I had a close pass on my commute today so wanted some opinions.
As you can see, this stretch of road is pretty poorly maintained, and often there are cars parked in the bike lane or the bike lane disappears. When this happens, I look over to see if there's a car, and if there is, I let one pass then join the lane. This person obviously did not agree with my strategy. They decided to squeeze in the lane and honk, before speeding off and (I think) turning into Taco Bell.
What do you do in this situation? Is how I join the lane not safe?
by bike_commute_miyata
4 Comments
If it were me, I probably would have took the lane before the silver car cause it’s far enough behind me that they would have time to react. The black car wasn’t expecting you to merge, or didn’t see you because he was tailing the silver car, and had no time to react. The honk was more from a surprise not anger. The driver is probably just as scared about hitting you as you are about being hit, but wasn’t able to slow down.
So my personal opinion is that your behavior is unsafe. I would rather have inconvenienced the silver car rather than getting hit by the black one. Merge only when the car behind you can react.
Also where tf is this. How come the infrastructure is so bad.
You’re supposed to be on the bike lane. /s
I’d have taken the lane as soon as I noticed the bike gutter was full of cars / ending ahead and was safe to do so, probably long before this video begins due to hypervigilant riding on/near roads like that.
Also, I would be using an alternate route because that place barely looks safe for the people in cars much less cyclists
I would use Google Maps, select bicycle for mode of travel, then figure out a different route that is safer for cycling. I added an extra 1.5 miles to my 11.5 mile commute in order to avoid streets like that and stay on streets with bike lanes. I figure time wise it is 4-5 minutes added to the trip each way but it is much safer.