Bike advocates: do not tell people to just "take the lane."

Telling people the safest place to ride their bike is smack in front of impatient drivers behind them is not the way to get more people on bikes.

Building infrastructure that protects them from those drivers is.

#SafeStreetsForAll #BikeTooter 🧵

Well-meaning bicyclists will often respond to my close pass videos by telling me I should not be afraid to take the lane.

I'm not afraid to take the lane. I'm actually a pretty brave, intrepid person, and I've voluntarily and knowingly done some very dangerous stuff in my life. Rode horses professionally. Learned how to use a trapeze. Hiked the AT. Jumped out of planes...until it got boring.

I'm not risk averse. If my video appears to show me not taking a lane on my bike, rest assured it's not because I'm chicken.

But here's the thing. NO one should have to take the lane. It's scary as $^#$ to put your body in front of a fast-moving multi-ton metal box that's driven by someone with woefully inadequate training.

And if doing that IS in fact the safest way to ride on some roads, then the problem is not with the rider. It's with the road.

The vast majority of roads in the US present deadly hazards for anyone not in a car. I have no interest myself, nor do I have any desire for anyone else--especially not a kid or a biking newbie--to get any farther into them than absolutely necessary.

No one should have to be an adrenaline junkie with world-class bike handling skills and [body part of choice] of steel to in order to feel safe traveling around their community under their own power.