Two Hazards for discussion: parked Cars and car counts...

It occurred to me from another post that maybe someone doesn't know about a few hazards that might not be so obvious.

First, in many town streets, the only place to ride is on the road between the parked cars and the flowing traffic. As you ride, do you check to see if someone is still in each vehicle? If a driver exits his/her vehicle while you're passing through ... BOOM! Always speed check and always look ... the only "out" in that situation puts you right into traffic.

Second, an item I call "car counting." You normally are aware of the first car approaching from behind. You can usually hear it if you haven't spotted it already. Importantly, because of noise from the passing vehicle, it's really hard to simply hear whether any cars are lined up behind the first one. Once the first car passes, you must be aware as to potential traffic behind the leader. You may not have the ability to use the road to avoid any hazards on the shoulder due to the line up of vehicles that follow, and your ear is not a good enough detector of the traffic behind you.

Well, there's my small piece of advice for anyone's benefit.

I found out the hard way this past April after I got doored and suffered a seperated shoulder and trashed a brand new bike that it is ILLEGAL in CT to ride between the parked cars and traffic. We are supposed to stay in the traffic lane when there are parked cars present. Nevermind that in a tourist area such as this the traffice generally crawls along and it is not practical to ride in the traffice lane. Right now my attornies and the driver's insurance are still fighting it out...

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05 Specialized Roubaix Comp / 04 Specialized Sirrus Elite

Wow ... I'll hafta look that one up ... Where I live, the sidewalk is illegal. But riding in traffic would be suicide - never mind road rage risks!!!

I move through the area cautiously and gap off traffic to get past the parked car line ups. It's just not worth it to power up for the mile stretch of high risk area ...

Most states require cyclists to ride at least three feet away from parked cars. While this decreases our risk of getting doored, it increases our risk of getting rear ended by an irate cab driver

Hazard #3: Just because a car doesn't have its turn signal on doesn't mean it isn't going to turn. While it's commonly acknowledged that it's insane to cut off a lane of car traffic to make a right turn from the left lane, many drivers will do it to cyclists without a second thought.