The other morning, I was driving to work and came upon my neighbor on his bicycle. Now, he is a great guy, and I enjoy riding with him, but he does have one less than safe behavior – he tends to ride as far right as possible. When I slowed behind him (and he didn’t know it was me), he moved right against the grass line. (There is not room for a cyclist and driver to share the lane on this narrow road.) He finally pulled over in the grass and stopped to let me by.
I have mentioned here before that I have found that riding too far to the right invites bad, risky behavior on the part of some drivers. They will pass unsafely, trying to squeeze between me and the inevitable oncoming car. To discourage this, I position myself approximately two feet away from the fog line. TAKE THE LANE!! My neighbor has seen me do this hundreds of times, but hasn’t taken the hint.
I felt the need to write out my frustrations, so I had planned to write a post called “Don’t Be a Gutter Bunny”. However, I instead came across this post by Dave Moulton with the same title that voices the problems of taking this position and shows how taking the lane can help avoid injury in some dangerous situations. His writing style is much clearer and more entertaining than I could ever be, so I saw no need to try to top it. Please give it a read and share with your friends. I may anonymously mail the link to my neighbor.