I live near Camp Randall, so I drive my car on Regent Street pretty frequently. On my drive between Park St. and Monroe St. (the stretch Mike is describing) I generally get stuck behind a left-turning car at least once on every trip. Once I'm stuck, I have a hard time passing on the right, because the right lane is always filled with a steady stream of automotive traffic, so I have to wait. I find this frustrating, but it's no big deal -- it's just life on Regent Street.
In the situation Mike describes, the driver's path was blocked by a bike, not a car, but the principle is not really different. Mike had the right of way; the driver should have yielded, and -- unless he was from out-of-town, or something -- he should have known enough to expect to use his brakes on Regent St. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > The question of when to ride in the flow of MV traffic vs. when to ride > along side it never seems to have a good answer and it didn't for me this > morning, either. > I usually try to avoid riding on Regent St. during the heavy congestion > times, but this morning I had to return books to the library, so I found > myself riding east on Regent St. in heavy traffic. > After leaving the SW Path, I rode along the side of Regent St. heading > east and when I got going fast enough, I moved over into the flow of motor > vehicle (MV) traffic, proceeding down to Brooks St. with the traffic. At > the intersection of Brooks and Regent, an SUV was stopped in the left lane > (to turn left). Another car (a sedan) was approaching from behind the > SUV, and proceeded to move into my lane of traffic, forcing me over to the > side of the road so he didn't have to slow down to get around the SUV. He > honked his horn as he passed me, at the same time pointing to the right > side of the road as he drove ahead. I shook my head, since I didn't > believe I was obligated to move to curbside to let him get by me. He had > to stop at the corner of Regent and Park St. for a red light, so when I > got up to his vehicle (his rider's side window was already down), I told > him in no uncertain terms that he was in the wrong, not me. He countered > that he, too, was a bicyclist, and said the law requires that bicyclists > "not impede" the flow of traffic - that bicyclists are required to ride as > close as possible to the right side of the street when they are moving > slower than the flow of MV traffic, and that I was needlessly impeding the > flow of traffic. What else should I have told him? > The light turned green as we were talking, so I didn't get his name but > the license number of the car he was driving was "RUP 600". > Mike Neuman > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies > _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
