Bike Pack In Saginaw & Fort Worth
#1
Posted 21 August 2012 - 07:48 AM
Pete Charlton
The Fort Worth Gazette blog
The Lost Antique Maps of Fort Worth on CDROM
Website: Antique Maps of Texas
Large format reproductions of original antique and vintage Texas & southwestern maps
#2
Posted 21 August 2012 - 08:06 AM
As a cyclist myself, the mindset to me is what will make for the safest situation. If it is not wide enough for a car and bicycle to be in the lane together, it is permissible under law for a cyclist to take the lane. One group behavior that drives me crazy (especially when I'm part of the group) is when cyclists take the lane as a gaggle instead of an orderly group, and by "taking the lane", they interpret it to mean they can ride right up to the lane marking. Cars don't do that; when they do come up to the lane marking it can be presumed they are making a lane change, and any traffic in the next lane over is rightly nervous. Cyclists in a group seem to think that as long as their wheels are within the lane marking, they are of no concern to traffic in the next lane. There are a few problems with this: First, just because their wheels are in the lane doesn't mean their bike/handlebars/etc. aren't hanging over into the next lane. Second, with the unpredictability of a group, if someone is riding just inside the lane and someone drifts over to them, they either have to collide with the drifting cyclist or drift over the lane into the adjoining lane. This is the problem with a lot of groups who ride together.
Which gets me to thinking.... I need to communicate this with some of the groups I ride with.
#3
Posted 21 August 2012 - 11:26 AM
... and by "taking the lane", they interpret it to mean they can ride right up to the lane marking.
See, those are the militant cyclists I referred to a while ago. ;-)
#4
Posted 21 August 2012 - 09:29 PM
#5
Posted 22 August 2012 - 09:03 AM
... and by "taking the lane", they interpret it to mean they can ride right up to the lane marking.
See, those are the militant cyclists I referred to a while ago. ;-)
I would characterize it as inattentive more than militant. That's one concern I have about some groups is that some riders seem to have the impression that if they are in a group like that, they are safe. The truth is that crowding the adjacent lane isn't safe, nor is having so many bikes abreast in a lane that there is no "safety factor" if someone has to swerve around some debris.
#6
Posted 22 August 2012 - 09:24 AM
I would characterize it as inattentive more than militant. That's one concern I have about some groups is that some riders seem to have the impression that if they are in a group like that, they are safe. The truth is that crowding the adjacent lane isn't safe, nor is having so many bikes abreast in a lane that there is no "safety factor" if someone has to swerve around some debris.
Well you have to admit it's harder to pull hit & run on a group of cyclists than one guy at a time. The guy that was hit on Camp Bowie would at least have had witnesses if he'd been in a pack. I think driver's psychology changes when approaching a group vs approaching a single cyclist, too. All of which contributes to safety in numbers.
#7
Posted 22 August 2012 - 11:28 AM
#8
Posted 29 August 2012 - 01:12 PM
#9
Posted 05 October 2012 - 10:03 AM
http://video.foxnews...ssing-cyclists/
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