Why are we supposed to ride a bike facing the same direction as the traffic flow?
- Thread starter Maria
- Start date
martinrcota
New member
a few reasons.
1. you are operating a vehicle on the roadway.
2. if you get hit by a car following you, it will hurt less and do less damage than if you ran into a car coming towards you since there is increased momentum coming from both directions. if your going 10 mph, and a car hits you going 20, your really only getting hit by about 10 mph vehicle (sorry if this isn't completely mathematically correct). IF you get hit by a car going 20 and you going 10, but your going towards each other, thats like getting hit by something going about 30 mph.
3. ITS THE LAW!!!!
even on a bike path on the edge of the road, you could have a car come right at you... They had to pick sides for each direction, and they did what made the most sense. You can't have bikes in the road going one way while a bike in a bike path on the same side of theroad going the other way, because what if a car parks or drives into the bike path (which I have seen these idiots do millions of times in DC and hate it!) and the bike needs to leave the bike path. Basically it all comes down to your operating a vehicle, and you follow a lot of the same laws as vehicles... (they are very lenient on bikes though usually in regards to these things) Bikes should really obey stop signals and what not, but they don't and I never see them get anything, I also hate how people on bikes use the road and crosswalks. SERIOUSLY MAKE A CHOICE AND STICK TO IT! LOL!!
hope this helped
1. you are operating a vehicle on the roadway.
2. if you get hit by a car following you, it will hurt less and do less damage than if you ran into a car coming towards you since there is increased momentum coming from both directions. if your going 10 mph, and a car hits you going 20, your really only getting hit by about 10 mph vehicle (sorry if this isn't completely mathematically correct). IF you get hit by a car going 20 and you going 10, but your going towards each other, thats like getting hit by something going about 30 mph.
3. ITS THE LAW!!!!
even on a bike path on the edge of the road, you could have a car come right at you... They had to pick sides for each direction, and they did what made the most sense. You can't have bikes in the road going one way while a bike in a bike path on the same side of theroad going the other way, because what if a car parks or drives into the bike path (which I have seen these idiots do millions of times in DC and hate it!) and the bike needs to leave the bike path. Basically it all comes down to your operating a vehicle, and you follow a lot of the same laws as vehicles... (they are very lenient on bikes though usually in regards to these things) Bikes should really obey stop signals and what not, but they don't and I never see them get anything, I also hate how people on bikes use the road and crosswalks. SERIOUSLY MAKE A CHOICE AND STICK TO IT! LOL!!
hope this helped
Grillparzer
New member
Bicycles are vehicles and are safest on the road when ridden like vehicles. Surprising the drivers of cars by being on the wrong side of the road is generally considered a bad idea.