How narrow does a lane have to be for you to take the lane?

[TwoWheelsDC]

@Terpfan 136414 wrote:

As a general rule of thumb, I try to take the middle of the road. And, to be perfectly honest, I don’t really care if I were riding in MD or elsewhere and the law said otherwise. I’ve had enough people try insane things to know that if you leave them an inch, they will see it as a couple miles of space. Besides, there are always reasons you need to move one way or the other (potholes, glass, dooring threat, double-parked vehicles, etc) so that extra space can make all the difference.

If ever questioned, just say “the middle of the lane was as far right as was practicable to ride.” Use that ambiguity to your advantage!

[Anonymous]

I agree with everyone else, “it depends”.

*It depends very strongly on sightlines.
*It depends on both my speed (I’m more comfortable close to the curb if I’m moving slower and “dodging” debris, parked cars, etc means “very slowly with plenty of time to check for cars behind me moving to the left”) and the speed of the cars (“3 ft” may be the law regardless of speed, but in practice I’m more comfortable being passed closer by slower moving traffic).
*It depends on whether there is one or multiple car lanes in my direction of travel.
*And on routes I’m familiar with and have ridden previously, it depends on my experience with how drivers tend to treat me on a given stretch of road. I don’t know how to predict it on routes I’m not familiar with, but there are places where drivers are just more patient and will wait for a good passing opportunity, and places where absolutely everyone is impatient as hell and will pass aggressively if given the tiniest hint of an opening.

[Vicegrip]

@DismalScientist 136400 wrote:

It’s because I was sober.

There is a simple fix for that. Let me know if you need help and we can work on it together.

I take the lane when a passing car will need to cross into poor sight line oncoming traffic. I don’t want a car coming back into me mid pass when they see an oncoming car which I 100% think drivers will do. I take the lane when there are lots of parked car doors or blind side street or ped intersections. I have a dislike for car doors for some reason* I try and not ride on fast roads and cause undue slowdowns. I don’t care what the laws are or what my rights are I ride with the goal of not getting hit/hurt. I ride with the expectation that the drivers don’t know the rules or don’t care for them and don’t always pay enough attention. Groaning “I had right of way” from the ditch does little.

*Getting doored hard into a pile when I was a kid and the driver trying to blame me might have something to do with it

[Crickey7]

Center of the lane, with rare exceptions. It just seems to reduce negative driver interactions, a lot.

[ShawnoftheDread]

Do I want to know what vicegrip’s footnote means?

[Author]

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