[Westy]

I have been thinking about riding to work once the weather warms up. I have one problem though, I have to go through an intersection with major gridlock and I am quite frankly afraid to do it on a bike. There is a traffic light on a road that has two intersections right near the light. The main road backs up and the side roads back up because there is no room. Driving it takes me 4 or 5 cycles of the light to get through. There are no shoulders on the road. See the awesome ascii art below, I have to come in on the road on the lower left. Should I just ride with traffic, ride across lawns and pass the chumps in their cars and hope someone lets me in at some point?

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[douglas]

I have been thinking about riding to work once the weather warms up. I have one problem though, I have to go through an intersection with major gridlock and I am quite frankly afraid to do it on a bike. There is a traffic light on a road that has two intersections right near the light. The main road backs up and the side roads back up because there is no room. Driving it takes me 4 or 5 cycles of the light to get through. There are no shoulders on the road. See the awesome ascii art below, I have to come in on the road on the lower left. Should I just ride with traffic, ride across lawns and pass the chumps in their cars and hope someone lets me in at some point?

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this you? a to b?

 

[Westy]

this you? a to b?

Actually I have to go straight across the intersection with the traffic light. Going up b would mean riding on a 4 lane highway. Like this

...................l..........B.........l
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[blue]

Car surfing!

It's one of the finer pleasures in life...

 

[DRB]

Suck it up princess.

 

[Westy]

Suck it up princess.

Well I plan on sucking it up, was hoping those more experienced riding in traffic would advise on how to handle it. My normal road rides are usually contain to fairly barren roads.

 

[sanjuro]

I cut along the leftside sidewalk on my commute but I have a problem with getting back on the road because cars are coming from behind and in front of me.

Sometimes I don't save any time at all.

In your case, I would ride along the sidewalk until you get to the light, where they should be a crosswalk. Reenter the road there. Just be careful about cars turning right.

 

[stinkyboy]

Dude, if you're scared to cross the street on a bike, I suggest giving your bikes away and trading your riding clothes for one of these numbers:

 

[laura]

I wouldn't sit in traffic simply because people in cars in a situation like that are generally grumpy, trying to make a quick move into traffic and aren't paying very close attention to anything. Sitting in traffic makes me very nervous. That being said, I don't know how I would handle the situation. I don't have to deal with heavy traffic on my commute.

 

[Wumpus]

You can't enter the main road a little farther away to avoid crossing the congesting?

 

[SilentJ]

I just lane split...not fast-like or anything. Sometimes I just push myself along with my foot. Most people in their cars don't care, but I'm in Canada so everybody is 100% polite and is even chatty!

They key for me is to stop 5-6 cars back from the stop light so that I can merge into the lane easily once it starts moving. You're way more alert that the drivers anyways so it always takes them longer to get going. I guess you'd have to ask yourself if you'd be totally screwed if traffic started flowing freely?

 

[Westy]

The only other way takes me more than 20 miles out of my way. If I was going to wake up that early I would beat the traffic anyway, which will probably end up being my solution. There are no sidewalks, and no shoulders.

 

[DRB]

Well I plan on sucking it up, was hoping those more experienced riding in traffic would advise on how to handle it. My normal road rides are usually contain to fairly barren roads.

So you're turning left from A towards the light? In either case I'd do a combination of all of them. At a stop light I always try to work my way up the line, if I can't get by on the pavement and going off road isn't going to be a mess then off road I go, and if I have nowhere to go then I sit tight.

There are some sketchy spots in my commute that I just take a deep breath and hope I don't get killed.

 

[Westy]

Dude, if you're scared to cross the street on a bike, I suggest giving your bikes away and trading your riding clothes for one of these numbers:

I'd hit it after a 6 pack of a strong IPA.

 

[SilentJ]

The only other way takes me more than 20 miles out of my way. If I was going to wake up that early I would beat the traffic anyway, which will probably end up being my solution. There are no sidewalks, and no shoulders.

google us this intersection, yo.

 

[Westy]

I just lane split...not fast-like or anything. Sometimes I just push myself along with my foot. Most people in their cars don't care, but I'm in Canada so everybody is 100% polite and is even chatty!

They key for me is to stop 5-6 cars back from the stop light so that I can merge into the lane easily once it starts moving. You're way more alert that the drivers anyways so it always takes them longer to get going. I guess you'd have to ask yourself if you'd be totally screwed if traffic started flowing freely?

During my normal ride I have to clear the same intersection but with much less traffic. I can usually keep up with cars until I get to the other side, my powermeter always shows my highest outputs at this point. Few things motivate like a redneck in a lifted toyota behind you.

 

[SkaredShtles]

I got nothing to help you but I wanted to say that was some *quality* ASCII art right there.

 

[Westy]

google us this intersection, yo.

Sattelite is old enought not to have all the roads so I drew it in. All the roads are single lane with no shoulder, there is a right only lane right at the light. My path is in blue, traffic backup in red.

 

[splat]

Lane Split ,car surf , wrong way , What ever it takes.

if the cars aren't moving , my Favorite , ride right down the center line.

 

[Westy]

Lane Split ,car surf , wrong way , What ever it takes.

if the cars aren't moving , my Favorite , ride right down the center line.

Road is barely wide enough for two cars, this area has 0% infrastructure improvement and 23% growth. Chances are I will try to leave earlier and if I still hit traffic I'll jump the ditch (no shoulder and a ditch on either side of the road) and ride on lawns. I'll use the MTB with semi slicks.

 

[Trainwreck]

Nice diagram, for my commute I have to ride through a round-a-bout at a freeway intersection with totally clueless drivers. It's great fun in a car or truck with the psychological/bluffing factors but I know if I try that stuff on the bike I'll just get squashed. Doing 3/4 of the circle on the bike is truly death-defying.

 

[T-Blazer]

road gap

 

[Toshi]

i approve of ascii art, lane splitting, and riding down the center line. extra points for grabbing a mirror or roof rack rail and car surfing.