What does one thing have to do with the other? Why does the lack of venom against stupid drivers in small cars who collide with 18 wheelers negate anything Equipoise said? That’s like saying we’re not allowed to rant about fundamentalist Christians because nobody’s written a “OMG I HATE BUDDISTS!!!1” rant in a while.
You’re right. But, it’s just ridiculous with this shit.
I can state without exaggeration that EVERY SINGLE TIME I ride my bike, I witness (pittable) behavior from drivers that is more dangerous to life and limb than ANYTHING ANY CYCLIST HAS EVER DONE TO A DRIVER.
To come in here and see this shit directed at cyclists every month of spring, summer, and fall, every year is like seeing more threads dedicated to the scent of the candles in church rather than Fundamentalist suicide bombers.
Pick your analogy: it’s a tit on a boar; a deck chair on the titanic.
People reealllly have to stretch to come up with a reason that cyclists running red lights affects them in a significant way, and everyone knows that the people who do the complaining are really just pissed because they think a cyclist is getting one over on them. Not because “I’m worried I’m going to hit one of you so wait for the green light, m’kay?”
They ride without brakes, breaks, or both? 
And some cyclists really reealllly have to stretch to justify breaking the law. Your actions endanger everyone on the road. No stretch about that fact.
My actions endanger everyone on the road?
Are you fucking kidding me?
And you call that a “fact”?
Get serious, then come back.
I don’t stretch to justify running a red light with my bicycle any more than I stretch to justify going 5 mph over the speed limit when I’m in my car. No stretch at all really.
And I can state without exaggeration that every single time I ride my bike, I witness behavior (which I have pitted) from other cyclists (running lights, swinging back and forth from sidewalk to street without looking at what’s coming up behind them, and simply riding on the wrong side of the road, straight into oncoming traffic) that is more dangerous to my life and limb than anything drivers are doing around me.
I’m pissed at morons like you because you force me to slam on my brakes and swerve into traffic to dodge your clueless asses. And I’m pissed at morons like you every time I have to say that I’m not one of the entitled idiots who thinks traffic rules don’t apply to them. You’re a brain-dead asshole, and if I were in no danger of wiping out, I wouldn’t think twice about ramming straight into you when you cut in front of me.
The edit in that post was to correct that little error!
I don’t deny that there is some of this, but at least in San Francisco, the bicycle lobby is quite vocal. The entire crux of their argument that we need to share the road is that bicycles are vehicles just like cars and deserve to be on the shared road.
I would agree with that argument, but for the fact that I have NEVER seen a bicycle stop at a red light or stop sign. I’m not saying that I see one or two guys on bikes breaking the law, it’s that there doesn’t seem to be a single one that doesn’t.
So, it’s this having it both ways thing that pisses people off. Either we’re sharing the road as vehicles obeying the same laws, OR we’re sharing the road with cars as vehicles and bicycles as pedestrians.
But bikers can’t be vehicles when they want to use the vehicle lanes and follow the laws for vehicles, and pedestrians when they want to cross against the light and follow the laws of pedestrians.
Pick one. Or lobby your local government to change the laws so that it states that bicycles always have the right of way.
Isn’t Trunk one of those people who has stated repeatedly that bicycle riders have every right to use the road like any other vehicle?
And now he’s saying that unlike any other vehicle, he’s under absolutely no obligation at all to follow any of the laws of the road that all other vehicles have to follow?
Well damn, I wonder why so many car drivers see bicycle riders as self-entitled smug assholes.
If only I had an example of what makes me dislike them so much.
Oh, hello there Trunk.
I was referring to the error in the article. You made one, too? 
Sorry. I call BS. It is this type of overblown rhetoric that makes discussion on this issue so over the top. Talk about a confirmation bias.
Of course it’s impossible to prove such things, but if you are approaching this in good faith, I will ask you to please, on your way home tonight, have a look to your right (assuming you are in a car in N America; amend as appropriate) each and every time you are stopped at a light or a stop sign. I am almost positive that if you do this, and do it honestly, you will see at least one cyclist stopped beside you - and that’s only one trip home!
Once I was stopped (on my bike) at a crosswalk. As I was sitting there, two cars blew through it beside me, and the woman crossing said to her friend “See? Nobody stops.” I said “Pardon me? Nobody?” - which I could only do because I was STOPPED THERE.
It is most frustrating to be blamed and criticized for doing things that you don’t do, and it is hard to respectfully argue in good faith with people who do that.
No no no. To this, and what catsix said.
Believe me – cars do not want it both ways. Cars DO NOT WANT bicycles to be motor vehicles. They do not want me entitled to the same parts of the road as them. They don’t not want me in a line of traffic accelerating from a stop light. They do not want to wait to pass me until they have a dashed line.
They want to be able to pass me when they think they have 2 inches of clearance. They want me riding in the sticks, rocks, and broken glass that fills the shoulder. They want me riding next to the row of parked cars, any one of which could “door” me at any time. They want me moving the speed limit, or off the road. They want me on bike paths. Some want me on a sidewalk.
They do not want it both ways.
They want it so that I never have to inconvenience them. . .and when they see a bike running a stop light, they want to bitch about it.
You want it both ways? Fine. Let’s do it. Give me that nicely paved, swept part of the road. Let me ride them without worry any time of day. Build roads specifically for me that cars aren’t allowed on that I can use to get around town. Start ticketing cars who are in violation of biker’s space. Let’s fucking do it. I’ll promise to stop running lights.
You’re not talking cyclists running lights. You’re talking about morons riding bikes. The two are not nearly the same.
(pause to let people make obvoius joke).
A motorcyclist rear-ended my car one dark rainy night, shortly after I had begun accelerating from a traffic light. Even though it was all his fault, I felt very distressed to see another human lying semiconscious in the road bleeding from his head and moaning in pain. I called the ambulance and waited around to give a report to the police too. I never found out his name or if he recovered OK.
He had not been wearing a helmet. Even though his injury was entirely due to his own stupidity, I felt horrible and sick inside that this had happened.
That was 22 years ago, but ever since then I get scared to see a motorcyclist in my lane and carefully keep as much distance between me and the bike as possible. It goes without saying that I try to stay away from bicycles, even more so. Can we all stop acting like we own the fucking road and acknowledge that we have to share it safely with others? That goes for everyone, no exceptions. You don’t like to brake, boo fucking hoo. You like to die? I honestly cannot comprehend the willful idiocy here.
Actually, you fucking arrogant hypocrite, what we’re saying is that the reason all you “cyclists” are seen as pompous douchebags is that you sit here lecturing all of us who drive cars about how you have the right as a vehicle to be on the road pedaling along at 5 mph in a 55 mph zone holding up traffic, but hey when it comes to actually following some traffic laws like stopping at a red light you don’t have to because bicycles aren’t cars.
It’s the fact that you insist on all the rights that motor vehicles have, but don’t want to adhere to any of the responsibilities. You want to be treated as a vehicle when it benefits you and be able to violate every vehicle code you want when it benefits you.
It’s the ‘Don’t get mad that I’m dawdling along on my bicycle in the middle of the road because I’m a vehicle and I have every right to be here.’ while simultaneously saying ‘But I’m not going to stop at red lights either because those are just for cars.’ that makes people think you’re shit on a stick.
You want to be on the damn road and treated like a vehicle? Act like one, asshole.
Nice point, except that’s not what I’m saying at all.
I roll through stop lights because I don’t want to wait, and I don’t think I’ll get ticketed. I also speed in my car, and roll through stop signs, and make the occasional right turn on red when I’m not supposed to.
What’s fucking retarded is that these threads are always about cyclists doing this stuff.
I want it both ways? I’d be fucking overjoyed to have it one way. You deal with the consequences of it.
I’ll stop running red lights, and you sit behind me in the traffic lane until we reach a passing zone. Then you cross entirely over the center line, and signal to get back in front of me.
No honking. No yelling. No throwing of objects. No tailgating.
I am worried that I am going to hit one of you. Just because it’d be your fault do you think I’d be any less distressed?
as for this: “Give me that nicely paved, swept part of the road. Let me ride them without worry any time of day. Build roads specifically for me that cars aren’t allowed on that I can use to get around town. Start ticketing cars who are in violation of biker’s space. Let’s fucking do it. I’ll promise to stop running lights.”
OK, start paying several thousand dollars a year in gas taxes and vehicle registration fees and we’ll build more bike paths.
Because you’re the one gleefully proclaiming that you and your bicycle don’t follow traffic laws despite wanting all of the rights of any other vehicle.
You might have a chance at getting some respect out of me if you weren’t a sanctimonious red-light running fucknugget.
Bravo. That’s exactly how I cycle as well… even though I’m sure that other cyclists must think I’m being a wimp.
Don’t mess around with traffic, folks. Please. Don’t.
I was going to respond to some of what Trunk has been saying, but he’s doing a good enough job of showing what a fucking dumbass idiot cyclist he is, so there’s no need. If someday he gets splattered under a train or car or truck, we’ll know why.
By the way, I have nothing against bicyclists, and I’m not a motorist. I haven’t owned a car in almost 17 years. As a full-time pedestrian, I’ve almost been creamed by bikes AND cars. I salute the cyclists in this thread who are aware of their fellow humans out there and their own mortality, but isn’t kind of sad that you have to come into a thread like this and state that you obey traffic laws. That would be like, in a thread about dickheaded motorists if car drivers popped in and said, “Wow, I always try to drive the speed limit and stop at red lights.” The exceptions are the problem in any assholery situation, and I, for one, do not paint ALL cyclists with the same asshole brush (unlike Trunk, who seems to think that those who prefer not to ride bikes are jealous fat slobs). Nowhere in my post did I apply any broad brush to cyclists as a group. I only directed my scorn at one cyclist, who not only got his idiot self killed, he psychologically scarred the conductor and probably many other people, not to mention his poor grieving family.