Posted on 09/01/2010 9:57:15 AM PDT by MissTed
Most of my experience with cyclists is during my commute. Traffic is heavy and conjested. There’s a lot going on just paying attention to the cars and pedestrians.
I guess I can somewhat understand cyclists, in some circumstances, going through stop lights/signs - they can’t accelerate as quickly as vehicles and often there isn’t a whole lot of time to stop and restart.
But a lot of the roads I travel, the speed limit is 25 or 35 - speeds that cyclists seem to have no trouble achieving. These roads generally have curbs and space in the lanes is already tight.
In that situation, I don’t see why a cyclist shouldn’t behave as any other vehicle - signal their intentions when turning and stopping, stay in their lane, trying to be part of the traffic flow.
What I see in virtually every case is cyclists weaving in and out of traffic, changing lanes at whim, and basically expecting that other drivers will somehow guess what the cyclist is doing while they do everything possible to NOT be a part of the traffic flow.
LOL! I GUESS so!
FWIW: http://sharetheroad.org/
“‘Course, all of mine were cars taking right turns in front of me.”
I’m sorry for your pain, but keep in mind that what you describe above indicates you were likely at fault.
You were behind a right-turning vehicle. So, if following traffic laws, just like another vehicle can not legally come up behind and to the right of such a vehicle, neither can you on a bike.
Pedestrians, however, do this at crosswalks when the crossing signal is in their favor. Note, though, that they are starting from the curb and not coming up from behind the car’s in a blind spot.
I’ve heard of many such cases in our local paper. In these right-turn problems, it’s almost always the bikers fault.
You would need to either stay behind the turning car, if you are riding in the street, or, if you are on the sidewalk, do not approach the road if the vehicle is there first.
Obviously I wasn’t there so you know your situation best, but you’re obviously having trouble in this area.
I wondered about that. This weekend, we pass a pack of about 10 bikes. There was one guy in the pack making a point of riding a couple of feet left of the bike lane. The wife tapped the horn and he got the biggest smile on his face...as if he was orgasmic over getting a reaction from a car.
I wondered then if he was an embarrassment to the other riders.
You've got that right.
I ride in an urban area for fitness and pleasure, and it's my experinece that testosterone and metal are not a good mix. The young guys in the University area are potentially more lethal than ladies driving one handed with cell phones. Plus, in the south there is the "bicycles shouldn't be on the road and if I intimidate them, they'll leave" mentality.
I ride back roads only and I watch very carefully.
Seems like a reasonable site...not the Critical Mass jerks at all. The regulations page is an interesting one to read.
Thanks for the link...
>>I’m sorry for your pain, but keep in mind that what you describe above indicates you were likely at fault.<<
Regarding the girl, she badly timed it. It was a perfect storm. I’ve had people do what she did on other occasions, but I was able to move in behind them and pass them on the left as they turn. In her case, just as the back of her car passed me she hit the brakes hard. She was trying to race me to the corner rather than just let me by. Women don’t have the spacial reasoning capacity of men, generally speaking. She simply did not realize how fast I was going and thought it would be easy to pass a bike before she turned. I actually started slowing down as soon as I realized she was speeding up to get in front of me when she should have been laying back. She telescoped what she was about to do and I did the best I could to avoid anything serious.
Regarding the Porsche, he was in a row of standing traffic and got frustrated. I watch the turn signals, the drivers and the motion of the front tires when I pass this long line, especially as it approaches any right turns. As soon as the car in front of him gave him room he gunned it and turned hard right without a signal.
In both cases I was watching for it. It is why I was not injured or go down.
I kinda felt for the guy in the Porsche. People forget that a bicycle lane is literally another lane they are crossing when they turn right.
I drive my car the same way.
I live west of Boston and my normal commute takes me through Concord where Kerry went cycling during the 2004 campaign. This area is a cycling magnet and draws a lot of really, really inconsiderate jerks. Most are pretty good, however.
I used to live on a cul-de-sac and one of my neighbors was a member of the MIT/Lincoln Lab cycling club. The would occassionally form up on our cul-de-sac in a group of about 50 or more. They were extremely well behaved and well disciplined. They would do a couple of warm up labs - carefully - around the cul-de-sac and then launch single file into the streets. I encountered them around town, and they were always well behaved and courteous. Not all the “biker gangs” are like that, unfortunately.
Bikes don’t belong on highways, regardless of the law.
Here in Oregon the law states bikes can go wherever cars drive, except for freeways, and whenever a car encounters a bike they have to pull six feet away from them.
What this means is that idiot bicyclists will ride on windy, twist rural roads with 55 mph speed limits, at 20 miles an hour, down the middle of the road, and the motorist, coming around a blind curve will have to slam on their brakes or swing wide into the other lane, (around a blind spot!) or run over the biker.
They need to be restricted to roads with 30 mph speed limits or slower...and I say this as an avid bicyclist myself.
Ed
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