Four Reasons to Avoid the Edge of the Road

If you've taken up bicycling outside for exercise during this pandemic time, you've likely been riding for a few weeks or months now. In some of my prior posts, I've pointed out my personal preference for riding on  roads rather than paths and trails, because it's easier to keep physical distance from people on roads than on paths. Last week we talked about path riding anyway, because many people prefer it as a less intimidating way to start out than riding on roads. This week, we'll get back to the road.

If you are new to riding on roads, you may by now be discovering a desire to roam further beyond your neighborhood streets. But that might involve some larger roads. Riding on streets with more traffic can be scary, and can bring up some questions that didn't seem so important on your neighborhood streets. Chief among  them is: where am I supposed to ride?

A few weeks ago we covered the most basic answer, that you should ride on the right side of the road, in the same direction as other drivers. In this post, we'll refine that answer.

Brief Diversion: Sidewalk Riding?

As a general rule, experienced cyclists avoid riding on sidewalks, and recommend that other adults and older teens do the same. Sidewalks are designed for walking (it's right in the name: sidewalk), at walking speed. At higher speeds, cyclists become a hazard to pedestrians and to themselves. Further, all the dangers mentioned in this post about riding at the edge are even more true of riding on sidewalks. Basically, sidewalk riding can only be safe at pedestrian speeds, using pedestrian behavior, and yielding to all pedestrians. If you're okay with all that, fine, just be careful and considerate.

Also, some towns and cities have an ordinance prohibiting sidewalk riding, although it's generally not a state law. Westbrook happens to be one of them (Westbrook ordinance Section 5-20).

Law: Ride to the right, except...

Common sense and a healthy dose of apprehension tells bicyclists to ride at the edge, out of the way of faster, bigger motor vehicles. It is also consistent with a basic rule for all traffic, that slower traffic stays to the right, with faster traffic passing on the left.

Most people are vaguely aware that there is also a law specifically about bicyclists staying to the right. In most states, that is true. However, in all cases, the law is actually a lot more complicated than that. Furthermore, this "speed positioning" rule, as we call it, may be valid between intersections, but what about at intersections, especially where there are multiple lanes for different directions?

The bicycle positioning law in most states (for example, Maine) goes something like this:

Bicyclists should stay as far to the right as "practicable" (safe and reasonable), except when

1. overtaking other traffic, or
2. preparing for a left turn, or 
3. avoiding right turning traffic, or 
4. avoiding hazards at the edge (usually followed by a list of a dozen or more example hazards).

As you can see, there's much more to it than just "stay to the right" all  the time. In fact, once you leave quiet neighborhood streets, you may find that at least one of these "exceptions" is present at least half the time!

Here, then, are:

Four Reasons to Avoid the Edge of the Road (and be legal doing it)

Hazards

The Maine bicycle statute has a fairly comprehensive list of hazards that may be found primarily or exclusively at the edge of the road:

... fixed or moving objects, vehicles, bicycles, roller skiers, pedestrians, animals, broken pavement, glass, sand, puddles, ice, surface hazards or opening doors from parallel-parked vehicles, or a lane of substandard width that makes it unsafe to continue along the right portion of the way. For purposes of this paragraph, "lane of substandard width" means a lane that is too narrow for a bicycle or roller skier and a vehicle to travel safely side by side in the lane.

I count 15 hazards in this list alone! Two particularly dangerous ones are are opening car doors, and lanes that are too narrow for a bicycle and motor vehicle to comfortably fit between the lines. These are both big topics that will be covered more in later posts. For now, let's just say that riding further into the lane and away from the edge, in a straight line rather than weaving back and forth to avoid hazards, is an effective way to avoid them.

Intersections

One of my big questions when I started biking for transportation was what to do at intersections. Most bicyclists that you see just stay at the edge through an intersection. If they stop for a red light, which they should, many ride up to the front of the line and stop next to the first car in line.

You may have wondered if this is legal. In many states, I think the answer is no, because drivers are generally not allowed to pass stopped traffic on the right in the same lane. Maine actually allows it for bicyclists (paragraph 6), but I've always felt that law was a bad idea, not least because it includes the phrase "at the bicyclist's own risk".

Regardless of legality, it's also confusing and unsafe. If the car to the left of the bicyclist is turning right, who has the right of way? The bicyclist because turning traffic yields to through traffic, or the motorist, because they were there first? It doesn't seem fair for the bicyclist to cut in line in this manner. It's also dangerous, because the bicyclist has ridden right up through the motorist's blind spot, and the motorist might not know they are there.

What many bicyclists don't realize is that they are also complicating their life by doing this. Some of those cars may have passed them on the way to the intersection, then the bicyclist passes the stopped cars to get to the front. When the light changes green, those same drivers are going to pass the bicyclist again, and they will all have to negotiate for space once more on the other side.

How much easier it is to just take my place in line (in the middle)! If I arrive at a red light with a half dozen cars already in front of me, that's a half dozen cars I don't have to think about again, nor they me! Maybe a few more cars pull up behind me before the light turns green. It's really not going to take me that much time to clear the intersection, and I'd rather have just some of the cars behind me than all of them.

In future posts, we'll explore in greater detail some specific types of car/bike crashes that can result from riding too close to the edge at intersections.

Visibility and Vantage

Do you know why a car's steering wheel is on the left, when we drive on the right?

Vantage: the ability to see around corners and into driveways. Often there are sight obstructions on the corner, such as trees, bushes, signs, poles, parked cars, or corners of buildings. Having the car driver sit closer to the center of the road makes it easier to see around these things.

The same is true for bicyclists. Being further into the road gives the bicyclist more time to see a car pulling out of a side street or a driveway, and gives that driver more time to see them. It also makes the bicyclist more visible because they are present where the driver is already looking for cars.

Here's a great example for my local Westbrook readers. I live on the west side of town, and am often bicycling towards downtown on Main Street, from Convenient MD to Mechanic Street. As I pass the Friendly Discount liquor store, you'll always find me in the middle of the lane. Wonder why?

Main Street eastbound past Friendly Discount, Westbrook, Maine

Multiple reasons, actually. One is the high volume of traffic turning into and out of the liquor store parking lot, just as you see in this photo. Additional street parking in front make it difficult for exiting drivers to see traffic to their left as they pull out. If I was close to the edge, they would never see me.

(Other reasons for riding in the middle: The parked cars themselves, and the upcoming narrowing of the lane at Mechanic Street, and multiple lanes at Bridge Street. Both will discussed in more detail in future posts.)

Better Passing

Close passing is a common complaint of bicyclists everywhere. Despite the prevalence of "3-foot passing" laws around the country in recent years, it's unclear anecdotally whether the new law has made much of an improvement, although it at least provides clearer guidance for motorists, and a more specific legal charge that can be brought against motorists who endanger cyclists.

Why does close passing happen? A common narrative among bicyclists is that motorists are stupid and careless. This feeds into the whole "bikes vs. cars" battle narrative that gets both sides riled up and also sells newspaper stories. But how true is it, really?

CyclingSavvy co-founder Keri Caffrey observes that "when I learned how to control my space better, it's amazing how much smarter the motorists around me got!" In this recent online presentation regarding cyclist communication, she notes that lane position all by itself is an effective but underappreciated form of communication. (That discussion starts at about 7 minutes in.)

Early on in my bike commuting career, I asked an online forum of bicyclists how to get better passing. Their answer surprised me: Move away from the edge. I tried it, and it worked! Counter-intuitive, but true. Why?

As Keri puts it, if you're riding at the edge, you're sending a signal to the motorists behind you that it's okay to squeeze past. You may not realize you're doing this, and you may not want them to pass, but that's what your edge position is communicating. And most people are just not very good at estimating safe space.

If it's okay for them to pass, that's one thing. But maybe it's not. If you're in a narrow lane with oncoming traffic, or a blind spot that prevents seeing oncoming traffic, or a big suburban road with lots of commercial driveways, you do not want to give the impression that they can pass in the same lane. Being further into the road makes you more relevant, forcing them to think more about what they're doing.

If you feel guilty for "holding them up", think of it this way: You're actually preventing them from making a bad choice, and a potentially fatal one for you. Realize that they don't want to hit you! You are helping them to not hit you.

Yes, some motorists don't get it, and might express their frustration with you. But I've noticed that even in these cases, which to begin with are fewer than you might think, they are still passing me safely even if they are honking or yelling. Better control of my space has increased the incivility only very slightly, almost unnoticeably, but has decreased the close passing dramatically. It's a simple matter of preventing passing in the situations where it would be unsafe. It's much more effective than continuing to hug the edge and just hope that they do the right thing. You have it within your power to help them to.

Here's a nice story about my interaction with a Massachusetts driver(!) as I was cycling to the Lobster Shack in Cape Elizabeth a few years ago! It took a while to get to a safe place for him to pass me, but we communicated, eventually he did, and we were both better for it. A happy ending!

Enjoy your riding, be well, and control your space!