Vehicular cycling

In his book Effective Cycling, Forester contends that "Cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles".

As a method for strong and confident riders to cope with fast motor traffic, many recommendations of vehicular cycling are widely applied.

In lanes where this is possible, vehicular cycling suggests riding about 1 metre (3.3 ft) to the outside of overtaking traffic[9] and about the same distance from roadside hazards such as the gutter seam.

For example, California's CVC 22107 Rule of the Road specifies, "No person shall turn a vehicle from a direct course or move right or left upon a roadway until such movement can be made with reasonable safety and then only after the giving of an appropriate signal.

As vehicular cyclists approach a junction of ways, the principle of "destination positioning" comes into play, and they should position themselves laterally according to their destination (left, straight or right): Vehicular cyclists do not avoid riding in bicycle lanes, rather they decide whether to ride in the space demarcated as a bike lane based on their own judgement about safety.

The steps of the process for each lane change are: Some have claimed that transportation engineers in the US have become too focused on separating cyclists from pedestrians and motorists.

According to an Institute of Transportation Engineers Journal piece by Martin Pion, the implementation of bike lanes can limit competent cyclists perceptions of where it is permitted to cycle.

He also notes some sport cyclists prefer to ride in lane, compared with a parallel path, because it reduces the risk of collision with side turning motorists assuming there is not a strong separation of road users.

In Pedaling Revolution, Jeff Mapes states that Forester "fought bike lanes, European-style cycletracks, and just about any form of traffic calming", and "saw nothing wrong with sprawl and an auto-dependent lifestyle.

"[18] Critical Mass co-founder Chris Carlsson describes vehicular cycling as a naïve, polarizing "ideology" that "essentially advocates bicyclists should strive to behave like cars on the streets of America.

[22][23][24][25][26] The rise of cell phone distracted driving has increased the chance that if a motorist is drifting into a shoulder or bike lane, it is because they are not paying attention.

Cities that are structured that way report a high degree of bicycle usage and low injury rates, such as in the Netherlands.