Bicycles on the road

I agree, but I would say "change course or speed" instead of "apply his brakes." You can't always do it, but you should try.

That is the way I drive or ride always when possible! I guess that is why I find asshole drivers/riders so annoying!

Jim

Yeah, same idea. I doubt there would be much if any rudeness shown to wheelmen if they took such a concept and made it their own. Well, I shouldn't say 'they' because I do.

With regular bikes, we have another issue - blowing 140 dB or shining ultra bright lights at folks won't gain you any more friends than the wheelman doing 8 mph and taking a major artery's lane.

Jim - your logic and application of said logic is simply amazing.

Where I ride, that ain't gonna happen. Take a look at the little squiggly lines around Warrenton, VA. Them's the roads I'm on most of the time. No such thing as a shoulder. No such thing as non-obstructed sight lines. Not many drivers that think 30-60sec ahead to see the crest of a hill coming (or a blind corner)

Since I can't ride like a moto, I have to do it the other way. I have to make sure that I'm seen, and that if it isn't safe, people have to actually think before they pass me. Means lots of hand singals (stop, pass, wave thanks, etc)

Jim's been out here. These are roads that were built when horses and carts where the main form of transportation from the farm to town. IOW small roads that generally lead from somewhere small to somewhere else small.

M

I was down in San Diego last week and got to ride the bike around. Not too many car or traffic problems. It was a quite enjoyable week actually. My wife suggested I ride up to the top of Mt. Solidad. I thought that was a good idea as I hadn't ridden up there in years. I rode about 35 miles before I got to the bottom of Via Capri and started up. I forgot just how fricken steep that road is! I think it averages something like 15-16%. That hurt...

If you stay on top of the mesas, its pretty flat in Sandy Eggo. Drop down one, and its a bear to get back up!

M

4:45 on the road and no idiots

M

My wife and I did several miles on the Mt Vernan MUP today. Not one oh shit or issue. The walkers and riders were all doing it right.

We usually walk, and have the silent stalker fly past us unannounced, scares the hell out of us.

Today we rode, no issues at all. Of course we gave a signal when approaching a walker, and we kept the speed reasonable, within the 15mph limit.

Jim

Was that one of those train rails to trails type paths or a dedicated MUP?

Dedicated MUP. It is about 25 miles long, and follows the Potomac River, and connects to the W&O Canal 50 miles to Harper's Ferry and beyond. It is a very busy MUP.

http://bikewashington.org/trails/vernon/index.php

Jim

When I was in Tennessee earlier this month I rode on one of those train MUPs. It was the first time for me on any MUP. It was ok if you're just putting around. There are too many people doing all sorts of things to do anything other than just putting around. Doesn't seem like a good place to do any real training/riding.

That has been the case on most of the MUP's that I have ever been on. One possible exception is the one that goes from Newport Beach inland along one of the So Cal rivers. It's very wide and sparsely used, especially as you go inland past Costa Mesa. At least that was the case the last time I was on it (6-7 years ago).

However, they are still great if you'd like a relaxing jaunt away from cars.

I use MUPs to get to the real trails on my MTB. On the more popular trails, people are actually pretty well behaved, staying right unless passing.

On the less popular trails is where you run into problems with people walking two or three abreast across the whole trail when you come up behind them. Oh, and kids walking by themselves -- announcing a pass to these twerps you'd think you just shouted I'M GONNA SHANK YOU they way the turn around and freak out. Plus the less popular trails have their fair share of transient traffic and other illegal crap in certain parts of town around here. Some trails I won't ride on.

I ride >5000 miles per year on Hunter AAF here in Savannah. A few years ago, the Army spent a bunch of money constructing "bicycle lanes".

There are several problems with the project:

-when not adjacent to the roadway, there are no signs indicating which vehicles have the RoW when the "lane" crosses parking lots and road entrances. Even if we use the rule of "the one with the most lugnuts, wins", that rarely works as there are no signs on the "lanes" advising cyclists that they do not have the RoW.

-most of the folks using the "bicycle lanes" are peds (soldiers doing PT, moms pushing baby strollers, etc.).

-the "bicycle lanes" are scarcely 4' in most places and are not swept regularly. Two riders cannot safely pass at anything greater than walking speed and the amount of debris on some parts of it makes it nearly impassable on road bike tires.

-when the "bicycle lane" is adjacent to the roadway, it's just on one side...yet, the base expects riders to ride on it even if the rider is riding against traffic.

It's mandatory to use the "lanes" during rush hour. I've nearly been killed while using the "lanes" while adhering to the policy (riding against traffic on the "lanes" that are adjacent to the roadway). Several times, I met 5-tons with trailers rounding a right-hand curve. The steer tires were on the white line...guess where the towed vehicle tracked?

I mostly ride my laps in a direction that allows me to use the "lanes" when I'm able and they are on the same side of the road that I'm traveling.

Properly engineered infrastructure is critical to protect all road users. The project on Hunter AAF is an example of poor engineering. What they built it s "multi-use path" (MUP) but they labelled it a "bicycle lane" supposedly to comply with some requirement to provide X number of miles of bicycle lanes.

In the following video, you can see the "bicycle lane" is really just a wide, paved shoulder. In this case, a leaking pipe washed out the pavement. This is the second time around. On the first lap, it was still quite dark and I barely missed riding into this mess (thanks to my Magicshine headlight!)

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_G9ZUH--yWs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

OK, what is a MUP? Unfortunately, here in Texas bicycles are pretty much shunned. Where I live there is a pretty vibrant biking community, but very few trails other that the three MTB trails that are within city and state parks. For road bikes or even touring/cross country bikes there is nothing except for the shoulders of highways (or the road itself).

There is a very old rail bed that the state still owns. About 8 years ago the rails-to-trails organization tried to make a trail out of it. It would have been very cool, almost 30 miles long! However, there were some 85+ yo homeowners that made a stink about how theft would go up along the route (because, well, how else would you steal a large screen CRT tv but on your bicycle!) The local politicians bought into it and killed off the plan! Those homeowners are all gone now (RIP), but parts of the railbed have been put to other use in the meantime, pretty much killing any chance of this happening. Too bad.

MUP == multi use path. Usually a right of way for any non-motorized traffic such as runners, walkers, strollers, bicycles, horses and gosh knows what else.

Gotcha

And yeah, none of those around here

I think I read somewhere that per capita, Texas has fewer public outdoor spaces than any other state (by number and coverage). Too bad really. We may not have the mountains of the west or east, but there is some beauty to this state.

AKA MUT = Multi-use Trail

The W&OD trail system here in the DC area is about 1 car lane wide. Divide one car lane in half and it can get crowded quickly.

I live so far out in the boonies, its a treat for me to ride the W&OD. ...then I run across rollerbladers taking up the entire path. Joggers pulling u-turns in front of me. Dogs' leashes completely across the trail. etc. Then I remember why I don't ride the MUT all that often even when I can.

During the day and during the week it isn't nearly as bad as on the weekend or in the AM/PM traffic time.

M

Yeah....if you can hit them during the "off hours" they are a lot of fun. Smooth pavment, good views, and you can haul ass without worrying about getting run down by a pickup truck.