Nor in mine, nor at even red lights in some small intersections. Today a very ballsy cyclist pulled into a pretty busy intersection ahead of me, the first car at the light. I hoped he’d have a near miss, just to teach him a lesson. They’re SUPPOSED to be following traffic signs, yet never do. Sigh. This wasn’t a problem 4 years ago, when all the cyclists were SERIOUS cyclists, and obeyed all traffic rules universally. Now, ever Tom Dick and Sally on their stupid Trek bikes thinks it’s fine to make busy traffic areas their damn playgrounds.
Bicycle rider here.
Guy on bike was 100% wrong. First off as common sense if a car near you is stopping it might be to turn in front of you, you should have your spider sense in full tingle mode.
Secondly if you are approaching an intersection or crosswalk, there is an excellent change that something or someone is going to be crossing, and most of the time they will have the right of weight.
BTW I think I met his sister a while back
So the other week I am test driving a car near my dealership. I come to a 4 way stop and wait my turn. I get to the limit line, let the cars to my left and right go, and start to proceed across the intersection. Right as I am in front of the car headed from my right to my left, a girl on a biclcyle (a beach cruiser model, not a hard core cyclist) runs the stop sign at about 15 mph. I hit the brakes full and stop just in time for her to ride past me with a cell phone to her ear.
She looked really pissed when I hit the horn and disrupted her phone call.
She may have been cute, but she was a Darwin candidate none the less.
The bicyclist is at fault, but this is one of the hazards of bike lanes: they block lines of sight for both the cyclist, pedestrians, and cars coming the other direction.
There might have been some tiny fault for Leaper for not being utterly 100% aware (a bicycle is unlikely to completely blocked by a car, even a large one) but it is very minor at best - and completely mitigated by the fact that the pedestrian should have the right of way if I read Leaper’s description of the intersection.
Mind you, I have seen plenty of folks step into bike lanes without looking when I had right of way (green light) and they have gotten pissy at me.
Actually, I have no idea what you mean, given I’ve never seen a bicycle lane; must be one of those fancy things like sidewalks that are almost completely absent around here. I assume it’s along the rightmost car lane, like a breakdown lane?
Anyway, in this state he’d automatically be at fault because you - as driver or biker - must stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk because they have the right of way, even if they dart out in front of you.
The cyclists here have solved this problem by only driving on sidewalks.
Cat Whisperer, that’s absurd. The most ridiculous part of the whole thing is that they making everyone drive slower and take longer to get everywhere by gumming up the sides! I doubt there’s really any less pollution from all these alleged cars off the road, since people have to idle waiting for the cyclists to pass!
AAand it begins
Yes, your assumption is correct; it’s a “thinner” marked lane closest to the sidewalk. My apologies.
In New York this is not 100% true. Being in a crosswalk that is not at a traffic light gives a pedestrian the right of way.
Pedestrians do not have the right of way crossing against a red light.
The biker was wrong, but please cut him some slack. I just rode in to work today, and qould have been pretty humiliated if I took a spill, and might have muttered something cross and then felt badly about it later.
I would like to point out that I DO stop at lights and stop signs! Just two weeks ago I was waiting patiently at a light when I saw another biker just ride aimlessly through the red light, cutting people off. He wasn’t even wearing a helmet! I don’t really get this. I wear my helmet, and I wait for traffic, and I wait for the lights - it’s not to be polite so much as to be safe. All he needs is one car not waiting for him.
I have to admit, I did feel good - everyone at all of the lights saw him shooting by and me waiting patiently, so hopefully people realize that not all bikers are assholes.
How about just to be legal? Do you ever stop when the streets are empty of cars and pedestrians, just in case a cop might espy you? When I do that, it makes me feel really stupid.
Were there bike lanes on both sides of the road?
Was the center lane a turning lane or an extra lane in one direction or the other.
If a car is in a turning lane and is facing me, ( a left turn ) I really fear for the people who are near them when they drive if they think everyone should slow down a car is sitting there.
\I have been run over while on a bicycle by a car that was stopped at a stop sign and who was making eye contact with me and his head was turning following my progress.
It may be the law but if I was on the jury for a case where an idiot pedestrian darted in front of a 18 wheel truck and got run over, cross walk marked but with no traffic controls or not, he did the gene pool a favor and is off scot free.
I think laws that defy the actions of gravity or other natural goings on are great for gene pool control.
99.99% of all drivers of all vehicles are operating them at speeds that are not 100% safe from all possible happenings.
There is right & dead right and when a pedestrian or a cyclist, I apply a 1000 X caution bump to my actions. Nature gives not one iota for man’s laws and people are almost as bad for their own laws.
YMMV
I’m a cyclist and I agree totally. As a vehicle that is part of the flow of traffic on the road, all traffic signals and rights away apply to me as they to to any other vehicle on the road. While it’s unfortunate that the car may have screened you from the cyclist’s view, it is still the cyclist’s responsibility to make sure there are no pedestrians in the cross walk before plowing through.
Especially if a car has stopped in front of it which is a big freakin’ clue.
100% cyclists’s fault.
ETA: I will however suggest that you be really careful in cross-walks. Around my neighborhood, only 25% of cars actually stop when the signals are flashing and everything. One car may stop, then the others behind it will get pissed off at the sudden stoppage and then try to go around them, nearly killing the pedestrian who had the right of way.
No, I don’t do that. If I can clearly see in all directions that there is no traffic, I’ll slow down for the stop sign, but not stop.
I always stop for lights, though, no matter what. There is a definite difference between intersections that have stop signs and stop lights. For one thing, visibility isn’t as good at most stop light intersections.
But I should also add - I never, ever ride at night or in the dark. I just flat out don’t do it. If I did, I would stop at the stop signs, too.
Commuting emissions are a major factor in environmental pollution - at least in Australia.
We can all do something about it:
Individuals are noting the difference themselves:
Another cyclist checking in to say it sounds like the bicyclist was careless and should have been paying more attention.
(Disclaimer: I stop at all red lights, stop signs, obey all road rules, wear a helmet, lights, I indicate and have still experienced uncalled for abuse from drivers including having objects thrown at me).
Well, I’m not 100% certain what you mean by a marked crosswalk, because that varies so much. However, if it’s a place where pedestrians are expected to cross the road, then the cyclist should have been slowing down anyway, enough that he wouldn’t fall over when stopping.
Still, like AClockworkMelon says, I’d give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to what he said - he just fell off his bike, so was probably in a bad mood.
It also sounds like bad town planning if he couldn’t see you starting to cross the road or at least a traffic signal telling him to stop.
It doesn’t happen as often when the roads are empty of cars and pedestrians, because of the way the traffic signals are set up (the ones at pedestrian crossings say stop when a pedestrian presses the button, so no pedestrians = no red lights at those crossings; the other traffic signals are aligned to traffic nearby, so quiet traffic = few red lights).
Anyway, I’m lazy, so I’ll just take it as an opportunity to take a break. 
Well, as a cyclist and a former commuter cyclist, I asked myself, if I were approaching a crosswalk and the car to my left came to a full stop in front of it, what would I do? And what I would do is slow down to a crawl until I knew damn sure some kid or animal was not in front of the car. And I wouldn’t have spilled. I lay it all on the cyclist. He was careless and dumb.
Man, I need to be careful if I ever take a road trip…our crosswalks that have lights (most don’t) are timed so pedrestrians can cross when the lights are already red for cars - so cars already stopped. Are yours not synched, or are there walk/don’t walk lights completely independent of standard red-yellow-green traffic signals? It sounds interesting to live places designed to be more bike and pedestrian friendly…
Jeez, forget about the bike. You walked out knowing there was a car coming from the right that was going to have to stop for you? Minus 100 points right off the top. You just don’t put your life in the hands of others like that, expecting them to see you and hit the brakes and grant you the right of way whether or not the traffic laws back you up.