-=> Quoting Leah Rozhon to Ken Peck <=-
 KP> Well, in many places "riding the wide line which separates the bikeway
 KP> from the road" or the shoulder is actually illegal.  Until last year
 LR> The roads I was referring to do not have a bikeway connected to it.
 LR> There might be a 12-24 inch paved shoulder, but that's all it is.  It
 LR> is usually strewn with broken glass and stones so bikers prefer the
 LR> main pavement near the white line.  Some, if they are really moving,
 LR> ride legally in the passenger tire area to the left of the line.  Cars
The debris on the shoulder is a rather universal problem.  Traffic sweeps the
debris from the roadway onto the shoulder.  As a rule of thumb, the position
you mention (in the right tire area) is the preferred one, although I will at
times ride even further into the lane.  The issue is visibility.  You are
more visible there than you are on the shoulder.  And on the shoulder you are
particularly vulnerable to cross traffic.  The only collision I've had with a
car was partly my fault because I was riding so far right that I wasn't
visible to the car backing out of a drive and had no manuvering room.
 KP> Texas law specified that the only _vehicles_ allowed to ride on the
 KP> shoulder were emergency and maintenence vehicles.  Bicycles, being
 KP> vehicles and neither emergency or maintenence vehicles were supposed to
 KP> ride in the roadway.  (Which also excludes the white line.)
 LR> Do Texas drivers accept bikers on the road without a hassle?  Here in
 LR> Illinois, most drivers do, but those few who feel inconvenienced make
 LR> it risky for most of us who like to avoid confrontation.
It is about the same here.  I ride between 5-6 thousand miles a year on
streets and highways in Texas.  Probably about once a month I encounter a
jerk driver.  But I encounter about the same number of jerks when driving a
car.  The vast majority of motorists are probably more scared of a bicyclist
than bicyclists are of them.  And generally, if a bicyclist is operating in a
safe and predictable and friendly manner, the motorists will respond in kind.
    ===  ==== =   _@
    Ken Peck +  _ \<._
    =========  (_)/ (_)   Kenneth_Peck@clr.com
... Recursion, noun:  see recursion.
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