Carbon Trace

Check out Keri Caffrey’s latest post about lane positioning and safety at Commute Orlando:

A significant contributor in crashes between cars and bikes is poor lane positioning by the cyclist. Riding too far right makes the cyclist hard to see and encourages motorists to squeeze past—dangerously close—in narrow lanes. In an effort to increase cycling safety and decrease crashes between bikes and cars, cycling educators are teaching cyclists to ride assertively on our roads.

Keri’s graphic illustrates the point. Riding too far to the right puts you in danger. But, you may be asking, what about the Missouri law that says bicycles must ride to the right? Here’s what the law (307.190) says:

Every person operating a bicycle or motorized bicycle at less than the posted speed or slower than the flow of traffic upon a street or highway shall ride as near to the right side of the roadway as safe, exercising due care when passing a standing vehicle or one proceeding in the same direction, except when making a left turn, when avoiding hazardous conditions, when the lane is too narrow to share with another vehicle, or when on a one-way street. Bicyclists may ride abreast when not impeding other vehicles.

Notice the qualifiers. You must ride “to the right side of the roadway.” The gutter is not the roadway. So you are not required to ride in it. On roads without gutters, there is usually a gutter area (sometimes marked with a white line). You are not required to ride in the gutter area. I consider the right side of the roadway on most urban lanes to be the area generally where a car’s right tires would likely run (an area that’s actually quite easy to see in most cases due to the tremendous wear-n-tear cars put on roads).

Bicyclists may command lanes that are too narrow to share — generally lane <12 feet wide. Lanes at least 14 feet wide are considered shareable, i.e. there is room for the bicyclist to ride to the right (not in the gutter) and for cars to pass at a safe distance (depending upon the speed limit).

The roads throughout much of Springfield’s urban core are narrow enough, and the speed limits slow enough, to make commanding the lane natural and expected.

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