A quick biking thought

Some of the recent criticism of biking has noted bikers’ tendency to creep up next to cars so that they are at the front of the line when the light turns green. As a new biker, I also used to find this irritating–“why can’t bikers just wait in line like everyone else?” Eventually I realized that it’s actually a safety issue. A car is more likely to see a biker who is already in front of them than a biker squeezed between their right door and the curb. The times I’ve been knocked off my bike (not counting getting doored) have all been incidents of cars sideswiping me. It might be because the drivers were vindictive jerks, but I think it’s more likely they just didn’t see me. If I was in front of them, they would have.

At many intersections in DC, the pedestrian stoplight changes to green a few seconds before the car stoplight. I suspect that this is to give pedestrians a head start. Bikers moving to the front at red lights is no different–it puts us in the drivers’ line of sight and minimizes the chances that they’ll accidentally run us over.