Meaning of だとでもいうかの

Question

I found this sentence, in which I'm not quite sure about the だとでもいうかの part:

ところがどういうわけか神町駅前には客待ちのタクシーが一台も停まっていなかった。その代わりだとでもいうかのごとく、駅前広場には何台もの自転車が置かれてあって（そこは駐輪場なのだから当たり前のことなのだが!）、トーマス井口が周囲をキョロキョロと見回しているうちに人気{ひとけ}もばったり無くなってしまった。

I found this reply in which it's said that とでもいうか is a set phrase meaning "Are you really saying...?", and とでもいう means "as though"; I'm not really sure if that's the case in the above sentence, though: the first meaning, "Are you really saying", doesn't seem to fit well, while the second is given for とでもいう (without か), so not sure if that's the case, and while "as if to say" could somehow fit ("As if to say the bycicles where there in place of the taxis"; a bit odd, but I could kinda understand it), ごとく means "as if", so it would seem redundant.

The だ I guess is a copula, while の is used to connect to ごとく, but I don't really understand the rest of that structure.

Answer 1

noun + の如【ごと】く is a literary way to say "like ～".

• 蝶のごとく舞う to dance like a butterfly

clause + か + のごとく is "as if ～". か is a question marker that can form an embedded question or work like "whether/if".

• 実際に見たかのごとく話す to talk as if he had actually seen it
• 生きているかのごとく動く to move as if it were alive

Thus, その代わりだとでもいうかのごとく is "as if saying 'その代わりだ'". その代わりだ is the "quote", and here it means "(these bikes) are replacements". と is simply a quotation marker used with 言う. でも here means "～ or something".

その代わりだとでもいうかのごとく、何台もの自転車が置かれてある。
Many bikes are placed as if (someone were) saying something like "These are the replacements (for taxis)".