Quote:
Originally Posted by M_Six
Well this bike is certainly a lot more hill friendly than my former bike. I was even making good progress straight up the nasty 8% hill behind my house. Which leads me to a biking etiquette/safety question.
The entrance to our street is right at the crest of the aforementioned 8% hill. The hill is blind for drivers going up or down, but you can see both directions pulling out of our street. This is a rural Illinois road, so the speed limit is 55 MPH, although lots of people do 60-70 on that road, which is lunacy over that blind hill with all the wildlife and kids and bikes and farm tractors we have on our roads. Nonetheless, people do it.
So on my last ride a couple of days ago, I was heading towards our street just before the hill drops away. I saw a car coming up behind me and tried to make it into our street before it got to me. I even signaled that I was going to turn in. Just as I made the turn, a young girl (might have been a teenager) driving the car went blasting over the hill almost completely in the opposite lane. While I understand she was giving me what she thought was plenty of room, my heart was in my throat at the thought of what would have happened had a car been coming up the hill. There's no way she could have known no one was coming.
So tonight I was coming up the hill and I heard a car blasting up the road behind me. One of these 60-70 MPH types. Because of his speed and the fact I was approaching the middle of the hill, I just pulled off into a driveway to give him the whole road so he wouldn't have to move way over into the oncoming lane, which again, is blind. I turned around in the driveway and tried the hill again, but again a string of cars came along just as I was getting near the top of the hill. Again, I pulled off the side rather than make them move way over near the crest of the hill. The last car in the line was a Jeep with the doors off and the guy stopped to ask if I was ok. I told him I was just getting out of his way so he didn't have to move over on the blind side of the hill, but he laughed that off like it was no big deal.
Ideally, these drivers should just slow down a bit and move over enough to avoid me but not expose themselves to a head-on collision situation, but they don't. They just keep the hammer down and blast by on the far side of the road.
So how do you folks handle situations where your presence on the road might create a dangerous situation where drivers won't slow down and play nice? I could just not give a shit and let them worry about themselves, but if they're still barreling up behind me when a car suddenly appears coming over the hill, they could swerve back and nail me. So there's a bit of self-preservation interest here as well.
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I think i understand the situation. Down here, so long as i'm sure the people behind me can see me, i take the initiate and take the whole lane. The bike laws down here state that if there isn't enough space for a car to give you 3' clearance while staying in the designated lane, the cyclist should take the lane and while the motorist needs to wait for a safe place to overtake.
In certain situations, where it's dangerous for a car to pass and i know they have clear line of sight of me, i'll take the whole lane and force them to slow down until it's safe to pass. Though, it's much easier when your riding with a buddy who also has a super bright rear flashing light. Two red lights side by side are quickly acknowledged by drivers as a full size vehicle.
You're right, some times they think i'll be ok to pass and it's just dumb luck they don't get into a head on collision.
That being said, when a cyclist goes up against a car, the car always wins. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor and your action of pulling off can be warranted.