Comments on: Queue-Jumping

By: ChipSeal

ChipSeal — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:23:24 +0000

Have you considered passing on the left?

There is no way to squeeze you, motorists shy from the oncoming lane and tend to position themselves about two feet away. Oncoming traffic will yield to the right side of their lane and they see you clearly. On-comers also prevent cars in the queue from turning left into a driveway on you. (In that event, if they surprise you, you have space to swerve.)

You avoid the cars turning left into a driveway problem completely, and folks turning left from a driveway will be creeping their nose out into the lane watching for oncoming traffic.

It can feel breathtakingly bold at first, but it is less risky and faster than passing on the right with narrow lanes.

By: Keri

Keri — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 03:41:05 +0000

Yeah, that one came up in my feed today. It’s hard to get a straight story from a news report, but my guess would be he tried to pass while the bus was moving slow approaching the intersection, then the bus sped up. At that point he would have been in the driver’s blind spot.

Never, ever pass large vehicles on the right. You have no control over your safety once you are alongside them. You have total control when you are behind them with enough distance to react to anything they might do.

…

And I’m with Rodney. Finding another route or waiting in the line of traffic vs passing a queue eliminates a lot of unnecessary risk from a cyclist’s travels. There are situations where it is safe, but most of the time I just prefer not to do it.

By: fred_dot_u

fred_dot_u — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 03:08:14 +0000

I can’t be certain of everything, since the media provided its usual lack of valid information, but today’s television brought news of the death of a bicycle rider in a collision with a bus. According to published reports, the rider passed the bus (probably on the right) and then was passed by the bus.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/orl-bk-votran-121608,0,6173212.story?track=rss

That intersection, westbound, goes from four lanes to two lanes, with the right most lane changing to a right-turn only lane. I would not be surprised to learn that the bike rider veered into the bus in the middle of the passing.

It’s not queue-jumping, but the consequences were just as severe for this one rider. I feel sadness for the driver, because it’s unlikely that he could have done much more than he did.

By: rodney

rodney — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 02:14:13 +0000

I normally route my commute from areas like this. However, I understand this is not always the option. Being relatively new to commuting, I have not gained the “inner strength” or skills to employ this method.

I have been riding with friends that do and several “near misses” involving them had occurred. Quite scary to me, best of luck!

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 11:49:24 +0000

I try to stay away from Edgewater. I drove it the other day and was surprised how confusing the northbound pavement markings are for motorists.

By: Keri

Keri — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:37:00 +0000

Could an on-coming vehicle turn left across my path?

I was hit by a car this way. He was not turning left, but crossing Edgewater at a weird angle. I was passing the queue in the bike lane. The majority of my really close calls have also been while passing slow or stopped traffic on Edgewater.

I usually try to find alternate routes to avoid situations where I’d be stuck behind traffic in a narrow lane. And I’m very cautious about passing them in a bike lane or wide lane.