PBE15: Take Your Lane Makes the 3 Foot Rule Come to Life with Adjustable Safety Flag

Yikes. That thing would be like a red cape to a bull. It’s just inviting trouble.

^i bet he would think twice if it was the Stars and Stripes motif

I think a few people would take umbrage at this:

https://twitter.com/StevilKinevil/status/663779696211984384

I saw a picture of someone using this on twitter and the hateful ignorant things that were said about the rider were horrifying. As JMG DC said, it really is a red cape.

Sheet metal screws on the end, just inside the 3′ limit, of course.

I had a customer fashion one of these himself here in Houston, he would replace the flag at least every month due to wear and damage from drivers.

@Rixter
My thoughts exactly.

Stupid beyond word.

The best thing about bike commuting is being able to pass close and split cars.

This is giving up your biggest advantage in addition to just being a deuche.

Around here, I don’t know who would rip that thing off faster, a car or another cyclist…

To Eric and MM’s point.
I have a beer cap pointy side out on my left bar end with the intention of taking a ‘paint sample’ if I am ever unlucky enough to need it.

Kris, You are putting us all in jeopardy by riding as far to the right as possible. You have a legal right to be on the road, exercise that right. While I ride to the right, I never ride all the way to the right. I leave myself enough room to have some semblance of an escape route for those times my spidey sense starts to tingle. Plus it allows you some flexibility to get around road obstacles. Furthermore, I’ll get into the center of a lane when approaching certain intersections when there is a stop sign or stoplight – to ‘guarantee I have a space at said sign or signal. This is to prevent cars from pushing you onto the sidewalk while you stop or wait for the light (always check behind before moving over). And except for very busy streets (i’m not a selfless ahole) I ride two abreast unless it’s posted otherwise. Again, it’s my right. The more of us that do it, the more commonplace and accepted it becomes. When you ride way over to the right you are telling drivers that’s where all cyclists ‘belong’, thus inviting them to cut close to those of us they feel aren’t riding far enough over. Make them go around you so they learn to go around me…

This is the without doubt the dumbest bike product I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

Can it double as a kickstand when it’s down?
Will the recumbent trikes hang with you when it’s up?

If only everyone on the saturday morning group ride had one of these.

I agree not the best Idea, I think @Vincent is a better idea, makes you a little bigger, and has a nice big reflector on it. Also agree with @Zorro, in City traffic you loose all your biking advantages.

“Stupid beyond word.
The best thing about bike commuting is being able to pass close and split cars.
This is giving up your biggest advantage in addition to just being a d*.
Around here, I don’t know who would rip that thing off faster, a car or another cyclist…”

Agreed.

“When asked how drivers react to the flag, David told us that the reaction around his home in Washington, DC has been great.” I have a hard time believing that statement.

I ran something like this for a while, just a flag zip tied to my rear rack. It worked well in traffic, but very poorly on bike paths, which is why I don’t run it anymore. The drivers who are incited against something like this are probably already upset at any cyclist who asserts their right to the road, so no real change.

Awful. Just, awful.

Now that I think of it, I saw a version this on kook_of_the_day yesterday!! https://instagram.com/p/91I0LyMkQg/?taken-by=kook_of_the_day

Phew… seeing things like this allways makes me feel Lucky to be living in the Netherlands, where most motorist know how to deal with cyclists.
I sincerely hope for you guys that cycling will finally catch on big time in the US!

I do think this flag is a bad idea: Some motorists will be irritated and the cyclist will be far too wide to squeeze through the traffic holes that makes him/her speed-king of the city.

3 foot is too much, anyway, imho. I’m perfectly comfortable with a city bus passing me at ~2 ft.

“I give roadies all the space I can. Conversely when I do ride the road, I ride as far to side as I can and wish other cyclists would do the same …oh yeah, and single file please. I really do respect fellow cyclists, but some make it hard to do that.”

Agreed. although I will naturally take a full lane when necessary at traffic intersections. My philosophy is to never deliberately impede the progress of anyone else when I can safely avoid doing so, which I have learned in decades of cycling, is quite often.

My local municipal code (Seattle, WA, USA) states that cyclists who do not keep pace with traffic have to move to the right to let people by. This seems reasonable. I have observed a subset of cyclists who fairly slowly ride down the center of the road, however, with a huge line of cars gathering behind them, when they could easily just move to the right as the municipal code demands and let them by. I know a guy in the cycling community who does this. At a local ‘cyclist’s pub’, he once had a lot to say about how this is a political statement about his ‘rights’ on the road. To me, this seems a bit much and turns cycling into something I’d rather not explore. I discreetly decline to ever ride with him and his little group, out busily blocking roadways and pissing people off.

“I have observed a subset of cyclists who fairly slowly ride down the center of the road, however, with a huge line of cars gathering behind them, when they could easily just move to the right as the municipal code demands and let them by.”

The amount of aerodynamic drag this flag would create isn’t going to speed them up any.

As somebody else pointed out, a 3-foot flag will force cars to pass at 5 feet or more which might not be safe on narrow streets and is beyond what the 3-foot law demands. Looks like not much thinking went into this.

This is probably illegal in more jurisdictions than it is legal. For example, in Washington State, side markers and other safety devices cannot extend more than 3″ from the body of the vehicle (RCW 46.44.010) and shall not pose risk to pedestrians (RCW 46.44.101).

Additionally, as these would be considered to be part of the bicycle, and the driver cannot ascertain whether hitting it would endanger the cyclist, they must pass at a safe distance of >3 feet above and beyond the normal width of the bicycle… in other words six feet wide of the bicycle. This probably pushes them into oncoming traffic even if the cyclist is riding as far right as is safe… in other words using this increases danger to overtaking traffic. Using one of these is a d* move in my opinion.

Best comments in this article by beezus and AlanM. I’d be pissed off too if I had to go wide around another cyclist in traffic and get pushed way out into the road. Also, cars must pass you with some safe distance, and so your 3′ flag becomes 5′ or 6′ and pushes cars probably across the centerline. This is just a terrible idea that will only leave drivers hating cyclists even more than they already do.