If it's possible, ride where you see other cyclists already. I feel more comfortable riding where I know that the drivers expect to see cyclists. Some space to the right of the white stripe is nice, although not always available. Riding around, you'll find the roads that are busy and less travelled, potholed and smooth. If you have a partner or group to ride with, that might also help you feel more at ease.

To reply to your subject line, north of Holland, MI, cyclists have an established presence on certain local roads. There is safety in numbers.

Around here (S. Carolina) things aren't too bad -- I get the occasional 'get off the road' and such, but nothing that is truly dangerous -- yet.  I was once clipped by a drunk driver on my commuter in my neighborhood.  That was scary, but I don't think he wasn't targeting me -- he was drunk.

I think we should also say that we don't know that these KY cyclists were 'targeted'.  In the first case the guy was apparently extremely drunk and possibly high.  The second case did not have any details (when I read it an hour ago).

However, there have been cases of targeting -- the one I can remember was in S. California.  ChrisM posted about it originally.

I would say that yes, there is a LOT of hostility towards cyclists out there from a FEW drivers.  >99% of the drivers are considerate and careful, even if they don't like having to share the road.  It's the remaining <1% that don't seem to understand the value of human life.

I beleive you are probably right Experior. I guess I'm just lucky so far and haven't had the unfortunate experience of meeting this 1% so far. I will cross my fingers that I never have to experience it.

I normally have to train solo because I haven't joined any riding groups or tri clubs as of yet. I am considering it for safety on longer rides as well as some company--right now I settle for roads that I see other cyclists riding!

We don't have that, either. If anything, I find that motorists go overboard to be courteous to cyclists.  When I'm riding toward a stop sign and there is already a car at the stop sign with the right of way they will frequently just wave me or us, if I'm riding with a group, to just continue through the stop sign. I'm actually not comfortable with this...I usually make a point to stop and yield the right of way to the car. But this is really common.

I did have a little bit of a startling experience the other day when I was driving home from work. A cyclist was traveling on our busiest road, three lanes wide, and really not more than 18 inches between the cars in the rightmost lane and the curb. I would never have ridden on that section on that road. In fact, cyclists are actually encouraged to ride on the opposite side of the street where there is a raised path for bikes and peds. We have a couple of places where there are separate pathways marked 'Bike Path' that are two-way paths. In this case, I was driving in the middle lane and this guy was suddenly splitting the middle and right lanes, like motorcycles do all the time. It scared the crap out of me to see this cyclist suddenly next to me from out of nowhere. And this was after work rush hour--moments later he managed to get back over to the far right. Nobody else seemed to be alarmed, and as far as I know nobody yelled at him or flipped him off.  I just think he was taking a big chance.

Speaking from someone that grew up on Rt 8 in KY one of the most popular cycling routes in the Cincy area I know that there is a deep seeded hatred of cyclist's on rt 8 as it is a 2 lane road with no shoulders. Have seen quite a few cyclist go 3 wide and slow traffic down to nothing, and seen one guy when a semi tried to pass around him at a drywall plant sprint to be a Dbag to the point that the semi had to either run the cyclist over or go headlong into the other lane of oncoming traffic. Every 5 miles there is a share the road signs. My ride to my gym which is 12 mile route and about 2 - 3 miles of that doesn't have a shoulder, and honestly i'm surprised sometimes that someone doesn't take a swipe at me. Try to leave out before the morning commute, but there are some serious road raging jerks around here. People are always on the rush and don't like to be slowed down by cyclists unfortunatly. There is hardly any infrastructure for cyclists around here, i'd love it if they started building wider shoulder, etc. but that will never happen. 

BTW - Those last two stories really staggered me too, as I really have had a few run ins the last few weeks, were I've almost given up commuting on my bike. Think those two stories pretty much sealed it for me. My heart goes out to the families.

Ugh, speaking of hateful people.  Just saw this on our local new channel.




Edited by COSkiGirl 2009-08-02 8:07 PM

I see close calls everyday. It seems to be getting worse and its really starting to pi$$ me off. People just seem to have a cavalier attitude about it. I am sure if they were face to face with the person they are endangering they would not act that way but being in a car seems to be a shield for arrogance. There were two triathletes hit this month in our community while training. My wife and daughter ride and I worry about them everyday. What will it take to change people's attitude?

Edited by popsracer 2009-08-02 8:54 PM

The stretch of road where the triathlete was rear-ended and killed is about a 2 mile 4 lane road with a wide gravel shoulder.  It runs parallel to the Ford heavy truck plant with a 45 speed zone.  The road blocks were setup at each end of the road.   One on the south end where you turned onto it heading north and the other on the north end where the turn around was.  Both north and southbound center lanes were open to normal traffic.  
 

I have ridden this road a few times and also drive it daily on my way to work.  It is not unusual to see vehicles doing 70+ MPH on this stretch of road.  The driver was likely cleared to continue down the road and hit the gas as if it was a normal day.  There are few residential homes in the area and I assume he was heading to one of these which means he is familiar with this stretch as well and probably one of those that normally flies down this road.

It is and was a terrible and tragic turn of events.  I used to be on the Fire Department and I have seen many times what drinking and driving can do not only to the victims but their families and the families of the offenders.  Nothing good comes of it and many lives are changed forever.

The bottom line is that I don't think it is likely this was an intentional act by the driver but his repeated poor choices have now taken the life of an innocent victim.  For that reason I think he should be charged with murder and spend the rest of his life in jail. 

Remember those of you that may be thinking of leaving the bar or restuarant after having a drink or two.  The choice you make to drive under the influence is not an option for the other people you are going to share the road with.

I almost got hit in a race yesterday.  It was the Culpeper Sprint in Virginia, and I was approaching a stop sign for a right turn.  There was a police officer directing traffic, and he was waving someone through just as I was turning right.  There was a 5-10 second gap in front of me, and I think the cop was trying to get him in between me and the rider in front of me, but he almost went into me.  I yelled at the cop--"good  job directing traffic, buddy."  Good thing I wasn't arrested for disorderly conduct for yelling at a cop, but maybe I could have snagged a beer at the White House out of it.

I wasn't too rattled--I went on to get my first 20 mph bike split, and it was a hilly course to boot.

You might be surprise to hear this:  my experienec is that drivers in MA (Metro Boston in general) are generally pretty good.  So far I had not encounter anyone who would deliberately hurt cyclists.  Witnessed and experienced few near-misses due to the drivers' unawareness of the bikes around. 

My 2 usual routes can be busy.  My commute is 18 miles heading north of Boston, all in town major roads, the section leading to the office parks close to work has Fedex and Market Basket facilities, where 18-wheelers are frequent.  I have to share the narrow, one-lane road with delivery trucks.  Most drivers are considerate.  There were 18-wheelers who drove slowly behind me cuz they didn't want to pass me with a narrow clearance. I appreaciate that. 

Another route is a 25 mile loop west of Boston, where I pass a couple of highway overpasses, a state park and AFB.  In the weekends the area is full of cyclists.  The nearby town of Concord has a lake and it's like a triathlete training center.  People in those towns are use to seeing people in funny-looking tight clothes riding funny-looking bikes.