u/20indacan

Bicycles and Ebikes are legally considered vehicles in Lakeland and entitled to the roads, as long as they stick to the white line (when turning or going straight at an intersection we are entitled a spot in the main lanes as well). As far as I can tell, only I4 and the Polk Pkwy are bike free.

The only reason a bicycle shouldn’t be on the road here is because an ignorant MF in a car would kill you in a fit of road rage, if they didn’t already hit you because they were on their phone. But other than that? Share the road

I live in a town that, while not totally bike accessible in practice, has laws explicitly allowing bikes on all non-interstate roads and even bans e-bikes over a certain voltage/wattage from sidewalks and restricts them to road usage. We are definitely developing into a more bike friendly town as time passes, but we are still at a point where drivers and cyclists are forced to share the road on many major roads, and majority of the backroads.

I don’t know if people in our town are just unaware of the pro-bike laws or they don’t care, but I get honked at nearly every single day. Even when I’m riding on the shoulder or even in an actual bike lane people harass me. I have even had a car nearly 150 yards behind me see me ahead, lay on the horn nonstop and accelerate to try to intimidate me, then swerved last second. This particular incident actually happened two days in a row by the same person.

It is not only frustrating and annoying, but pretty scary too. I promise I’m not a cyclist who yells at people in bike lanes or acts super entitled and dickish, I just politely go around and carry on my way. But even if I was the type to be a dick back to these drivers, why would I? I’m on a 50lb aluminum frame and these guys are in a ton of metal, it only takes one ignorant fucker to have a lapse in judgement and end my life or disable me.

My city is recently doing more to protect cyclists though. They are painting the bike lanes green and putting up signs stating “bike friendly town” yadda yadda, but it is a big town with a lot of people unhappy sharing the road, and will harass me just because my presence forces them to decelerate for 5 seconds before passing me.