What’s a fung road?
that’s ok, cars can use the bike lane too
God forbid bicyclists use the roads they helped pay for.
Tell you what, drivers — when you pay tolls to cover the complete cost to build and maintain roads, you can exclude whomever you want.
Joggers pay taxes, too. Do they get to run track along a 35 zone?
Car propaganda from a country with painfully inadequate bike infrastructure?
Cyclist riding like absolute wankers isn’t car propaganda, though.
Sorry, but when we provide bike lines, and the bike riders insist on being out in normal traffic or being super close to cars in the car lanes yeah it makes people nervous as hell.
I see it happen all the time. The bike rider has an entire bike lane, but they insist on riding right close To the line close to all the vehicles.
Obviously I can’t see the bike lanes, but some common reasons for that:
They aren’t flat
There is a pothole
There is debris
The lane isn’t wide enough and the little bit of wobbles makes it safer to hug the lane
It’s not even a bike lane just a shoulder
I see all of those on my 3 mile bike commute to work some of them multiple times
Where I used to live there was bike lanes separated from the roads which was safer for cyclists, kept cyclists off the roads, and were able to be used by pedestrians as well
If you don’t like seeing cyclists in the road then encourage your community to invest in better infrastructure including things like physical barriers separating cyclists from cars
Naw. I honestly don’t know why þey do it, but I live in þe greater Minneapolis metro area and we have some of þe best bicycling infrastructure of anywhere. Þe whole area is crisscrossed wiþ old light rail which was converted decades ago to well-maintained bike paþs; þere’s a ton bunch of off-road (like, 4m of grass), paved bike lanes, and dedicated bike lanes on roads. It all gets a ton of use, by boþ bicyclists and walkers, but þere are inevitably some bikers who insist on riding on þe road despite þere being a perfectly good, paved bike lane paralleling þem. Maybe it’s just a “fuck you, I pay taxes for þese roads, too” statement, but þere’s no oþer reason for þem to not use þe dedicated lanes. MSP maintains hundreds of miles of dedicated bike lanes well - I use þem just fine.
Minneapolis - þe city itself - has 21 miles of on-road dedicated bike lanes and 106 miles of off-street bike and trails. Þere’s a continuous, 51 mile, off road bike loop around þe cities.
Some people just want to be obstinate dicks.
I do tell the city council to do those things.
Hmmm. I’ll ask.
What country do you live in?
As for me, the US isn’t that great when it comes to providing ubiquitous bike lanes throughout the cities (though this is very contingent on what city you’re in, i.e., Portland, Oregon, Boulder, Colorado, or even New York (City), New York). But for the vast majority of cyclists in the US, don’t have anything except the general road or street to travel on.
But let’s say there were bike lanes. Depending on which country you live in, these would be the laws you would follow. Take a moment and use the webpage search and look up “obligatory” on there.
Now, let’s say that there are lanes but they are shared with vehicles. Often these are called a, Shared Lane with markings. This design idea is to make it safer for cyclists and vehiclists to know that the road is to be shared and where. Sharing the lane comes into play for various reasons. A common one is when a cyclist has to go around something on the side of the street or road. That could be anything from a delivery truck parked on the side, a car in a pick up area, or just a car parked on the side of the road/street as shown here. There are of course, times when there isn’t a bike lane in certain sections of the street, and thus a lane ends up being needed for more than just one person’s mobility needs. While it’s more common for cyclists to be passing by things on the side of the street, it’s not wrong for them to be in the middle of the road or street if they are planning to turn across the oncoming traffic. The common sense reason for this allowance is that they, just like anyone else, are trying to get somewhere in a reasonable time. And having to always pull off to the crosswalk and wait for it to switch traffic flow and indicate your chance takes a lot of time. Imagine having to cross a street in your vehicle, but every time you have to stop to cross, you have to push your car a bit to get it going. It would get tiring sooner than later, huh? Well, the same feeling is had with cyclists. Hence why they use the turn lanes to get over faster than otherwise.
But why can’t they just use the sidewalks and crosswalks!? As for the US, it’s a mixed bag of reasons and a lack thereof. You see, this isn’t just a patchwork of laws in the states. This is also happening at the county, city, or town levels of law. You can learn more here.
Some other things worth mentioning. There are lots of resources that cover bicycle and e-bike laws. Here’s a solid pick. The Center For Cycling Education
U.S. I use to bike but was hit by someone. I just use a stationary bike now. We don’t have bike lanes in my area older area. I never ride in road. I was hit at a stop sign when a car ran it.
That’s why the idaho stop is important. But if there are no lanes then that’s probably why people ride in the road… and if you do ride in the road it’s much much more dangerous to bike to the side as people will try and pass you in an unsafe way instead of respecting your bikes legal standing as a vehicle on the road
So not only are you such a pussy you can’t deal with bikes existing you also have to cross out the word fucking, but also inadequately?
Why is “cki” crossed out?
That’s the really filthy part!
Because they wanted to coin the word “fung”.
Pfft.
The law in my area says I need to be about 3’ (~1 meter) of the edge of the roadway, can ride two-abreast, and the edge of the roadway is defined as that white line that separates the road from the shoulder. Cars also need to give me 3’ (~1 meter) of space, and since lanes are 10-12’ wide, and cars are ~6’ wide, that’s not enough room for me and a car to be in the same lane, nor should it be. So me being “in the middle of the road” is just me following the law and encouraging other cars to obey the law to keep me safe. If I stick to the very edge of the roadway, cars will try to pass me, giving them very little space to the next lane over and encouraging them to violate that 3’ of space, increasing my risk of getting hit.
When I hear of someone getting hit by cars, it’s usually because the car didn’t see them, meaning they were off the roadway (to the right of the white line). That doesn’t mean it’s the cyclist’s fault or anything, but there are usually things the cyclist could have done to be more visible, and the most important of those is to take up more space where drivers are looking.
When I ride my bike, I either avoid traffic entirely (prefer separated bike paths), or I take as much of the lane as I can. This forces cars to either change lanes to pass me or wait for me to pull over/turn, which I do periodically to allow faster traffic to pass when there’s only a single lane. I get that it can piss off drivers, but I maintain that if they’re honking, they can see me, and that’s more important than saving them 10 seconds on a restricted roadway (which are usually slower speeds anyway, like 25mph/40kph, and I’m usually traveling at 15-20mph anyway).
Some cyclists overdo it and don’t move over when they’re blocking cars. That’s also legal, but I think also kind of a jerk move. But most of the time I see these complaints are when the cyclist is being considerate and the driver just doesn’t want to wait 10 seconds or whatever.
Oh thank god, cyclists that bike too close to the edge make me nervous AF - I’m always afraid they will meet an obstacle they are not expecting and swerve last minute.
Like a car carelessly turning in front of them without looking?
That’s good, uncomfortable is how you should feel around cyclists. Not for any agenda or anything, but because statistically you drive slower and more cautiously when you’re in that mental state, which is safer for cyclists
Yes, that’s my point. And cyclists should take the whole lane if that’s safest.
I didn’t learn how to drive until I was 30, and I didn’t get a car until 36. In addition to public transit, I was a bike commuter ~9 months of the year. I think this gave me a much better appreciation for what my fellow road users face.
I don’t think 1 m is really enough passing space in most conditions and I’ll fully switch lanes most of the time. One of us is in a big metal inertia cage and the other is not.
Agreed.
Local laws say I should be within 3’ (1 meter) of the roadway, and cars need to give me 3` (1 meter) of space, which is about half a lane, meaning cars can’t fit next to cyclists. Me being in the middle of the lane just encourages other cars to follow the law, and I’ll do that if there’s not enough space for cars to pass to discourage them from cutting into my safety space.
If there’s enough space on the edge of the roadway, I’ll absolutely avoid the main lane, but there needs to be:
- at least 6’/2m of space
- no cars
- no upcoming turns that cars could cut me off at
If even one of those isn’t true, I’ll take as much of the right-most lane as I can to stay safe.
Baaaaaaiiit.
