"Share the road" works both ways!

The BBQ Pit
1

Ok, I have GOT to get this off my chest. I saw it again today: I’m driving down a street where there is barely enough room between the cars and the curb for a single bicyclist, and these two fucking moron assholes are riding side-by-side, forcing the cars to slow down and/or swerve into the lane to the left in order to avoid hitting the guy on the outside. As I pass them (with my car straddling the line between lanes), I honk my horn to voice my displeasure and possibly (yeah, right) alert them to their dangerous practice, and one of them actually spits at my car!

And these were not (apparently) casual cyclists, they had nice bikes and the whole racer-looking riding outfit thing going on.

What the HELL is with these inconsiderate, self-centered jerks? Would it kill them to ride one behind the other? Do they somehow enjoy pissing off every driver that goes by? Or (as I suspect), do they just think that bicycles are so much “better” than cars that it is just their God-given right to ride as they please and those idiots in their cars just damned well better get out of their way?

I don’t know about everywhere, but around here there is the occasional sign featuring a picture of both a car and a bicycle with the words “Share the roard”. I used to think that it was an admonition to car drivers to be careful and respectful of bicyclists. But when I encounter jerks like these, I think maybe it’s really an admonition to stupid bikers that, hey, cars are allowed on the roads too, ya know!

I have no problem sharing the road with bikers. If there’s not much room on the side of the road, and you’re riding in single file, I won’t hold it against you. I will watch out for you and be respectful of your right to be there. If I have to slow down to avoid getting too close to you, I’ll happily do that. I’ll make sure that, when I do pass you, I’ll leave enough room that you won’t be in any danger. That kind of sharing is just fine.

But when you apparently go out of your way to make it extra difficult for the cars, when you show just wanton disregard for the drivers of cars, when you show absolutely no respect or consideration for people in cars, you’re not doing your part to SHARE the road, you’re just trying to take over the road!

Assholes like you make me feel like, hell, why should I care about ANY bikers if fuckers like you don’t give a rat’s ass about people in cars? Jerks like you do NOTHING to help the cause of bicyclists, and do a whole helluva lot to hurt it!

2

In related news, apparently there’s a massive Critical Mass ride planned for the San Francisco Bay Area tomorrow, which is sure to snarl commute traffic for hours. I don’t have anything against bicyclists in general, but these cockbiters are the best argument for vehicular manslaughter I’ve ever heard.

3

Are you talking about a 2-lane highway (1 lane each way), where you need to find a gap in the opposing traffic to pass the cyclists?

In any case, if there’s “barely enough room between the cars and the curb for a single bicyclist,” then I don’t see what difference it would make whether they’re single file or not.
You’d have to change lanes to pass them anyway.

I also fail to understand why you were “straddlling the line between lanes” instead of changing lanes completely, regardless of whether there’s one or two cyclists.

4

During milder weather, there was a big (~20+) group of assholes on bikes - and I was an avid cyclist in college, so I’m not prejudiced against them overall - in my neighborhood who at a particular time during the beginning of the morning rush, would all bicycle right through downtown, blowing right through stop signs, and riding in a big cluster so that if you wanted to pass them, you’d have to cross the center line and probably inconvenience other drivers because it was like passing 4 carlengths or more worth of cyclists. I was terribly happy when I found out that a local cop had busted them one morning and was handing out tickets left and right.

5

As I commuted to work one morning, splitting lanes on my motorcycle, a guy with out-of-state plates said what I was doing is illegal (it isn’t) and said I was ‘straddling’. I failed to ask him how one can ‘straddle’ while on a single-track vehicle. :stuck_out_tongue:

6

Single-track means zero width? :confused:

7

Straddling a line would mean that one wheel is on one side of the line and the other wheel is on the other side. Motorcycle wheels are single-track (i.e., one behind the other).

A legal definition may be different from the physical definition. But as cited, the point is moot in California.

8

Oh – Since the OP is talking about bicycles and my anecdote is about motorcycles, it was meant to be a ride-by post.

9

A bicyclist responds:

I’m with you, OP, on everything but the horn. I can’t tell you how often I have seen bicyclists flagrantly ignore the laws, and it DOES hurt our cause. Critical Mass is awful: we’re going to win people to our side by annoying the heck out of them? How does that work?

On the other hand, I have been hit by people who didn’t see me (in each case, I saw the car and had time to get out of the way if only they had used their turn signal to indicate a turn). I have given up trying to turn left from the appropiate lane because people get inexplicably angry when I am to the left of them, and seem to want to kill me. Same with passing them on the right in heavy traffic. So you can sort of sympathize with people who see it as Us vs. Them.

Of course, some of this would improve if the police would (a) ticket drivers who behave badly around bicycles, and (b) ticket bicyclists who break the rules.

The horn thing is just because it’s too easy to crash when startled by a horn on a bicycle. Horns are LOUD when you’re right next to them in the open air.

10

I absolutely loathe bicyclists who behave as if they aren’t subject to the same rules of the road as every other vehicle travelling on it. I cannot tell you how many cyclists around here just blow through stop signs as if they weren’t applicable to them. As far as riding side-by-side, it is forbidden in California unless one cyclist is actually doing as any car would, and overtaking a slower bicycle.

Riding with your buddies isn’t listed as an exception. Too bad you couldn’t spit right back at him.

On the flip side, as Dr. Drake points out, as someone who rides a bicycle on the roadways, I equally loathe car (and truck) drivers who behave as if bicycles don’t have a right to share the road with them, just because they’re smaller or non-motorized or something.

Everybody just needs to slow the hell down, pay attention to their surroundings, abide by the traffic laws and show a little common courtesy. Yeah, right, like that’s ever gonna happen.

11

In this particular case, it was a four lane divided road (two lanes in each direction with a median down the middle). But I have also encountered such inconsiderate assholes on a VERY narrow and curvy two-lane road where in order to pass a single bicyclist the car must cross the center line, and to pass two tandem bikers the car must get almost completely into the lane of oncoming traffic.

No, not true at all. I said there was barely enough room. The keyword being “enough”. There IS enough room for a car to safely get past a single biker (or multiple bikers in single file) without changing lanes. If those assholes had been in single file, there would have been no problem.

I see, so you’re nitpicking with my way of dealing with those boobs, but you said nothing about whether you think what they were doing was right or wrong, safe or unsafe?

12

Thanks for the supportive response. I would agree with you on the horn point if the bikers had been doing nothing wrong. I mean, I get annoyed myself when I see/hear some idiot in a car honking at a biker who is, say, just causing the driver to slow down a bit to make his righthand turn.

But the law says that the purpose of a car horn is exactly to warn of illegal or unsafe conditions. What those morons were doing was terribly unsafe, and as Shayna nicely points out, quite illegal, too. So I was well within my rights to honk. If it startled them, perhaps they might take it as a lesson?

Like I said, I have total respect for bikers who have reasonable respect and consideration in return. If there had been four or five more feet of space on the side of the road, so that I could have safely gotten past them without the need to get any part of my car into the next lane, it wouldn’t bother me that they were riding side-by-side. Even though they would still technically be breaking the law, it would never occur to me to honk at them if they weren’t in the way of the cars. But it’s the incredible gall of those assholes to do something that CLEARLY obstructs traffic when there was also CLEARLY no need for them do so that just pisses me totally off!

13

That’s the cyclist’s call to make, not yours. If he or she thought the lane was too narrow to share, it’s perfectly legal to take the lane.

It’s not a nitpick, I’m pointing out your unsafe driving, for which you deserved to be spat at.

I don’t know which state you live in, so I don’t know if it was legal for them to ride two abreast. If it is legal, I think it’s perfectly appropriate for two cyclists to take the lane in this situation. If it is illegal then obviously it’s wrong.

But even then, in this situation I consider one cyclist taking the lane to be appropriate and safe. I’ve learned from experience that if I try to share the lane when there is “barely” enough room, drivers will invariably pass with only inches to spare. The only safe way to ride in such situation is to take the lane.

14

I doubt highly that you will find any state statute that says that the driver of any vehicle or wheeled contrivance of any sort is privileged to “take the lane” if he/she sees fit, to the exclusion of the road rights of others. By the same logic, a bicyclist might decide that other bikers are going too fast or otherwise riding unsafely, and try to block their passage.

I hope you’ll reconsider what comes off sounding like (and no doubt appearing in real life as) a vengeful tactic to frustrate drivers behind you. Despite the satisfaction it apparently gives you to do this, you are putting yourself at risk as well as other bicyclists who will subsequently be the target of rude and unsafe driving tactics because a driver was pissed off at you.

I am glad some people bike instead of drive and use patience and caution around them. It doesn’t help that there are people like you screwing things up for responsible bikers.

15

Sorry, Jackmannii, I do this on my bike, as well. Being passed by a semi with 2 inches to spare is not cool. You can slow down for a little while so I can live a little longer, thankyouverymuch. Also, when I get a car trapped behind me (at night, especially), what I usually think (honestly) is, “good, now I won’t get hit because he sees me, and everyone behind him sees him.” I’m not being vindictive, I’m being scared shitless by two-ton hunks of metal moving 40 mph very close to me.

I realised that riding like a lane hog is the only way to get to work without having a heart attack. I don’t think my commute should be an extreme sport.

Another thing is that cyclists are often riding around potholes or patches of ice/snow that are too small to bother cars. Sometimes I ride mid-lane becase of a continuous wheelrut made by cars.

Before ending this post, I’d like to say that Roadfood is probably right, though, because only he saw what happened and what kind of road it was, while I am of course picturing the narrow, potholey, sometimes icy roads (and bridges!) that I ride on at night. I just wanted to present the other POV before the thread got to cyclist-bashy. I feel most drivers don’t know what it can be like for us, while most cyclists have been drivers at some time.

Oh yeah, those horn are loud.

[can’t ever hurt]Wear a helmet!! Use lights at night!!!(only $10)[/can it?]

16

I see this a lot, and for safety reasons it makes perfect sense. The thing that drives me crazy is to change lanes to pass a cyclist, return to the original lane, then have the cyclist pass me at the next red light on the inside with only inches to spare. Then I have to change lanes again, to pass, repeat as necessary. Starts a brewin’ rage :mad:. If you wanna take up a lane, fine, but don’t make me pass you repeatedly by only riding on the inside when it suits you. As Roadfood so ably puts it, share the road should work both ways. (Not specifically directed at you,scr4, just venting.)

17

A bicycle rider is required to ride as far to the right as is practicable and safe. If cars are passing the cyclist too closely, it means it’s impracticable for the cyclist to ride there. I’ve never heard of a cyclist being ticketed or warned for doing this, anywhere in the world.

More info here and here (bottom of page).

Believe me, the last thing I want to do is antagonize the drivers.

No, correction, that’s the 2nd last thing I want to do. The very last thing I want to do is get hit and die. I literally fear for my life when I ride close to the curb - it only causes car drivers to pass me without veering to the left at all.

OK, that I do not approve of, and make it a point never to do. I don’t understand why anybody would even do it. An extra car you pass now is an extra car that will pass you later, and being passed by a car is not pleasent regardless of whether you’re taking the lane or not.

18

Well, then maybe you should get a car. I understand that biking to work is easier/healthier/cheaper/funner than driving for you, but if you can’t do that without inconvenencing everyone else on the road, you’re just being selfish. You’re operating a vehicle on a public road: you have a responsibility to be considerate to everyone else on that road, just as they have a responsibility to be considerate to you. If you’re holding up an entire lane of traffic because you like bikes more than cars, you’re showing your contempt for everyone else on the road.

19

By the same token, should one refrain from driving during rush hours because the car would block the road for other cars and “inconvenience everyone else”?

I just don’t see why cars have any more right to use the road than bicycles. Nothing in the law says so. Bicyclists pay taxes like everyone else.

I’m sorry if you’re inconvenienced, but perhaps you should be blaming your city/town/state for not providing paved shoulders or bicycle lanes, and helping bicycle advocacy groups get more of these built.

20

Bullcrap, absolutely total bullcrap. In the first place, you seem to keep missing the point that what I had in front of me were TWO cyclists riding side-by-side. In the second place, they were at the righthand side of the street, not “taking the lane” which, I assume, means riding sufficiently to the left to totally obstruct traffic. They had NO CAUSE for riding that way, none. Had they been single file, there would be no trouble, no obstruction, and no danger to either them or the cars. What they did was extremely dangerous and had no justification.

More crap. What I did was perfectly safe. I pulled to the left to provide sufficient room to pass the assholes. What THEY were doing was totally, absolutely unsafe in the extreme: riding side-by-side for no good reason, forcing every single car in the righthand lane to either slow or pull to the left to avoid hitting them.

No, it’s just wrong, period. Once again, they were not “taking the lane”, they were just being assholes and riding side-by-side for no damned reason other than pure selfishness and inconsiderateness.

Whatever. You’re just going to piss of a whole lot of drivers doing that. Me, I believe in having respect and consideration for the other vehicles on the road, not just being fucking selfish.