California's 3ft Passing Law

[Mave]

Magic919 said:

It really doesn't need further explanation.

That's because there really can be no explanation why you think its OK for a police car to jump a red light, undertake a cylist with inadequate clearance, and cut back in front of him; but its not OK for a cyclist to position himself considerately and safely with his lane.

[Magic919]

Yeah, that must be it.

[thetrash]

I've just been in California and cycling there was a refreshing change from riding here. Almost all of the drivers gave a minimum of 3ft, waved you through at the stop signs and generally very behaved around cyclists. I drove through a huge sportive called Best Buddies(unfortunate name for me)along the Big Sur which makes the Fred Whitton look like it's flat, it was better marshalled than the Tour of Britain with the police stopping cars from overtaking coming the opposite way to protect the riders and showing no tolerance for any poor driving.

[5potTurbo]

Wow!
We could do with some legislation locally. On a 60km ride last Saturday, I had to use a fast country road to link between 2 cycle routes. A laden HGV passed me giving me no more than 1ft space, and he was doing 90km/h, and it very nearly put me in the ditch on the right side of the road, the .

[mygoldfishbowl]

Mave said:

mygoldfishbowl said:

Edit. No, I'm wrong. I just measured an arm & it's only 32 inches long so I'd have to lean a little to be able to touch a car 3 foot away.

Edited by mygoldfishbowl on Monday 15th September 18:36

Yes, but was it your arm or an orang utan's? :-) I'm 6'3, so erring towards the top of the scale, and mine are 28"....

I find that strange. I have always had freakishly strong hands so maybe I do have orang-utan arms.

Maybe our measuring points are different, I measured from the tip of my middle finger to my shoulder right above the pit.