As a cyclist, it would honestly never occur to me to avoid any particular road, unless cyclists were actually not allowed on it at all, like an interstate. The fearful second-guessing of your every move on a bike seems dangerous itself.
Then you must not be very aware of your local roads.
Some are undoubtedly worse than others, and warrant more attention ad care both from you the cyclist, and from the drivers.
True enough, but I am amused how ‘dangerous for cylists’ in this thread was being defined by drivers. That never bodes well.
Some roads are worse than others, yes, but as a cyclist, I strive to pay complete attention the entire time regardless of my perceived safety on a particular route. I would avoid a road with tons of potholes in favor of a smooth heavily-trafficked road, so I suppose I would alter my route slightly for safety’s sake, just not in the direction a driver might assume.
I will strive to make the drivers’ job easier by keeping myself in their line of sight. This may upset some people who resent having to pass me like I’m a car, but I refuse to risk my life to avoid slight inconvenience to others.
Can we please just boil this down to two ways of being in the world and then shut up?
Group A) If it’s legal, I’m going to do it and you’re an asshole if you expect otherwise.
Group B) Even if it’s legal, certain acts are dangerous and assholish.
Just pick a group, understand that the other group exists, and nobody’s ever going to change sides.
I don’t fall in either group, so no.
I’m going to do a lot of stuff that isn’t legal, and if that automatically makes me an asshole in the eyes of others, so be it. The laws of physics are the ones I pay the most attention to.
Over here we call those “speed bumps.” Some are softer and more recent than others, and they flatter out faster.
So on the cyclist’s tombstone, it will say, “He had the right of way.”
Innocent victims of murder happen all the time, and yet they’re still dead. What’s your point? That they should have been able to avoid their murder?
Or that killing a bike rider is kinda OK because it wasn’t like he didn’t know he had it coming?
I am deeply and personally offended by your belligerent reply. Do you REALLY think that I think it’s okay to kill a bike rider or anyone??? Why would you say something like that?
My point is that I don’t want to die, so I don’t ride my bike in heavy traffic. I don’t give a rat’s ass whose fault it is; dead is dead. Once you’re dead, it doesn’t matter to you, the dead person, whose fault it was. Everything is moot. I avoid dangerous situations where the odds are stacked against me even if I’m right and have the right to be there. But that’s just me.
Get over yourself. You literally just posted something that translates to “This person was behaving legally. Now he’s dead. It’s his own fault.”
And to clarify, we have laws specifically to determine which behaviors are allowed and which are not. If a person is behaving legally and they are injured by a person who is behaving illegally, your anger should be directed towards the person whose behavior was illegal. Anything else is blaming the victim.
As far as cyclists go, we have laws that specify what behaviors are legal and what are not for a reason. Your definition of what roads are ‘too dangerous’ is probably not the same as any other person’s definitions. We have laws specifically to designate what is allowed and what is not. Cyclists are not allowed on highways or on roads where they cannot manage the legal minimum speed when one exists. They’re required to keep as far right as practical when they cannot manage the same speed as the rest of traffic, just as the rest of traffic is allowed to cross double yellows to pass when it is safe.
The “I wouldn’t do this because I believe it is dangerous and therefore anything that happens to the person is their own fault” attitude is dangerous and offensive. It would be akin to a person who chooses not to drive telling the family of a driver killed by a drunk driver to put “he had the right of way” on his headstone. We all do things that someone else would probably consider dangerous, but we have laws to determine fault.
If drivers are not paying attention all roads are dangerous.
Share the road? Sure. But just the other day I was driving down a four lane road (55 speed limit with moderate traffic) and had to change lanes to avoid a bicyclist who was pedaling away in the outermost lane. Thing is, there’s a FUCKING BIKE PATH (and it’s nice) maybe a hundred feet off the road. WTF?
And yes, the bike path is easily accessible from the road.
No, she literally did no such thing.
I agree. And I also take the position that some drivers just don’t pay attention, despite a common-sense obligation to do so. So, all roads are, to some extent, dangerous.
I’m a runner. I will only run where I can face traffic and the road has enough of a shoulder that I can bail (over a guard rail to tumble down a gravelly slope if I have to) if I see that a car isn’t clearly “not on a line” for me. I assume that every car is going to hit me, until it’s clear they aren’t going to, and I’m ready to bail up until that moment. I guess I’m still a goner if there’s a speeding, last-second swerver.
I won’t run on roads where I have no opportunity to bail, and I have to depend on every driver to pay attention, not text, etc., and not swerve into me. If it’s a heavily traveled road, my unscientific calculus tells me that if 1,000 cars are passing me, the odds that every single one is paying attention aren’t attractive odds to me.
Same for bikes, I would think. Doesn’t matter if you’re right. The world is filled with pathological assholes who not only don’t pay attention, they get a cheap thrill coming oh-so-close to you. But I do agree it’s up to the individual to decide what risk he’ll assume, just like I do. But for me, “good drivers need to pay attention to runners, cyclists, etc.'” while absolutely true, carries zero weight in my decision. Because I know, for a certainty, that not all of them will.
Perhaps the bike path is not as good as you describe. That would not surprise me as mos bike pathsI have encountered have poor design.
No I fucking didn’t. I said, in essence, that you can be right, have the right of way, do not one goddam thing wrong and still wind up dead. And at that point, it doesn’t matter one bit that you had the right of way. Your spouse will be a widow/er AND your kids parentless, but you were in the right. It was NOT your fault. You WERE in the right. But you’re still dead. Permanently.
What is it about DEAD that you don’t get?
This.
DOESN’T MATTER IF YOU’RE RIGHT.
You would do well to ASSUME drivers don’t see you and are not paying attention. Why? Because that assumption will probably prolong your life.
Wow…if you are driving fast enough that you can not safely stop for a bicycle, stopped car or road debris you are the pit worthy asshole.
If a road is too curvy to stop when a bike is in front of you doing 15 mph while you are doing the “speed limit” it is NOT SAFE TO DO THE SPEED LIMIT
So how about you get off your high horse and start considering placing the lives and health of other road users above your desire to save 20 seconds on your commute.
What a selfish entitled POS you have to be to think that putting other peoples lives at risk to save a tiny amount of time is somehow a right.