Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
Bicycles are inherently slower than cars, even at halfway racing speeds.
I’ll race you from my house to the Saturday market in the city center. I’ll go by bike, you can go by car. Bet you €100 that I’ll beat you there by at least 5 minutes.
No bet, I don’t have a car. My roommate does though.
Either way, I totally get you, from my own riding style though. On bicycle, I avoid red light car intersections as much as is humanly possible. Bicycles can go through the median, whether it’s legal or not…
As long as there’s no immediate traffic, I’ve found it safer and faster to just cross through the median, rather than try to mingle through an intersection with vehicles.
Not exactly saying that my riding style is best or safest, but I can get you a pizza in less than 4 minutes on a bicycle, skipping all the red lights and utilizing random median crossings (paved or not).
But, back to the main point, we don’t have bike lanes here in my area, and sidewalks are sparse and incomplete. I simply do not ride right in the middle of the road, I ride on the edge, I avoid intersections, and when traffic is clear, I cross the medians.
Oh, and I ride brakeless. My shoes are my brakes. But that’s besides the point, my basic point is if you have no other option, don’t ride in the middle of the road, ride on the white line edge of the road. Fuck, that’s the law in Mississippi.
As long as there’s no immediate traffic, I’ve found it safer and faster to just cross through the median, rather than try to mingle through an intersection with vehicles.
I’m Dutch. We don’t generally mingle cyclists and car traffic outside very low traffic / low speed areas. There will be a separate bicycle path with its own traffic lights. Or even better: you can just take the bicycle highway and not encounter any traffic lights or level crossings with cars at all. Straight shot into the city center.
Also, you can’t drive your car into the city center at all, it’s a car-free zone. You have to park your car at the edge of the city center, in a parking garage or other paid spot (€3,80/hour), then you’d have to walk from there. On Saturdays it’s basically a traffic jam all the way from the ring-road to the parking garage. Meanwhile I can ride my (e-)bike straight to where I need to go and park it basically anywhere.
Oh, and I ride brakeless. My shoes are my brakes.
You’d be pulled off the road so quick if you did that here. Your bike is required to be roadworthy, which means working brakes, lights, reflectors, etc.
Sounds like actual good proper bicycle friendly infrastructure, awesome!
Honestly, I’m more of a BMX flatland rider, so my bike ain’t gonna pass any of those checks, no brakes (flatlander’s choice, my shoes are my brakes), no reflectors, no lights, no kickstand, no chainguard…
In BMX flatland, all that stuff is just extra weight and more parts to break. But also, flatland bikes aren’t exactly intended for everyday road transportation.
Bikes meant for regular road use really should have all those parts, plus even a mirror for an extra point or two of safety.
Full lane use is allowed when…avoiding hazards or unsafe conditions, traveling in a lane too narrow to share
As a cyclist, you never, ever, ever want to ride right on the white line. If you can go over into the road shoulder that’s often best, but assuming no shoulder, give yourself a good 50 centimetres. That gives you room to manoeuvre if you need to avoid an obstacle. When the law says “bicyclists are generally required to ride as far to the right of the roadway as practicable” (also quoted from that law about Mississippi), that’s what they mean. Because being right on the line is not practicable for safety reasons.
But most cars are at least 1.8 m wide, and most lanes are no more than 3.6 m (according to this, the vast majority of roads in Mississippi have lane widths of 12 ft or less). With a cyclist riding 0.5 m from the edge, having handlebars that are 1 m wide, and the requirement to overtake being 0.9 m in Mississippi, you’re looking at a minimum lane width of 4.2 m before it’s not “too narrow to share”. When the lane’s that wide, I’m with you: ride close to the edge (close, again, being about 0.5 m). But most of the time, you’re keeping yourself safer by preventing drivers close passing you.
I’ll race you from my house to the Saturday market in the city center. I’ll go by bike, you can go by car. Bet you €100 that I’ll beat you there by at least 5 minutes.
Peak speed is not the same as travel time. A car is faster in terms of peak speed, even if it isn’t faster in terms of travel time.
Not in the city it isn’t.
No bet, I don’t have a car. My roommate does though.
Either way, I totally get you, from my own riding style though. On bicycle, I avoid red light car intersections as much as is humanly possible. Bicycles can go through the median, whether it’s legal or not…
As long as there’s no immediate traffic, I’ve found it safer and faster to just cross through the median, rather than try to mingle through an intersection with vehicles.
Not exactly saying that my riding style is best or safest, but I can get you a pizza in less than 4 minutes on a bicycle, skipping all the red lights and utilizing random median crossings (paved or not).
But, back to the main point, we don’t have bike lanes here in my area, and sidewalks are sparse and incomplete. I simply do not ride right in the middle of the road, I ride on the edge, I avoid intersections, and when traffic is clear, I cross the medians.
Oh, and I ride brakeless. My shoes are my brakes. But that’s besides the point, my basic point is if you have no other option, don’t ride in the middle of the road, ride on the white line edge of the road. Fuck, that’s the law in Mississippi.
I’m Dutch. We don’t generally mingle cyclists and car traffic outside very low traffic / low speed areas. There will be a separate bicycle path with its own traffic lights. Or even better: you can just take the bicycle highway and not encounter any traffic lights or level crossings with cars at all. Straight shot into the city center.
Also, you can’t drive your car into the city center at all, it’s a car-free zone. You have to park your car at the edge of the city center, in a parking garage or other paid spot (€3,80/hour), then you’d have to walk from there. On Saturdays it’s basically a traffic jam all the way from the ring-road to the parking garage. Meanwhile I can ride my (e-)bike straight to where I need to go and park it basically anywhere.
You’d be pulled off the road so quick if you did that here. Your bike is required to be roadworthy, which means working brakes, lights, reflectors, etc.
Sounds like actual good proper bicycle friendly infrastructure, awesome!
Honestly, I’m more of a BMX flatland rider, so my bike ain’t gonna pass any of those checks, no brakes (flatlander’s choice, my shoes are my brakes), no reflectors, no lights, no kickstand, no chainguard…
In BMX flatland, all that stuff is just extra weight and more parts to break. But also, flatland bikes aren’t exactly intended for everyday road transportation.
Bikes meant for regular road use really should have all those parts, plus even a mirror for an extra point or two of safety.
Apparently Mississippi doesn’t require you have brakes, but it does require you have lights and/or reflectors.
This website doesn’t agree:
As a cyclist, you never, ever, ever want to ride right on the white line. If you can go over into the road shoulder that’s often best, but assuming no shoulder, give yourself a good 50 centimetres. That gives you room to manoeuvre if you need to avoid an obstacle. When the law says “bicyclists are generally required to ride as far to the right of the roadway as practicable” (also quoted from that law about Mississippi), that’s what they mean. Because being right on the line is not practicable for safety reasons.
But most cars are at least 1.8 m wide, and most lanes are no more than 3.6 m (according to this, the vast majority of roads in Mississippi have lane widths of 12 ft or less). With a cyclist riding 0.5 m from the edge, having handlebars that are 1 m wide, and the requirement to overtake being 0.9 m in Mississippi, you’re looking at a minimum lane width of 4.2 m before it’s not “too narrow to share”. When the lane’s that wide, I’m with you: ride close to the edge (close, again, being about 0.5 m). But most of the time, you’re keeping yourself safer by preventing drivers close passing you.