Safer to ride bike on the left side of the road in the country? (Page 2)

I don't even have words for this "logic" you've presented.

What a driver expects doesn't matter though when their eyes are not on the road.  And even if a driver doesn't expect me on the left, if he is coming at me, I can see him and get off the road.

Say you ride 20 mph.  A car approaches you from behind going 40 mph. That gives you a closing speed of 20 mph. 

Say you ride 20 mph.  A car approaches you from ahead going 40 mph.  That gives you a closing speed of 60 mph.

At which closing speed would you prefer to be hit?

Because while I may be wrong about the biking, I'm 100% right about our legal system.  Judges ignore/strike down laws  all the time when it leads to the wrong result.  For example, in NY if you murdered your spouse but you were named in their will, by law you would still get their estate.  The NY court of appeals still refused to give a husband his wife's estate after he murdered her despite the law being clear.  

If you could show a traffic law leads to unsafe conditions, the judge is obligated not to enforce the law/strike down the law

I give you a bad rep by asking a question?  And for your dangerous situation to occur, the following would have to happen

1.  I would have to be biking

2.  A car would have to be not paying attention/riding on the shoulder

3.  I would ride off the road into a grass field/cornfield

4.  I get attacked by a rattlesnake in upstate NY/someone left their kitchen knife in the cornfield and I step on it?

Now if step 2 happened and I was on the right side of the road and I didn't look back I would have gotten hit by that car.  So we are now comparing almost certainly getting hit by this car because I don't have eyes in the back of my head vs the odds that there is a rattlesnake in the cornfield

Never mind, knock yourself out. Let us know how it works out!

All I'm doing is trying to find out what would be safer, no need to get snarky.

No judge will side with you.  You are causing a bigger traffic hazard.  Besides the lowering of reaction time for oncoming cars compared to cars coming from behind you, what happens when you are on the left side of the road and two cars going opposite ways get to you at the same time????  if you are on the right side of the road the car going in your direction slows down until the other passes and then passes you.  In your left side driving, there is nothing the car in the left lane can do except stop and hope you don't run into him... and that is saying that he has enough reaction time for him to stop before he plows you down.

Is it really that hard to figure out?  With the low post count and how blatantly idiotic this reasoning is I have to believe this is a "sock"

I'm not sure where you're from, but no where in my legal system is there a "disregard if the law doesn't make sense to you" clause.  

I assume since you cite no imperial data, you just presume that riding on the right side of the road leads to more bicycle accidents than riding on the left side of the road. 

Buy rollers,, stay home,, no one will knock you off the bike.

I think you are really over thinking this.  

It's been pointed out in several ways that it is not safer.  You are continuing to argue.  I don't think anything we say is going to convince you to not break the law and do what you want. That tends to make people snarky.

1.  I'm not lowering reaction time, if I can't see the car coming behind me then my reaction time is zero.  On a straight, relatively flat, country road, I can see the cars coming in front of me about 10-15 seconds before they get to me.

2.  If two cars are coming at the same time I stay on the shoulder like I normally would.  If the guy swerves or is coming at me or the road is more narrow I pull over to the side of the road until they pass.  

I don't have to hope for anything.  I see the car coming 10 seconds away, if he is too close to the shoulder, I can pull over off the road.

3.  Why are you so mad?  Engaging in ad hominems because someone asked a question you can't answer.  Your arguments make no sense whatsoever.  I can see the car coming and have increased reaction time.

Well, i think you make your own point. I assume you are on fairly low traffic country roads - are you? Because although distracted driving is real your logic and insistence seems to assume that ALL cars are not paying attention - which is highly unlikely. 

I have a route in the country that is well-traveled by bicycles and have not once seen any close encounters with cars even when it is 'busy' time on a Saturday afternoon but otherwise the traffic is light.  Some pass a little too close but that's pretty normal - no one is swerving into our lane.  All of us stay on the right.  

It is super important for you to be predictable on the road and that means following the rules as much as you can.  Yes, road riding can be dangerous but i think the mirror suggestion is probably your best bet if you're feeling like you can't keep track of what's going on around you.

Except it hasn't really been pointed out.  There have been two arguments against riding on the left

1.  If you do get hit it will be with more force

This argument is certainly valid.  However, you have to weigh the decreased odds of an accident occurring vs the severity of an injury.  Also, if you are doing 20mph and you get hit from the back by a car going 65mph, you are probably going to die anyway right?  So it doesn't even make sense to talk about severity of damage, what really matters is likelihood of accident occurring.

2. You somehow have decreased reaction time and/or the car won't be expecting you.

You certainly don't have decreased reaction time because you can see the car coming 10 seconds before it gets to you on a flat, straight, country road which is what I ride on (one turn in 12 miles).  

It doesn't really seem to matter much if the car is expecting me or not.  If I see him riding on/near the shoulder, I can ride my bike off the road. Also, most cars can/do see me riding on the left.

If the driver isn't paying attention, it doesn't matter what he expects if I am on the right side of the road, I will get hit in the back.  If he isn't paying attention and I am on the left, I can ride off the road.

I, for one, say go for it.

Darwinism alive and well!

Yes, assuming I checked it.

If bikers are allowed to ride wherever they want...what happens when two bikers approach each other on the same side of the road going opposite directions?  Who has the right of way.  What is the lawful and safe method of passing each other?

IMO...forcing bikes to go the same direction as traffic is not only to help keep them safe from cars...but keep them safe from other bikers.

Overwhelming evidence STRONGLY points to no.  It is not safer.

When I see a biker coming the other way (happens maybe once every three hours of riding), I ride onto the road if there are no cars and if it is a blind turn/hill I will pull over until the bike passes me.

Joust!

Please oh please buy a GoPro! I can't wait for the following Youtube gold!

You and your infallible logic are traveling along on the left side of the road at 20mph, a car is coming at you at 55mph so closing speed of 75mph. 10 seconds before they get to you, you decide that they are a safe driver and thus you do not need to get off the road (or onto the shoulder that doesn't exist on my country roads). 

Problem is at 75mph closing speed that car is still a long way off at 10 seconds away, what happens when they are still a ways off but only 3 seconds away and they all of a sudden turn into the bad driver that would have cause you to get off the road earlier? Either you go splat on the hood because you can't get out of the way once they turn into a bad driver too late. Or you have just enough time to swerve like hell off the road and into the grass at 20mph... on a road bike... clipped in... This is where the Youtube gold comes in, the video of you going as$ over tea kettle into the grass is going to be a good one. Make sure you have a good helmet.

And yes, breaking the law and being unpredictable gives the rest of us a bad rap. All you will do is cause frustration that drivers will either take out on you or on the next rider. So do yourself and us a favor and follow the rules.