09-17-2019, 02:27 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-17-2019, 02:30 PM by robdrimmie.)
(09-17-2019, 01:38 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: By the way, how does one even ride then? Given I was hit by a driver who overtook me and turned right (something I cannot even prevent) I am now utterly terrified when proceeding through an intersection, so often drivers do not signal, ones who do, overtake, signal and then wait, then we both stop.
The following behaviour is no guarantee, but it's the practice I currently try to follow in a busy intersection like this one. Ultimately, I take the lane and progress through as part of the line of traffic.
If it's going to take a few cycles for everyone to get through, and if cars are able to move faster than me, I'll move to the right again so cars can pass me before we all stop again. If I am pretty confident I'm going to get through the light cycle, I'll stay in the lane through the intersection. If I think I'm going to slow down a lot of cars I'll just slow down and let them pass and take a spot in line near the front for the next cycle. This last case happens very rarely and most of the time in a slow intersection like this traffic is slow the whole way, so I just stick in my spot.
My goal is that when I go through an intersection everyone knows where I am and what I'm going to do. I figure if I'm directly in front of a specific vehicle the entire time, and as long as I'm not going any slower than the vehicle in front of me for very long, then the odds are much better that driver is going to know I'm there and therefore I'm much safer.
Edit to add: It's also why, when I'm driving and approaching a right turn, at a certain point - when I reach a certain amount of confidence that I'll make it through the intersection during the current phase of the light cycle - I will just take up all the space on the right-hand side of the lane. If there's a bike lane, when it goes dashed I'm right in it to be very explicit about what I'm doing.