I can absolutely guarantee you that not a single road within 10 miles of my home was built for a horse or carriage and maybe 3% have history back to pre-auto time periods. They were built specifically for automobiles travelling at speed.
Read the fucking law. You are wrong. Here's California's bit of law grantin cyclists the same rigts and responsibilities as other road users:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_law_in_California
> 21200. (a) Every person riding a bicycle upon a highway has all the rights and is subject to all the provisions applicable to the driver of a vehicle by this division... except those provisions which by their very nature can have no application.
The rights of cyclists to use the road is specifically written into law.
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc22400.htm
No person shall drive upon a highway at such a slow speed as to impede or block the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, unless the reduced speed is necessary for safe operation, because of a grade, or in compliance with law.
http://www.carinsurance.com/Articles/driving-too-slow-ticket...
That's right. Every state has a law on the books that says something along the lines of: "A person shall not drive a motor vehicle at such a slow speed so as to impede or block the normal and reasonable forward movement of traffic."
But does anyone ever actually get pulled over and ticketed? Absolutely -- and the ticket counts the same as any other violation against your driver's license and car insurance.
Let me know when bikes can travel at speed with the flow of traffic and I'll retract every unkind thing I've ever said about bicyclists.
>Wait, you have special roads? Dofferet from all those other roads? But not so special that bicycles were forbidden from using them? Not like all the roads that bicycles are forbidden from using?
Oh, so you've moved the goalpost from "built for bikes" to "bikes are permitted". Okay, I can play that game if you want.
Read the law above and let me know the last time you saw a bike getting a ticket for driving too slow and blocking traffic. Because that nonsense happens around where I live pretty much every day and I'm caught in it at least once a week. Yet, I've never once seen a cop pull over a bicyclist and issue a ticket for impeding the flow of traffic.
I will happily share the road with any non-impeding mode of transport anybody chooses to use. But once you start impeding the flow of traffic and then getting belligerent because people have the indignity to complain about it, well fuck you, I have zero patience for that.
Bike speed runs on human effort, id say a human being going with a bike at car speed is unreasonable. Also there are many very "natural" considerations on bike speeds: bad terrain, just going over a hill, cramps, and all sorts of bodily flaws that make speed limits on bikes unreasonable.
I would never use a bike on a highway though, but there is an undeniable benefit in supporting bikes in any big city, for health, transit, space, economic and environmental issues.
> It does permit them to impede traffic where doing otherwise would be unsafe.
True. Just like farm equipment and horses.
That is neither a minimum speed nor a general injunction against impeding the flow of traffic.
Edited to add: The comment above was changed from an assertion that the CA law didn't apply everywhere. Responding to the new comment:
Yes, there is a specific impediment law. One that generally permits impediment of traffic while placing some bounds on it. The bounds are more lenient than what a bicyclist should be doing - 21656 would totally permit biking (or driving) substantially under the speed limit for hours so long as you're only inconveniencing four cars, but that would make you a jerk. If someone's waiting on you, get over when you get the chance.
It's certainly the case that it's better and safer to ride (or drive) where you have space to stop, and that that should be preferred when picking a route or building a road, but other concerns can sometimes wind up dominating.
So what's stupid about the response? Either their is or there isn't an impediment law. It sounds like there is, just that "impediment" has been specifically defined in CA.
I feel like you were asserting there wasn't an impediment law, then citing me one. Maybe I'm just irritated at everybody else and it's bleeding over into this thread.
Reiterating what I said there, with a slightly different spin - it is not the case that, in general, "impeding the flow of traffic with your travel" is illegal. That is not really changed by the fact that there are some limits on just how extreme some aspects of that impediment can get; there is plenty of room to bicycle in a way that impedes some traffic and does not fall afowl of the law.
Most relevant to the context here, it is not a law that a police officer could use to ticket a cyclist for the mere act of riding slowly relative to cars, even if they are impeding the flow of several cars.
We can agree I suppose to disagree on legal interpretations.
What were they for exactly?
0% of the vehicle purposed roads in my area are meant for bikes.
However, I don't know how many miles of bike trails there are in my region, but the county next to mine has ~500miles of bike trail, with some non-negligible percentage being ultra high quality purpose built bike trails (paved, marked and lighted in many places.) I think my county has less, but the bits I'm aware of are all ultra high quality with most built within the last 20 years.
Is it world class? No. But I'd prefer if it was and I'd be happy to pay higher taxes to support it.
Also, as far as cycling in London traffic goes, most of the time it is the cars holding me up, as a bike is quicker than the average speed of traffic. If I am holding up a line of cars, I will cut in behind a parked car and let them pass, is far more dangerous for me to have a load of stressed drivers queuing up.
One thing, roads are dangerous places. I know this and have had it drilled into me since I was a kid, but given this is the UK the advice is not to stay out of the road, but how to be in the road safely, whether you are a pedestrian, car or cyclist. Stuff like always walking on the side facing into traffic when on country roads and what to do around horses.
You might think this attitude is woefully dangerous, but I prefer it to a society where I could be get arrested for jaywalking.
I posted this elsewhere as an example of the kind of nonsense I'm frequently dealing with where I live.
This is not my area and I didn't take the picture, but it's near enough looking to quite a few roads near my area that it may as well be. Even if it was just one of these guys, I guarantee you he'd be in the middle of the road impeding traffic. I see it weekly and it's unbelievably irritating and dangerous.
And what is in that picture is a lot less dangerous than a slow agricultural vehicle, which you should also expect on the road from time to time, and is also obviously a cycling race team going somewhere with a follow vehicle.
You shouldn't drive faster than you can see in front on a road like that anyway.