Taking the lane on a 4 lane road

In this video there is a narrow lane present which the motorists needs to use a portion of the left lane to overtake a cyclist with three feet of width clearance.

This is what you can expect from motorists because there are no laws which require a motorist to move over to the other lane to overtake a cyclist. They only need to provide three feet of clearance.

It is ambiguous for me to try to define what is three feet as all they pass me. Clearly some don\'t and some are questionable. Some motorists simply move over to the other lane and allow the maximum clearance. What constitutes as a \"safe three feet overtaking\" is left up to someone who won\'t get hurt.

By law the two lane positions are correct, The first position to the right resulted in at least one close pass with a cargo van.
The second lane position to the left, yields better results in my opinion. [For] The person who is subject to death and injury.

This is a good example of why a cyclist may choose to use the law and move to the left to communicate to the motorists that this is a narrow lane and a motorist will need to use a portion of the left lane to overtake the cyclist as the video shows, and provide better visibility for the motorists. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mu1HeRczNQ">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mu1HeRczNQ</a>;

by B' Spokes

Like most people I live a hectic life and who has the time for much exercise? Thanks to xtracycle now I do. By using my bike for daily activities I can get things done and get an hour plus work out in 15 minutes extra of my time, not a bad deal and beats taking the extra time going to the gym. In case you are still having trouble being motivated; the National Center of Disease Control says that inactivity is the #2 killer in the United States just behind smoking. ( http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/bb_nutrition/ ) Get out there and start living life! I can carry home a full shopping cart of groceries, car pool two kids or just get lost in the great outdoors camping for a week. Well I got go, another outing this weekend.
  • Currently 0.00/5
Rating: 0.00/5 (0 votes cast)

Share It!

Story Options

  • Taking the lane on a 4 lane road
  • 2 comments
Login required to comment
My tact is if the lane is 14 ft--which I have to guess at, by feel, because my eyeballs are not calibrated--I give motorists the benefit of the doubt staying further right than I would if I "felt" that the lane was too narrow. (note the use of the word 'felt', because it is a matter of comfort not actual distance) The first yahoo that passes too close causes me to go into defense mode and I will take the entire right lane from that point on until dictated by a change in road layout to do otherwise. IMHO, the guy in this video gave motorists too much leeway. I would have "taken the lane" by moving more to the center and forced vehicles to pass me in the other lane as they would with any other slower moving vehicle. The title is a misnomer as he never took the lane, IMHO. Also, IMHO, a cyclists needs to be very visible too give motorists more time to react to their presence. For me, this is running lights in the day. Currently, I have a 140 lumen taillight on the bike and another 140 lumen taillight on my helmet. I've been told by other cyclists that they can see these taillights a mile away in the daylight. My belief is that running bright taillights during the day (as well as at night) gives motorists more warning that I am ahead and they can take or plan evasive action earlier. (note that the passing vehicle has the responsibility to take the action, not the vehicle being passed as long as the vehicle being passed is traveling in a predictable manner) Anyway, my 2 cents worth. --- iodaniell
+1000 Very good advise. The only thing I would add is if you do find yourself caught on the right hand side of the road with unsafe passing events, extend your left hand diagonally down with the palm facing drivers. This discourages close passing until there is time for you to safely claim the lane. Be courteous as long as others are courteous and be assertive when others are being assertive.