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Comment by discordianfish | Hacker News Reader

Playing devils advocate here.. Couldn't you argue a driverless car simply needs less space to guarantee the same/better safty for the cyclist?

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A cyclist can swerve very quickly for all sorts of reasons. Drivers (human or computer) need to allow space for this.

Swerving is good way to get yourself killed. If you find yourself swerving to the center of the road without making sure there is no traffic trying to overtake at the moment, then you have to figure out what to do to avoid that.

Relying on each an every driver to leave enough space just in case you need to swerve is a losing proposition.

3 feet is a minimum to allow quickly swerving around a crash causing pothole.

a cyclist should be treated the same as any other vehicle on the road. they might need to swerve to avoid an obstacle while the car is overtaking, just as a car may need to swerve while another car is overtaking. when a safety margin is possible, as it was here, it costs nothing to apply one.

I don't know where you live that you have that much space. My personal rule is don't swerve. If you don't have time to signal that you are going to move, or look to make sure other traffic is not in the way, then either brake hard or continue straight (with the obvious exception if not swerving causes you to hit another person).

There are just too many roads where you can't swerve without causing a head on collision. If you make it a reflex to swerve, then you will also do it when there is no space for other traffic to avoid you.

You still have to account for a cyclist moving due to obstructions in the road or even the wind. I know I've had some close calls in gusty winds with people passing too close.

Heck, gusts once caused me to completely switch the side of the road in a fairly short time. Luckily no cars anywhere in that moment, but windy weather can be scary as a cyclist.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/motoringvideo/11784553/C...

Maybe a self driving car could react quicker in a situation like this, but it's still good to leave cyclists some space.

Especially as it's a part of the rules of the road.

Your self driving car shouldn't be getting points on your licence for you.

The space is to give the cyclist room... they don't require less room just because the car has no driver.

Passing an unexperienced cyclist that closely might cause them to trip and fall into the car.

Where cyclists ride on the road is often filled with debris kicked up by car tires. So it is not a rare occurance that they will need to swerve to avoid a rock or stick, especially given the very narrow (23-25mm) tires commonly found on road bikes.

The turbulence from passing close can be dangerous.

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