Do you consider yourself a vehicular cyclist? I bet you most of the people that ride bikes in Santa Monica don’t even know the meaning of that term, much less have the confidence to swerve into traffic when they have to make a decision as the one described in the article.

Judging by your statement, I assume you’d support painting sharrows in the rightmost lane of all streets in Santa Monica to let drivers know they’re entitled to the whole lane. I personally think that would be awesome. But there’s always going to be a percentage of folks that want some sort of dedicated bikeway, and if there’s going to be a bike lane present, I would like to see it get some respect. If you just tease cyclists with it and offer them a false sense of safety, then we might as well do away with bike lanes altogether.

You’d be amazed how an unexpected accident can downgrade the most experienced cyclist you to a “wussy” rider, so be careful with your choice of words.

Sometimes skateboarders and pedestrians obstruct the bike lanes, not to mention idiot cyclists riding the wrong way. How does one handle such situations? You just deal with it! Go around them just like I’d go around the parked trucks shown in your photos.

By the way, the street in your photos was virtually deserted of vehicular traffic. There was no earthly reason for the wuss rider in the picture to ride on the sidewalk.