Quote:
Originally Posted by bluegoose
You know, I was perfectly willing to drop this thing several posts ago, but these last two posts deserve some attention.
First of all, you're being awfully selective with which parts of the driver handbook you are choosing to quote. For instance you forgot to quote the section in there that states:
or this:
Are you sure there wasn't any crap on the side of the road, perhaps that he could see that you could not?
And remind me again which three "tips" the cyclist in question broke? With the limited info that you gave us, I can only see one - running the stop sign (I agree, this was inexcusable).
And your quotes :
are irrelevant to this discussion. You said it was a 2 lane road. You wouldn't expect a car to pull over to the side of the road to let you pass, would you? Thats ridiculous.
While he may have been able to pull over the shoulder, you have no way of really knowing if it was safe to ride a bike there. And he was perfectly within his rights, according the the great state of Utah and their DMV handbook, to do what he did.
I'm just sayin', since he's not here to defend himself, someone else has to try.
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-Tips #1, 4, & 6.
Yes, I'm absolutely sure there was nothing unsafe about riding a bicycle within six feet of the curb, which would have easily allowed me the three feet of distance necessary to legally pass him.
I have, indeed, experienced cars pulling over on this portion of road to allow others (including me) to pass. Again, it's a two-lane road, but could easily support four lanes PLUS a bike lane.
That said, yes, it would be ridiculous for a motorist traveling the speed limit to pull over for me. Just as it is ridiculous (not to mention illegal) for a cyclist to ride in the middle of the actual travel lane when it is safe for him to ride closer to the curb.
I actually do have a way of knowing that it was safe for the cyclist to travel on the right side of the lane - I not only could see the road and see that there were no obstructions, but I've driven the road every day for three years and have plenty of experiences passing cars turning left on the right side of the road.