To clarify what I wrote in my previous post about safe street riding, consider this passage (taken from the California DMV code), a bike should stay as close as possible to the right unless,
When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions (including, but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, animals, surface hazards, or substandard width lanes) that make it unsafe to continue along the right-hand curb or edge, subject to the provisions of Section 21656. For purposes of this section, a “substandard width lane” is a lane that is too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane.
So, when there’s no shoulder, you should take up a lane. It’s that simple.
