Which side of the road/Lane to ride...

Hi,

Which is the best side to ride, left hand side, middle or the right hand side of the left side ?

Depends which lane I ride in - if in the RH lane on the freeway and there are barriers I tend to keep to the left of the lane.

Otherwise the RH side of lanes usually - when on my own. In a group, it depends which side the rider in front of me is riding.

I ride in the Left of the Right hand lane or the Right of the Left hand lane.
The difference is only about 1m...

On the open road, I like to ride Left of the left lane, so that nobody sneaks up on my left.
When leading a group, I tend to ride in this position as I can see the staggered rows behind me better.


I never ride in the MIDDLE of any lane - that is exactly where all the oil, diesel and other sundry road hazards are.
Tyres sweep the road surface somewhat and deposit bolts, nails, and other bits in the area they DON'T move through - the middle...!

On the open road, if there are a lot of overloaded trucks, even the tar road may become rutted and corrugated.
That is the ONLY time I consider riding in the middle of a lane - and then only for as long as the ruts and corrugations persist.
If the road conditions permit, I prefer to pass on the right side...as long as it isn't rutted !

I avoid the middle for reasons RIchard gave. If roads are quiet, I ride wherever I have the most tar on both sides of me, i.e. space to swerve .. If it is busy traffic on the open road I tend to keep left as not to be too close to the middle when cars coming from the front overtakes etc

I always try to leave enough space to avoid the rubbish in the middle but not enough for a car to think it can invade it. On the rural roads, however I find the middle better because the potholes tend to be on the sides and there are not too much diesel & oil in the middle

In towns I try and stay as close to the white line as possible safe(middle) I find a lot dogs and cats playing chicken in the roads and I can avoid them in any direction. I must ad that this is early mornings. In daytime same roads I will move more to the left but not in the middle. On highway I like the left lane around the rh side . I feel comfortable there And I can see people coming. When I see someone catching up, I will move to the left and give them enough space. Verry seldom it is cages mostky "winties" on 1200's