Critical mass and driver behavior – a story

[lordofthemark]

My wife told me of an experience and thought the forum might find it interesting, so here goes.

She was driving on King Street toward Old Town, and noted a cyclist taking the lane, a couple of cars ahead of her – in the section before the bike lanes start. One car passed him on the left by crossing the solid yellow line. Another honked at him (I do not recall if my wife said if the honker passed or how). My wife disapproved of both motorist behaviors and simply drove slowly till there was an opportunity to safely pass (I think either the cyclists took the bike lanes when they began or turned off King Street) She told me she did this because she had heard from me about sharing the road and taking the lane and all that.

I would like to discuss the issue of drivers crossing the yellow line to pass in another thread -for now I would simply like to point this out as an example of how the increase in the number of cyclists (in this case, me) impacts the behavior of drivers – in this case by making cyclists’ family members better informed about cycling.

Your own similar experiences with family members, either reinforcing or contradicting this, would be interesting.

Topic

[Sunyata]

@cyclingfool 98936 wrote:

On the topic of double yellow lines, I recently read this. It’s long, but well thought out and well written.

http://iamtraffic.org/engineering/crossing-double-yellow-line/

I read this article too and agreed with it.

When dealing with a slow moving vehicle (such as a bicycle, a horse, a tractor, a piece of paving equipment, etc.), I think that if a driver uses due regard and common sense that it will be fine to pass said vehicle on a double solid. As a cyclist, I have never had an issue with a driver safely crossing a double solid to pass me. As a driver, I have never had an issue with safely crossing a double solid to pass a slow moving vehicle or a non-moving piece of debris in the road.

[Orestes Munn]

@cyclingfool 98936 wrote:

On the topic of double yellow lines, I recently read this. It’s long, but well thought out and well written.

http://iamtraffic.org/engineering/crossing-double-yellow-line/

Interesting. I had no idea the issue was so fraught.

Data point: I was passed by 18 MVs on Jones Mill-Beach Drive between Jones Bridge and Cedar Lane (that’s in the Red state of Maryland), this a.m.. All crossed the double yellow and all gave me plenty of room.

[mstone]

Risk assessment by the method of “it hasn’t been a problem for me yet” is what caused the loss of two space shuttles, and less spectacular failings on a daily basis. You asked why people are concerned about double line crossing, then mocked and dismissed the answer. That doesn’t change the fact that people are still concerned about the issue. It would be nice if there were reliable data that we could use to objectively assess the risk, but there isn’t. We know that cyclists are killed by poorly executed passes, but we don’t have solid data on the specifics or on which mitigations prove effective. So we’re left trying to make the best of a bad situation. I’m really unsure why that seems to offend you so much.

[Orestes Munn]

@mstone 99003 wrote:

Risk assessment by the method of “it hasn’t been a problem for me yet” is what caused the loss of two space shuttles, and less spectacular failings on a daily basis. You asked why people are concerned about double line crossing, then mocked and dismissed the answer. That doesn’t change the fact that people are still concerned about the issue. It would be nice if there were reliable data that we could use to objectively assess the risk, but there isn’t. We know that cyclists are killed by poorly executed passes, but we don’t have solid data on the specifics or on which mitigations prove effective. So we’re left trying to make the best of a bad situation. I’m really unsure why that seems to offend you so much.

Heavens, I’m not offended! I’m the prickly, disinhibited, maniac who’s barely holding it together in this rather polite venue.

Risk assessment? The space shuttle example has a tiny denominator (the number of launches, whatever that is); whereas, the number of cyclists passed over a double yellow is very, very large. Both are high-consequence events, but one is relatively common (high risk) and one is rare (low risk), pace the recent tragedy in Annapolis. The message for me is don’t go up in a rocket.

[Author]

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