Wednesday, January 6, 2010

taking the WHOLE lane


Especially now that Robert is back to full power,  I'm not the kind of girl who's afraid to take the lane, especially when the side of the road is a mini-glacier.
I understand why people have a hard time doing that- and I can completely sympathize with someone who doesn't feel comfortable doing it.  You have to be willing to make people wait for you- and it's tough to put yourself in front  of fast moving cars and assume that they see you and won't react angrily to you being "in their way". 

So I was riding down Broadway today in my normal position, about 2 1/2" left of the white line which normally is plenty of space to make people commit to going into the other lane to pass.  There are two lanes each way there, and traffic is really pretty light.  However,  twice today people tried to pass me WAY too close.  After the 2nd one, I moved in the to absolute middle of the lane- about 5' from the right line.   
No problems after that.  Even the obnoxious cabbie who I thought was going to give me a hard time, patiently waited and passed by going completely into the other lane.

 I guess sometimes you gotta take the WHOLE lane.


2 comments:

  1. nice lesson as a cyclist and as a driver. I drive down beacon in Brookline a lot and I hate the stretch where there is no bike lane. I actually seldom see bikes on that trip but I pretty much always travel in the left lane anyway just in case of a bike so I don't have to worry. ( I suck at changing lanes and that strip is narrow and fast and no one ever lets me in and then *I* the car taking the whole lane behind the bike waiting to get in the other lane and I feel bad for the cyclist with me on their tail not passing and not lane changing.

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  2. Yep. I try to be as courteous as possible, but it takes about two close passes and I move to the center of the lane too. Sorry. go around.

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