Questions about sharing the road, bike lanes, etc.

What I mean by owning the lane is our legal right in ontario:

"Taking a lane

In urban areas where a curb lane is too narrow to share safely with a motorist, it is legal to take the whole lane by riding in the centre of it. On high-speed roads, it is not safe to take the whole lane. To move left in a lane, should check, signal, left and shoulder check again then move to the centre of the lane when it is safe to do so."

al-Qa'bong wrote:

OK, that makes more sense, although it wouldn't have applied to the situation I described.  The faddish use of "own" is a problem in our lexicon. I think its use ought to be limited to references to property.

Today I was in the suburbs and got honked at despite being far to the right.  I interpreted that as meaning you don't belong on the road.  The road is public property and I am ostensibly the public n'est pas?  I didn't think of it in the faddish sense the first time I heard someone say it. I simply took it as reminder the roads belong to cyclists as well and you are entitled to your fare share of it....given I've even been forced into snow banks by police cruisers who didn't want me on the road I think it's something worth over emphasizing.

I'm with ebody--I've been intentionally sideswiped because I was on the left side of a one-way street and this offended the driver's sense of ethics. So he he swerved and hit me with his car, then gave me some pantomime "I had no idea where you were!" Then he sped off.

I always make sure I have comfortable ownership of the lane now.

I don't have ownership of this thread, but I have to close it for length anyway. Please start another misc. biking thread. I love the out and about forum.