"Bikies," the local bicycle transportation advocacy listserv moderated by Darin Burleigh, has become quite a lively forum for discussing a wide range of cycling issues in and around Dane County -- from Safe Routes to School and public hearings on pending proposals to improve bicycle infrastructure, to reminders regarding cycling events, spirited discussions of ordinances and state codes governing cyclists, and updates on the latest motor vehicle-bike crashes and other cycling hazards.
One of the more extended recent discussions on "bikies" has focused on best practices for overtaking and passing other cyclists, pedestrians, joggers, in-line skaters and other users of local bike routes. The thread generated a number of anecdotes suggesting that proper etiquette might involve slowing down upon approaching the party to be overtaken, uttering the phrase "passing on the left" in a conversational tone so as not to startle and perhaps create an unfortunate involuntary reaction, and exercising patience and civility when the alerted party responds in a confused or counterintuitive manner.
The discussion has also generated a small but charming collection of haiku about "passing on the left." Among them:
The road racer should
not forget where he began.
Share the path, slow down
kindly slow down first
audibly warn those ahead
wait for reaction
On bike, fast or slow
Morning commute beats driving
Stop and smell roses
As you might expect, there were also at least a couple of contrarian compositions, which, if facetious, are no less entertaining:
They're ahead of me.
I'm gonna blow by those guys.
Now they are in back.
They're ahead of me.
I'm gonna blow by those guys.
But legs are jelly.
The gist of all this is that many pedestrians, in-line skaters and even other cyclists may be confused about how to react when they hear "passing on the left" (or the common abridgement "on the left" or even shorter "left"), and that it is not unreasonable for them, startled upon hearing this barked by a cyclist about to whiz by at 15 or 20 miles per hour, to misinterpret "left" or "on the left" as a command to move to their left - into the cyclist's desired path.
But the bottom line is that cyclists - including those of us who sometimes blow by the people ahead of us - can stand to remind ourselves that we are responsible for the consequences of whatever reckless disregard we may exhibit when overtaking people who have their backs toward us.
And we can stand to ask ourselves something else: When we're out on our bikes, what is so urgent that we can't let up on the pedals for a matter of seconds over the course of a few hours in the saddle? Nine times out of 10, the answer is that there is no frantic hurry after all.