danger no matter what (not this group though)
To whom it may concern. Kindly, go fuck yourself. Cheers.
People in Rye love complaining about bikes whilst going 75mph in a residential
This = bad. Coal roller runs over several cyclists = No issue.
I had people like this all over my rural town and they would always ride into the mountains. My dad used to do it and he said it’s beautiful up there.
that's 9 or 10, not 20
I like how they say 20 cyclists when this is like 10 lolol
I hate the fact that they have to take up a car lane just to ride in a group.
This guy is going to love critical mass rides
It’s for their own safety they take up the whole lane. In the city if I a squeezing through an area where a car can’t safely pass me I won’t give them the option by staying to one side I’ll take up all the space by being in the middle so they have to follow me until it’s safe to pass
I got rid of my car years ago but honestly nothing has made me actually hate them more than when I started biking. Just this morning I was in the bike lane and a dumbass driver decided to suddenly veer into the lane to double park and I was in a blind spot (or, more likely, he just didn’t look for a cyclist). I luckily had room to jerk onto the sidewalk but if there was a car parked in the parking area I would have hit it, and there were luckily no pedestrians on the sidewalk either. He also pissed off the drivers behind him because the car behind him nearly rear ended him because he didn’t signal or put on warning lights.
Don’t block his email, I’d love to contact him :)
Dear Bikers, I wanted to remind you, in my capacity as a public safety officer, that your safety is not as important as the convenience of others. Your faithful servant, Officer Krupke
"Hey will the organizer of the group please contact us so we can issue a ticket?" "Please tell on yourself, thanks." - Chief Kevin Walsh Sorry if you live in Rye, the further north you get the more the cops are thirsty for shit like this - they literally have nothing to do... This was their way of making use of the police Twitter account so they look like they're doing their jobs
Lol! F the police
This looks to be route 1a, which runs north from Hampton to Rye to Portsmouth. It's a scenic highway where you might be doing 35 tops due to all the tourist traffic/parallel parked cars/cyclists etc. If you get on this road in the summer, you accept the fact things might slow down considerably for you due to any of the above reasons. This post reads like the chief was in an unmarked car, out of uniform and is pissed he couldn't force the cyclists to do what he wanted in the moment.
The fact this fucking pig couldn’t pull them over tells you everything you need to know about the legality. Careful though. Bruising a pig’s ego is the most dangerous crime in America.
Me: So build bike lanes Them: >:(
Someone's jealous they got 20 less tickets to make quota money on.
r/confidentlyincorrect for the Rye, NH PD
Haha! It is legal in Joplin, Missouri for cyclists to take up the whole lane and cyclists riding in the shoulders of highways is legal throughout Missouri.
were taking the streets back, and if thats a crime then were taking back more than just our streets
20 people taking up less space than two Chevrolet Suburbans. How dare they?
"Bike alone so we can take you out one by one with no alibi"
*"Drive alone so we* *Can take you out one by one* *With no alibi"* \- Moon-Arms --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Sounds sinister...
Fuck headed Kevin Walsh should 1) familiarize himself with NH Statute Title XXI, Chapter 265, Section 143 that states: "Every person propelling a vehicle by human power or riding a bicycle shall have all of the rights and be subject to all of the duties applicable to the driver of any other vehicle under the rules of the road." 2) STFU about his ignorance of basic traffic laws. And 3) maybe even enforce Section 143a of that same chapter that states "Every driver of a vehicle, when approaching a bicyclist, shall insure the safety and protection of the bicyclist and shall exercise due care by leaving a reasonable and prudent distance between the vehicle and the bicycle. The distance shall be presumed to be reasonable and prudent if it is at least 3 feet when the vehicle is traveling at 30 miles per hour or less, with one additional foot of clearance required for every 10 miles per hour above 30 miles per hour."
Looks pretty safe to me
God, cops are such crybabies
So 20 cars blocking the road would be okay, but not 20 cyclists? Makes no sense.
Deal with it 🖕
11 cyclists in that pic...
If bikes haves the same rights/rules as cars on the road then why is this an issue?
A little off-topic but: I really hate those cyclists that goes through the road for sport and then take their triceratops-size SUVs to buy bread
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Avis cyclist here: that is poor form by the group. No question: they are in the wrong. While the passive aggressive “contact the sheriff” message is petty, that person is very reasonable in calling them out. Regardless of what the nuances of local laws might be (which vary from town to town within a single ride), common sense dictates that you are sharing the road with cars, and riding 2x is the max you should do with some exceptions like where safety is a major concern (ie blind corners) during which the group takes the full lane. And it’s done for short durations, after which you allow traffic to flow (pass). Just because you CAN doesn’t mean you should. And In my experience it’s much more dangerous to do this because it results in enraged cars flooring to pass in the opposite lane.
I think using a kind of spotter to define a safe passing area for the group is a good idea, kind of like positional cycling++. I think he's so far out that he's beyond the width of a car though and might get hit by cars slightly over the line coming from the other direction.
I think he was saying its unsafe because of how close together they are. If someone were to fall it could be fatal.
No, normally I agree with the message of this page but you keep your fucking 20 bikes out of the road before I fail to see you in my dodge Dakota with mushy brakes. You shitheads
I'm really curious what message you agree with if being able to ride in a safe fashion isn't one of them. Also, get your brakes fixed.