Wheres the right place to be in a cycle lane?

[Cab]

This stems from a couple of the comments on Mags recent video.

If you choose to use a cycle lane on a road, where in the lane is the 'right' place to be?

Is it to the outside of the lane, near the magical white line of car protection? This gives you good clearance from the kerb, it gives you an escape route, but it does mean that the motorists who treat the white line as if its a force field will be passing you closely.

Or is it closer to the kerb, where you're further from the traffic and the aforementioned motorists will be passing you further away, but in which position you'll encounter a lot of crap on the surface, more road damage and you have less escape space?

Obviously in a good, wide cycle lane this isn't a problem, because there is an identifiable middle ground. But I don't see many lanes like that!

So, in a typical cycle lane, where should you ride?

 

[summerdays]

In a typical cycle lane if I'm in it - normally near the white line - they are usually too narrow and full of rubbish etc to be any further to the left. Equally I might be just the other side of the white line.

 

[jimboalee]

Whichever part of it hasn't got broken glass.

 

[Norm]

I pretty much ignore on-road cycle lanes, as do most of the motorists, so I ride in the same place that I would ride if the cycle lane wasn't there.

Although the only cycle lanes I can think of where I ride are merely feeder lanes to ASLs so they aren't really that important anyway. Maybe if we had some worthy of the name, then I'd treat them differently.

 

[4F]

Depends on the width of the cycle lane and the condition of it.

On a decent width / condition then my position would be to the right side near the white line.

 

[automatic_jon]

Generally around here the cycle lanes aren't wide enough to choose a position in them, in the unlikely even I come across one more than a foot or so wide I feel that to the right of centre is safest, for much the same reason secondary is safer than curb hugging. It also tends to be the only bit not covered by detritus.

 

[John the Monkey]

I'd say the distance from the kerb that you'd normally be where there wasn't a lane.

The cycle lane doesn't magically make an unsafe riding position safer, something motorists & traffic engineers would do well to remember.

 

[Cab]

So, does anyone else find that no matter where you are in the cycle lane, so long as you're entirely in it, cars will pass within a gnats whisker of the white line?

 

[snorri]

So, does anyone else find that no matter where you are in the cycle lane, so long as you're entirely in it, cars will pass within a gnats whisker of the white line?

Yes.

Lanes of non-standard width (narrower) are more dangerous for cyclists than no lanes at all.

 

[John the Monkey]

So, does anyone else find that no matter where you are in the cycle lane, so long as you're entirely in it, cars will pass within a gnats whisker of the white line?

IME, not if you're riding with wheels on or near the line (sometimes necessary because of lane width, debris &c). I tend to get closer passes if I'm around the middle of the lane than I would if I was in the same position on the road without a bike lane. Though that's rather subjective, some motorists pass closely whatever the road conditions/layout, and I may just be recalling the bike lane ones as being because of the presence of the bike lane rather than the motorist's inconsideration generally.

 

[Origamist]

I don’t ignore cycle lanes as they do have an effect on driver (and cyclist) behaviour, but that doesn't mean I always use them.

There isn’t of course a “right” answer to Cab’s opening question. You need to consider each cycle lane on its own merits within the context of the moving traffic lane and the carriageway as a whole i.e the oncoming lane(s), pavement(s) verge(s) etc. You also need to factor in the condition of the cycle lane, the traffic dynamics (is it log jammed with vehicles or is traffic light), the class of road and the speeds vehicles tend to do, the problems that wider vehicles might pose, the width and colour of the cycle lane, the speed that you are travelling at, etc

I’d recommend people to have a look at:

Parkin, J. and Meyers, C. - Bicycle to motor vehicle passing distances with and without cycle lanes 2009

Summary here:

“An experiment collected proximity data of motor traffic overtaking cycle traffic on roads with and without cycle lanes using an instrumented bicycle. The work enhances previous research which has considered the riding position of the cyclist and whether or not the cyclist was helmeted, while controlling for vehicle type.

The analysis shows that significantly wider passing distances are adopted by motorists in the condition without a 1.45 m cycle lane, with posted speed limits of 40 mph and 50 mph with a 9.5 m wide carriageway. These findings were not replicated for a similar width road with a posted speed limit of 30 mph and a 1.3 m cycle lane.

The results suggest that in the presence of a cycle lane, drivers may be driving within the confines of their own marked lane with less recognition being given to the need to provide a comfortable passing distance to cycle traffic in the adjacent cycle lane.”

Full report here:

http://digitalcommons.bolton.ac.uk/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=ce_journalspr

 

[Tigerbiten]

I tend to have the inside front wheel just to the left of the white line marking the cycle lane.
This makes the back wheel just outside it and the outside front wheel in a strong secondary position.
The trailer wheels run just inside the lines of the front wheels.
The joys of rideing a recumbent tadpole trike and pulling a trailer.

The trike+trailer needs a minimum width of just over 1 meter.
The only cycle tracks wide enough for me to ride fully in safely are called bus lanes ......

Luck ..........

 

[Rob3rt]

Whichever part of it hasn't got broken glass.

Too true, or a void into the unknown (huge potholes) as ever present on my route.

 

[Cubist]

My main commute has a cycle lane all the way down. There are very few cyclists around. It's narrow, is ignored by drivers who park in it etc, and as I'm hovering around the 30mph mark all the way down I rarely use it.
see vid:

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zPVXYoDyLw&feature=channel


at the start of the vid I have just pulled away from some lights with a bus to my right. He gets past before I'm up to full speed.

 

[jonny jeez]

Near the white line, as debris is light and it allows room to move out of trouble if "pinched" from the right.