Hey, bike rider, could you maybe follow the traffic laws?

The BBQ Pit
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kjorsty:"Um, gee, I bike to work every morning and home again every afternoon. I could have sworn I propel my bike over a bike path. Damn I must live in some strange alternate universe when contrasted with Gargoyle’s Seattle. "

Sheesh man, what part of town do you live in? Some of us aren’t living on Alki or along the Burke-Gilman. I live in Capitol Hill and bike from there to all points in a 20 mile radius. U-District sucks for bikes. Ballard, sucks. Queen Anne, sucks. Downtown, sucks. There are slim-to-none bike friendly streets here. I grew up in Portland which by contrast is a bikers dream city. Heaven. Shangri La. Seattle is a deathtrap. I forgot to mention the storm grates here, they put them with the slots (which are a friggin inch wide, exactly ten-speed tire width) inline with your travel path! It’s like there is a diliberate city conspiracy to kill cyclists here, no doubt funded by Bellevue/Redmond homeowners.

And I was understating my right as a cyclist to “bend” laws, as someone pointed out. Lets say I feel completely comfortable in shattering traffic laws. Blowing red lights, jay-riding, median-straddling, you name it. Why you may ask do I have that right while cars don’t? Simple. My bike weighs 12 pounds and isn’t going to kill a family of four if I get careless and crash it. Can you say the same about your Canyonero?

Oh, BTW, my bike is registered with the city. Bike theft here is rampant (no doubt secretly funded by mafia kickbacks to the Redmond city council). It cost me a one-time $4 and means that should it be stolen I at least have a chance in hell of recovering it someday.

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It is if that family of four has to swerve directly into oncoming traffic because you suddenly decided to blow the stop sign on the cross street, you fuckin’ dummy.

Like I said, I’m more than willing to see my taxes pay for bike lanes, and more than willing to share the road with bikes. But if you blow a stop sign on a cross street – be you car, bike, horse or autogyro – the choice comes down to me or you. And it ain’t gonna be me. If you’re that eager to be a smear on the pavement, be my guest.

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Kind of like bikes me - last year I cycled a 600 mile round trip around the north of Scotland, and I commute by bike most days (unless it’s raining, as I’m just not that cute in a wet tshirt)

Step into this thread, and fuck me sideways, it’s great to see a fairly common sensical issue polarised into two equally non sensical arguments. First, from the “bicycles are instruments of satan” camp, we have:

Of course you can comment, but it does mean that you’re not speaking from experience.

What would be the correct action then - ban bikes, or build a cycle lane? I mean, cyclists don’t deliberately go out of their way to piss people off, but if your only form of transport is a bike and you need to go somewhere, what are you going to do. Build cycle lanes, and everyone benefits. Car drivers don’t get caught behind someone cycling 10 mph up a hill, and cyclists don’t have to worry about suddenly becoming an interesting hood ornament.

And now, from the “as a cyclist I can do whatever I want” school of thought:

Well, PLD has already pointed out the obvious truck sized hole in that one. There’s also the fact that if you behave like an out and out shithead you’re just going to really set public opinion against cyclists, which really isn’t going to help in persuading everyone it’s a good idea to pony up a chunk of cash to pay for cycle lanes and other nice things.

Out of interest, does anyone have any idea how many active cyclists there are in the US, cos surely to good it should be enough to form a reasonable lobby interest for pushing for lanes and stuff. And if you guys think you’ve got it bad, try the UK. Ignoring the rain, you also have the fact that the cities were mostly built in the times of ox carts, leaving far narrower roads than is the norm in the US to be shared by trucks, cars and bikes.

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Heck, in some streets you’re lucky to get sidewalks.

As a non-driving, non-cycling pedestrian, pencil me in for the “pretty much everyone is insane” camp. Motorists drive like the rest of the world should watch out for them (Hey lady, did you really need to do that three-point turn on Victoria Street during rush hour?), cyclists blow blithely through red lights and zebra crossings without a glance at pedestrians crossing or oncoming motorists, and pedestrians wander into the street at the drop of a hat. I think it’s called “culling the herd”, frankly.

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Build the bike lanes EVERYWHERE, for God’s sake. I’ll throw a twenty in that collection bucket. I’m more than willing to help you get a lane so that we all have some space.
My point is that, until that happens, it’s unrealistic to think bikes and cars can all share the same lane without things getting dangerous – especially if the biker refuses to follow the same rules as everyone else.

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Just as long as the bike lanes allow inlines too.

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not as foreign as you would think. Gargs, try linking to this (Seattle Transportation Bicycle Program) and choose the bike map registration option. They will send you a map for free.

Conspiracy to kill cyclists…patched up your tin foil hat yet?

Granted you have a 12 pound bike, and you’re practically “defenseless”. Well guess what, you may not be able to hurt a car or the driver and passengers in it, but you could still cause a well meaning, careful driver to swerve out of the way into a pole, a pedestrian or oncoming traffic in their effort to avoid you if you do something stupid on the road. Also, while biking on the sidewalk you could easily seriously injure a small child or even an adult depending on how and at what speed you hit them and what you propel them into. And, if you have a serious problem with the “lack” of bike lanes in your area, maybe you should become a member of a group that acts to change the situation instead of bitching about it.

Oh, I do live by bike lanes smirk, but I haven’t always. I use the bike paths with utter glee knowing that I can avoid large 2 ton metal balls. (At this point gargs, I was gonna commiserate with you, but if you can’t figure out how a 12 pound bike with an irresponsible 160 lb person on it can cause traffic problems that may kill others, then it’s not really worth it.)

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Well, this is the Pit after all, I am taking a bit of an extremist hyperbolic slant with everything I say :wink: I do believe the bit about the Bellevue conspiracy though…

But I maintain that it is very possible to bicycle responsibly, safely, and illegally all at the same time. If I can dart through an intersection without harm to myself or others, then so be it. I also drive, but when I drive I am the complete opposite, I drive obeying all traffic laws rigidly. The difference in my behavior when on a bike vs a car is simply that when driving, I am very aware of driving a 1 ton hunk of metal at ludicrous speeds is inherently dangerous. My bike isn’t.