I’ve been in the situation before (annoys me also) and opt to just stop where I’m at and turn away from the driver. Now he’s sitting at a stop sign while I’m still 10 feet away from the curb not moving. He can’t “wave” me through cause I’m no longer looking at him. So now he’s just sitting there waiting for nothing. If he doesn’t go now it’s his problem.
All QFT from my perspective as a biker, and another variant is when trying to cross a multilane road, where a driver in one lane slows to a stop but drivers going the same direction in another lane continue though the intersection.
I do try to appreciate those who will yield for pedalpushers, but sometimes (often?) they are making things worse by being overly polite. Just drive as normal according to the law, thank you, and I will be patient and wait until it’s safe for me to go.
@wguy123 already mentioned the Idaho stop, but I wanted to focus on the last clause of this sentence here.
As I biker, I adhere to all traffic laws, including signalling for turns. But the bikers I often see on my rides will at times take the Idaho stop for granted (it’s not the law in my state). I don’t do this.
But the ones I see doing this tend to be very careful about visibility of cross-traffic and slowing down before taking the right of way against the light or at a stop sign. When they come up to an intersection they’ve got their heads on a swivel. I’ve seen bikers run a stop sign with no oncoming traffic but stop at the next one when a car was near. So I don’t see them doing it “without a care for traffic” as you write - they’re being very careful about their own safety and that of other road users.
They don’t really care if they run a light or stop sign if someone a couple hundred yards away who’s not going to be anywhere near them by the time they clear the intersection sees them and thinks they’re not paying attention to their surroundings - they definitely are. Again, not the choice I make while biking - I’m trying to drum up legislative support for the Idaho stop in my home state, and until then I follow the law - but not the most unsafe thing I see bikers do regularly, and probably not the main threat to bikers’ safety and well-being (that would be idiots on phones, hands down).
It annoys me slightly too, but it’s better than the opposite.
I was once riding my bike across a crosswalk with a traffic signal. I had the green light. I passed in front of a car driven by a young man who was talking to someone in the car to his left, shouting and laughing and revving his engine. Just as I passed in front of him, his car lurched forward, hit me and knocked me to the ground. I assumed the light had changed while I was in the intersection, so I quickly picked up my bike and completed crossing. When I reached the other side, I looked back and saw that I STILL had the green light and the car had the red. A woman in the car behind the moron pulled up to his right and started chewing him out on my behalf. I expected him to pull over and give me his insurance info, but he just took off when the light changed. Since then I’ve always tried to leave as much room as possible between me and any car I cross in front of, regardless of the state of the traffic light or who has the right of way.
I’m glad you you didn’t end up in hospital Mark; drivers ought to get sued for that lousy behavior.
I’ve been in the same boat. I walk a lot in the evenings and a few years back there was a police SUV that pulled up to a crossroad and just sat there. I in turn got to the corner and wanted to cross the street but I just stopped as well. After 30+ seconds the officer moved forward in his car to ask me if I needed to speak with him. Nope, I just tend to be very cautious of traffic and I didn’t want to step out in the street only for him to make a left.
As a general rule, I just want drivers to follow the rules of the road. If its your turn to go then just GO. Otherwise I have to try to figure out if you’re trying to be nice or just not paying attention.
Yup to the unambiguously waving drivers to go through.
Corollary: Use very unambiguous body language to make it clear that you ain’t moving till you think it’s safe. On the bike, stop before the intersection and wait with a foot on the ground. (Preferably with a “stopped” hand signal; I think we cyclists underutilize hand signals in general.)
On foot, don’t be poised on the edge of the curb waiting for the car to pass. I’ll sometimes step right back a couple feet to the other side of the sidewalk, look in a shop window, check my phone, whatever. If I want drivers to know that I have no intention of moving through the intersection before they do, I need to look the part.
Yes, same here. When I’m walking and want to cross a busy street and there are cars on that street, I’ll often wait for traffic to clear before entering the crosswalk. I’ve learned to stand well back and away from the crosswalk, and also look away from the oncoming car, so that they proceed with their right-of-way. I’ve found that even when I am well back from the crosswalk, if I’m looking at the oncoming car, that driver will (and annoyingly so), slow to a stop to allow me to walk to the crosswalk, enter it, and cross the street. Very annoying. So I’ve learned to look away from the car.
Like others here have said.
Life works better when we all follow the rules of the road, and for drivers that includes taking your right-of-way when you have the right-of-way. Don’t give it up!
This sounds like a California problem to me. I still can’t get used to drivers waiting for me when I’m still on the curb, It’s very annoying.
See 1:33:
Yeah. CA drivers don’t manage well with 4-way stops, either.
My sister and I were thrilled on our ride today. We came up to a 4-way stop and there were 2 cars stopped going opposite ways on the cross street. We slowed, and both cars proceeded, allowing us to cross after them. At another 4-way there was a semi stopped at the cross street. Again, we slowed, and the semi went first. It is so easy when people just follow the rules.
Our one iffy spot was crossing a 4-lane road. We were headed south. There were 3 cars headed east, that were pretty close to crossing in front of us. 3 more cars were coming quickly from the east, but further away. I told my sister, “I’m going” (our variant for my “GO!” meaning all clear. I intended to cross the 2 west bound lanes headed slightly westward to pass behind the 3d eastbound car, allowing me to clear the westbound lanes before the westbound cars arrived. You know what happened - the 3d eastbound car politely stopped for me, causing me to need to go in front of him, making it far closer between us and the westbound cars than it ought to have been.
Sorry that was long and confusing. I admit I was making an aggressive move - and next time I’ll just stop and wait. But it would have been zero issue if the one driver hadn’t decided to “help us out!”
The situation in the OP happens all the time at the stop sign near my house. I try to wave the car through, but sometimes I make as if I am turning left on the sidewalk, and double back when the car goes through. When I do go across since the car isn’t moving I feel like I have to walk quickly to get away from it, which is not necessarily what I want to do.
Also, in some (many?) states, if the speed limit is under 35mph, there is considered to be a crosswalk even if none is painted. Of course few drivers know this.
IIRC (and don’t quote me on this), in California if you’re on a road where no crosswalk is painted, if the cross street has sidewalks then the crosswalk is defined to be the extensions of those sidewalks across the road you’re on.
Of course, nobody has to be on those such roads for that to be the case. I was trying to help with the illustration.
I’ll try to find a cite but I believe that is the case.
ETA — cite found. That was easy.
“An unmarked crosswalk consists of an extension of a sidewalk, trail or other pedestrian pathway. The general rule pursuant to CVC 21950 is that the driver of a vehicle must yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway in any marked or unmarked crosswalk at an intersection.”
I’m in Illinois. A while back I looked up the law and there are considered to be unmarked crosswalks everywhere a sidewalk crosses a street.
If a car on a cross street is moving quickly when we approach the street, we stand well back, indicating that we do not intend to approach the intersection until the car passes.
The closest town to me is a tourist town. Ski town. So lots to do and beautiful views.
Tourists walk up to a crosswalk and are not really sure where they want to go. “Do we want to cross or not???” Or see something interesting and are looking at that while standing at the edge of the crosswalk.
The driver really doesn’t know what the hell to do.
Yesterday a young girl, maybe 6 years old grabbed a post at the edge of the crosswalk and started twirling around it. Her mom was window shopping. Just 15 feet away. Ummm. Proceed cautiously was all I could do.
Combine that with the mistaken belief the the pedestrian always has right-of-way, things can get ugly if the driver is not careful.
We have the interesting situation here in the UK where the rules specify that you should do people favours, sort of.
A couple of years back, the Highway Code was amended to include a hierarchy of road users, with pedestrians having the highest priority and large HGVs having the least - the notion is that the larger, faster, heavier, harder vehicles/users are obliged to act in a way that promotes the safety of the smaller, slower, lighter, softer vehicles/users.
Part of this was the directive that cars and other motorised vehicles should stop to allow a pedestrian who is standing waiting, to cross if they are at a junction.
In many cases, this has worked fairly well, but not all cases - because one definition of ‘junction’ is the exit from a roundabout, which is a place where you conventionally don’t stop at all, because you are in the business of exiting the system of the roundabout. Cars are normally trying to flow out of a roundabout, and when one of them stops to allow a pedestrian to cross, this is still generally an unexpected thing for other drivers.
Just because I missed is no reason to accuse me of not even trying
I’m with the OP. I just want people to follow the rules; don’t try to do me any “favors”.
That said, I sympathize with drivers who are hyper cautious about dogs and little kids.