I drive around Seattle every single day, and every single day, I see cyclists running red lights. Some stop, look both ways, and then decide, “Eh, the traffic laws don’t apply to me,” before blowing through. Others slow and then dart across the intersection, sometimes causing drivers to slam on the brakes if, e.g., the cyclist had to slow down to avoid a pothole. And I swear, other riders don’t even bother to slow before barreling through an intersection, figuring, I suppose, that it’s harder for oncoming traffic to hit you if you’re going at 25 mph than if you’re going at 5.
Now, when people jaywalk in a big city, it causes delays, but I’m not convinced that it’s particularly lifethreatening – people walk at, what, 3 mph? Easy to see and, as a driver, I have plenty of time to react. But you cyclists, zipping through intersections at upwards of 20 mph, especially if there is a hill (and we have some hills in Seattle) are really just playing Russian Roulette.
I’d be more frothy and vituperative, but I’m really just scared shitless that, one day, I’m going to, despite my squealing brakes and mad swerving, hit one of you bastards. So instead, I’m just going to implore you:
That’s fine, I won’t (and don’t) blow red lights. Now that we’ve come to a consensus about that, will you please do something about that whole opening-doors-directly-into-bike-lanes-without-looking,-clotheslining-passing-cyclists thing?
Years ago, I got a ticket for riding my bike through a stop sign. I decided to take a chance that the officer wouldn’t show up in court…wrong! I admitted my guilt to the judge, saying that I thought $128 was a lot of money. The Judge told me: “The law applies to cars AND bicycles…” He did cut the fine to $28, though.
I always put a foot down at stop signs now. Running traffic lights? No way.
Well, maybe on a Sunday morning without a car in sight…
I am a cyclist and I never understood why cyclists want motorists to share the road with them, but then seem to scoff at traffic laws like the one mentioned in the op. I always obey the same traffic laws as motorists do when I am riding my bike. It’s only logical.
To the fucking dipshit idiot asshole bicyclist who was killed by a train at the Rockwell Brown line station yesterday:
You found out the traffic rules WERE meant for you too, didn’t you? You found out that when the lights are flashing and the gates are down, that means something, doesn’t it? You found out that just because one train had already gone by, it’s not such a hot idea to zip around the gate because, wow, sometimes there could be a train coming the other way too, yeah? Hey, trains can’t swerve, not even a little bit! Who’da thunk, huh?
Didja ever think you’d win a Darwin award? Ok, it’s my own personal Darwin award, but you get it buddy. What’s it like to be dead? No fun, eh? At least you won’t have any nightmares like the poor train conductor who probably saw you zipping around the gate and knew you were going to get hit and there was not a thing they could do about it, knowing that once you went under the train you were being dragged along for the time it took to stop the train. The conductor and anyone else unlucky enough to see your torn mangled bloody body under the train has an image they have to carry with them the rest of their life. The cops and the firefighters and EMTs, they’re used to seeing the results of dipshit soup (or stew, as the case may be), but I’ll bet it was bad even for them. Pity the poor guys who had to get your body (or body parts, as the case may be) out from under the train. And your stupid mangled bike. Wonder where that is now? I imagine your body’s at the ME’s office. In pieces in a box. No open casket for you I guess.
How’s it feel to know your family is in deep mourning right now? I’m sure you had plenty of loved ones, even fucking dipshit idiot assholes have loved ones. Now they’re going to have to call all your friends and let them know what a fucking dipshit idiot asshole you were. They’ll have to make funeral arrangements and all that really sad horseshit. I’m sure they’ll buy (and pay a pretty penny for) a full-sized casket even though your remains could probably fit in a small trash sack. I’m sure the service will be nice though if you hadn’t been such an idiot they wouldn’t have to have one in the first place. Then they’ll have to go through all of your crap and then figure out what to do with it. Hope you don’t have any weird porn stashed away.
All that trouble you caused, simply because you thought the traffic rules didn’t apply to you and your precious bike.
What the hell: I’m another cyclist with every intention to make it past 80. I obey traffic laws and I really do believe that the bad cyclists grab a disproportionate amount of attention.
Count me in with your group also.
My biggest pet peeve is I slow for a light, get my shoe unclipped, put my foot down and the damn light turns green! Frankly, I was hoping it would stay red for another 30 seconds or so.
Try me about red light runners. One of those fuckers nearly killed my wife. If my car was equipped with phasers, they’d all be hot vapor.
Bike riding idiots pretty much only get themselves killed, so they’re not nearly so high on my hate parade.
But one nasty not mentioned yet. If I’m signaling to pull into a parking space, which I actually do, don’t zip between me and the curb and get mad at me for not seeing you.
Precisely. I can recall a (very) few threads expressing outrage about motorists who’ve done something very stupid resulting in deaths of others. But I can’t recall anyone ever expressing the type of spitting venom Equipoise displays about an incident where a stupid motorist killed himself.
I remember visiting Seattle a year back or so and we were walking from the company I was visiting to a resturant just north-west of Pike place market. We were coming along Elliot towards Western Ave and were crossing the base of the on ramp to get to highway 99, Alaskan Way. There was a steady stream of traffic at the light from Elliot onto the on ramp, accelerating like mad so they could reach highway speed and merge, and we waited, like good pedestrians, for the signal to cross. A bicyclist just blew right past us on the sidewalk and crossed in the crosswalk. Amazingly traffic stopped for the guy. I remember seeing that and thinking, “In Dallas, that guy would have been street pizza.”
Tonight a cyclist blew through a four-way stop right behind my wife and I and we were both thinking she wasn’t very clever because Dallas is not a cycling friendly town.
How many posts have you seen expressing Equipoise style venom towards motorists driving small cars who are at fault and the only casualty in collisions with trains or semi trailers?
My hate for cyclists is reserved mainly for those who bike at night without any lights or reflectors. No fucking reflectors? I mean, give me a fucking break you worthless fucktards- reflectors and/or reflective tape is cheap and weighs next to nothing.
Interestring the hatred in SF about a couple of dudes who hit a cyclist during the completely illegals and fucktard-jerk rude “Critical Mass”. Someday some dude is going to lose it and plow his SUV full speed into Critical mass.
