I cycle in the middle of the road any time there isn’t a suitable bike lane, cars will have to wait their turn and then I overtake all of them at the next set of traffic lights.
Well yeah they have to ride in the lane, there’s nowhere else to ride. But no one does because our roads are narrow and curvy with relatively high speed limits and a lot of large truck traffic that can’t stop quickly. I actually see bikes on my commute every day, they are on the side of the road as a memorial to people who died on them right there. Tons of deer get hit on those roads too. If you’re not traveling in the direction of traffic at least close to the speed limit, you are seriously risking your life.
Being highly visible helps a lot, also in the UK we don’t have high speed traffic in urban areas. Outside of urban areas there is usually some kind of bike path you can use unless you are using country lanes but in that case you get people walking in the road too.
I’ve lived a couple of years in Europe and spent time in the UK. I know what your reality is, you have probably never experienced mine. Visibility doesn’t help when a large dump truck carrying 25 tons of gravel comes around the bend and physically can’t stop in time, and there’s incoming traffic in the other lane. I’m on the outskirts of a good size city. There are zero bike lanes outside the urban inner city. Absolutely no one walks or bikes these roads out where I am.
I cycle in the middle of the road any time there isn’t a suitable bike lane, cars will have to wait their turn and then I overtake all of them at the next set of traffic lights.
Well yeah they have to ride in the lane, there’s nowhere else to ride. But no one does because our roads are narrow and curvy with relatively high speed limits and a lot of large truck traffic that can’t stop quickly. I actually see bikes on my commute every day, they are on the side of the road as a memorial to people who died on them right there. Tons of deer get hit on those roads too. If you’re not traveling in the direction of traffic at least close to the speed limit, you are seriously risking your life.
Being highly visible helps a lot, also in the UK we don’t have high speed traffic in urban areas. Outside of urban areas there is usually some kind of bike path you can use unless you are using country lanes but in that case you get people walking in the road too.
I’ve lived a couple of years in Europe and spent time in the UK. I know what your reality is, you have probably never experienced mine. Visibility doesn’t help when a large dump truck carrying 25 tons of gravel comes around the bend and physically can’t stop in time, and there’s incoming traffic in the other lane. I’m on the outskirts of a good size city. There are zero bike lanes outside the urban inner city. Absolutely no one walks or bikes these roads out where I am.