[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>> What happens when the main road (with parallel bike path) intersects a
>> minor side road? That sort of crossing is the main site of danger where
>> even if priority is theoretically given to the path, cars leaving the
>> main road will still often cut across without paying attention.
>
> It depends, I like it best when the crossing is simultaneously a speed
> bump for cars, is in red and with big markings indicating priority for
> the cycle path.
There's one of those on Barton Road in Cambridge. I didn't cycle that
much in Cambridge, but managed to have a crash there when the gaggle of
cyclists coming the other way didn't keep to their side (it is marked
for 2-way use). I was trying to see if it was reasonable to ride as fast
as I would do on the road (roughly 20mph). It reallly isn't.
With regard to "feeling safer", if you aren't feeling a little
apprehensive every time you cross a driveway or side road on one of
these paths, you should be! Certainly in the UK, drivers will not pay
the same attention to these little-used paths with insignifncant users
and poor sightlines as they would do when pulling onto a normal road
where there could be a lorry bearing down on them...
> Let me give you one example of what I hated about cycle riding in
> England. Going to uni via the shortest route, I'd cycle along a road
> with cars parked, like 100 m no cars parked, then two parked, then 30
> m no parked cars and so forth for a few kilometres. Guess what every
> time I got to one of those parked cars, I essentially was expected to
> stop and wait until the traffic had passed, maybe not everybody
> expected that, but the lady who nearly knocked me off my bike told me
> so to my face. And getting off the bike every 50 m to walk a few steps
> across the pavement, or waiting 5 minutes for a break in the
> traffic ... well, I might as well walk.
That's just a matter of correct road positioning and reasonably
assertive riding - the trick is to pull round the parked cars with
plenty of time. It helps if you can travel at a speed reasonably close
to the speed of cars and also are not riding in the gutter between the
obstacles. It is not a problem I can ever remember having had on a
regular basis, although I do occasionally get caught briefly behind
vehicles that stop suddenly (eg busses at bus stops) when I fail to
anticipate sufficiently well.
James
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