In full force is Metro's "Every Lane Is a Bike Lane Campaign."
This bit of "news", or "fact" apparently missed an old roadie in Long Beach yesterday as I was biking on the 3-through-laned, virtual speedway that is Bellflower Boulevard to return to the school that I'm supposed to be enrolled in.
He rolled up from behind, to my left, and was quickly in front of me.
"Hey bro, you need to move to the side. You can't take up the whole road!"
Holding steadfast to all my bike advocacy knowledge without trying to make a big deal of it, I tried to brush him off subtly, saying "It's safer if I take the whole lane."
"But they can't see you though!", he biked off his merry way. I was getting ready to make my left turn onto the left turn lane to enter the school.
The interaction was not bothersome to me personally; I know the laws, I know the road. Maybe if I didn't know the law it would have bothered me more greatly and perhaps I'd feel like I didn't have the right to ride a bike.
What does bug me though is that he doesn't know these laws as a roadie bicyclist and could spread his ignorance. He seemed to make this a statement of at best adapting to the status quo on the street with preference given to cars, yielding to drivers on the road, and riding on the street so long as he stays out of the way. I can only hope he doesn't go next to some cruiser bike riding people and tell them the same.
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