• evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.worldEnglish
    17·
    10 days ago

    I’ve seen someone with a pool noodle sticking off the side of their bike at the minimum passing distance for cars. I think it’s a great passive option.

    I think even better is one of the fiberglass reflective marker rods.

    If you wanted to be extra good, you could run a flashing light out to the end of it, and if you wanted to be extra bad, you could place something like broken spark plug ceramic at the end that would scratch up a car, but be harmless to humans.

    • Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      7·
      10 days ago

      The pool noodle is good, but I dunno if I’d want to bike with a stick poking out from my bike towards cars. Can you pit maneuver a bike? Because it seems like the stick would make it more vulnerable to that.

      • SpikesOtherDog@ani.socialEnglish
        7·
        10 days ago

        The fiberglass sticks are flexible, and should bend or break before the biker is harmed, assuming the stick is near the rear wheel. The front hub is too prone to being twisted, and there is more torque the farther you go from the rear wheel.

        It would also be a liability to everything around you, so padding it with the noodle at the end or a tennis ball might be better.

      • evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        10 days ago

        Like the other person said, they are really flexible. Really, my dream would be to have something like that that’s on a hinge, or is otherwise deployable while riding so you could have it out while on roads, but put it out of the way while on bike paths.

    • 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘬@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      7 days ago

      I’ve seen someone with a pool noodle sticking off the side of their bike at the minimum passing distance for cars.

      A better and less passive-aggressive solution to make cars pass at the minimum distance is psychology.

      If you ride your bike on the outer right part of the road, car drivers tend to squeeze trough on the same lane because the center line also is a “psychological barrier” they do not want to cross. And “since there is enough space on my lane, I stay in my lane”.

      The solution here is simple: Do not drive on the outer part of the road. Imagine you’re in a car on the passenger seat. Ride your bike where you would sit in relation to the road. You’re still on the right side of the right lane but this gives not enough space to squeeze through, and when not being able to squeeze through, drivers tend to properly use the opposite lane for passing by.

      Source: 30+ years of urban cycling.