Rules of the road

To go for a bike ride, we usually drive someplace to start off at a good spot. It seems a little silly that in order to get a good workout, a 30+ minute drive to Virginia may be necessary. A fellow FDA5er bikes to work from Bethesda to Rockville everyday. Living about a mile from work, why couldn’t I bike to the trails? I could!

Rock Creek Trail is not too far from my home… rather Rock Creek is in my backyard but the bike trail does not start until you are little closer to downtown. There are a number of bike trail signs on the road that imply that the roads are biker friendly. I understand that there is a balance of sharing the road or trail with cars or other pedestrians. Cars are sometimes respectful and stay a little behind, and then when it is clear to pass, they drive around. Once going up a big hill, I was teetering from side to side. Fighting to get up and join the others – did a mention it was a BIG hill. I appreciated the driver who stayed behind most likely fearful of driving over me if I fell.

The rules of the road for bikers are not clearly presented to everyone. After looking up some information, I understand why some cars refuse to pass riders until they are coaxed with numerous arm gestures from fellow riders to pass.
So, back to my story… We left from the house and were riding a CLEARLY marked road for bikes (similar sign) when a car honked the horn followed by passing us very closely shouting, “Get the F*** off the road!” With my confidence shattered, I thought we were wrong; there was a sidewalk available. But the sidewalks are for PEDESTRIANS – not bikers.

After some research, I found that I do not need to be hugging the white line on the road all the time (which I thought was a courtesy to allow cars to pass). I am allowed to take up the entire lane (on roads with speed limits <50). link and for a more comprehensive Biking 101, read more from that website.

There are some drivers out there that are down right disrespectful. There have been accidents. I read these two articles on the web that makes me a little more safety conscience. http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/traffic/assertiv.htm
http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/traffic/motorist.htm
Be sure you are familiar with the rules. Perhaps the roads are okay for bikes, just the cars are not at biker friendly.