By Mighk – Commute Orlando
“‘I’ll see it when I believe it’ is more accurate than ‘I’ll believe it when I see it.’”
– Social psychologist Karl Weick
Regular readers of this blog know we recommend an assertive lane position when the lane is too narrow to share. Our rationale was initially that when a cyclist is in the right wheel track, some motorists will still attempt to squeeze past within the lane instead of making a full lane change. That’s still true. But we’ve also observed that a more assertive lane position — either in the center of the lane or just left of center — gets motorists to change lanes earlier on roads with more than one lane in each direction.
Our hypothesis was that from a significant distance, a cyclist in the right wheel track (where the League of American Bicyclists has long recommended cyclists travel if the lane is too narrow to share) looks like he or she is on the edge line, so the motorist stays in that lane until he or she gets close enough to realize there’s not really adequate width for safe passing. By then the opportunity for changing lanes may have closed. The motorist then either waits and stews, or “shoves” his way through between the cyclist and the traffic in the next lane.
When the cyclist is in the center of the lane, it’s immediately clear to the motorist that passing within the lane is impossible, so the driver changes lanes at the earliest opportunity.
The added benefit we’ve discovered using a video camera on the dashboard of a following car is that drivers farther back are alerted to the situation by the lane changers ahead of them, and get to see the cyclist themselves at an earlier opportunity.
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https://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2010/11/29/helping-motorists-with-lane-positioning/oldId.20110419193209844