Man, I am so with you on that. I ride my bike on my commute everyday in DC, and sometimes I really feel like I’m putting my life at risk.
My biggest problem is the buses. I swear, they must look for people with homicidal tendencies to drive the Metro buses. They think nothing of pulling within inches of your back tire, while you’re in the bike lane , or veering into the bike lane so you have no choice but to crash into a parked car.
Bastards, good thing I don’t own a gun. :mad:
In DC, I’ve found the tour bus operators to be the worst. I once had one of those open tourist buses cut me off in a bike lane when he turned without signaling. Came within a couple feet of running me down. I sort of lost it, kicked the bus, and had a loud, swearing argument with the driver (which probably entertained the nice families on the bus to no end).
On a somewhat related topic - what’s up with bicyclists who won’t use the bike paths? There’s a section of road near my apartment where a multi-use trail runs along the side and I regularly see people bicycling in the street. Yeah, I know they’re legallly allowed in the street, and if they used the multi-use trail they’d have to swerve around a pedestrian or a skater every block or so, but don’t they think that staying off a curving road where cars regularly do 45 (regardless of the 25 mph speed limit) might be a good idea?
OK, I’m done hijacking the thread.
A friend of mine got an air horn for his moped - might be worth investing in one of those aerosol ones for the bike.
I’m looking to get an airhorn.
it’s the only thing that actually works.
I’ve kind of given up assering my presence in traffic , tho’, it’s just not worth it.
Gotten a lot more cautious, calmer, and resigned to the fact people just don’t look out for cyclists
least of all the pestrians
I have one of these little beauties on my town bike. It’s great.
Are you talking about Sligo Creek Parkway? I used to live up in Takoma Park, and your description is dead-on.
From a car driver’s POV, I have this to say to bike riders:[ul][]Get lights. Front and back. And use them. Those wee flashing things are no good, because it’s difficult for a car driver to judge your velocity and direction in the intervals when the light’s off. Better still, get two lights: one steady, so we can see where you’re going, one blinking, to alert us to your presence.[]Wear reflective clothing and/or a wally-belt.[]Wear a helmet.[]Get one of those sticky-out reflectors. They do have an effect.[]Try to follow road rules as much as possible. If you’re going to jump a red light (I know that braking and reaccelerating is a pain in the arse), make sure it’s safe to do so, and there are no pedestrians around.[]Use hand signals - most cars do respond to them.[*]Look around before manoeuvering.[/ul]It’s not fair that the onus is on the cyclist to do all this stuff, but the car driving population is not going to improve in the near future, and you’re still the vulnerable ones. 
Cycle lanes the Glasgow way…
Pick a cycle lane through a densely parked residential city street.
Issue instruction to car owners to park elsewhere for a day.
Lay lovely new cycle path along edge of road.
Permit cars to return next day.
Cars get to park on green tarmac instead of boring grey tarmac, cycle path never sees the light of day again.
Advertise smugly about the miles of cycle paths you’ve laid.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by jjimm *
[li]Try to follow road rules as much as possible. If you’re going to jump a red light (I know that braking and reaccelerating is a pain in the arse), make sure it’s safe to do so, and there are no pedestrians around.[/li][/QUOTE]
Sorry jjimm, have to disagree with you on this one.
It’s not a question of “as little as possible”. Follow road rules. Don’t run red lights - cyclists can’t have it both ways, we can’t demand car drivers respect rules that we’ll ignore when it suits us. If you’re on a bike, don’t run red lights, carve up other vehicles, change lane without signal or any of the other stunts I see that makes me embarrassed to be a cyclist.
And for UK cyclists only (as I don’t know the rules in the US) - get the fuck off the pavement.
Futile, I didn’t know you were a weegie! I’m up in furry boots toon. By SDMB standards we’re next door neighbours.
As a pedestrian, this is why I f*cking hate bicyclists. Cyclists seem to think that THEY are the ultimate low man on the totem pole, but they still must YIELD to pedestrians.
I don’t care how much of a pain in the ass it is, STOP at the @#$%@ing red light, and don’t roll through until it is green! I can’t count how many times I’ve been nearly hit by a holier than thou bicyclist who tried to roll through a crosswalk after all the cars had stopped and I was crosing. Or a cyclist who rides the wrong way down a one way street and then sneers at me to watch where I’m going as I cross the street!
Bicyclists are the ultimate hypocrites in my book. I’ll share the road with them when they learn to obey the damn rules of it.
Fair point, Gary. A couple of years ago SO got hit full-pelt by a cyclist on a pedestrian crossing. She was bruised and in shock. The cyclist picked himself up, said “sorry”, and rode off. She, of course, had no recourse to anything, and he didn’t have a license number to take. This sort of thing is really appalling, but I’m glad it only applies to a tiny minority of cyclists (usually couriers, I’m afraid).
The U.S. rules vary greatly from place to place. I believe in Chicago children under 12 are allowed to ride on the sidewalk (with an exception for downtown and a few other crowded spots, IIRC, because I haven’t been 12 years old in quite a while). Certain other streets are prominently marked “no bikes allowed,” usually old streets that are too narrow to allow safe passage to bikes and cars at the same time. (Ridge Ave. in Evanston is one; it’s actually an old Native American trail which runs all the way up to the former Ft. Sheridan). It’s really quite a patchwork, with the unfortunate result that nobody knows what the hell is going on or pays any attention to the rules.
well, racekarl the exact opposite happens to me on a daily basis. Plenty of times the cars need to stop in traffic, even though the light is still green, simply because there’s a traffic jam. Do you think the pedestrians even look to see if there’s a bicycle coming?
Why, no, they don’t, ofcourse they don’t.
Do pedestrians always cross at pedestrian crossings? No, they don’t, ofcourse they don’t. They look to see if the road is clear of cars and if that’s the case, they jolly well cross as they please, without looking if there’s a bycicle on the road.
I resent the fact that pedestrians think that as soon as they put one foot on the road, they’re protected by some divine law.
Well, they’re not. They need to follow the rules of the road as much as any other road user.
I’m a anticipating cyclist, I don’t break lights, I signal with my hands, I use my lights when it’s dark.
Since I’m a weaker road user than cars, buses, trucks and so on, I keep an extra eye out for those. this does not mean that i do NOT look out for pedestrians, but they, it seems, do not feel the need to look out at all.
They break lights constantly, cross the road whenevr they want, even walk on the road when there’re a lot of people on the footpath/sidewalk.
Ever seen a cop give a pedestrian a ticket because of all this?
just asking, cos I haven’t.
:mad: :mad:
Bike paths are useless except to casual bicyclists. I am trying to get somewhere and I am car free. The bike paths, especially on nice days, gets filled with rollerbladers, joggers, etc. I can’t even maintain a decent speed. Plus, I’ve been clipped trying to pass rollerbladers doing an extreme kick out while wearing a walkman cranked to the max. 20-30 of these kinds of encounters in a mile does not make for a comfortable trip.
I’ll take the road as is my right, thank you.
By contrast: Cars, stop overdriving your headlights.
Done. Doens’t do much though.
I do, although I loathe the fact that the only reason I have to wear one is because of incompetant drivers. The two non-car accidents I had were actually exacerbated by the wearing of a helmet.
I obey all the rules of the road. I’m amazed at how many cars do not. Its why I get amused when car drivers start whining about ‘bicyclists not obeying the laws’. Hint: Stop means stop, to you and to me.
Actually, most do not. There are also conditions where taking ones hands of the bars to signal is more dangerous. YMMV
[QUOTE]
[li]Look around before manoeuvering.[/ul]It’s not fair that the onus is on the cyclist to do all this stuff, but the car driving population is not going to improve in the near future, and you’re still the vulnerable ones. [/li][/QUOTE]
True. I may be vulnerable, but I will not be a victim. My bike lock has been used for more than just locking my bike.
Mr. Miskatonic, I detect a somewhat defensive tone to your post. If you look at my first post in this thread, please note I’ve been both a car driver and a bike rider in this city, and I’m very sympathetic to bike riders.
My advice is prompted by the issues I have with cyclists, as a car driver. Lack of visibility and lack of signalling are the main things that make me scared that I might one day whack one through no fault of my own.
I do also acknowledge that there is a huge number of arsehole car drivers too. (Also, though “stop means stop, to you and me”, and I agree there are cars who ignore it, but there are also cyclists out there who don’t. And there are quite a lot of them in Dublin.)
Red lights. I hate cyclists who run red lights, especially bike couriers. Not a day goes by where I don’t see a bike courier almost hit a padestrian at a traffic lights.
I’ve taken to shouting at every one of them that cuts a red light, as a point of principle.
As for Taxi Drivers, If I get one more telling me that the way to solve the housing crisis is by sending the refugees home, it’ll be my face appearing on the photofit in the Evening Herald.
Please don’t take it that way, I meant nothing personally aginast you at all. I merely wish to point out that you can obey all the laws and rules and still get screwed over by a bad driver, and that sometimes you have to break the rules a bit to stay alive.
I need to point out that there is a big tendency to blame the victim in the US, especially with regards to bike-vs-car accidents. To whit, the rules you list above, while excellent, often become lame excuses for drivers who hit bikers. i.e: “Well, he had his hement, buuuut…ah! no reflective belt. I’m clear officer, it was all his fault.”
It’d be funny if it weren’t true.
No probs - misunderstanding.