Making a Motorist pass you more than once
This happened during Bike to Work day yesterday. Our group of cyclists was riding in the right-hand lane of a narrow pair of west-bound lanes. The traffic was moderately heavy and struggled somewhat to pass us in the remaining left lane. When we approached a line of cars stopped at the light, several of the cyclists passed these same cars which had just endured getting past us.
I was near the front and stopped behind the last car as I usually do in traffic. About two-thirds of our group weaved their way to the front of the line causing the motorists to pass them again. As you can imagine, not all those motorists were smiling about this.
Now, on one hand you could say 2/3 majority rules, but on the other hand, is making a motorist pass you twice the right thing to do?
I'm interested to hear what others think.
posted by Jett @ 10:17 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I don't think it is right to pass automobiles at lights, I don't. But then again i dont think its right for some one in an automobile to hog the road :)
I probably would not have made the motorists pass me twice in that way. That's mostly because I don't tend to pass cars at stoplights. Maybe I would if it were a long line of cars, but that really doesn't happen around here all that often.
Still, I probably wouldn't avoid passing motorists just to prevent them from having to pass me again. I try to be considerate and let drivers pass me when it's safe to do so, but I don't go out of my way to accommodate them.
I worry about passing cars on the right at lights (unless there is a separate bike lane) because of both safety issues and courtesy. One would think that since the auto drivers established the acceptance of the car and bike sharing the lane when they passed me it should be OK, but I still am more likely to get behind whatever car stops in front of me. (most of the time)
I do this by planning ahead and grabbing a spot in the lane while I can - before traffic stops and there's no room between cars.
spyd3r05, I'm with you all the way on automobiles that hog the road. It's not always easy to act big when you don't have act much bigger to exceed them.
Apertome, you've put it in terms of accommodating motorists and I think I'm with you on this. The way I like to look at it is, if I want to be treated like a fair user of the road, I should act fairly when using the road. If being fair turns out to be accommodating, then fine. If I have to be accommodating to be considered fair, then I don't think that's fair.
Dan, grabbing a spot as it opens up is something I do too. Sometimes the spot doesn't open up before we come to a stop so I'm not able to take the center of the lane between the two cars. In this case I usually hold the right side of the lane and stop behind the car just in front of me. This often opens up a spot when traffic starts moving again so I can avoid the right hook.
After telling this story to a cycling friend of mine, he told me when driving the car he will squeeze the lane to prevent a cyclist from passing on the right. To add weight to his point, he likes to carry his bike around on his car ;-).
Today a cyclist came up behind me as I was slowly following a car in traffic and passed both myself and the car on the left. The motorist didn't seem to mind, but I would have been irked. It seems like the same thing about having to pass twice. I kept up with the car and we both passed him on the open stretch without intersections. (No guilt like I felt May 11.)
What does it accomplish to move faster than someone who is temporarily going slower?
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