Turning right to turn left, roads to avoid in Virginia Beach

Traffic flows like a river. When there are a lot of cars or bikes or motorcycles/scooters in the river, it forces cyclers to stick to the right edge of the roadway, to be predictable, to move faster (maybe not everyone does this, but my friend Mary has mentioned that she tries to ride faster in traffic to "keep up" as well, even if the traffic is going way faster than you can ride on a bicycle, so at least one other person does this) and sometimes to not try to get over 3 or 4 lanes to turn left because there is too much traffic flowing in the current to allow you to do this, which isn't a bad thing. Sometimes, in fact I'll say usually the safer thing to do is to turn right out of the fast paced rushing wild river you're moving in to a quiet barely moving kiddy pool where you can easily make a U-turn and then go straight through the intersection you were trying to turn left at. This seems like common sense to me. But I've seen people stop their bikes on the side on Virginia Beach Blvd (SPEED LIMIT 45, TRAFFIC MOVING 50ish) and wait for the traffic to clear before they proceed to the left to turn, and people who casually cruise out into the middle lanes where it's clear and let a couple cars pass and then continue to the left. I've seen so much dumb shit and so many bad decisions made by other cyclists that it could fill an encyclopedia. But I'm not sure what some of these folks don't understand about this equation: you, human (130ish-200ish lb sack of water, organs and some bones) on a bike (steel tubes and a couple sharp parts) + car/truck/bus (3000-????? lbs of steel) moving at a rate of 50 miles per hour, momentarily occupying the same physically space = your bones crushing, your bike turning into a twisted pile of steel (or aluminum) + you probably dying. My point: do the safe thing! Don't blast through red lights like you've got an invincible force field around your bike, not everyone is PAYING ATTENTION TO YOU!!! Wait the extra 20 seconds til the intersection is clear instead of blasting through it like you've gotta find a toilet in t-minus 20 seconds or you're going to shit your pants. Turn right to turn left when traffic is crazy and you're not going to get that break in it. And something I have done for a while now that I didn't used to think about when I first started commuting (among many other things!) : when I'm rolling by stopped cars heading toward the front of a red light, I will stop and stay behind a dump truck or semi truck or work van with mirrors extending out 3 feet from the sides of it, or any unusually wide vehicle, because when we get rolling, they will have to pass me. I don't want a dump truck to pass me in traffic any more than this needs to happen, or that van with the mirrors or a semi truck. If you can avoid potentially dangerous situations, DO IT! Don't be a jackass, don't try to prove anything to motorists, it will never work. It's all in your head, and it makes you ride carelessly.


On to the next thing:

I don't ever want to ride on these roads in Virginia Beach:

Great Neck Road : Bike lane, really? So... if you paint lines on the wider-than-normal SIDEWALK, it makes it a "bike lane"??? No Virginia Beach, this is still a sidewalk. It's still as dangerous to ride on as a sidewalk as there are intersections every 20 feet that cyclists have no right-of-way at because there are painted stop signs on the "bikelane" for the cyclist to stop, it still has short rectangular sections that make for a not-so-smooth ride like a sidewalk, and it's obvious to most... IT'S A FUCKING SIDEWALK!!!!! And Great Neck Road is dangerous, definitely don't ride in the street, traffic is speeding, and not really looking for cyclists.

Rosemont Road: Speed limit is 35 for most of it, i guess i'm referring to the area of rosemont between virginia beach blvd and lynnhaven road, which is a pretty decent stretch of road. There's a legit bike path past lynnhaven on rosemont that goes all the way to dam neck road, which is really nice. But the other part of rosemont is super SHITTY! interstate on ramp and off ramp, not so wide lanes. drivers don't give a shit about you, don't ride on rosemont!!!

Indian River Road: Everytime i ride to Virginia Beach and i go down Campostella over the bridge and all that, when I get to the part of Indian River where the interstate on and off ramps are, I say to myself that I'm never going to do this ride again. And then I do it again, and i say to myself again "I'M NEVER GOING TO RIDE DOWN INDIAN RIVER AGAIN!!!!" and i haven't in a while, it's a dangerous fuckin road! Those on and off ramps are possibly the most dangerous place I've ridden a bike. Maybe not, which leads me to the ABSOLUTE LAST PLACE ANYONE SHOULD EVER THINK OF RIDING A BIKE IN VIRGINIA BEACH!!!!!!!! ..........................

Independence near Best Buy: You are an idiot if you find yourself riding on Independence over in this area!!! This is the most dangerous place a cyclist could ride a bike in Virginia Beach. Trying to navigate through the on and off ramps here is suicidal. And trying to ride through the underpass heading North on independence around here should also be considered suicidal. DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!