| Re: Stoplights: fatwa requested
"Luigi de Guzman" <luigi12081@cox.net> wrote in message
news:2o51h0t1f3pc1i2e47v17prkkg9lsjin1h@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 04 Aug 2004 00:07:43 -0700, Ryan Cousineau <rcousine@sfu.ca>
> wrote:
>
> >
> >This is an _excellent_ idea. Heck, it's why cycling in traffic isn't a
> >chore. The key to re-entry to the right lane after the intersection is a
> >fairly fast start,
>
> I'm still working on that. I sprint like a snail on quaaludes. I can
> roll up to a good speed once I've gotten myself going, but I'm not as
> fast off the line as my little brother.
As long as you don't, like some riders I've seen, sprint out ahead of
everyone and right into the advanced green for turning traffic coming the
other way. If you get to the head of the line before the light changes its
easy to position yourself so you block traffic in the right lane. If not, I
just watch for which cars turn and which don't. Turning cars usually slow
down and also delay any following straight-through cars making it usually
easy to move back into the right lane after the corner. In the rare case
things turn grim, Ryan's salute signal works.
> I've lane-split in this way at other intersections, but pretty rarely,
> because it makes me nervous. whenever I come to stoplights, I tend
> not to be moving through them or up queues of traffic pell-mell, since
> all those idling cars make me nervous. (Funny how I'm nervous when
> they're idling and less so when they're moving!)
If traffic is unusually jammed in the area, lane splitting to the front has
sometimes seemed to cause a little road rage in some drivers, so watching
for post-splitting wackiness might be a good idea. And there's often a
driver who decides to go for the left lane in front of you, then they change
their minds halfway in both lanes.
But aside from that I too feel more nervous when lane splitting stopped
traffic than seems warranted by my experiences. After all zooming up past a
line of traffic next to the curb is more dangerous from a dooring aspect. I
think I'm more nervous in the middle than at the curb because I just don't
know what's going to happen when traffic gets flowing again. It's more
predictable at the curb.
Doug
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