Yes, it does. Although I live in a small NW city that is extremely bike friendly with plenty of bike lanes, it is also a college town. I’ve seen people texting & fiddling with their ipod while biking, often times completely oblivious of the traffic around them. This type of biker is scary. On the other hand, many many bikers where I live are really responsible riders and aware of their surroundings at all times. In a city with as many bikers/commuters as ours, there are bound to be fatal accidents every once in a while. It always sucks to hear about them. I’ve had one close call while biking myself…scary scary stuff.
Here’s and interesting blog at a site called Let’s Go Ride A Bike, which is run by a very charming (and invariably well-dressed) Chicago lawyer named Dottie who loves bicycles so much that she gave up her car and is totally dependent upon her several bikes to get her through the rain, snow, ice and wind of Chicago. On her site you will find discussion after discussion like this one about the problems careful riders have with cars and the different things a bike rider can do to try to get better treatment from the drivers who honk, yell, curse and buzz by within a few inches of them as they try to wend their way to work and back home again.
I thought it was interesting to learn that nice-looking women in dresses and riding upright bikes (like Dottie in the opening image) got the best treatment from motorists, with men in business attire ranking deferential treatment too. Even guys in shorts and t-shirts riding in an upright posture seemed to fare pretty well. Surprisingly enough, it’s the people in spandex and other racing gear or who are riding racing bikes with drop handles that seem to draw the most motorist ire.
I spent almost a whole night surfing around on this woman’s blog, and it’s interesting to see the tunnel vision most people have about the ability to drive or ride their own vehicles safely and to regard the other side as so disrespectful and discourteous as to make them virtual enemies. If anyone would like to find out how the issue of bike vs. motorist issues appear from the cyclist’s point of view, I’d suggest you read some of the discussions on this blog. The cyclists who try to ride correctly and carefully are just as scared of motorists as motorists like you are of bicyclists, if not more so. Many drivers have no idea what the law allows bicyclists to do, or why, and this lack of understanding causes much frustration, irritation and fear all around. Here’s just a quick example: Let’s say you’re headed up a street that allows cars to park at the curb, and in front of you, as you approach these cars, the bicyclist who has heretofore stuck to the far right side of the lane suddenly signals and moves over in front of you and stays there. To you, this can look like he’s just being a dick and wanting to slow you down for some unknown reason, but from his perspective he knows that cyclists have been killed riding along next to parked cars when somebody suddenly opens a door right in front of them and the cyclist crashes right into it and gets thrown head-over-heels onto the pavement. So cyclists have been taught under no circumstances to pass parked cars with less than four feet of space between them. So in order to do that, they have to swing over squarely into the middle of the lane you’re driving in. So yeah, that slows you down and it’s annoying, but they’re only doing it for the sake of safey and will probably move back to the right again as soon as it’s safe to do so.
I’d really like to see people (motorists and cyclists) have to attend safety classes where they’re educated as to the things cyclists are trained in to stay safe, and where cyclists get a better perspective on what the motorist has to contend with in trying to pass cyclists or otherwise contend with having them on the road. As it is now, each side seems to have tunnel vision and tends to view the other side is the bad guys.
And it’s probably worth nothing that cyclists of the type found on the Let’s Go Ride A Bike site have as much distain for irresponsible bicyclists as you do.
Bicyclists in Baltimore do not feel traffic laws apply to them, then give drivers dirty looks when we come damn close to plowing into them. You and other dopers admit that bikers don’t follow the rules.
Drivers in Boston do not feel traffic laws apply to them, then give bikers and pedestrians dirty looks when they come damn close to plowing into us. You and other dopers admit that drivers don’t follow the rules.
In general, people can’t be counted on to follow all traffic rules. Many of us try the best we can when driving or riding, but you’re always going to notice and remember the ones who don’t.
Bikers who break laws drive me crazy. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve pulled up to a light on my bike and had some other biker whip right past me, through the red. I don’t comprehend it at all. I know I take my life in my hands every time I bike in traffic so it behooves me to be careful. I will not win an argument with a car. but these people think they’re invincible
One thing that annoys me is when I’m on a two-lane road with traffic in both directions and some biker is riding slowly, right on the right edge of the road. Some drivers will pass the biker within the same lane, leaving only inches to spare. I’m not comfortable doing that, so I’ll stay behind the biker until I find a safe place to cross into the other lane and pass. Meanwhile, there’s a line of cars behind me, tailgating and sometimes honking. If the biker was closer to the middle of the lane, then nobody would fault me for not passing them.
Also, it bothers me when a bicyclist has a line of cars behind him, and passes right by a side street rather than pulling over to let the cars pass.
That’s exactly why I only travel at a moderate speed when I’m cycling on the road. I know that other cyclists are probably thinking, “Oh, you can go faster than that!” Sorry, but no thanks. I know that some motorists are going to be idiots, and I also recognize that I’m relatively unprotected on my bicycle. I want to give myself plenty of margin for safety.
Yes. That’s one reason I prefer cycling to driving. I find it easier to go through city traffic on a bike than a car.
I don’t see your point. If a cyclist fails to stop at a red light or stop sign, he/she risks getting a ticket, same as any car driver. If you’re saying the police in your area routinely fails to enforce traffic laws on cyclists, that’s a problem that should be addressed by the police.
The sanction is getting hit by a vehicle that weighs 100x what your vehicle weighs. One car vs bike accident is usually enough to get your attention.
Does it scare me? No, not really. Sure they sometimes blow through stop signs and red lights, but usually only when it’s perfectly safe to do so. I run lights on foot and in my car when it’s safe to do so. Not really a big deal.
The only thing that makes me nervous is when they try to squeeze by to the right of stopped traffic on this one road where there’s not much space between cars and a rock wall.
It is as a pedestrian that I have trouble with cyclists. There is one particularly nasty place where the sidewalk is only three feet wide on an overpass (over some train tracks) and the road is a rather narrow two lanes of pretty fast traffic. Some cyclists use the roadway, but most use the sidewalk and will not walk their bikes. I can’t blame them for using the sidewalk but they most don’t and are quite imperious about making me and my friend who usually walks with me mover for them. It is illegal of course and, one of these days, I am going to make a formal complaint. Then they will give a few tickets before it returns to the status quo ante.
Exactly. It goes the same for me when using crosswalks and some dicksmoking wagonfucker riding a fixie jams it through at about 30 mph.
That’s why you need the umbrella, with which the rapping of the knuckles can be achieved. Even cyclists know a stick jammed in their spokes would end poorly, which is another reason to carry a slender stick.
ETA: as a pedestrian, I am shocked and dismayed that collapsible batons are illegal in most (perhaps all) jurisdictions. I use a short collapsible umbrella which I can flick to extended length with one hand to put the fear of me into erring cyclists and motorists. Go ahead, get off my lawn, now.
I’m saying this as a pedestrian, a driver, and an occasional biker.
There are good and bad bikers, but I think the ratio of bad to good bikers is a lot worse than the ratio of bad to good drivers. Like others have said, there’s no licensing, they rarely get tickets (and even if they do, it’s not like they can get their bike suspended), and they don’t have to worry about paying higher insurance premiums. Yeah, they’ll be in worst shape if they get in an accident, but I have a feeling most are thinking about that.
I would say the worst are the ones that treat themselves both as a driver and a pedestrian, and take the best privileges from both sides. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a biker approach a stop sign, not slow down, and quickly hop over to the sidewalk so they can just go through the sidewalk without stopping. Or the biker that nearly hit me on the sidewalk yesterday while there was a perfect good bike lane next to him.
I have never seen a cyclist get a ticket, nor heard of anyone getting one. Probably because it is not very effective. Probably for the same reason you don’t see too many jaywalking tickets. Not very lucrative, nor very punitive. The insurance surcharge and license suspension are the real deterrent. Neither of which applies to the cyclist.
I am sympathetic to bikes. I’ve commuted in Boston on one, ridden all over the UK, and done several 100 mile round trips. But holy crap there are a bunch of shit head bicycle riders in Portland. Just a couple of days ago I saw a guy totally blow through a stop sign in front of me, and then do it again at the next stop sign. Not a rolling stop, just full speed ignoring them like its his God given right. This was in one of the most congested areas of the city with trolleys, peds, and cars constantly on the move. Just yesterday a cyclist decided that he didn’t need to bother stopping as I used the crosswalk, another was going the wrong way on a one way street, and a third decided to barrel down the sidewalk at full speed.Then there are the assholes who refuse to install brakes on their bikes. It’s fucking insane.
I had a friend get one the other day for running a red light. Granted he’s probably the first person I’ve seen it happen to, so its not particularly frequent, but apparently it does happen.
The fine was pretty steep to, so there is some deterrent value
I had a messenger blow by me while I was walking on a crosswalk downtown many years ago. This was with me going with the crosswalk light along with a zillion other people on their way to work, so the messenger was trying to blow through us totally against the light. I was so surprised, and he was so close, that I defensively struck my hands out in front of me. I knocked him clean off that bike. It might not have been so funny if he had been hurt, but it was kinda hilarious to see a messenger knocked off his bike by a woman in a suit.
These days, I don’t drive as often as when I owned a car, but when I use iGo cars I must say I have noticed I have the same sort of bias that Starving Artist mentioned. I expect the “racing” bikers to act the most erratically. People on the cruisers ride more deliberately. I also think there are a considerable number of younger people who have never gotten a driver’s license who act more irresponsibly on bikes. My theory on this is that since they’ve never driven a car they have no idea what it’s like to be in the driver’s seat, what the road looks like from there, and how long it takes to actually stop a car.
Really? I pay a variety of overpriced taxes for the poor-quality roads my government provides me: excise tax, sales tax, gasoline tax, fees for driver’s license and registration, just for the privilege of driving on potholed city streets and highways strewn with police revenue traps.
When bicyclists decide to pay their fair share, we can talk.
From ages 9 through 16 I used a bicycle as my principal means of transportation—going to school, stores, restaurants, visiting friends, and so forth.
I always realized that automobile traffic was larger, heavier, and faster-moving than me and my bicycle, and that while you can write down all the laws you want on paper, it’s the law of physics that always wins.
I always treated automobile traffic with great respect, and assumed (correctly) that motorists usually didn’t see me or even expect me to be there at all, and I rode accordingly.
This part I also agree with. I have little sympathy for anyone who impedes vehicular traffic, but I’d also feel terrible if anything like this happened to them.
Regardless of my resentment of bike lanes amounting to little more than theft, I still give them a wide berth.
Scare me? No, I long for the day I get to see one of those lawless sphincterheads get their brains smeared on the pavement the moment they decide to make their last dick move.