What Is Shoaling And Should Cyclists Stop Doing It?

Say you're a cyclist, and you're cruising up to a red light. It's rush hour, so there are already three other cyclists piled ahead of you. Do you a) pull up behind them, as decency probably dictates, or b) swerve around them to get to the head of the pack, certain you can burn the hell out of the businessman on a Citi Bike and the young woman perched on the beach cruiser?

The latter move is called shoaling, and according to some, it's unspeakably rude. As Bike Snob NYC, who's credited with coining the term, puts it:

As I've explained before, no rider, no matter how slow or diminutive, will ever come to a stop behind another rider at a red light. Instead, it is standard practice to pass that rider and stop in front of him, even if this involves doing so in the middle of the crosswalk or in the actual intersection, well ahead of the traffic signal. "Shoaling" is an incredibly rude practice, and it's tantamount to cutting in front of someone at an ATM, supermarket checkout, or urinal line.

If you're waiting, someone will pull up ahead of you. If a third person comes, they'll roll ahead and stop in front of the second person. On a busy day, this accumulation results in sort of a shoal of cyclists which juts out into the middle of the street like a sandbar of idiocy.

Shoaling is the byproduct of the increasing popularity of cycling, an ostensible net positive that longtime riders nevertheless seem to secretly resent. As more people ride and infrastructure expands, the rules imposed on what was once a somewhat lawless form of transportation can chafe the Mad Max sensibilities that inspired many to bike in the first place: No traffic, no waiting, no rules, no speed limit, no fucks given. Then Citi Bike came along, ejecting into the streets hundreds of discombobulated tourists who proved themselves largely as unconscientious on two wheels as they are on two legs. And we have them—these lurching, sluggish, erratic neophytes—to thank for making our streets safer.

"Safety in numbers comes at the cost of the clumsiness of inexperienced riders, whose ranks are only growing," Kriston Capps wrote in CityLab last year. "Bygone is the era of the edgy bike messenger, zipping through traffic in Lou Reed's New York. Dawned is the day of the doofus, the Citi Bike rider pedaling 0.37 miles per hour, probably toward a Shake Shack."

In the scheme of risks assumed when cycling (the potential to be mauled by a car is still very real), is parsing the etiquette landscape for minor irritations even worthwhile? Yeah, why not. Around 50 people are killed by subway trains each year, but still we expound at length on manspreading and whether it's kosher to leave your bag of unattended snakes on the M train.

I took a little poll around among Gothamist's cyclists to determine whether or not we're an office of shoalers. Results were mixed!

Nathan Tempey: My main problem is not so much being cut, but cyclists sailing past me into the crosswalk without looking for pedestrians. Many in this group expect the pedestrians to stop or they treat them like moving obstacles in Frogger, violating the sanctity of the one place in the road pedestrians are supposed to be stress-free.

A secondary aggravation that is as common is cyclists stopping smack in the middle of the crosswalk, which I imagine is less motivated by wanting to get in front than by thinking that one is the only person in the entire world.

What I do, and what doesn't drive me up a wall, is stopping in the box or in single file, in any case behind the crosswalk, looking for pedestrian traffic, and if it's clear, scooching up to the far side of the crosswalk to look around parked cars for a break in the traffic. I do this wherever it's congested or there's limited visibility.

Christopher Robbins: Break the law when it's reasonable, don't break the law when you put yourself or others in danger—traffic patterns and lights are designed for cars, not cyclists.

Imagine if the same shoaling "rule" applied to pedestrians. Are we really going to waste time and precious brain juice to complain about people who walk faster or safely jaywalk?

Jake Dobkin: I don’t think you should pull in front of someone. But I do think it’s ok to pull up next to them, and at crowded intersections, where there’s going to be a long line of bicyclists, I think it’s ok to spread out horizontally in front of the first car. This has the advantage of getting all the bikers through the intersection at once, rather than having the back compete with traffic. Some intersections even have a bike box painted at the front for this purpose.

Also, if someone stops well in back of the light, and there’s 10 feet in front of them, I’m going to pull up to the light, where I can get a better look at cross-traffic. No beef!

John Del Signore: Always. Be. Shaolin.

What do you think? To shoal or not to shoal? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.