I never realized that northwest LA had so many cyclists that they had become a burden.
We don't have many. My wife and I travel a good bit. They are all over California and Colorado even on mountain and rural roads. Motorcycles also, but like I said motorcycles move along. Fort Collins Colorado was the worst I ever saw, even at night.
Bicycles are all over the place on the Colorado front range. I encounter them frequently when I am out there. Yeah, I have to let off the gas at times. Hustle around them at times. Shake my head wondering sometimes. That said, I'd still much rather deal with them than dumb, dangerous, distracted and impaired drivers that litter our roadways. In the grand scheme of things cyclists simply aren't a blip on the radar.
When driving the mountain west the cyclists I have encountered were easy to negotiate. When I have bicycled the mountain west I did it on relatively lightly traveled roadways. Motorists would sometimes come up behind me on a blind bend and have to wait a few seconds to safely get around. They were always respectful and were met with a friendly wave. When there was any real estate on the right of the white line, I'd move to the outside of it so motorists wouldn't have to slow at all. If it looked like a motorist would have to slow for more than a few seconds, sometimes I'd pull off the road and stop so they could get around.
Last summer I was pedaling CO 114 between Gunnison and Saguache. The western section of that road is narrow with nothing to the right of the white fog line. At one point I had a semi coming from in front of me and one coming from behind me. They were going to arrive at the same time. I dismounted and got off on the little stretch of land between the road and the ditch. It was unnerving as the semi passed within a few feet at 55 MPH. It was inconvenient for me. Ultimately it was the right thing to do. When semis would come from behind and there was no oncoming traffic, they happily moved well over when they passed. They were greeted with a friendly wave. To me it was an ideal environment of road users treating each other with respect.
At one point on that road I had not been passed in 20 minutes or so. It seemed odd to me. There wasn't much traffic, but a car would come from behind every 3-4 minutes. I had pulled off the road to take a pic. An RV passed me and had a dozen or so vehicles stacked up behind it. There were a number of places the RV could have pulled off and let traffic vent.
